For years, California-based Happier Camper has graced America with some of the weirdest fiberglass camper trailers in the modern era. The company’s campers usually feature totally modular interiors featuring Lego-like cubes that let you build out your interior any way you want. Now, the company has perhaps confusingly come out with something pretty far away from its core concept. This is the new Happier Camper Traveler Summit, and it’s a fully loaded, lightweight fiberglass camper that’s shockingly normal.
The Happier Camper Traveler Summit made its debut over the weekend, and I’ve been fascinated with it ever since. Campers built out of fiberglass have been making a comeback over the past few years or so. Fiberglass is an excellent building material for a camper trailer. A trailer made out of a single or double fiberglass “hull” has far fewer places for water leaks to form. These trailers also have a reputation for lasting for decades with only minimal maintenance. Add in the fact that fiberglass campers tend to be lighter and cheaper, and you have a great recipe for success.
The world is becoming spoiled for choice with a plethora of fiberglass designs on the market right now. Most of these fiberglass campers are a modern interpretation of the iconic Boler or something futuristic. Happier Camper has long stood out by doing something entirely different. Its campers look like classic fiberglass campers on the outside, but feature wacky Lego brick-like interiors inside. That’s what makes the Traveler Summit a bit odd. It’s weird because it’s not at all weird.
Lego-Like Campers
Happier Camper is one of the quirky, smaller RV firms offering Americans a bit more choice than the typical white box on wheels. Its story is an interesting one, from my previous coverage:
Back in 2009, Happier Camper founder Derek Michael made it big when his iBallz iPad case went viral. He bought a 1960 Boler fiberglass camper to travel to conventions and shows with. Michael loved the camper so much that he started collecting and restoring more of the fiberglass rigs. Eventually, this led to a rental fleet of restored vintage fiberglass campers. Then, Michael decided to build his own fiberglass camper, but with a modern twist.
Happier Camper launched in 2015 and its debut product was the 13-foot HC1 travel trailer. The Happier Camper HC1 has a lot going for it from the vintage style and 1,100-pound empty weight to the hatch on the back. It’s a stylish trailer towable by just about any car with a tow rating! That isn’t even the best part. Pop open the hatch and you’re presented with a modular layout. Just place down your Lego-like cubes to make the trailer you need for that moment. Or, take all of the cubes out and have a cargo trailer. Happier Camper sells modular cubes that consist of benches, countertop cubes, kitchenette cubes, bunk bed cubes, and even toilet cubes.
Happier Camper has constantly upgraded its lineup since then. The HC1 was joined by the cheaper stripped-down HC1 Breeze and the upscale HC1 Studio, which added a bathroom. In 2021, Happier Camper launched a 17-foot model called the Traveler, which added more floor space, but also a built-in kitchenette. This idea was expanded further with the Traveler Adventure, which had a built-in bathroom and a built-in kitchenette.
At first, Happier Camper’s trailers were totally modular. Happier Campers use what the company calls its Adaptiv system, and these are little bricks that snap into place like Lego to fill out your trailer interior. These bricks include benches, beds, storage, and tiny kitchen units. These Adaptiv bricks meant that you could have an HC1 that was totally filled out like a regular fiberglass camper. Or, you could take all of the bricks out and use the HC1 as a motorcycle trailer or cargo trailer.
The bricks meant that you could change your camper’s layout on the fly. Don’t like having the sink up front? Just pop out that brick and move it to the back!
However, each upgrade has taken away some of the modularity. The Happier Camper models with the permanent kitchenette were still mostly modular, but added that nice convenience. The permanent bathroom added even more convenience at the cost of modularity. Now, we’re seeing the reduction of Happier Camper’s modular concept taken to what could be argued to be its natural conclusion.
An Old Take On A New Concept
The Happier Camper Traveler Summit is a flagship fiberglass trailer featuring a permanent kitchen, a permanent bathroom, a permanent closet, and a permanent refrigerator.
The base Traveler body features two walls of fiberglass and an overall body length of 13 feet, two inches. Total trailer length from bumper to tongue is 17 feet. I’ve gotten to play with a Happier Camper in real life and have found that the quality of the shell is great. I have no doubt these will be long-lasting trailers.
