We’ve covered motor homes, camper vans and travel trailers for years. We love them, and we know Motor1.com Readers around the world love it too. Most of the time, we see relatively normal RVs with unique and inventive features. But sometimes, we find something different. Totally different.
That’s what we celebrate here. We researched our dedicated motorhome news category to find the weirdest, wildest, or coolest RVs we’ve ever written about. And you know what? There are so many amazing campers in our archive that it’s really hard to pick just a handful. Because of this, we had to exclude limited edition builds from specialized companies. Everything here is a custom creation, and in some cases, habit is an extraordinary statement.
We scoured our archives for an interesting camper. Here’s what we found, presented in no particular order. If you want to learn more about this particular machine, click on the headings for each section to read our original articles.
Is this the wildest of all? That’s debatable, but we couldn’t imagine a more extreme custom RV project than incorporating a vintage Douglas R4D airframe into an International semi-truck. It took a year to build and only cost $20,000 … and a huge amount of elbow grease from the owners and builders who call it a labor of love.
We discovered Atomic Camper in 2018, which was built from scratch just a few years earlier. The mad scientist behind this unique travel trailer designed and built it while recovering from an injury sustained in a plane crash. Whether that experience influenced the design is unclear. But nothing says unbeatable quite like living in something resembling a nuclear bomb.
At first glance, this big black RV doesn’t look much different from a standard Class A motorhome. In fact, it’s an epic school bus conversion where the only thing left is the engine, cabin and frame. Even so, the frame was modified to withstand the extra axle. Everything else is made from scratch, including the sides, roof, and a workshop large enough to repair a snowmobile.
This awesome rig was the inspiration for this crazy cool camper list, and crazy cool doesn’t get much better than this. The classic Kenworth is the foundation for this black and chrome combo, but the Airstream travel trailer isn’t just bolted to the back. The level of customization in this build is incredible, from the modification of the truck itself to the pass-through connecting the cabin to the camper.
None of the vehicles or trailers on this list are out of the ordinary, but if you see this classic 1968 C20 Longhorn on the road, you won’t suspect it’s anything more than a beautifully restored pickup with a vintage crest. However, there was never a problem starting a bonfire when this truck was around thanks to the official flamethrower mounted on the long horn skull.
This ultra-elegant travel trailer is a concept by a Chinese designer featuring an organic, whale-inspired exterior. In transport mode, the button is up for easy pulling. But with a few pop-ups and slides built in, the trailer expands to offer a surprising amount of space. By the end of 2021, there are tentative plans to put it into production. However, we haven’t heard any updates regarding the progress.
Smyth Performance offers pickup bed conversion packages for several vehicles, but the Beetle Utes is arguably the coolest of them all. That’s not enough for this VW owner, who has an unused fifth-wheel mount in his garage. He designed and built this pop-up camper trailer from scratch, specifically for use with the Beetle and it works really well. In an interview with Motor1.comThe builder also reveals his unique camping rig gets 30 mpg on the highway.
Big deal, just a classic Chevrolet pickup with a topper instead of a bed, right? Take a closer look. The cab is also gone, leaving the driver to navigate through the front-facing windshield. Rumor has it this was a rare camper conversion done by a company in the 1960s, but we can’t verify that claim.
The Mitsubishi Fuso is a great platform for building a standalone camper van. Generally, you don’t find one with a gullwing door but that was done by the builders here to bring the outdoors in. It’s a functional design that trades aesthetics for functionality, but is certainly creative.
Speaking of functional and creative, here’s another semi-truck redesigned for RV duty, but with a twist. It was a modified fifth-wheel travel trailer mounted to the chassis at the rear, but there was no way through to the front. Instead, there’s room in the middle to carry a small car perpendicular to the truck. We’ve seen small garages in very large RVs, but this cool creation in a smaller package certainly offers a new alternative to flat towing.
It takes serious vision to turn a rider’s curse into something awesome. On the outside, this big old Volvo B10MA looks like a typical city bus, ready to carry passengers around the city. However, with all those seats gone, there amazing space for a custom RV. The entire front of the bus is devoted to the kitchen. The back is home to a bathroom, a sizable office, and a secluded bedroom.
Okay, this last RV isn’t real. But it still qualifies because it’s custom-built with incredible functionality you wouldn’t expect in an RV scale model, let alone one made from Lego. There are two functional slide-outs for the bedroom, storage around the base, a mountable back porch, and that’s what you see from the outside. With the roof removed, the interior comes with a bed, bathroom, kitchen, you name it. If you can downsize Legos, this RV is ready for an off-brick adventure.
