I knew that I wanted a camper shell on my truck, but I wanted more than an ordinary shell had to offer. I looked at a few custom shells then settled on an ARE mid rise shell with a walk in door. Since I would not use my truck for work, the walk in door gave me the ability to open the small door to grab something, or open the big door for shade in the summer and cover in the winter rain.

Here is some more info on the shell, and all pictures are here.

Here is a picture of the rear of the shell. You can see the smaller glass door and the handles to open the larger swing up door. As you can see, I decided to replace the OEM badges that the truck had on the tailgate. Because the contours of the shell match that of the truck, with the OEM badges, it has an almost factory look.

In this picture you can see the large door open. In the summer it has been nice to get out of the sun and into this shade. The shell has an interior light and a clothing hanger. I got the clothing hanger mostly to hang wet suits so they could dry. (Diving is another hobby I have!)

 

You can see that although the shell is not flush with the top of the cab, it is not too much higher. There are also two small skylight windows in the rise area at the front of the shell. One of my concerns was that the shell might flex during hard off road adventures, but because the bed is so short, this has not been a problem.

 

Back to the Tacoma page
Back to my Home page