2026 Truck Camper Adventure Rally Hosts 375 Rigs

The 2026 Truck Camper Adventure Quartzsite Rally is now in the books with 375 truck campers and over 700 owners participating in the five-day, outdoor event. The attendees came from 43 states, seven Canadian provinces, the UK, France, the Netherlands, and Germany.

The rally was held Wednesday thru Sunday, 11-15 February.

The boondocking rally is open to the owners of not only slide-in truck campers, but also chassis-mounted campers, truck toppers, DIY campers, and truck caps. The rally is held every February at the Roadrunner Wash BLM Area 6 miles south of Quartzsite, Arizona.

An educational event with an emphasis on safety and responsible use of public land, all classes are taught by enthusiastic experts in their respective fields. The rally itinerary consisted of clinics and classes, food, music, a truck camper open house, contests, and a huge Saturday evening drawing supported by over 25 sponsors which included the biggest names in the industry. Rubber wristbands, Clean Freak Wipes, and a raffle ticket were given to each attendee. Dog Owners attending the rally also received a goodie bag.

Kingstar Campers, Elevation Off Grid, Bowen Customs, and the Off-Road Safety Academy were the headline sponsors for the big, five-day event.

The boondocking rally is hosted by Truck Camper Adventure, an online magazine for truck camper enthusiasts. The emagazine, which covers all types of truck campers including, slide-ins, chassis-mounts, truck toppers, and camper shells, was founded by Mello Mike in 2015. The web magazine’s readership averages 2 million per year.

This was the 7th annual rally. The first was held in February 2020, a month before the COVID pandemic hit.

“We weren’t sure if a boondocking rally would fly, but it has in a major way,” explained Mello Mike, founder and senior editor of Truck Camper Adventure and event coordinator. “Truck camper rallies are typically held at RV parks with pavilions and with full hookups, so we weren’t sure if there would be any interest having a rally off-grid, but as you know truck camper owners are a different breed. Boondocking is in our DNA. The growth of the rally has surprised even us. In 2020, we counted 45 truck campers, this year we had 375 truck campers.”

Over 15 vendors and sponsors were onsite to either support the big event or to reveal new offerings. These included Kingstar Campers, The Off-Road Safety Academy, Elevation Off Grid, LiquidSpring, Bowen Customs, Host Campers, Adventurer Campers, and Soaring Eagle Campers. Cirrus Campers, Kimbo Campers, Adv Mobil, StableCamper, Tembo Tusk, Torklift International, Skymed, and For the Health of Our Pets were also onsite.

Known as the Boondocking Capital of the World, Quartzsite is the perfect place to hold an RV rally with seven designated BLM areas, five of which can be camped on for free up to 14 days. Not only is there a plentiful amount of public land in Quartzsite, but the town is supported by an RV infrastructure that is quite unlike any other place on earth. For the rally, the 375 rigs were parked in two main groups—one for solar power, the other for those with a generator. The rigs were spread out over 16 acres with plenty of room to camp either as a group or individually. A good number of Cirrus, Kingstar, and Northern Lite owners opted to camp in groups while some opted to camp with friends and family.

The large, outdoor gathering drew truck campers of all makes and models with an excellent mix of hard-side campers and pop-ups including several flatbed models and truck toppers. As expected, industry heavyweight, Lance Campers, led the way with an impressive 80 truck campers present with Northwood Manufacturing taking second with an superb showing of 45 campers (Arctic Fox and Wolf Creek models). Northern Lite took third with a whopping 36 campers present.

Other makes of truck campers did well too with high numbers at the rally. Four Wheel Campers came in fourth place with a very impressive 31 pop-ups. Adventurer Manufacturing took fifth place with 25 truck campers (Adventurer, Eagle Cap, and Scout model), while Host took sixth place with 23 truck campers. Other makes and brands with strong showings included nuCamp Cirrus with 18 campers, Northstar with 14, Kingstar with 13, and Bigfoot with 10 campers present. Other makes in attendance included Palomino with 6 campers, BundutecUSA with 4, Kimbo Campers with 4, Supertramp with 4, Hallmark with 4, Rugged Mountain with 3 campers, Alaskan with 3, S&S with 3, and Avion with 2. A total of 5 DIY campers were also counted, which include the top rig winner.

On the opening day, the itinerary included an “open house” where attendees could tour and view each other’s truck campers. Without a doubt, this is one of the most popular events at the rally. This is where you not only can show others your truck camper, but any mods or improvements that you made to it. It’s also a popular time to view new truck camper models and floorplans brought by vendors.

