By Bryan Rogala
In 2021, I bought a 2018 Toyota Tundra and quickly started looking for a truck camper to run on it. I’ve reviewed campers and trailers for Outside Magazine for nearly a decade now, and have experience with lots of different types of rigs—perhaps needless to say, I’m pretty particular about my camping setup. So, with access to tons of different truck campers and hands-on time in most of them, why did I choose a Tune M1 for my Tundra?
I reviewed the Tune M1 for Outside Magazine two years ago and was immediately impressed with it. If you’re already a Tune owner, you know why: there’s just nothing quite like it on the market, especially when it comes to the space-to-weight ratio. When it came time to send the review unit back, I couldn’t part with it. Here’s why:
It's a Lightweight Truck Camper
Toyota trucks are known for their reliability and durability, but they are also known for having lower payload ratings than other trucks on the market, which makes them a poor fit for really heavy truck campers. The 2018 Tundra had a max payload capacity of 1730lbs (mine is a 4WD with the larger, 38-gallon fuel tank, so the sticker says it’s around 1400lbs). That may sound like a lot, but you can run out of payload quickly when you consider that rating includes fuel, passengers and all gear you carry—not just what goes in the bed.
The Tune M1’s Base Weight for a full-sized truck is just 500lbs, which is less than half the weight of a similarly sized slide-in camper like a Four Wheel Camper Hawk (which has a base weight of 1200lbs). Keeping the camper lightweight was a must for me, because it meant I had extra capacity for gear, or towing a trailer. The Tune M1 definitely checked that box.
It's Spacious
While it’s light, it’s really the space-to-weight ratio that made me fall in love with the Tune M1. There are a lot of options these days for lightweight, shell-style pop-up campers (some of which are even lighter than the Tune M1), but few have the living space or headroom a Tune M1 does. To me, 100 or 200 extra pounds of weight was well worth all the extra space you get inside from the flared sides, vertical pop-up and large cabover section. On my 6.5ft bed Tundra, the interior feels downright palatial, and I can sleep East/West in a true queen-size bed (or I can make it a king with the extension platform).
A lot of the lightweight campers on the market are also wedge-style campers—I’ve tried many of them, and even owned a Go Fast Camper years ago. While my wife and I liked our Go Fast for its rugged simplicity, we weren’t fans of constantly having to move the bed panels out of the way to stand up inside or exit the camper in the middle of the night. At 6’4”, I also find the wedge-style campers to be lacking in the footroom department. The Tune M1 solved all those issues for us, and we love the fact that someone can be up in bed while the other is making coffee or changing clothes in the living space below.
It Has Just the Right Amount of Features
Part of the beauty of the Tune M1 to me is the balance of amenities you get with it. The standard Halo Lighting provides the perfect amount of dimmable interior light at night, and the available power station is easy to use. Adding a MaxxAir fan helps mitigate condensation and keep the air flowing on hot days, and all of the T-Track inside allows you to easily customize the interior to your liking. You can keep things super basic and have a versatile, comfy crash pad, or build out the interior and add things like solar panels and a Truma heater for a more luxurious camping experience.
You Can Still Use Your Truck
Before the Tune M1, I had a hard-sided slide-in camper. While it made a great refuge from bad weather and had all sorts of creature comforts like a sink with running water and fancy lithium battery system, it was also more than double the weight of the Tune M1 and was so tall that we ran into clearance issues driving off road (not to mention drive-thrus and garages were off limits). Since that camper had built-in cabinets, storage space for bulky gear and things like coolers or mountain bikes was very limited—and leaving it on the truck when I wasn’t camping rendered the truck useless for everyday truck tasks.
Because the Tune M1 leaves the truck bed open, I can still use my truck like a truck anytime I’m not camping and load everything from hay bales to bags of mulch in the back without worrying about dirtying the camper. It also allows me to bring a ton of gear along when I am camping. The majority of my camping trips involve gear-intensive activities like mountain biking or hunting, so I’m always packing bulky stuff like coolers, storage bins, archery targets and bikes along.
Another thing I absolutely love about the Tune M1 is the full-width side panels. They open and give you uninhibited access to gear inside, which makes accessing stuff in the bed SO much easier than a standard camper shell or other campers where you have to climb in the bed and root around. I sort of think of the Tune M1 as the perfect blend of a camper shell and a full-blown pop-up camper—for me, it's the goldilocks of truck campers.
Tundra vs Tacoma Truck Camper
Once you dive into the world of truck campers, you’ll quickly realize that most of the slide-ins on the market require modifications to your truck’s suspension to handle properly with all the extra weight (no matter how big of a truck you start with). The Tune M1’s low starting weight means that most trucks won’t require anything extra, but you may find that once you add all of your camping gear or build out a heavy interior you’ll want to make some modifications like a helper spring or airbags.
I specifically chose the Tundra over the Tacoma due to the larger payload capacity and the additional power that comes from the bulletproof 5.7L V8 engine found in 2nd Gen Tundras. Since I travel extensively off pavement and my home state of New Mexico is known for rugged, poorly-maintained dirt roads, I upgraded my truck’s suspension with an ARB Old Man Emu BP-51 kit. The kit includes adjustable coilovers up front, new shocks for the rear, and full replacement leaf packs with an additional leaf to help carry the extra weight of the camper. It’s a pretty fancy setup, but it rides like a dream and I’m able to travel much more comfortably over washboard roads and seriously rugged terrain than I was before. The higher spring rate of the rear leaf springs along with the stiffer BP51 shocks significantly improved road handling manners, too. All that to say, the truck’s suspension is now perfectly set up to carry the Tune M1 at all times, and handles great whether the bed is empty or I’m fully loaded for a trip.
Other than the BP51s, I run larger, 35in tires on the truck mounted to a set of TRD Pro Tundra wheels I bought from a friend. I installed Firestone Ride-Rite Airbags with Daystar Cradles on the rear axle to help support additional weight (though I rarely have to inflate them beyond 5-10PSI unless I’m towing a heavy trailer). I’ve avoided adding much in the way of armor like a heavy winch bumper or rock sliders to keep the truck as light as possible.
Other than the suspension, my favorite modifications include a Bedrug I added to the truck bed, and a set of AMP Research Power Steps. The Bedrug makes the inside of the Tune M1 feel much cozier than the bare metal bed, and adds some padding and insulation to the floor. The Powersteps tuck up out of the way and don’t impact ground clearance while driving, but drop down like normal side-steps when you open your door—which is very helpful for opening and closing the Tune M1.
If you’re looking for a truck to pair with the Tune M1, I can’t recommend a 2nd Gen Toyota Tundra enough. Even in stock form, it’s an incredibly comfortable and reliable camping rig with a Tune M1 on the back.
Build Your Tune M1
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