For the most part, RV manufacturers don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Whether you buy an RV that wears a Forest River sticker or a Thor emblem or another brand’s badge, you’re getting largely the same thing in terms of construction and features. That’s why I’m always happy to see something a little different out there. At the 2025 Florida RV SuperShow I found one of the coolest new units on the market and it’s this gloriously metal beast that has an attached addition meant to be used as a second camper or as a motorcycle garage.
This big guy comes from Michigan-based Kingstar Campers, and it’s unlike most other travel trailers on the market. This trailer has a stainless steel roof, a metal exterior cage, and composite walls. But then, it also wants to be bit weird with a giant multi-purpose space up front that’s explicitly for either the storage of motorcycles and other toys or you could use it as a secondary camper for that particular in-law.
It’s the Kingstar Kruzr K180 Overland Trailer, and it’s a camper made by people who know snowplows and horses. You can start getting those Inception and Xhibit jokes ready right now.
Yes, Snowplows!
Kingstar Campers, a brand of the Kingstar Company, is a startup operation. It was founded in 2018 by Marcus and Cal Niemela, two brothers from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. These names might not be familiar, but their products might be.
According to an interview in Truck Camper Magazine, Marcus explained that his father was a contractor and manufacturer. In the 1970s, his father built wood furnaces under the name of Defiance Company. Fast-forward to 1975, and a 15-year-old Cal Niemela made his mark with the invention of the multi-position V-plow, which was marketed as the Defiance before being renamed to Boss. Now, if you’re one of our many readers on the East Coast or in the Midwest you’ve almost certainly seen a handful of trucks with the company’s beefy plows on front. Maybe some of our southern readers might see some given the absurd weather lately.
The brothers cut their teeth in business and manufacturing by working in their father’s empire, which included Blizzard plows, a construction firm, and a parts cleaning business.
According to Truck Camper Magazine, the Kingstar Camper story really started with a horse named Jackie Diamond (JD). It was 2005 and the Niemela brothers sold the Blizzard plow business. Marcus decided to hit the road with JD, hitching up a horse trailer to a truck carrying a truck camper. On the journey, Marcus found that dealing with the heavy corral system, hay, and water was more difficult than it probably should have been. In response, he created the Kingstar horse trailer, which uses automated power equipment for heavy lifting.
Next came the camper. Marcus wanted a truck camper built for the person who goes horseback riding, biking, and paddle boarding. This would mean a truck camper that was big on storage, could handle some heavy gear, and was designed around making life easier for someone with that active lifestyle. Specifically, the original idea was to sell these campers to the rodeo market.
The Kingstar Camper
By 2019, Kingstar had its first prototype. The Kingstar Camper concept takes a different path than most. The truck camper and its travel trailer sibling are built like a Kingstar horse trailer, but with some notable changes. The horse trailer has an aluminum structure, but the camper uses wood for framing. It’s Kingstar’s opinion that aluminum isn’t the greatest material to use if you’re looking for insulation, warmth, and a quiet interior.
Kingstar is quick to point out that these aren’t the flimsy stick-builds you might be used to. The roof is made out of stainless steel for style and longevity. The hung walls are Azdel composites and the exterior perimeter cage of the camper is covered in aluminum and stainless steel. Kingstar says that once the spray foam insulation and seals are added in, the campers have R12 to R13 insulation values and are airtight. The factory even pressurizes the campers as part of its quality control process to make sure nothing gets out or in.
Kingstar thought the rodeo market would love how overbuilt the camper was. Unfortunately, the company found out that the rodeo market loved the design but thought all of the stainless steel was unnecessary or too expensive. But you know who is into that sort of stuff? The overland camper market. The camper’s launch product was a truck camper, but the new-for-2025 is the same concept as a towable.
The Kingstar Kruzr K180 Overland Trailer is built just like the truck camper, but now it’s in a more popular form factor.
What’s pretty funny about the Kruzr K180 is that upon inspection, the trailer looks and feels like a truck camper that’s tacked onto a trailer. The body, including the window placements, matches that of Kingstar’s truck campers.
