The results of the sixth bi-annual TCM Dream Truck Survey are in and the news is electric. Not entirely, but there are some definite sparks for the industry to plug into. Which truck rules them all? The 2022 TCM Dream Truck is…
We conduct the semi-annual Dream Truck Survey for a few reasons. First, it gives the truck camper industry solid and specific information on what trucks people have, and what trucks they want. That gives the decision-makers valuable data on what truck platforms to build and plan for.
Second, the results give you (our most awesome readers) a check and balance on where your truck preferences are compared to the majority of fellow truck campers. This might explain why there aren’t more campers for the truck you have (or want), and indicate a next-truck direction you could take to get more options.
Finally, we love looking at the trends. This is our sixth semi-annual truck survey. That means we now have 12-years of data (one survey every other year) going back to 2012.
New For 2022: Electric Truck Results
This year we added an additional line of questioning; electric trucks. We wanted to know what level of interest (or not) our readers have for the rapidly emerging options in electric trucks. It’s still very early going in the EV pickup marketplace, but the automotive world seems determined to make electron-powered pickups the future. Does the truck camper marketplace care? Let’s dig into the survey results.
Phone Users: Some phones may cut off the charts. To see the entire chart, turn your phone sideways.
Current Truck Results
1. CURRENT TRUCK MAKE
For the sixth straight time, Ford dominates as the truck you currently own. With a 40.02% result, Ford leaves the competition behind. In fact, no truck brand has ever broken 40-percent until now. When we combine the two GM brands (Chevrolet and GMC) we reach 27.7%, over 12 percentage points behind Ford.
The rest of the pack is quite consistent over the 12-year data points. 2014 saw the biggest changes. RAM gained in 2014 and has held that gain. Chevrolet dropped in 2014 and has held that drop. GMC gained in 2020, and dropped back down for 2022. Toyota dropped about 1.85% in 2020 and held that drop. Nissan, and Other (Fuso, Unimog, etc.) data is less than 1-percent different over the 12-year chart.
| TRUCK MAKE | 2012 | 2014 | 2016 | 2018 | 2020 | 2022 |
| Ford | 37.88% | 36.6% | 36.30% | 37.17% | 39.49% | 40.02% |
| RAM | 19.89% | 22.81% | 23.64% | 23.00% | 23.21% | 23.35% |
| Chevrolet | 23.30% | 18.83% | 18.11% | 18.51% | 18.33% | 18.09% |
| GMC | 6.44% | 10.48% | 9.62% | 8.68% | 10.33% | 9.61% |
| Toyota | 4.73% | 4.38% | 5.13% | 5.18% | 3.33% | 3.68% |
| Other: Tesla, Fuso, etc. | 0.76% | 1.06% | 0.88% | 0.84% | 0.71% | 0.68% |
| Nissan | 0.95% | 0.93% | 0.88% | 1.29% | 0.08% | 0.09% |
| None, I do not own a truck. | 6.06% | 4.91% | 5.45% | 5.33% | 3.82% | 3.68% |
2. CURRENT TRUCK MODEL
The relentless trend in truck models continues towards 1-ton trucks. For each of the now six surveys, 1-ton trucks have gained as the truck model you own. In contrast, 3/4-ton trucks dropped in 2016, 2018, 2020 and now 2022.
Mini trucks dropped just over 1-percent in 2020 and another 0.65-percent in 2022. Half-tons dropped 1.8-percent in 2020 and gained most of that back in 2022. In contrast, 1-ton and trucks are at all-time highs.