Three truck camper manufacturers debuted new or improved truck camper models at the rally. Randall Pozzi of Host Campers showcased a Host Mammoth 11.6 with the company’s new kitchen center peninsula floorplan, while Paul Warner of Soaring Eagle Campers showed the company’s new hot-selling Aerie model. Eric Berry of Outpost Campers unveiled the company’s improved Outpost 6.5 model featuring a number of upgrades over last year’s wildly successful release.

A large number of classes were taught during the five-day event, which included Bob Wohlers of the Off-Road Safety Academy who taught five clinics covering off-road basics and recovery. Additional topics included boondocking efficiently and safely, Elevation Off Grid (EOG) LiquidSpring trucks, Bowen Customs truck beds, the payload ratings of trucks, Baja Trip Planning, solar power, Skymed, and traveling with pets. All of the classes were taught by experts in their respective fields. This rally, of course, couldn’t have been possible without their generous support.

Entertainment was provided by the Border Hookups, a talented husband and wife duet who performed acoustic music on Friday night, and the Truck House Troubadour, Matt Baldoni, who performed on Thursday and Saturday night.

For the first time, attendees voted for the top three rigs at the rally. The top honor went to Jeff Disler’s amazing Ram-DIY Rig, while second place went to Jon and Vicky Rankin’s F450-SherpTek-Arctic Fox Monster Rig, and third place to Wade Atteberry’s polished 1968 Avion C11 vintage truck camper. Look for detailed stories on these builds soon here at Truck Camper Adventure.

The itinerary included an Omnia Stovetop Oven desert cookoff Thursday as well as a chili cookoff on Friday. First place for the Omnia cookoff went to Jesse Pennepacker for his Apple Pecan Dump Cake, second place to Karen Riggs for her Apple Crisp, and third place to Mette Goehring for her Danish Beer Bread.

For the Chili Cookoff, first place was awarded to Barb Manley for her Creamy Chicken Chili, while Patti Evans took second for her Chicken Chili, and Chris and Ellen Cronkite third for their Open Roader Chili. The Honorable Mention went to Teresa Brooks for her White Italian Chili. A total of 22 entries were made for this year’s chili cookoff. Afterwards, everyone feasted on the chili as well as numerous side, including cornbread, brought by attendees.

Unlike last year’s rally, which was marred by lots of wind, the weather and winds at this year’s rally were nearly perfect with lows in the 40s at night and highs in the mid 70s during the day. The attendees at this year’s event were also blessed with several spectacular sunrises and sunsets including a Saturday evening SpaceEx launch.

Event sponsors, and even a few attendees, donated prizes for the big Saturday night drawing. The prizes included five 100 amp hour lithium batteries courtesy of Battle Born (Dragon Fly Energy) and Vatrer Batteries. One of the headline sponsors, Kingstar, even pitched in a Vitrofrigo DC Refrigerator, a Suburban Furnace and Suburban Water Heater. Additional high value prizes included a Truma C44 12V Cooler from Truma, a Starlink System from Host Campers, Maxtrax Traction Boards from Four Wheel Campers, a Jasion ebike from TCA, a King Bull ebike from our friends at The Runaway Parents, a CompoCloset Composting Toilet, and a Tern Overland Arctic Breeze 12V Roof Fan.

The prizes for the drawing also included 11 Omnia Stovetop Ovens, a Blackstone Grill from Soaring Eagle Campers, a Retevis MB4 CB Radio, a VIAIR 450P Portable Air Compressor from TCA, a Froli Modular Sleep System from our friends at Nickle Atlantic, two Wolfbox Pro Dash Cameras from TCA, two Victron 712 Battery Monitors from TCA, and a Coverseal Long-Bed Pickup Truck Cover from TCA. Rugged Radios, Midland Radios, and Gooloo also pitched in with excellent prizes all courtesy of TCA.

In addition, high value gift certificates were provided by our friends at StableCamper, Hellwig Suspension Products, and Torklift International.

Months of planning is required for each rally, but the time and effort required by event organizers, Mello Mike and Karen Smith, is well worth it. Some attendees would like to see even more truck campers at future rallies, but Mello Mike doesn’t see that happening.

“This rally isn’t really about getting high numbers and pushing merchandise, it’s about strengthening ties in the truck camper community. It’s a place where you can meet up with old friends, make new ones, share mods and experiences, and just have a good time. We don’t want to get too big—about 400 truck campers is as big as we want to get—anything bigger would be difficult to manage. Large events, like the Overland Expos, can’t hold a candle to our event because they’re simply too big and too commercial. We don’t want to do that with our rally.” he said.

Next year’s 2027 rally is tentatively scheduled for February 10-14, 2027, pending permit approval from the BLM.

Those who attended are encouraged to send their favorite videos and photographs to TCA for use in social media posts and future announcements. Send your favorites to Mello Mike at mellomike62@gmail.com.