Likewise, there are no side doors like you’d find on most other travel trailers. Instead, you step up and into the rear of the trailer like you would a truck camper.
I’m not complaining here. It’s just an observation that you don’t have to go digging around too much to figure out this isn’t a typical trailer. Kingstar’s attention to quality seems pretty good. The metal bits all looked pretty awesome and the overall fit and finish of the unit at the RV show was leagues better than the typical travel trailer. Kingstar says it uses 3M adhesives to prevent galvanic corrosion.
I even liked how the trailer’s undercarriage still had chunks of mud on it. Apparently, Marcus spends more or less half of his time each year living in his company’s trailers and they get used for what they’re designed for. This trailer is also said to have an independent air suspension of Kingstar’s patented design. That’s supposed to smooth out the ride over various surfaces.
And then I stopped at the front end.
Look, it’s normal for travel trailers to have what some would call “basements” or “garages.” These are storage spaces where you haul all the junk you don’t want in the interior. There are also toy hauler trailers with ramps and rooms to park your motorcycles, quads, or even a small car.
This front-end storage area – which is where your truck’s cab would go if this were a truck camper – is large enough to park multiple small off-road motorcycles.
But then I noticed something a bit weird. The hatches of the garage doors had secondary camper doors on them. These camper doors have locking latches, opening windows, and curtains. This is completely unnecessary for a motorcycle garage. The room is also well-lit and has electricity. What the heck is going on here?
I asked the Kingstar rep at the show, and yep, it’s a dual-purpose space. You can park motorcycles and stow gear in there, or just use it as another living space with its own independent access to the outside, a sort of camper within a camper.
Armed with further curiosity, I stepped inside. Sure enough, the interior of the Kruzer K180 is similar to that of a truck camper. Your kitchen and your bathroom are at the rear like in a truck camper and you sleep on a raised platform, just like a truck camper. But this time there’s a twist in that you can open up the floor and use it as a pass-through to the second bedroom or garage. Or, just leave it closed and the person in there can use it as their own private space.
The interior is well-equipped and, I feel, pretty well thought out. There’s a proper RV stove and oven here in addition to a microwave, so cooking in this guy shouldn’t be a problem. I also like how, unlike many trailers, the stove has two backsplashes. When the stove’s cover is open that acts as a backsplash and there’s a stainless steel one on the wall as well.
The bathroom is on the cramped side, but you do get everything in there to get all cleaned up after a day of riding. The quality of the materials inside is pretty good. The use of stainless steel trim ties in the theme well and everything else does feel like it belongs in a trailer of this price category. Don’t worry, we’ll get there in a moment. I think the interior materials here should be more or less the baseline for a travel trailer. It’s not the lap of luxury in there by any means, but you also get the feeling that this was actually made to be slept in by real people.
In terms of equipment, Kingstar says that standard equipment includes what I noted above plus stainless steel for the shower, 400 watts of solar, a 12V 460Ah LiFePO4 battery, a rear camera, Formica counters, vinyl floors, an outdoor shower, and other smaller bits. For holding tanks you have 32 gallons for fresh water and either 20 gallons or 30 gallons for gray water depending on your bed configuration. The toilet in the bathroom is of the cassette variety.
Cool, But Expensive
You get all of this in a package with an 18-foot box and is 21 feet from tongue to rear bumper. The Kingstar Kruzer K180 weighs 6,536 pounds empty or specifically 7,140 pounds when loaded with a pair of Yamaha TW200 motorcycles. Apparently, the unit is beefy enough that you can load it up to 10,400 pounds total.
Now comes the fun part. Ordering a Kruzer K180 is weird. According to Kingstar, the Kruzer K180 is based on the Kruzr 8. So you start by choosing a Kruzr 8 truck camper in the configurator. There are five floorplan variations that determine what you get in the middle of the camper. The cheapest “Open Range” layout gets you an empty space and two folding camp chairs. The idea is that you plop down in the camp chairs to eat dinner then fold them up and take them outside, leaving a huge open space in the trailer.