| TRUCK MODEL | 2012 | 2014 | 2016 | 2018 | 2020 | 2022 |
| Mini: Ranger/Tacoma, etc. | 5.87% | 4.52% | 4.98% | 4.42% | 3.40% | 4.05% |
| Half-Ton: F-150/1500 | 16.48% | 15.29% | 15.66% | 16.09% | 14.26% | 15.89% |
| 3/4 Ton: F-250/2500 | 31.82% | 33.24% | 28.67% | 28.53% | 26.74% | 23.39% |
| 1-Ton: F-350/3500 | 37.5% | 38.43% | 41.85% | 42.79% | 47.59% | 49.48% |
| F-450/F-550/4500, etc. | 2.27% | 3.46% | 3.13% | 2.59% | 3.90% | 3.22% |
| None, I do not own a truck. | 6.06% | 5.05% | 5.70% | 5.57% | 4.11% | 3.97% |
3. CURRENT TRUCK FUEL TYPE
Diesel dropped but still dominates with 51.84%. Gas is at the highest we’ve ever seen the fuel type with a 4.73 percentage point gain since 2020. Oh and exactly 1 person reported owning an electric truck. That’s one of 1,335 respondents.
| FUEL TYPE | 2012 | 2014 | 2016 | 2018 | 2020 | 2022 |
| Diesel | 48.57% | 55.56% | 53.99% | 50.96% | 56.37% | 51.84% |
| Gas | 45.7% | 39.49% | 40.37% | 43.61% | 39.66% | 44.39% |
| Electric | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 0% | 0.08% |
| None, I do not own a truck. | 5.73% | 4.95% | 5.64% | 5.43% | 3.97% | 3.69% |
4. CURRENT CAB TYPE
Once again, regular cabs and extended cabs are down, and crew cabs are up. This follows the same trend we covered in 2018 and 2020. For 2022, Mega Cabs are now 2.03%.
| CAB TYPE | 2012 | 2014 | 2016 | 2018 | 2020 | 2022 |
| Crew Cab: Four Doors | 35.65% | 54.95% | 54.42% | 56.25% | 61.64% | 64.22% |
| Ram Mega Cab | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1.34% | 2.03% |
| Extended Cab: Half Doors | 35.65% | 31.68% | 31.35% | 30.70% | 26.96% | 23.93% |
| Regular Cab | 12.52% | 8.16% | 8.52% | 7.29% | 6.02% | 5.93% |
| None, I do not own a truck. | 6.36% | 5.21% | 5.71% | 5.76% | 4.03% | 3.90% |
5. CURRENT TRUCK BED TYPE
This chart remains virtually unchanged for 2022. Long beds dominate in the low 50s, short beds held strong in the mid-30s, super-short beds grew a bit to 5.55-percent. Somewhat surprisingly, the percentage of flatbed owners dropped to just 1.95%.
| TRUCK BED TYPE | 2012 | 2014 | 2016 | 2018 | 2020 | 2022 |
| Long Bed | 60.34% | 56.12% | 55.96% | 52.21% | 52.77% | 53.19% |
| Short Bed | 32.45% | 32.98% | 33.87% | 35.65% | 35.60% | 34.51% |
| Super Short Bed | N/A | 3.99% | 3.20% | 3.97% | 4.04% | 5.55% |
| Custom Storage Bed | 0% | 1.06% | 0.80% | 0.76% | 1.06% | 0.90% |
| Flatbed | 0.76% | 0.93% | 0.56% | 1.68% | 2.34% | 1.95% |
| None, I do not own a truck. | 6.26% | 4.92% | 5.60% | 5.73% | 4.18% | 3.90% |
6. CURRENT TRANSMISSION TYPE
The consistent trend in transmission type continues to be toward automatic transmissions. This makes sense when you consider how few trucks are even available in manual transmissions in 2021.
| TRANSMISSION TYPE | 2012 | 2014 | 2016 | 2018 | 2020 | 2022 |
| Automatic Transmission | 81.59% | 83.9% | 86.17% | 86.54% | 88.67% | 90.41% |
| Manual Transmission | 12.02% | 11.23% | 8.5% | 7.95% | 7.44% | 5.69% |
| No Transmission – Electric | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 0.07% |
| None, I do not own a truck. | 6.4% | 4.87% | 5.34% | 5.50% | 3.90% | 3.82% |
7. CURRENT DRIVELINE TYPE
Four-wheel drive absolutely dominates at 84.15%. Only 12.02% own a two-wheel drive truck.
