Pickup camping toppers are a great lightweight RV solution, allowing you to get out of a ground tent and into a more stable, more protected vehicle, but with typically no amenities beyond a basic mattress to sleep on. Nevada-based Catapult Adventure Vehicle Outfitter offers a more comprehensive solution that makes your pickup bed just as versatile and comfortable as a smaller modular camper. This camping system combines a standard wedge pop-top with custom-fitted panels designed to support a camper's entire floor plan's worth of furniture and equipment within the bed of your truck.
Catapult AV's system starts with the familiar wedge topper. Made from laser-cut aluminum, it attaches to the bed rails and turns a pickup truck into a mobile living space, complete with a strut-assisted pop-up roof and mattress platform that lifts up to provide standing space in the pickup truck's bed.
No thin, hard mattresses are used: Catapult uses Nemo's 4-inch thick inflatable camping mattress.
Catapult AV
The Launch looks very similar to a dozen or so other pickup trucks, but it does have some distinguishing features, including a four-season design with Havelock wool insulation and insulated fabric sidewalls, optional Tern Overland windows, a 52-by-78-by-4-inch (132-by-198-by-10-cm) Nemo Roamer inflatable mattress, and two L-track strips that run the length of each sidewall for accessory mounting.
But the truly unique part of the Catapult system is the available composite floor plate (Launch Pad) that custom fits into the bed floor of a pickup truck, with multiple rows of recessed L-tracks, giving the covered space of a camper the flexibility of a modular RV not so different from a Terracamper van.
Securing a refrigerator is one natural use for Launch Pad flooring – simply use the slides or strap it onto the L-track fastening points.
Catapult AV
Catapult hasn't been in the industry as long as Terracamper, so it doesn't have the same ecosystem of internal components, but it has designed a few things that turn an exposed pickup bed into a cozy camper without the weight of the separate floor and base of a fully enclosed pickup camper.
The company's photos and renderings show a standard feature of a sliding refrigerator just inside the tailgate, as well as an aluminum storage box/bench above the driver's side wheel well and an aluminum sink unit above the passenger side wheel well. The company says it is also offering sleeping platform panels that can be installed on top of either side of the storage bench to create a lower bed.
L-tracks can also be used for tie-down rings, hooks, specific mounts for bikes and other gear, and other mounting solutions.
Catapult converts basic truck bed into cozy camper space
Catapult AV
Integrating a modular camper directly into the bed of a pickup truck is a natural fit for Catapult, which has a history of converting campers for Ford Transits and Mercedes Sprinters, and the company has ported some of the same van strategies to the Launch system, including L-track mounts and a console over the wheel wells.
While it's unusual for Catapult to offer both its own topper and a matching modular floor plan system (most manufacturers seem to offer only one or the other), the Launch Pad's floor and modular components can also be used in conjunction with other topper models, so drivers who already own another topper can still benefit from Catapult's in-bed camping system.
Catapult owners don't have to race against the setting sun as much as tent campers: they can simply pop the roof open and climb into bed.
Catapult AV
Catapult says prices for the Launch Pad floor start at $1,025, and the version that fits a Toyota Tacoma with a six-foot bed weighs 28 pounds (12.7 kg). The company has also made Launch Pads for the Jeep Gladiator and GMC Canyon AT4, and plans to add variations for other truck models depending on demand.
The Launch topper starts at $12,300 and has a base weight of 345 pounds (156.5 kg).
Source: CatapultAV