Readers' Rigs: Matt's Chevy Kodiak & Caribou Camper

Matt Palmer's got a BIG truck to haul his 11 1/2' Caribou camper: A 2005 Chevy Kodiak that really has plenty of torque. Pardon us if we feel a special affinity here: Our current t/c is a 11 1/2 foot Caribou--but we don't have the slide-out option like Matt does. We recently "graduated" to what we thought was plenty of truck--a 1 ton dually--but Matt no doubt can run circles around our rig going up an 8% grade.

Matt's original C4500 medium duty truck was sent out for a Monroe conversion--adding a pickup bed. But the new truck cab is 8" higher than a standard pickup--so how do you get a truck camper "over the top" of the cab? Matt explains: " I did this by putting 8"x 8" blocks in the bed. This also meant I had to put 8" x 8" block's under the camper jacks so I could clear the bed when loading." Yeah, and add a couple of extra steps to get passengers into the camper!



Further modifications included a hitch system to allow him to haul around a bit of extra weight behind the already ponderous Caribou camper. Matt's rig is his cat's meow: "The truck ride greats with the camper on it and is not top heavy as it may look. I get about 10-11 mpg with the camper on. It takes about 25 minutes to load or unload."

Well, yes, it really is a Caribou, but sounds more like the hairy kind of Bigfoot. Says Palmer, "I love when we are in a campground and our rig raises us above everyone else for the best view! The only drawback is the height. At 13'3" you are watching every overpass and gas station clearance as soon as you pull off the interstate! In the future I may go with an Alaskan pop-up camper to keep my height down a bit, but overall I'd say this is a fantastic rig to go anywhere in. It's also definitely a real attention getter."

Got a rig you'd like to show off? Drop us an e-mail at tcphotos at icanrv dot com--and be sure to change the email address here to one that's readable, we've disguised it to shake off the automatic spammers.

Is an Azalai a Camper--or a Motorhome?

Across the pond in the UK, the standard of 4-wheel drive vehicles is the venerable Land Rover. Goes where they go as they may, the Land Rover isn't the most comfortable vehicle for sleeping in.

Enter Azalai. A fiberglass "living pod" with king-size bed is "grafted" onto a customer's Land Rover--increasing the overall width by a mere 7" and its length by a bit less than 10", the new rig can go just about anywhere--and put you up comfortably. Typically equipped with accessories for livability you might find in an American truck camper, from stove and fridge to toilet and shower, the Azalai is built for mobile livability.

But they aren't real common. The 60th Azalai is now being constructed in the UK. Perhaps it's not surprising--the cost of having a Azalai for your Land Rover (or a couple of other convertable vehicles) starts at a bit over $41,000 (US), it could take a bit of robbing the family cookie jar to make the deposit.

Is it a camper in the true sense of the word? Nah--once the Azalai is grafted onto your Rover, it isn't going back to its original form very fast.