| DRIVELINE TYPE | 2012 | 2014 | 2016 | 2018 | 2020 | 2022 |
| Four-Wheel Drive: 4×4 | 76.63% | 79.78% | 77.42% | 81.06% | 84.48% | 84.15% |
| Two-Wheel Drive: 4×2 | 17.43% | 15.23% | 16.94% | 13.50% | 11.60% | 12.02% |
| None, I do not own a truck. | 5.94% | 4.99% | 5.65% | 5.44% | 3.91% | 3.83% |
8. CURRENT REAR WHEEL CONFIGURATION
For 2020, dual-rear wheels hit an all-time high of 29.19%. Two years ago we speculated this might be a trend but the 2022 data shows otherwise. Most truck campers continue to own single rear wheel trucks (67.97%) with dual rear wheel trucks sticking survey-after-survey around 28%.
| REAR WHEEL CONFIGURATION | 2012 | 2014 | 2016 | 2018 | 2020 | 2022 |
| Single Rear Wheel: SRW | 70.1% | 68.23% | 66.35% | 68.50% | 66.83% | 67.97% |
| Dual Rear Wheel: DRW | 23.81% | 27.08% | 28.04% | 26.09% | 29.19% | 28.12% |
| None, I do not own a truck. | 6.1% | 4.69% | 5.61% | 5.42% | 3.98% | 3.91% |
2022 Dream Truck Survey Results
1. DREAM TRUCK MAKE
After beating its own record in 2020 with 44%, Ford hit yet another all-time high with over 46.5% dreaming of a Ford truck in 2022. This gain came at the expense of every other brand – except Toyota and Nissan with very slim additions.
| DREAM TRUCK MAKE | 2012 | 2014 | 2016 | 2018 | 2020 | 2022 |
| Ford | 42.31% | 37.68% | 40.18% | 40.89% | 44.06% | 46.55% |
| Dodge Ram | 22.31% | 24.23% | 26.30% | 24.73% | 25.12% | 23.01% |
| Chevrolet | 20.38% | 16.78% | 14.92% | 15.39% | 14.52% | 13.52% |
| GMC | 8.08% | 13.72% | 11.31% | 11.79% | 11.03% | 9.95% |
| Toyota | 3.65% | 2.93% | 3.93% | 4.13% | 2.56% | 2.73% |
| Other: Tesla, Unimog, etc. | 3.27% | 4.39% | 2.89% | 2.37% | 2.56% | 4.02% |
| Nissan | 0% | 0.27% | 0.48% | 0.69% | 0.14% | 0.23% |
2. DREAM TRUCK MODEL
Half-tons made a huge gain in the 2022 dream truck ranking nearly doubling from 2.76% to 5.75%. Half-tons are still a tiny part of the pie, but the 2022 dream truck result sharply reverses the 10-year trend of half-tons fading. In contrast, mini trucks got a paltry 1.36%, their lowest in dream truck survey history.
Three-quarter tons also gained in the dream truck results with a 2.54 point uptick. This helps explain the slight drop in 1-ton trucks. F-450 and larger trucks held steady with less than a percentage point added.
| TRUCK MODEL | 2012 | 2014 | 2016 | 2018 | 2020 | 2022 |
| Mini: Ranger/Tacoma, etc. | 2.31% | 1.60% | 1.67% | 1.45% | 1.91% | 1.36% |
| Half-Ton: F-150/1500 | 4.42% | 4.39% | 4.22% | 3.67% | 2.76% | 5.75% |
| 3/4 Ton: F-250/2500 | 16.35% | 15.56% | 14.80% | 15.14% | 11.54% | 14.08% |
| 1-Ton: F-350/3500 | 52.69% | 49.34% | 55.93% | 55.50% | 57.89% | 52.61% |
| F-450/F-550/4500, etc. | 24.23% | 29.12% | 23.39% | 24.24% | 25.90% | 26.19% |
3. DREAM TRUCK FUEL TYPE
As we saw in 2020, diesel got crushed with another massive drop in the dream truck category. This time diesel dropped over 10 percentage points! Note that diesel has dropped for every survey with a high of 78.99% in 2012 and a new low of 53.03% in 2022.
