This Boring Box Truck Is Actually A Stealth Camper Built For Beach Life

A hidden spot underneath the truck stores a surfboard.

By: Chris Bruce

Feb 17, 2024 at 12:00pm ET

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Stealth campers are one of the most exciting trends in the motorhome scene. The builders take a box truck or plain white van and craft a comfy living space inside. In this video, an owner named Scott shows off his creation that he parks next to the beach to go surfing every day for six months of the year.

As with all stealth campers, this build's exterior is the least exciting part. It's a white 2008 GMC W-Series box truck with no identification on the outside that this is a tiny home on wheels. A hidden spot underneath the rear lets Scott store his 11-foot surfboard.

Lifting the rear panel reveals a facade that looks like a tiny cabin. There's a wood-paneled wall with a pair of large windows and a door. Inside, Scott has 120 square feet of living space using that area with impressive efficiency. It's not too often we see a builder put the pantry for food storage in the floor to avoid having cabinets lining the upper walls.

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It's naturally sunny on the beach in Orange County, California, and Scott takes full advantage. The roof-mounted solar panels provide 1,600 watts of energy, enough to charge six batteries. This setup offers enough power to run a refrigerator, freezer, air conditioning system, water heater, and more. The setup is so efficient, the truck doesn't have a generator on board and doesn't ever plug in to an external power source for electricity.

Scott built this stealth camper for $65,000 — a bit more than we've seen from similar builds like the $54,000 Isuzu or the $37,000 Mitsubishi. However, a traditional, factory-built RV can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. So we'd consider this home-built mobile home a bargain.