RV Review: 2022 Adventurer 86FB truck camper

Today’s review is of the 2022 Adventurer 86FB truck camper. Who is Adventurer, you ask? The company actually can trace its roots back to 1969, when it started in Canada. Now headquartered in Yakima, Washington, the company builds a variety of pickup campers including the Scout Olympic truck camper that we looked at a while back. 

While that Scout Olympic can be thought of as a unique look at the pickup camper, and one that’s certainly right for some customers, the Adventurer is likely to appeal more to the traditional pickup camper buyer. 

What that buyer is going to find is very likely to be a pleasant surprise. 

Highlights

This no-slide pickup camper is rated for four-season functionality. A portion of that is a basement floor that contains heated and enclosed holding tanks. Sidewalls are 1”-thick laminate featuring a Lamilux 4000 high-gloss fiberglass exterior. The exterior cabinet doors, too, are thicker than is typical, keeping the insulation factor high. 

There’s also a full queen-sized bed, but the interior layout in the Adventurer 86FB really has a nice feel to it. 

Over on the camp side is a dinette that features a “Dream Dinette” setup where the table is mounted to the wall and easily raises and lowers. That means that this dinette can also be a sleeping surface—not too unusual in the RV world. 

The kitchen, over on the other side, features a three-burner stove with a 22” propane oven. So often pickup campers don’t have an oven. This one not only does, but it is a usable 22” model. 

The kitchen counter makes a right turn so the sink is mounted at an angle in the surface. On the subject of surfaces, the dining table and kitchen counter are both high-quality pressed surfaces. This is a nicer kitchen than you might expect to find in a pickup camper, honestly. 

Further, there are a good number of drawers and cabinets. The fridge is the traditional RV style gas absorption (propane-electric) model, which is still preferred by many who choose to go boondocking. 

One area where there is compromise for the sake of space is the bathroom—which is a wet bath. This isn’t a bad solution at all, but not a favorite of all campers and a deal breaker for some. In that bath there is a toilet paper roll holder that encloses the TP so you don’t have a soggy mess. 

There’s also a high-performance vent fan.

Adventurer 86FB

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The bed, as mentioned, is a full residential queen facing north-to-south. There’s a nice skylight over it which has a cover to keep things dark at night. There is a closet on the road side and window on the camp side. 

Observations

A few options on this are interesting, shall we say. One of those is that the microwave is not a standard item but, truthfully, if you’re boondocking a lot this makes sense. 

There are also options for solar with two panels available directly from the factory offering 100 watts each. If you’re more into the generator world, there’s one of those optional, too, in the form of an Onan OG 2500 LPG model. 

We’ve sort of talked about this in the comments, but one of the “options” on this model is one that isn’t an option at all. It’s called the Elite Option Package (“Mandatory”) which includes things like the back door, a three-year structural warranty and the four-season insulation package. Seriously, who was it in the RV industry who chose to call things like this options when they’re not optional at all and, in this case, are things that really set this company apart? 

Interestingly, the great insulation is telling of this rig coming out of the Pacific Northwest. But so, too, is the fact that the air conditioner is an option. Remember last summer when it was ridiculously hot there and few folks had air conditioning because they normally wouldn’t need it?

Boondocking and travel access

Since the Adventurer 86FB has no slide room, it’s fully accessible all the time. One of the nifty things about pickup campers is that, depending on where you camp, you can also drop the camper off without too much trouble and be on your merry spelunking way during the day with that fancy pick ‘em up truck you have. 

A big surprise in a pickup camper is the size of the holding tanks. They are 42 gallons for the fresh water and 31 each for black and gray. My old travel trailer didn’t have this much water capacity, so this is quite a lot in a pickup camper. 

Remember, too, that the Adventurer 86FB pickup camper is rated for four-season camping so you could go outside and freeze your buns off while your holding tanks are doing just fine inside. Seriously, why did you go outside? 

Of course, you could get power from either the optional solar or the optional generator. So, again, there are a great number of features and options for being off the grid. 

In summary

One of the striking things about this camper is the overall feel and build quality. It’s really quite high, and things like soft-close drawers that are built of quality materials don’t hurt that feature. 

There’s also a super-nifty drawer under the camper that extends out the back of the rig. 

Considering that there is no slide and that this would actually work in a pickup with a six-foot bed, this really does have a terrific layout and usable feel to it. Combining the overall build quality feel and the number of features, this could easily be a camper that would be a worthy competitor of companies like Lance. So it would be smart to compare these when shopping. 

Once again, this is a company where there isn’t a lot of visual information on their website but they do have quite a bit of actual information. I stole most of the images for this article from Josh’s video (included) as screen shots. 

A nice package indeed. 

I would love to read your comments and suggestions over on our new forums, where you can weigh in and start or join a discussion about all things RV. Here’s a link to my RV Reviews Forum.

Tony comes to RVtravel.com having worked at an RV dealership and been a lifelong RV enthusiast. He also has written the syndicated Curbside column about cars. You can find his writing here and at StressLessCamping where he also has a podcast about the RV life with his wife. 

These RV reviews are written based on information provided by the manufacturers along with our writer’s own research. We receive no money or other financial benefits from these reviews. They are intended only as a brief overview of the vehicle, not a comprehensive critique, which would require a thorough inspection and/or test drive.

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