Tuk tuk camper

The Vespa motorised rickshaw (or tuk tuk) trucks used to be common sight in Malaysia 30-40 years ago, mostly plying the back lanes delivering gas cylinders in residential housing estates. I have childhood memory of climbing into the cab of  one of these machines and pretended that I was driving it. These days, the tuk tuk trucks have totally disappeared from Malaysian streets. In places like Thailand and India, tuk tuks remained a common sight as taxis, however given ubiquity of tuk tuks in these places there is practically no examples of camper conversion. To find such camper we have to go to its original home in Italy.


Bufalino is a conceptual tuk tuk camper designed by Cornelius Comanns as a light camper that provide living space for one person. I find this one of the coolest camper ever, especially for people who want to travel light yet having their own transportation and accomodation.

This is not the only tuk tuk camper concept, there are also actual production campers that were built and actually used as they were intended to.

More 4x4 campervans conversion

The Mitsubishi L300 4x4 van is often considered a poor man's VW Syncro Transporter. Although it does not have the standard differential lockers like that VW Syncro, it is still a capable off road van. The first generation L300 4x4 is unique because it has a bolt-on body on ladder frame chassis ( subsequent generations has monocoque body/chassis ). The bolt-on body made it possible to body-lift using lift blocks, when combined with suspension lift and big tyres, it not only improve the ground clearance, it also gave the van a Tonka toy car like appeal.

I have soft spot for L300 4x4 van because I use one for my daily use, I keep the suspension standard except for slightly larger tyres, the overall height is just below 2m, low enough to squeeze into underground and multi stories car parks.

My L300 4x4, I am looking to make this into a part time camper where I can use it for daily driving as well

A L300 with body and suspension lift

Another beautifully preserved L300 with mildly lifted suspension

Another well equipped L300 4x4 ready for off road action

I like the roof rack and the side ladder!

In my other posting Go-anywhere-camper-conversion, I showed an example of how someone converted a L300 4x4 into an off road camper. Here I have listed a few more example of how this 4x4 van can be converted into variety of different camper layout.

This L300 has a pop-top roof and a fully furnished interior

The pop top provide standing room when on site

Beautifully built cupboards and seating/bedding

View towards the rear form driver seat

Driver's cab is standard

This L300 is not a 4x4 variant, but it has the same body as the 4x4. Instead of a pop-top, it has a flip top roof.

This example uses forward hinged flip top, probably easier to deploy but give less head room

Side view of the flip top

Interior view. The board with round metal fitting is the table in stowed position

Clever use of rear door create an extra annex living space with standing headroom

Well equipped kitchen

This example is not a fully fledged camper, the interior is practically unchanged, but it has an interesting side-flip top that unfold laterally to provide sleeping area. The sleeping platform also serves as awning for the car. This should appeal to the more minimalist motor campers among us.

The side flip top looks like it can support two berth sleeping

The flip top folded

Another view of the flip top

The interior is untouched, the original seats are still in place

This L300 4x4 camper is designed with one purpose in mind, that is to provide no fuss sleeping for two. But it seems like the owner also like his sound system, so there is special shelf just to hold up the two speakers!!

Standard looking exterior

Rear view

Wood frame platform for full width and full length bed

Lots of room to spread out

The owner can live without all the rest of usual amenities found in other campervans, but he must have his HiFi speakers!

Link to Bahasa Indonesian translation of this post