If that doesn’t sound very fun to you, the other options include a dinette and a longer couch that converts into a bunk. Or, you can configure the space as an office. The starting price for the Open Range model is $67,960 while the starting price for the “Command Center” office is $69,960.
Now here’s where things get weirder: As I said before, the configurator makes you choose a truck camper first. Then you’re presented with a ridiculously long options list. You can get the aluminum siding in three different colors and the interior is offered in three different colors. Then you can tack on a diesel heater, Starlink, solar panels, a TV, extra solar, bigger batteries, awnings, storage boxes, and more. You can even swap out the oven for a different cooking appliance and ditch the wet bath for a dry bath. Kingstar says it’ll even do custom options for a cost.
But the option we really need here is “K180,” which tacks on $16,960 to add the frame, the garage, the wheels, and the fancy suspension to turn the Kruzr 180 into a trailer. For those of you counting, that’s at minimum $86,650 before you add a single option. And that’s the price to get the one that puts camping chairs in an empty room.
So, I’m left thinking that this thing is pretty cool with just the right amount of silly. I love the liberal use of strong metals and even with the wood framing this does seem like a strong build. I also love how the makers of this actually use their products on the regular.
However, $86,650 is a real hefty price. I’ve reviewed overland campers that cost tens of thousands less. Sure, none of those have a second room that could be used as a garage or as a bedroom, but you could also just park the motorcycles into the bed of the truck you’ll be towing this with, anyway. Some of the other overland campers of this size are substantially cheaper as well.
That’s a shame because I like what’s going on here. The Kingstar Kruzr K180 Overland Trailer is built well and it’s designed by people who actually use the products. But the off-road camper market is super saturated right now with lots of cheaper options. It will be interesting to see how well this catches on.
(Images: Author, unless otherwise noted)
I almost bought an almost new slide in for a good price. Seller wanted to sell due to unforeseen circumstances. Very well built, had a closet on the outside which would work great for skis. I think any RV purchase should be of someone else’s regret, 1/3 off the price of newish stuff is not uncommon. I did even better. But if you want what you want then that doesn’t always work. The brothers are right in that metal framing will allow thermal bridging unless addressed, the wood frame not as much. These are well built for 4 season use.
Oof, and I thought my fiberglass roof was loud in the rain.
Wow, it’s impressive to price out the rodeo market, given the rigs I’ve seen at rodeos. I think that tells you something about how big of suckers the overlanding market are.
Ok, Mercedes, I’ve got to ask… what do you know about Safari Condo trailers? Specifically the Alto R series?
Not the cheapest… but they seem light years more appealing to me than stuff like this. Plus they are lightweight.
I mean, if you’re looking to do some serious traveling and Airstreams don’t tickle your fancy, this may be the move.
It’s well out of my budget, but I like it and I’ve seen less for more (like any camper built on a Sprinter or Promaster chassis).
Damn. This thing pushes so many of my buttons, both good and bad ones:
I love the materials and build quality. The main cabin is laid out smartly and functionally, with a minimum of typical RV tackiness. But that extra compartment under the front, especially fully enclosed and insulated and powered and climate controlled? That’s fantastic. When I was shopping for my camper a decade ago, I missed out on a couple of listings for fifth wheel campers that had been converted to bumper pull – both smaller ones, 21 feet and 17 feet, if memory serves, with the area under the hitch boxed in with steel, then walled in as a storage compartment. If there is one thing that camper trailers have always sorely lacked, it’s a “shed” or “garage” for large storage, and seeing those conversions made me wish that camper trailers were already made that way from the factory, with a raised berth for the master bed, fifth wheel style.
