Return of the Keystone

Although shortbed trucks are popular among full-size pickup buyers, trucks with full-length
8-foot beds are still hot sellers. Four-Wheel Pop-Up Campers has addressed that market
segment by bringing back its Keystone 9-foot truck camper, a product that’s been missing
from the company’s line for several years. “The Keystone was a model made by Four-Wheel for
a number of years, and we stopped production about 15 years ago. It’s a product we’ve had
many questions about during the last five years. We decided to bring it back because of
popular demand, but also because we’ve had many requests to do a self-contained Four-Wheel
camper, and that’s what this product provides,” said Tom Hanagan, president of Four-Wheel
Pop-Up Campers. He continued, “We define self-contained as a camper that has a toilet and a
shower, and we’ve designed a camper that provides a cassette-style toilet and a shower
inside the unit. This also calls for hot water, so we include a water heater.” Closed for
travel, the Keystone measures just a few inches taller than the truck cab. When raised, it
has a generous 6 feet 6 inches of interior headroom. Four-Wheel’s standard
welded-aluminum-frame construction is used throughout, as is the patented Easy-Lift roof
raising system, which is rated to handle as much as 1,000 pounds of snow when the roof is
raised. Aluminum skin covers the body and roof, and a vinyl blend fabric is used for the
fabric walls. The Keystone floorplan includes a center-access aisle with the galley and
hanging storage streetside, a sofa bed with portable dining table curbside and the
queen-size bed up front. Available options include a 3-cubic-foot refrigerator, a water
heater/outside shower package, a 16,000-btu furnace, auxiliary battery system, screen door,
roof rack, mechanical camper jacks and a stereo upgrade. Standard fluid capacities include
20 gallons freshwater and a 5-gallon LP-gas cylinder, and the owner uses a portable
container to collect gray water from the wet bath and sink. A compact stainless-steel sink
and two-burner stove are standard galley amenities, and an Arctic pack provides more
insulation for the fabric portion of the fold-down mechanism. “This product is designed
with a special reinforced floor, so it can be used with an 8-foot truck without the
tailgate,” said Hanagan. There’s also extra interior storage space available, and for
four-door or extended-cab trucks there’s an extended cabover option ($575) for more space.
The Keystone carries an $11,395 base MSRP and will cost about $15,350 with an average set
of options. Four-Wheel Pop-Up Campers, (800) 242-1442, www.fourwheelcampers.com