The standard exterior options of the Traveler Summit are about what you would expect for this price point, which we’ll get to in a bit. You get an awning, stabilizer jacks, an air-conditioner, two-tone paint, and roof-mounted solar panels. The Traveler is designed to look like a fiberglass camper from the 1980s, and I think it nails the look here.
Moving inside, you see why I say this is the most normal trailer from Happier Camper yet. All of the features I noted above are here and are immovable. But look at that, you get a full-size RV fridge, a wet bath, a microwave, a dual-burner stove, a large closet, and a sink. Since these parts are not made to move, they’re sizable units and blend well into the trailer’s interior design.
However, these permanent facilities mean that you have only limited modularity. The folks of Happier Camper says the modularity in this trailer is limited to bedding and tables. There are six spots to place dinette tables and the ends of the trailer can be turned into beds of varying sizes. The front of the trailer can have a full bed, a camper queen, or a full bed with a twin bunk over it. The bed in the rear is a full bed at best. Honestly, this isn’t much different than the configurations that you can get in campers that don’t have modular cubes. That’s why I say this trailer seems pretty “normal.”
The real trick here, I think, is that you can remove the beds and tables entirely and have a cargo area at one end of the trailer for bicycles or whatever else that’s small enough to fit through the small entry door.
To be clear here, I’m not really complaining. I love that Happier Camper now has a trailer for the buyer who wants to have it all. It’s just weird to me that a company that prides itself on modularity built a trailer with limited modularity. But hey, I still think more choice is better!
In terms of equipment, Happier Camper says the Traveler Summit has forced air heat, a 17-gallon fresh tank, a 17-gallon grey tank, and an on-demand hot water heater. There’s also 6 feet, 6 inches of standing room, 100 watts of solar, a 100 Ah lithium battery, and sleeping room for up to 5 people with all beds deployed. The air-conditioner I noted earlier is actually said to be an option.
You get all of this in a trailer with a gross weight rating of 3,500 pounds. Happier Camper does not give a base weight, only saying that the trailer weighs “under 3,000 pounds” when empty.
It Costs Mega Bucks
So here’s where I’m confused. Happier Camper says that the Traveler Summit starts at $69,950. That’s before you add options like an air-conditioner. I like the trailer, but I’m not a fan of the price.
For $69,995, you can get an Oliver Legacy Elite. That trailer is over a foot longer, comes with more features, and in my personal experience, the quality and luxury of Oliver is a cut above.
The Happier Camper Traveler Summit gives you a basic dry flush toilet, whereas the Oliver has a real porcelain toilet. The Oliver also carries twice the water, is four-season rated, and doesn’t make you pay for an A/C on a trailer that’s already $70,000. In my eye, if you’re paying $70,000 for a fiberglass camper, the Oliver gets you a lot more bang for your buck.
To be fair to the Happier Camper Traveler Summit, it does sleep more people and has some of the modular system. But unless you’re married to that concept, I would go with another trailer.
That’s not to say that the Traveler Summit is bad. It’s not! I’d even call it pretty awesome. I love to see more options in the marketplace for fiberglass campers. I also think anyone who buys one will be happy with it. But it is still just a little wild to see that the builder of the weirdest new fiberglass campers in America built something so normal.
Again, this is like the cost of 2 full years of nights in a hotel – absolutely bonkers that anyone thinks they will use this enough to justify that price.
Having owned a used 5 000 dollar Casita, I’d recommend the pre-owned route. The fiberglass rigs are very durable, and generally all the parts that may need to be replaced over time are generic rv stuff obtainable from various warehouse suppliers.
I’ll take a used Airstream Nest for $40K or less. The U model with the dinette is the one for me.
There’s probably some economies of scale and differing labor costs between Happier Camper and Oliver. For that matter you can get comparable Escape Camper for a lot less, if it doesn’t get hit with a tariff. I’m not paying $70k for a little fiberglass Camper when I can get one for $40‐50k
This ludicrous prices make me laugh. Is anyone willing to throw away money like that? This is $10k, max. The rest is obscene profit. Absolutely bonkers.
$70k asking is crazy, but so is the assertion that it should cost under $10k.
If you can build one of these with half the quality and features, I’ll pay you $10k for it the moment it’s ready.