It’s no surprise that gas is the big winner as diesel drops, but there’s a new option in town. Electric earned 9.71% of the 2022 dream truck vote. That’s up from just 4.38% in 2020, the first year we added electric to the fuel type question.
| FUEL TYPE | 2012 | 2014 | 2016 | 2018 | 2020 | 2022 |
| Diesel | 78.99% | 77.27% | 75.26% | 72.18% | 63.58% | 53.03% |
| Gas | 21.01% | 22.73% | 24.74% | 27.82% | 32.04% | 37.25% |
| Electric | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 4.38% | 9.71% |
4. DREAM CAB TYPE
Crew cabs made a strong gain to hit 70.42% of the 2022 dream truck results. That’s an all-time high for crew cabs edging out the 2018 number by a few tenths. Extended cabs continued to fall to a new record-low of 23.52%. Regular cabs continued their oscillation around 2 to 4%.
| CAB TYPE | 2012 | 2014 | 2016 | 2018 | 2020 | 2022 |
| Ram Mega Cab | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 3.4% | 3.33% |
| Crew Cab: Four Doors | 65.32% | 70.17% | 68.72% | 68.23% | 68.58% | 70.42% |
| Extended Cab: Half Doors | 30.25% | 26.23% | 28.72% | 29.55% | 24.82% | 23.52% |
| Regular Cab | 4.43% | 3.60% | 2.56% | 2.23% | 3.19% | 2.72% |
5. DREAM TRUCK BED TYPE
There hasn’t been a lot of movement in truck bed types in the 2022 dream truck survey. Long beds and short beds remain in the low-50s and mid-20s respectfully since 2018. Super short beds remain under 1%.
Custom storage beds didn’t put up a good number this year. In fact, they hit an all-time low of 11.89%. Still, that means that there are a lot of people who don’t have a custom storage bed but want one. Flatbeds are the real stand out hitting an all-time high of 8.33%. Again, not a lot of people have a flatbed, but a good number of folks like the idea.
| TRUCK BED TYPE | 2012 | 2014 | 2016 | 2018 | 2020 | 2022 |
| Long Bed | 62.33% | 56.31% | 60.99% | 53.59% | 54.17% | 52.12% |
| Short Bed | 17.59% | 22.58% | 20.62% | 24.92% | 24.86% | 26.67% |
| Super Short Bed | N/A | 0.66% | 0.48% | 0.76% | 0.92% | 0.98% |
| Custom Storage Bed | 14.72% | 15.54% | 13.69% | 14.91% | 14.12% | 11.89% |
| Flatbed | 5.35% | 5.35% | 4.22% | 5.81% | 5.93% | 8.33% |
6. DREAM TRANSMISSION TYPE
This trend data could not be more consistent. Most readers clearly prefer automatic transmissions.
| TRANSMISSION TYPE | 2012 | 2014 | 2016 | 2018 | 2020 | 2022 |
| Automatic Transmission | 82.49% | 86.96% | 88.23% | 88.73% | 90.48% | 84.78% |
| Manual Transmission | 17.51% | 13.04% | 11.77% | 11.27% | 9.52% | 8.55% |
| No Transmission – Electric | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 6.66% |
7. DREAM DRIVELINE TYPE
The ‘Go Anywhere, Camp Anywhere’ spirit of truck camping almost necessitates four-wheel drive. Once again, four-wheel drive destroyed two-wheel drive with an incredible 94% of the dream truck nod. This one remains an eclipse.
| DRIVELINE TYPE | 2012 | 2014 | 2016 | 2018 | 2020 | 2022 |
| Four-Wheel Drive: 4×4 | 92.12% | 92.15% | 92.49% | 93.42% | 94.96% | 94% |
| Two-Wheel Drive: 4×2 | 7.88% | 7.85% | 7.51% | 6.58% | 5.04% | 6% |
8. DREAM REAR WHEEL CONFIGURATION
No surprise, rear wheel configuration is an all-out battle! This year the pendulum swung back strongly toward single rear wheels with 56.85%. Look at the data below to see the sentiments go back and forth.
