Upgrading to a Wedge Camper? 5 Reasons to Go with Go Fast Campers
What’s a Wedge Camper?!
If you’ve never heard of a wedge camper, or platform camper as they’re sometimes referred to, you’re not alone.
When we began truck camping as a means of intermittent long-term overland travel, we had never heard the term either. In fact wedge campers, like the one made by Go Fast Campers that we ultimately invested in, are a relatively new entrant in the truck camping and overlanding world.
They combine the convenience of a roof-top tent with the traditional truck bed camper shell, and most wedge campers include a sleeping platform that allows passthrough to the truck bed below.
This allows you significantly more room while truck camping. You can actually stand up inside the bed of your truck to do things like change clothes or cook in inclement weather! It also allows for more storage, because less of the truck bed is dedicated to sleeping space.
But all this convenience and space comes at a price, and the decision to invest in a wedge camper for our truck camping and overland travel adventures was not made lightly.
Why Go Fast Campers?
Go Fast Campers is a U.S. based wedge camper, truck topper, bed rack, and rooftop tent manufacturer located in Belgrade, Montana.
In May 2019 we attended Overland Expo West and had the opportunity to see most of the wedge campers on the market face-to-face. We spent hours going back and forth between the various wedge camper designs and manufacturer’s demos, weighing pros & cons, and talking to the manufacturers at length.
After spending quite a length of time with “Big Mike” from Go Fast Campers as he patiently answered ALL of our questions, we could tell this was the company we wanted to go with. Not just because Go Fast Camper’s product and design was incredible, but so were the people behind it!
The decision to go with a Go Fast Camper (TWICE! More on this below) really boiled down to five primary reasons:
1. Go Fast Campers Are Priced Competitively
After looking at the various wedge camper manufacturers’ pricing, we found that Go Fast Campers offered the best value compared to other options on the market. The starting price is significantly lower than the majority of their competitors in the wedge camper space, and at no reduction in quality!
They accomplish this feat by using smart design and manufacturing processes, and leveraging automation and robotics. And they do all of this while still keeping manufacturing in the USA!
UPDATE November 2022: Go Fast Campers now offers split payments and financing so it’s easier than ever to get one of their wedge campers on your truck! (Just give them a shout for details (406) 905-0987)
2. Go Fast Campers Are Versatile
One of the huge advantages of Go Fast Campers is their versatility.
They Offer Super Easy Access to Gear
Using a combination of an aluminum spaceframe and aluminum hinged side panels you can access both of the interior sides of the truck bed, as well as the back.
This is HUGE, especially when truck camping, as it allows you to quickly and easily access gear without having to climb in and out of the truck bed from the tailgate every time you need something. It’s also great for accessing tools, etc. when you still want to use your truck...well, like a truck!
Plus with all the Go Fast Camper’s side panels open, in what GFC refers to as “cabana mode,” it makes a nice hangout spot while providing increased ventilation on warm summer days. And it just looks awesome!
It Has Totes Carrying Capacity
The camper is strong enough to support up to 500lbs of weight on the racks while the tent is closed, and 75lbs when the tent is open!
So you can haul your kayaks, canoes, surfboards, paddleboards, or any other fun-having gear while traveling and truck camping. And when you’re back, you can still do truck stuff, like haul that lumber home from the hardware store!
Mounting Accessories to the GFC is WAY Easy
The aluminum extrusion that makes up the upper and lower framing of the tent portions on the Go Fast Camper have multiple T-tracks built in. This makes mounting accessories like awnings, cargo racks, antennas, and off-road lights to the sides of the GFC super easy.
While we opted to reuse our old Yakima load bars using GFC’s round-bar adapters, they make a much more versatile Beef Rack Crossbar that works seemlessly with their Campers, Toppers, and RTTs!
Be sure to check out our favorite Go Fast Camper Accessories, Upgrades, and Mods for some ideas on how to make your GFC even more awesome!
Let's Talk About The “Transform-a-Floor”
The floor of Go Fast Camper’s upper tent section is made up of 4 individual panels (3 of which are removable) that fit together in a number of combinations so you can customize your truck camping setup, and easily access the upper tent area from inside the bed of the truck.
When the sections are removed and stacked at the nose of the tent, it allows for plenty of standing room inside - which is otherwise unheard of when truck bed camping!
You can stand to change clothes, use the upper platform as a great standing desk for remote work, easily cook meals indoors if the weather isn’t cooperating, and comfortably sit on the lower platform to play board games or watch a movie.
