This 580-Pound Hard-Sided Camper Is So Light Even Your Underpowered Subaru Crosstrek Can Tow It

If you want to go camping with a really small car, there’s a surprising number of campers out there that can be pulled by cars like the Mitsubishi Mirage, Smart Fortwo, or Fiat 500. But the vast majority of these campers are more or less tents that pack into tiny trailers. If you like to sleep inside of hard walls, I’ve found one of the very few campers that are light enough to be hauled by a tiny car without pitching a tent. This is the Runaway CoolCamp, and it’s a 580-pound camper that starts at just $5,995.

Some of my favorite campers are ones that weigh 1,000 pounds, give or take a few hundred. These rigs are your U-Haul CT13s, Scamp 13s, and MeerKats. Many of these trailers weigh just low enough that you can tow them with pretty much any car on sale today. That’s great! But what if you have a vehicle that’s really small or slow? What if your ride is something like a Smart Fortwo, Scion iQ, or heck, a Honda Gold Wing?

I can tell you from experience that something like a Smart Fortwo will happily tow a motorcycle, but a Scamp would make the little car sweat.

Tiny Campers For Tiny Vehicles

I’ve seen many small cars hauling tiny campers like the 385-pound Time Out Trailer Deluxe. In fact, the Time Out Trailer used to be so popular within Smart communities in America that Smart owners bought them and color-matched their trailer to their adorable cars. Take a look at this cute little camping rig:

Those little Time Outs are basically just tents packed into a trailer. There are a lot of tiny tent campers like these out there and a number of them are targeting motorcyclists and small car owners. If you want hard walls with the same amount of weight, the market is really thin. There used to be something called the Easy Rider Camper, which was a baby teardrop targeted at motorcyclists, but that company doesn’t appear to exist anymore:

There’s also the Little Guy MyPod, also favored by some motorcyclists, but some dealers want $21,000 or more for these things:

The Runaway CoolCamp

That’s where the Runaway CoolCamp comes in. It’s one of the seemingly few hard-sided campers that weigh well under 1,000 pounds.

Runaway Trailers was started in Summerfield, Florida in 2012 by Stephen Shives and his father-in-law, Robert Lane. The men’s mission, among building an enthusiastic community, is to provide the best possible value to their customers. Runaway Trailers’ tagline is “America’s most affordable mini-camper,” and at least on the surface, I’m seeing no lies detected. The company’s most expensive camper is the $11,945 Venturist mini overland trailer, below:

This little guy comes with 33-inch tires, has 20 inches of ground clearance, a Timbren axle-less suspension, and weighs just 1,050 pounds at its heaviest. Today, we’re going to take a look at Runaway’s smallest, cheapest, and most popular unit, the $5,995 CoolCamp.

The CoolCamp is an 11-foot, 4-inch long trailer with a 4-foot by 8-foot box. The interior takes up that aforementioned 4×8 space and has a ceiling about 3.8 feet tall at its peak.

‘

In other words, this has the footprint of a small teardrop trailer, but it’s shaped like a cube. Runaway says that the CoolCamp rides on a welded tube steel frame and features solid wall construction. Those walls are protected with fiberglass skin and aluminum trim.

There isn’t a ton to talk about inside the CoolCamp. Campers in this small class tend to be light on features and this one is no different. On the front wall are a 5,000 BTU air-conditioner and a 110V power strip with six outlets. There is no carpet, no wallpaper, or pretty much anything else. There are two windows and a bed, that’s it.

The CoolCamp does have a pretty neat options list. You can fill the interior with additional shelving, put a roof rack and baskets on top, add an extra window or door, and even get an awning. Other options include a propane tank holder, aluminum wheels, an outdoor shower, and holders for extra fuel for your tow vehicle. These accessories are actually pretty affordable; fully loaded, you’re looking at paying $10,000.

Campers like these aren’t supposed to be luxurious, but low weight and cheap. Think of them as a direct step up from a tent. They’re also a blank canvas, so you can easily add bits like cooking equipment, heating, and a cassette toilet. One of the only other hard campers in this space is the Little Guy MyPod, which costs twice as much, weighs 260 pounds more, and the only things it has that the CoolCamp doesn’t is a stereo and a house battery.

The empty weight for the CoolCamp is just 580 pounds, which means it can be towed by just about anything with a tow hitch. And at just 5.4 feet tall, it could follow behind something like a Fiat 500 without being a major drag. The Runaway CoolCamp starts at $5,995. Yes, you could probably build one of these yourself for much cheaper, but if you aren’t that handy, this seems to be a fair price.

I’m not sure if Runaway Trailers actually sells America’s most affordable mini campers, but the company does sell campers small and cheap enough to allow more people to camp, and that’s something I’m always for.

Support our mission of championing car culture by becoming an Official Autopian Member.