But yikes, the price. And with a cassette toilet? 86 grand won’t buy me a sewer hookup, or even a blackwater tank? For that much money, I still have to empty my own chamber pot? Naw, man. Not at these prices, especially not when that cute little Instagram cargo trailer conversion from a few weeks ago is a thing. I don’t know whether to be upset at the manufacturer for this price, or upset at the entire industry for cheapskating the market to the point that this is what it costs to get anything built worth half a damn.
My initial thought was that a ’70s fifth wheel and a teardrop trailer had a love child . . . that being said, it looks well built and I like a lot of options, but it, sadly, misses the mark on the pricing.
I think it’s great, but it’s about double the price I’d be willing to pay.
Not that I could even afford that.
I’d be interested at more like $35k.
I’d be a buyer at… (checks pockets) …a pair of nail clippers and half a stick of Blistex.
I got about tree-fiddy.
$86,650 before options?!?
At $200/nite, that’s at least 433 stays at a Residence Inn…
(Not counting the free stays earned with Bonvoy Points)
And you don’t even get free Continental Breakfast with the camper!
Buying an RV is not a decision that stands up to logic.
It did make sense for my parents who bought a Newmar DutchStar to live in full-time and travel the country in extensively for twenty years after they retired – tho the ongoing maintenance and upgrades didn’t come cheap for a depreciating asset.
And it made sense for my Grandparents who used their Airstream as an air-conditioned guest cottage/mancave when they were not doing their Wally Byam Club jamborees and officer duties all over the country for months at a time for many, many years.
But you’re right – the vast majority just get parked out back or in a storage lot for most of the year to mildew and rot most of the year as the idea of them is more appealing than the actual use case.
It does, or at least it used to, but not at these prices.
My 1986 Fireball camper was $2300 a decade ago, and it has more than paid for itself. It’s pretty hard to replicate that bargain on today’s used market, and the new market is just more money for worse crap every year.
As for logic: when I was a little kid, I had friends in the neighborhood whose parents had an RV, and I begged my parents to get one. My mom’s answer, which I couldn’t argue with for decades, was, “I don’t go on vacation in order to bring another house with me to clean.” Understandable. Then when I became an adult and decided I wanted a camper for myself, it didn’t take me using it for long to call my mom and give her a logical rebuttal: “Yeah, but guess what? I know beyond a shadow of a doubt how long it has been since the sheets have been changed and the toilet has been cleaned.” She was astonished that she couldn’t really disagree with that either.
It can, but not always. My Sprinter conversion is my daily driver, and I only spent about $20,000 total on it. I use it about 4 nights a month as a camper, so I’m at $160/night over the course of 2.5 years owning it. But again, it’s also my DD, so it’s kind of moot financially.
Using “I use a Sprinter as a DD” doesn’t really stand up to logic either I think. 🙂
For most people it would seem that way. And if camper, not vert use full for cargo unless special build, at $20k maybe the components are removable? Pre fab cabinets can be had that are not permanently installed. But not my idea of DD unless special circumstanes.
It’s very much not removable. I installed a slide-out in the back of it and it has a full kitchen, electrical system, etc. so the camper aspects aren’t going anywhere without force. https://photos.app.goo.gl/kHQFX1dRey6PPFbW6
Why? It’s smaller than a Suburban, gets 22MPG, and I have a couch and a fridge with me everywhere I go. When I go into work, I can go cook lunch in my own space. It’s a little bit rattly, but otherwise there aren’t really many compromises. Admittedly, if we’re going on a non-camping trip, we’ll take my wife’s car, but I still put about 12,000 miles a year on the Sprinter.
I wouldn’t like driving my Transit as a daily. I think most people share my perceptions. You are special.
Why not?
The obligatory “yo dawg, I hear you like camping so we put a camper in your camper”
Better than that – they put a garage in your camper. Something few campers have that every camper needs.
But not at these prices.
Maybe it’s just me as a designer, but using the same slide-in truck camper as the base for a trailer seems extremely lazy. I get that there are some cost benefits, but you wouldn’t see that by looking at the final price!
So it combines my love of adorable small campers with my love of adorable 90s campy movies, namely The People Under the Stairs.
