Whether you love a teardrop or an adventure van, most campers stick to the basics: A place to sleep, cook, and lounge. But every now and again we see a camper design that is truly innovative, pushing the boundaries of what a camper could be and how it functions. Love campers and trailers? Come join our community group.
The latest to catch our eye is the ioCamper. Designed by Tamas Laczko, a mechanical engineer from Békéscsaba, Hungary, the ioCamper is an apartment-like box that fits into a van and turns it into a camper without any mechanical modification to the vehicle.
That means you can put the box into a Volkswagen Crafter or a Mercedes Sprinter and still maintain the van’s original functionality as a passenger or gear hauler. All you need to do is screw down the fixing plates for safe transportation and voilà, a camper is born.
In transport mode the ioCamper measures about 8.2 by 4.3 by 5.6 feet, although Laczko says that the size will be customizable in the future. To set up camp you control the camper remotely with your smartphone or tablet, expand the boot, and the camper unfolds to four times its size within five or ten minutes.
At camp, the ioCamper can sleep four people on four full-size beds, and the interior boasts a central kitchen and dining area that features loads of storage and modular components. Amenities like a bathroom, air conditioning, 23-inch entertainment system, solar power, and LED lights are all included, and the design also allows you to use the ioCamper as a stand-alone guesthouse when needed.
Still in the design stages, the ioCamper launched an Indiegogo campaign to secure funding for full-scale production. If successful, the ioCamper would first be available in Europe but the campaign notes that the company wants to contract with manufacturers and distributors around the world.
To see the camper in action, check out the video below.