Bahn Camper Works, a new truck camper company based out of Hood River, Oregon, has one goal—make the lightest, highest quality truck camper in the industry. Compared to the competition, two things differentiate a truck camper made by Bahn Camper Works: quality custom work and the company’s seamless, fiberglass shell. The result is a light, high-quality expedition truck camper that will endure the harshest climates and terrain and will last for generations.
Customization
With the goal of building only 15-20 campers a year (no more than four a season), Bahn Camper Works works closely with each customer to offer a fully customized interior layout to perfectly match one’s adventure needs. Things like window placement, the option of a carbon filter drying room for hunters that eliminate odors, lots of storage or minimum storage, full kitchen or no kitchen, full bathroom or no bathroom, radiant floor heating, double entry doors in the back or a side door, and racks of every kind can be chosen by the buyer.
“If you can dream it, we can build it,” says Ryan Bahn, co-owner and Chief Engineer. “All appliances and components are marine grade or come from the European RV market.” Only the highest quality materials are used. The company recently built a flatbed camper that can sleep five people, fit four bikes inside and outside, and seat six adults around a custom interior dinette. This custom camper also features a stove box that can be used inside or outside on a 40-inch retractable rear deck, and much more.
“We started building truck campers because we were frustrated that with all other companies you are locked into only the floor plans they offer. Each camper is designed using CAD software so the customer can easily see and help design all aspects of their camper.”
Shell Construction
Bahn Camper Works thought long and hard on how they wanted to construct their one-piece, fiberglass shell. “We reviewed the option of using the chopped fiberglass method because it’s a much cheaper process and it would have drastically lowered our prices, but it would have added a lot of weight and lowered the strength of our shells,” explains Bahn. “We made the choice to put quality before cost and opted to use marine and aerospace technologies, which allows us to build a one piece, fiberglass shell with a structural core that eliminates the need for additional framing.”
The Bahn shell, with insulated walls and custom T-slot framing, weighs only 700 pounds and comes with an industry leading 10-year warranty. “Our choice in how we built our shells defines our mission: quality before cost in every aspect of our campers,” says Bahn. “The only thing we have gone cheap on is our office space. Anyone who has visited us can see there is no markup in our campers due to a fancy show room.”
Bahn Camper Works Products
For those who are interested in purchasing a Bahn truck camper, the company provides three build options: camper shells, custom builds, and standard builds. Campers can be built for standard short-bed and long-bed pickup trucks as well as for flat-bed trucks.
1. Camper Shell: Inspired by the van do-it-yourselfers, Bahn Camper Works offers clients the option to build out their own shell. The standard shell package is priced at $45,000. Please click here to see what is included in the standard shell package. The company is happy to coach people through this process.
2. Custom Truck Camper: This option allows customers work closely with Ryan Bahn to design the truck camper of their dreams. The layout is 100 percent custom. With this product, Bahn Camper Works can be as creative as the customer needs. Custom built campers start at $115,000. The company has one open build slot for 2017 starting in October and six build slots available in 2018. If a client really wants a very simple build, they might be able to lower the price. It all depends on the amount of design time and the components one chooses. Custom campers have a build time of about four months.
3. Standard Truck Camper: The company just started offering this option with the goal of being able to price a slide-in camper at $85,000 and starting at $95,000 for a flatbed truck. With this option, Bahn Camper Works still uses only the highest-grade components to ensure their builds are of premium quality. The only thing one loses is the option to design the camper with Ryan Bahn. Standard rigs have a build time of about four to six months.
In addition, Bahn Camper Works is currently building a 9-foot speculative flatbed camper that is for sale. This unit will have all the bells and whistles—diesel heat and hot water, electric induction cooking, a full wet-bath, a 400 amp hour lithium iron phosphate LiFeP04 battery, a 2,000 watt pure sine wave inverter, and much more. It should be completed around mid-October and is priced at $125,000. This camper is being built on a nicely equipped 2016 Dodge 3500 with top-of-the-line Hutchinson beadlock wheels, an AEV bumper with raised air intake, and a Warn 16.5ti heavy duty winch. The truck will be available for purchase with the camper.
