This Old Chevy Truck With A Secret Wood Cabin Is One Of The Stealthiest Campers On The Road

Some of the folks who live in their campers don’t really want others to know about it. These people like blending into the scenes of everyday life, which you can’t really do if your home is a bus covered in big swoops and air-conditioners. I might have found the ultimate in stealth camping. On the outside, this 1991 Chevrolet K1500 just looks like a nice old GMT400 truck. But, its owner did something pretty impressive in turning the bed and truck cap into something of a cozy log cabin.

I found this sweet build on Facebook Marketplace for a surprisingly reasonable price and it looks like this truck was recently covered on the Drive. But I think what was missed in that piece was the potential in this truck. Many Americans are currently living in a vehicle right now be it because that’s all that they could afford or they want to travel the country. Regardless of the reason, there is a chunk of full-timers who don’t want to advertise that they live in their RV.

There are valid reasons for this. There is still a negative stigma attached with living in a camper and some full-timers also don’t want the attention that comes with people noticing that a camper has been parked in the same place for too long. The solution to this? Build a camper that looks like regular traffic.

Some who build stealth rigs believe that having a camper that looks like a work vehicle will allow them to stay in places regular campers might not be welcome. A camper sitting on the side of a street in a city might get some unwanted attention. However, something like a plain Ford E-Series van might as well be invisible. People might eventually notice a camper parked in a grocery store parking lot for too long, but a plain pickup blends in with regular customers. The builders of stealth campers believe that making RVs that look like regular traffic allows them to sleep basically anywhere a regular car or work vehicle can park overnight. When was the last time you ever gave more than a single thought to a Ford E-Series work van parked on the side of a street?

Stealth RVs still spark debate about their efficacy. Some believe they’re a waste of time while some swear by them. It seems how well a stealth camper will work for you will highly depend on your build and where you plan on sleeping. If you’re sleeping in campgrounds or RV-friendly areas, just get an RV. If you’re trying to blend into the scenery of a construction site, maybe something like today’s K1500 is more your speed.

One of the most important requirements for a camper to qualify as a stealth build is that its outward appearance can’t give away that it’s a camper. That means no rooftop air-conditioners, no residential doors, and no add-ons that you’d never see on a typical version of your base vehicle. That’s what makes this K1500 build so brilliant. It looks like any other old pickup truck.

Your one clue that something is different is a slim solar panel on the top of the bed cap, but from eye level, it looks like an equipment rack, which you’d expect to see on a truck. Sadly, the pictures of the rig aren’t great, but that’s Facebook Marketplace for you. The truck in the topshot is a similar K1500 sold by Andrew in the recent past that we’re using for illustrative purposes.

The seller of the truck, Andrew, was also the person who built it. Andrew owns a carpentry business building tiny houses, truck campers, and more. He wanted to build a camper out of a reliable vehicle that allowed him to vacation #vanlife style without worry. The choice of the 1991 K1500 was a strategic one. Andrew says he wanted the base vehicle to be a known reliable steed with as few computers as possible.

A GMT400 truck is an excellent choice for this job. GMT400 trucks are just modern enough to have fuel injection and relatively healthy power for modern highways, but still old enough that you don’t need a degree to keep one on the road. Additionally, General Motors engineers worked to make the GMT400 trucks more welcoming for customers who might use their trucks as daily drivers. So they’re a little softer, get a little better fuel economy, and have more car-like features than their predecessors. All of that is great for road trips.

At the same time, the GMT400s are still known as hard-working trucks. Add in four-wheel-drive and decent tires and your camper truck can enjoy some quiet time deep in a forest somewhere, as seemingly suggested by the ad’s photos. We’re huge fans of GMT400 trucks around here and think they have an iconic design. But I think what’s important for this build is that to most people, an old K1500 just looks like an honest truck.

Andrew says he got the truck first, then he bought a high-top fiberglass truck cap. Now that the bed was enclosed, Andrew flexed his carpentry muscles and built out a cabin out of cedar in the back of his truck. What’s brilliant about this build is that he started the build just behind the truck’s tailgate. When the tailgate is closed you can’t tell there’s a camper in there. But open the tailgate and boom, you reveal an instant porch and a small front door to the cabin.

It’s a pretty elaborate porch, too, as it features its own lighting, a port for onboard water storage, and a cubby for items you want to store in the truck, but not in the cabin. Inside, you get to see more of Andrew’s handiwork with the cedar. Everything from the walls to the ceiling is made out of cedar and there are neat details like shelves, a counter, and even custom framing for the windows. It looks like Andrew took some time to make this a welcoming environment.

In terms of equipment, the camper back there has an air-conditioner, a lithium battery power station, and a couch that turns into a bed. The only exterior component is the slim solar panel. I like that the sink and stove are embedded into the counter. Andrew could have just used a portable cooker and a portable sink, but it’s nice to see the extra effort.

There isn’t a bathroom to be found, but my eyes spotted a cassette toilet in the photos and Andrew says there’s a shower attachment for the sink. So, this rig isn’t luxurious and you’re not standing up in it, either, but it looks pretty cozy. As for the truck, Andrew says it runs and drives well, but the air-conditioner isn’t working, the truck could use fresh paint, and only one speaker works. But hey, that’s way better than what you’d get in the Rust Belt where I live!

If you’re sold on sleeping in a camper that looks like a 33-year-old truck, Andrew says you can snatch up this one for $7,500 from his place in Birmingham, Alabama. If you can’t afford that, he says he’ll finance it to you for $4,000 down and $400 a month until you pay it off, then you get the title.

I’m not sure how good of an idea that is, but the camper is awesome. Too many stealth builds forget that your camper can’t look like a camper. This is pretty much a textbook example of how to do stealth well. Now I want to see what’s the weirdest vehicle you could make into a camper that doesn’t look like a camper.