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Four Wheel Pop Up Campers Project M series RV review

Tony Barthel

Today’s RV review is of the Four Wheel Pop Up Campers Project M product. This is not a typical RV review as the Project M is not a typical RV. It’s also not your typical pickup camper. But if you’re into overlanding this might be a choice worth looking at.

Four Wheel Pop Up Campers Project M

First of all, let’s talk about what the Four Wheel Pop Up Campers Project M actually is. Essentially it’s one of their pop-up pickup campers that’s almost like a blank canvas. It still has their pop up roof and even has provisions for a bed over the cab.

In many ways it’s much like the camper featured in the Hawk Camper story that we shared yesterday. It still has the same pop top feature that’s surprisingly easy to open. It also has the same double-layer canvas section between the aluminum roof and the main body of the camper.

On the subject of that body, you can get this in either a corrugated aluminum body, a smooth-sided camper or even diamond plate exterior. Four Wheel Pop Up Campers offers quite a variety of colors for the exterior so you can match whatever truck you’re putting this on.

In fact there are a variety of these campers available to fit just about any mainstream pickup truck out there. One of the nice things about these is that they’re very light so you could put them on smaller pickups like the Toyota Tacoma, Ford Ranger or Chevrolet Colorado without modifying the truck at all.

These are also relatively light, depending on how you outfit them. The base model for what we would get, which would be the six foot bed full-sized truck, weighs in at a scant 420 pounds. If you’re putting this on a mid-sized truck with the same bed length, you’re at 377 pounds for just the camper. Not bad.

Unlike the other offerings from the company, these sit on top of the bed rail rather than in the bed. That means almost the entire bed interior is available for whatever you like. And that’s why we’re thinking of getting one of these. More on that in a bit.

What’s inside

As I mentioned, this is pretty much a blank canvas. If you check none of the options boxes, essentially there’s just a platform on either side of the interior of this. Above the cab there’s another platform which extends so you can put a bed.

Basically what this is is a pickup camper shell with a pop top. That’s it. But there’s so much more.

Unlike the company’s other offerings this also has an unusual rear entry point. Since this mounts atop the truck bed, there’s no real provision for a full door. Instead this has a hatchback that lifts up. Your own truck’s tailgate is the lower half of the seal here.

That means getting in and out presents its own challenges. If you’ve closed the truck tailgate from inside you’ll have to climb over it, or figure out how to get it down. It’s not a big deal, but something to consider.

However some of the new trucks have an optional ladder incorporated into the tailgate, which is pretty handy. I’ve also seen aftermarket ladders you can attach to the center or sides of the tailgate which is also pretty darned handy.

Options

From the company itself, there are a lot of options for these. But most of those center around overlanding, off-roading and that sort of thing.

There are rails inside and out to attach things like Jerry cans, traction plates, shovels and that sort of thing.

You can also get a high-performance vent fan on the inside as well as lighting and even a mattress for the space over the cab. One of the nifty things Four Wheel Pop Up Campers has done is to make the bed platform extendable so you can pull out the drawer-style extension mechanism and now you have a 81” x 72” platform or bed. That’s not bad at all.

Other choices include power support with things like a roof-top solar panel and even battery systems. There are also optional fans and lighting such that you can make this a pretty capable space.

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Multipurpose room

If it isn’t absolutely clear yet, what this is is a blank canvas with shelves along either side. You can upgrade with rails and power systems and all of that but this is still essentially a blank canvas and that’s the whole idea here.

What our vision is is to use this for a number of things. At the very minimum, this offers us the same functionality as the empty camper shell we have on our present truck. It’s a place for your stuff, as comedian George Carlin was noted for saying.

You can keep firewood dry or tote your eBikes. You can haul the things you bought for Christmas around in a fully enclosed space, but one that has the benefits of being the back of a pickup bed.

Those two shelves on either side, which are about 13” wide on the full-sized trucks, can be seats or storage or whatever you wish.

When you’ve popped the top, now you can stand up inside this with a full 60” of headroom. There’s also that platform which, if you opt for the mattress pads, can now be a bed.

I like choices. I’ve mentioned in toy hauler reviews how much I like the ability to repurpose a space in multiple ways and this is exactly that. A space that you can repurpose. Now let’s turn it into a camper.

Making this a camper

One of the many reasons we like this idea is that the camper shell itself isn’t so heavy that it significantly changes the cargo carrying capacity of our truck. Our vision is to buy a ¾ ton pickup so we still have lots of capability to tow our Rockwood Mini Lite 2205S. With the Power Package that we have in ours, the trailer’s tongue weight is about 800 pounds. Add the 422 pounds of the Project M camper and you’re still well within the 4,000 pound cargo carrying capacity of the Ram.

If you haven’t noticed on my RV gadget reviews there are a lot of camping gadgets that I’ve specifically chosen to write about.

While I know that Four Wheel Pop Up Campers offers an integrated power and solar system, since we already now have two Jackery 1500 portable power stations that’s where we’re going to get our juice from. Ours came with four 100 watt portable panels and we used that when we borrowed the camper I wrote about yesterday. In fact, we even charged up our eBikes.

We can also use that device to power our Duxtop induction cook top. I like these for camping because you don’t have as many worries about venting since there’s no burning propane, nor is there an open flame. The Jackery handles this thing just fine and it’s small when not in use, another big bonus.

Of course we also have our Dometic CFX3 75DZ powered cooler and that thing has really been performing well. We’ve found it’s a great ally for Costco runs but also road trips. Now that we have that darned thing, we are hooked.

For water we’d use the Dometic GO hydration jug and power spigot.

Making the bed would be easy thanks to our RV SuperBag, one of our favorite things that we’ve bought. We got this thing years ago in Quartzsite and it’s held up very well. It honestly looks as good today as it did when it was new. Very impressive. Not cheap, but good.

Of course we’d bring our Camco Travel Toilet. When we borrowed the camper from Four Wheel Pop Up Campers this worked very well. If we were planning to be in one spot for a while, we could also put up our Privy Bivy tent.

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So two campers?

I had mentioned wanting to tow our existing Rockwood Mini Lite 2205S with the truck that I would mount this camper on. So why in the wild, wild world of sports do I need two RVs?

This would be great for local day and overnighting trips. Since I want to get a four-wheel-drive truck this would also be able to venture to places where I wouldn’t normally have the trailer.

I could also use this as an office when we do have the trailer. I could sit in here and get these stories done as I like to wake up much earlier than Peggy and that’s when my writing brain is most active.

Of course this could also be the place we keep our Lectric eBikes, for example.

Final thoughts

There are a lot of things I like about this camper. Compared to a more traditional camper shell, this offers the ability to raise the roof and stand up inside. These are not especially heavy, but do offer a lot of functionality including a bed.

They’re also really affordable compared to many other camper options. In fact, if I were thinking of getting a van for an overlanding adventure, this might be a much better choice. It’s more flexible and you could find a used pickup, thereby lowering your cost.

Further, maintenance and repairs on pickups is much easier to find than it is for many of the vans that are out there. If a local mechanic is unwilling or unable to work on a pickup, they might as well go home.

So this is an interesting option that is definitely worth considering. Who knows if we will move forward with this idea, but it’s certainly something I’m kicking around.

Would this make sense for your camping style?

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