Brace yourself for one of the most shocking revelations ever to grace these electrons. Put on your time machine hat. We’re rolling back to 1966. Leave your assumptions, and bring your wallet.
We love our vintage truck campers at TCM, but that’s not what stopped me dead in my internet tracks when I saw the 1966 Chevy truck and Security camper shown above. And no, it wasn’t the special-order “Road Commission Orange” color either.
What grabbed my proverbial lapels was a hand-typed invoice from Rupley Chevrolet in Castle Rock, Washington dated October 26, 1966. On that day, Mr. Lee L. Clark of Winlock, Washington purchased this brand new truck and camper combination for—wait for it—$5,318.35 USD.
Let’s give a moment for everyone—including yours truly—to have a bit of a freak out.
“How in the heck is it possible that a brand new truck and camper was ever $5,318.35? You couldn’t buy the sheet metal for that today! This proves that truck and camper prices are out of control. Who can even afford this hobby anymore? It’s outrageous! It’s beyond ridiculous! And while we’re at it, I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”
Okay, I feel better. Now, where was I?
At first blush, the $5,318.35 that Mr. Lee L. Clark paid for his truck and camper in October of 1966 is laugh-out-loud, howl-at-the-moon, throw-the-popcorn-bucket insane. But what happens if we adjust that number for inflation?
When you enter $5,318.35 into the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator, and select October of 1966 for the starting date, and May of 2026 (the latest available month at time of writing) for the ending date, you get $54,173.30 in current US dollars.
That means $5,318.35 has the equivalent purchasing power as $54,173.30 today. Put another way, the United States of America has experienced roughly 918 percent inflation over the past sixty years.
Go ahead and have another freak out. I’ll wait.
Now you’re probably thinking, “But $54,173.30 is nowhere near enough to purchase a brand new truck and camper in 2026.” I thought exactly the same thing. Then I made myself prove it.
Gorgeous and fun as it may be, the gas, regular cab, long-bed, two-wheel drive 1966 Chevy three-quarter ton truck is very basic compared to a modern equivalent. Yes, it has a few options and sports a ‘Custom Camper’ badge, but spec-for-spec, feature-for-feature, and capacity-for-capacity, the 1966 Chevy three-quarter ton is comparable to the most basic work truck today. So let’s start there.
A base 2026 Chevy Silverado 2500HD Work Truck—gas, regular cab, long-bed, two-wheel drive—has a starting MSRP of $48,695. I was actually able to find trucks on Cars.com (see above) fitting this description for just over $40,000; Summit White exterior, Jet Black interior, 6.6L V8 gas engine, rear-wheel drive, 10-speed automatic, and ready to go. Yes, I’m overlooking sales tax and title/registration, but you get the idea.
The camper is a different challenge. The Idaho-based Security Industries launched in the 1950s and operated until at least the late 1970s—likely succumbing to the oil supply shocks and stagflation that took out so many of its peers.
There are a few ‘Security’ branded motorhomes from the 1980s online, but they seem to be from a different company. Whatever the case may be, a 2026 make and model comparison is impossible.
The interior of the 1966 Security truck camper
The closest we can come to a classic wood-framed, aluminum-skinned, hard side, non-slide, non-bathroom, long-bed camper today is undoubtedly a 2026 Capri Retreat Long Bed. And at $18,995 base MSRP, we may have just discovered the impossible.
A Capri Retreat on a long bed truck Chevy. Courtesy of Troy O’Rourke.
If a brand new base 2026 Chevy Silverado 2500HD Work Truck, gas, regular cab, long bed, two-wheel drive is available for $40,039, and a brand new 2026 Capri Retreat Long Bed is available for $18,995, that means a brand new 2026 truck and camper rig can be had for $59,034.
For a true apples-to-apples comparison with the relatively basic 1966 truck, that’s remarkably close to the $54,173.30 inflation-adjusted target we were aiming for. Yes, you still need to add tax, but we’re talking about less than nine percent more—not 918 percent. Nine percent. I should probably put the popcorn back in the bucket now.
What’s crazy is the fact that it’s possible to special-order a 2026 Chevy 2500 Work Truck in Tangier Orange (Paint Code 9W4)—a color that’s every bit as bright and audacious as its 1966 predecessor. I actually found a 2025 Chevy Silverado 2500HD—with TrailBoss badging—on Instagram (see above). Talk about a loud and proud truck. Wow.
Capri’s online configurator on their website
Still not impressed? Well, Capri is more than happy to match the horizontal white and orange stripe pattern as the featured ’66 Security. In fact, every Capri customer gets to pick the color pattern they want. I played a bit with their online configurator (so fun) and got something similar to the 1966 goal, but they might go full-on vintage creamsicle camper upon request.
This article was supposed to be part of our new Vintage Gem series celebrating the classic truck campers we so enjoy showcasing in the magazine. Hopefully you dug that aspect of the story, but I could not resist what I believe to be the bigger topic here; trucks and campers have absolutely increased in price over the past sixty years, but not nearly as much as most of us might have thought.
This exercise also highlights how we—as consumers—have pushed for more and more features in our trucks and campers and, in turn, are responsible for much of the dramatic cost increases we all experience today. Do we really need infotainment systems, motorized tailgates, 360-degree cameras, power running boards, and power folding mirrors on our trucks? Mr. Clark sure didn’t in 1966.
And for our campers, do we really need convection microwave ovens, hundreds of watts of solar, hundreds of amp-hours of lithium batteries, solid surface countertops, 8 cubic foot 12-volt refrigerators, slide-outs, and whatever that color screen is for? Mr. Clark might have been impressed, but he sure didn’t need that expensive fru-fru to go exploring, fishing, skiing, LP record hunting, or whatever his go anywhere, camp anywhere desires took him sixty years ago.
Here’s to Mr. Lee L. Clark and his fabulous 1966 truck and camper for challenging my assumptions and reminding me of what’s actually needed for our beloved hobby; a reliable truck, a reliable camper, personal health, time, and the energy and passion to get off the comfy sofa or chair, put the stupid phone down, and go truck camping.