And with all or some of the panels moved into place, there’s indoor space to spread family members out by sending the kiddos “upstairs” to their loft fort.
So Many Windows, So Much Ventilation
If you opt for the side entry door option, Go Fast Campers includes two! Plus a rear entry door above the tailgate is standard, and two smaller windows up front. This allows you to enter the camper from all sides, and gives you a TON of choices for ventilation.
This is because each door has both a roll-up nylon tent fabric layer to keep the weather out and a full-zip mesh layer to provide ventilation (and views!) in more moderate weather.
3. Go Fast Campers Are Lightweight
With the combination of super-strong honeycomb composite panels in the roof and transform-a-floor, the baja race truck inspired spaceframe, and the lightweight aluminum extrusions and side panels - Go Fast Campers typically weigh in at a paltry 275lbs on average, depending on the size of the vehicle they’re built for.
This is a fraction of the weight of more traditional slide-in truck bed campers, and one of the lightest wedge campers on the market.
This means the Go Fast Camper won’t slow your truck down! Hence the name “Go Fast Campers”.
In fact, the weight was very comparable to our old fiberglass camper shell with a cargo carrier. We were shocked to find that there was even a very slight improvement in our overall fuel economy since the GFC was installed (though on average you should expect about a 1-2mpg decrease).
4. Go Fast Campers Have Remarkable Customer Service (And a Super Rad Community)
Their customer service is one of the biggest reasons we chose and recommend Go Fast Campers to others. While all companies, especially new and innovative ones, suffer growing pains in the product design and manufacturing process, GFC has gone above and beyond to take care of customers when issues have come up (namely with the earlier bleeding-edge customers). But they’ve always been incredibly responsive and quick to rectify the few issues we’ve encountered.
Plus, in November 2022, Go Fast Campers announced several additional sales, installation, and service centers (with more on the horizon) that you can now go to for camper installation as well as service.
Beyond that, Go Fast Campers maintains an extremely open line of communication with their customers, even going so far as to create an online forum where customers can share ideas, tips, and modifications, as well as get near-real-time operational updates and news from GFC directly.
This creates a sense of community amongst Go Fast Camper owners.
They also have a very open and honest dialogue with their customers on their Instagram account that is both entertaining and insightful, while further galvanizing the sense of community around their products, mission, and brand.
5. Go Fast Campers is ALWAYS Innovating & Improving
Another awesome thing about Go Fast Campers is that they never stop innovating and improving. Both by continuously designing new cutting edge products - like their Superlite roof-top tent, which is the lightest and most wallet-friendly hardshell RTT on the market (V2 Superlite is anticipated to come out 2024) - and constantly improving upon existing ones - like their new V2 Camper that utilizes an all new redesigned extruded aluminum frame that is equally as robust as the welded steel frame of the V1 Camper but takes a fraction of the time to manufacture.
Speaking of manufacturing process improvements, they’re constantly making advances in their production process in order to crank out wedge campers, toppers, and RTTs at an ever increasing pace.
In fact, one of the most common things people used to ask about is the “wait time” between making the decision to purchase a Go Fast Camper, and actually getting the camper installed.
But in the time between when we made our deposit on our first V1 GFC and the time we had our camper installed at Go Fast Campers’ facility in Belgrade, our initial estimated wait had been reduced by over 8 MONTHS!
This was achieved through the continuous innovation and manufacturing process improvements GFC was able to make in the relatively short time we did end up waiting.
While it’s never easy to wait for something you really want, as “Big Mike” reminded us - way back when we were barraging him with questions, trying to make certain we were making the right choice in going with a Go Fast Camper: “Good things come to those who wait.”
And man was he right!
Fast Forward to 2023, and GFC is cranking out their newly redesigned V2 campers in a fraction of this time, averaging lead-times as low as 4 to 6 weeks in some cases!
In fact, we liked our V1 GFC Camper on our old ‘84 Toyota Pickup so much that, when we decided to start our 1st gen Tacoma Overland Truck Build for our growing family, we invested in another Go Fast Camper - this time a V2 model - for our future adventures as a family of 4!
Check out the video walk-through below of our truck camping setup using the old Go Fast Camper to see why it’s so awesome:
If you want more info and pricing, or if you’re interested in getting a Go Fast Camper for your vehicle: CLICK HERE.
Thanks for reading, and please subscribe for more info about truck camping, overland travel, and our new Go Fast Camper!
We’d love a share! Thanks!