Honestly, that lower section isn’t really much different than sleeping in a teardrop. You can put the kids down there for privacy. And if they ask about why the bed above them was so squeaky, just tell them you’re looking into it.
Looks a little claustrophobic to me, but probably an OK place to stuff your infants or toddlers. Crack the window a little bit and they’ll be just fine.
The little sub-basement camping area: So that’s where the weird uncle or Gollum stays when camping with you?
Bring out the Gimp
It’s so you can bring along that crazy aunt you keep down in the basement
That’s for the kids to have their own space. Up until they are teens, in which case it’s for the dog and the kids get a tent. Shenanigans are a lot harder to disguise in a tent.
I admire the work they’ve put into this, both initially and after pivoting to a different target market, but I can’t help but think it would always feel compromised.
Great materials, great construction methods, great quality… poor layout.
Just here to say that I don’t see myself ever dragging my better half along for even this kind of “camping” trek, but I’m so glad that Mercedes is here to allow me to live vicariously, week after week, with these reviews.
My wife and I did all kinds of tent and back-of-pickup camping in our twenties. I still camp, we travel via hotels or airbnb. She is done camping.
Heh. I’m blessed with a “bush broken,” road-warrior-woman for a wife, but your wife sounds a lot like my mom, so I know the type.
Also reminds me of an article I read about the late great southern humorist Jerry Clower, who was an avid hunter/fisherman/outdoorsman, whose wife was not. The interviewer asked if his wife ever joined him outdoors to go camping or anything like that, and Jerry laughed and said that she was clear on the subject: “The mortgage payments on this house are too high for me to go sleep on the riverbank.”
You’re paying the extra money to make your least favorite child sleep in the garage/basement/brig. Completely separating the problem child from the family is worth something, right?
You’re calling child services? On me and whoever puts their child into that section? Reasonable.
Certainly there’s some children out there who would love to have their own little Harry Potter nook.
My oldest daughter dreamed of being an only child. I guarantee if I had brought one of these when they were all at home, she would have claimed that space IMMEDIATELY.
I’m getting a strong whiff of “only child who has no children himself” off his take. I don’t know if I’ve ever known a child who wouldn’t jump at the chance to spend the night under there, for a whole host of reasons – perhaps as simple as because they hate their brother or sister’s guts.
Yeah, Harry really normalized low-grade child abuse now that I think about it.
But look, we can’t all be ultra-wealthy Flowers in the Attic people. That requires a 6-figure fifth wheel.
Alright, I lost it once I got to “brig.” 😀
So *that’s* what you do with a drunken trailer
Beautiful.
Years ago (early 2000s?), Toyota had a tv ad campaign that used the traditional Drunken Sailor tune and I thought it was a really, really weird choice for a mainstream car company.
I talked to a bunch of people about it over the months, just casual conversation, and none of them had any idea what I was talking about. Until one day, a guy says “What? That tune is the NFL Films song, they’re making their ads like football reels.”
And that was one of the biggest Mandela Effect moments of my life, but where I was actually correct. Accidental gaslighting?
Dieselighting. You have to work at it, but it’ll ignite eventually.
You’re telling me that 6-year-old Drew wouldn’t have thought this was the coolest place he had ever slept in his life? You’re either not being truthful, you don’t remember what it was like being 6 years old, or you don’t know any little kids.
You’re talking about a sleeping compartment with windows, power, lights, and heat. That sounds like a bedroom to me. You make it sound like the closet under the stairs.
I always had my own bedroom and had my own tent the little bit we camped. That space looks like it would feel small, even to a kid. I could be wrong, and I would certainly concede that a kid in a bigger family would love to have the space to themselves, but those points don’t really go with the joke.
But, yeah, the joke is that the little cubby below the regular compartment seems a lot like the closet under the stairs.
I wasn’t supposed to play in the closet under the stairs? Nobody told me.
In fact, if you went to my childhood home where my mom lives, you will still find my toys in the closet under the stairs.