Keep in mind that only two categories of trucks (1-Ton: F-350/3500 and F-450/F-550/4500, etc.) are available as single rear wheel or dual rear wheel trucks. The other categories are only available as single rear wheel trucks.
| REAR WHEEL CONFIGURATION | 2012 | 2014 | 2016 | 2018 | 2020 | 2022 |
| Single Rear Wheel: SRW | 48.85% | 52.25% | 50.16% | 52.37% | 49.04% | 56.85% |
| Dual Rear Wheel: DRW | 51.15% | 47.75% | 49.84% | 47.63% | 50.96% | 43.15% |
New Questions About Electric Trucks For 2022
1. What is your current interest level in electric trucks?
This was the first year we asked about electric truck interest in detail. If we add the Very Interested (14.92%) and Somewhat Interested (18.84%) together, we get 33.04% in what we could call the “interested in electric trucks” camp. Essentially, one-third of our readership is interested in electric trucks.
If we add up the Not Very Interested (15.30%) and the Not At All Interested (32.55%) together, we get 47.85% in what we could call the, “not interested in electric trucks” camp. Essentially, a bit less than half of our readership is not interested in electric trucks. Note that 18.39% reported as being Neutral on this subject.
| INTEREST IN ELECTRIC TRUCKS | 2022 |
| Very Interested | 14.92% |
| Somewhat Interested | 18.84% |
| Neutral | 18.39% |
| Not Very Interested | 15.30% |
| Not At All Interested | 32.55% |
2. How likely will your next truck be an electric truck?
It’s hard to ignore that 64.87% said they, “do not want to buy an electric truck”. That means a good portion of those who voted Neutral in the question above broke negative when asked about purchasing an electric truck.
On the flip side, 35.13% said they want to buy an electric truck as soon as possible, in the next 5 years, or in the next 10 years. It will be interesting to see how these numbers change as more electric trucks become available.
| LIKELIHOOD OF NEXT TRUCK BEING ELECTRIC | 2022 |
| I want to buy an electric truck as soon as possible. | 2.88% |
| I want to buy an electric truck in the next 5 years. | 12.14% |
| I want to buy an electric truck in the next 10 years. | 20.11% |
| I do not want to buy an electric truck. | 64.87% |
3. Do you find any of the following electric trucks interesting for a possible truck camper rig? Click all that apply.
Finally, we listed all the electric truck makes and models and asked readers to click on any they found interesting for an electric truck camper rig. The 66.69% that selected, “I do not find electric trucks interesting” mirrors the above results.
Of the listed electric trucks, the Ford F-150 Lightning EV (17.26%), Chevrolet Silverado EV (10.48%), Rivian R1T (8.79%) and Tesla Cybertruck (6.85%) are the obvious stand outs.
| ELECTRIC TRUCK BRAND INTEREST | 2022 |
| Alpha Wolf | 1.29% |
| Atlis XT | 3.31% |
| Bollinger B2 | 2.02% |
| Canoo Electric Pickup | 2.26% |
| Chevrolet Silverado EV | 10.48% |
| Ford F-150 Lightning EV | 17.26% |
| GMC Hummer EV | 3.71% |
| Hercules Alpha | 1.53% |
| Lordstown Endurance | 2.34% |
| Nissan Titan Electric | 3.79% |
| Rivian R1T | 8.79% |
| Tesla Cybertruck | 6.85% |
| I do not find electric trucks interesting. | 66.69% |
And the 2022 Dream Truck Survey Winner Is…
2022 Ford F350 Diesel, Crew Cab, Long Bed, Automatic, Four-Wheel Drive, Single Rear Wheel
If you’re researching a truck purchase for a truck camper rig, please start by reading our Newbie Corner. Specifically, read “The Best Truck Camper“, “Picking the Perfect Truck Camper“, and “Matching A Truck and Camper“.