Yeah, $10k is just as ridiculous as $70k. I’m not some magical arbiter of fair prices, but to me, it seems like this thing should be like $40k. Hell, a Scamp 16 starts at like $23-25k or somewhere in there. I’ll take the Scamp, add a few options, and then have $40k in my wallet instead of this Happier Camper. Sure, I’m down a foot. Sure, it might not last as long (or some other argument, IDK) but in the 10, 20, or 30 years later, I can buy another one and still be ahead.
Shoot, the Scamp 13 is still $20,000 at current rates (Scamp doesn’t publish prices, and the price you’re quoted can change depending on when you ask), and the base version is very barebones.
There are $10k trailers on the market, but they’re usually piles of crap that you expect to get maybe 5-10 years out of. These fiberglass ones can last for decades with decent care.
You can see enough pricing here to get the idea… https://www.scamptrailers.com/available-now
Plus the Scamp Lite lines exist now that are even cheaper…
Are we sure, at this point, that these super expensive camper manufacturers aren’t a money laundering scheme?
They’re hand built in the United States, in limited quantities, with no automation in the manufacturing process
To quote my middle schoolers: “That sounds like a THEM problem.” 🙂
I’m all for paying a decent premium for local/domestic labor, but sometimes it feels a little odd. Limited quantities, no automation, all domestic labor? Those sound just as much like criticisms as they do selling points!
It isn’t a problem at all for anybody, as long as they’re able to keep selling their campers at that price. Which, si far, they have been
Shark Tank would ask them “If you added some automation, couldn’t you bring the price down and sell more units?” but I know that doesn’t always apply — especially if they know the quality might suffer. I support businesses who DGAF and want to keep doing what they do. I just can’t really afford to be a customer 🙂
Happier Camper takes in about $13 million in revenue per year, like most independent RV builders, they’re a small operation. They’re not buying an automotive style assembly line with their resources
Nor, given their output, do they need one.
They’ve apparently picked the less volume/higher price side of the Laffer curve. Not my cup of tea, but more power to them.
What does built by hand even mean when it comes to a camper? The windows still come from a factory; the tires and wheels from a factory… is a person really out there individually laying sheets of fiberglass on a mold and then coating them with resin? And how does all of this compare to the Oliver? Is that Oliver also “hand built” in the US? If not, where is it built? If it is… why does it seem like such a better value?
Hand laying fiberglass in a mold, yes. They use a handheld gun to spray the resin, but otherwise, the whole assembly process is all manual, handheld drills, caulk guns, saws, etc
Well, that answers half the problem. But still leaves us wonder why the Oliver is a better deal (more for less) and then options like Scamp come in at less than half the price (admittedly it’s not as “fancy”).
The Oliver is a better deal than the Happier Camper because it does almost everything better for the same price. But yes, if you don’t care about luxury, a Scamp is a perfect trailer.
Think of it as buying a Chevy Suburban vs. buying a Cadillac Escalade. The Chevy (Scamp) does pretty much everything the Cadillac (Oliver) does, but the Cadillac looks nicer and has some better materials.
You’ve got to throw decent amount of options at an Escalade to get it to be twice the price of a Suburban. Plus, the Escalade has very tangible upgrades over the Suburban, like better engine, and better features…
You get the idea…
I feel like the tangible things that make a Happier Camper better than a Scamp make up a far smaller list
I doubt it… It think we are just used to really cheap mass produced items (often using cheap labor from other countries). I toured Airstream last year and it’s a very labor intense product and it’s easy to see why they charge what they do. It’s an assembly line, but it’s very slow with very little automation. It’s not unlike building a little house when you think about it. You have gas, AC and DC electric systems, water, waste, tanks, a furnace, AC unit, full kitchen, lights, plugs, and as much millwork and cabinetry as a high end kitchen. And then on an Airstream, add in about 4,000 buck rivets that take 2 people to install each of them. I’m honestly shocked they aren’t more expensive then they are.
Airstream build their campers dang near like an aircraft, using aircraft grade aluminum. This is a fiberglass camper. They are not the same.
Are you familiar with the fiberglass layout process? This is comparable to a small sleep-on-board sailboat in production technique. The mat has to be hand to cut to match a mold, put in place by hand, wait to cure, continue.
I rebuilt a travel trailer. I built my Sprinter. Purchase prices for high-quality RVs are in line with the cost of materials and labor, plus profits for the maker and seller.
Note I wrote “purchase prices.” The stickers on new RVs and trailers are the starting points for negotiations.