For the past year, the wife and I have been tossing around the idea of getting a popup camper to take to the mountains around here. Free camping around here means staying on national forest land but the wife insists on having a bathroom nearby, even if it's a pit style bathroom. Well, everybody else in the valley, who are trying to escape the heat, have the same idea so that also means we're surrounded by idiots. So our solution was to get a camper so we can get out to the middle of nowhere on national forest land.

After about a month of searching craigslist and visiting the local RV dealers, we finally found a really nice camper that was perfect for us. This is a 2003 Coleman/Fleetwood Taos.



It's pretty much the smallest modern camper made which is exactly what I wanted for the trails. The previous owner did a SOA conversion to give it a small lift. As it sits now, I have 1.5 feet of clearance between the ground and the frame.



I'll probably end up doing a couple inch block lift and maybe put bigger car tires on. It also definitely needs armor.



Other possible mods include a larger water tank (existing is 5 gallons), water heater, shower, electric water pump, propane heater, residential wood flooring.

Here's the interior:




It'll be a challenge to figure out where to put everything, but I think I can do it.

Oh, and the ruffled curtain hanging thingies have got to go.

One last pic of the back.