Truck Camper Magazine presents 35 critical terms for every truck camper owner. This is a must-read for every newbie and an important refresher for experienced campers. Do you know all of these essential truck camping words?
Truck campers require specific language to explain the intricacies of trucks, campers, and the shared experience of truck camping. These words often have different meanings within the context of truck camping. And sometimes the truck camper industry or community creates new terms to describe things for which the English language has no offering.
All of this can leave newbies scratching their heads when they first approach the truck camper world. Without interpretive assistance, this can lead to confusion–or worse–frustration that dissuades individuals from joining our ranks. After all, people come to truck camping for enjoyment, not complexity.
To simplify the onramp to truck camping, we have prepared a glossary of important terms that all truck campers should know and understand. Each of these terms was carefully chosen and curated to make truck camping as easy, approachable, and fun as possible.
In no particular order, here’s the Essential Truck Camper Glossary:
GVWR – An abbreviation for Gross Vehicle Weight Rating. GVWR describes the total weight capacity of a truck including the weight of the truck, occupants, cargo, and camper. You can find the GVWR of a given truck on a sticker located on the driver’s inside door jam.
BLM – An abbreviation for the United States Bureau of Land Management. BLM is popular with truck campers for offering both free and fee-based camping in remote locations throughout the western United States on a first come, first camp basis.
Basement – The area in a truck camper between the truck bed and the walk-on floor inside the unit. Campers are either non-basement models or have wheel well height, or truck rail height basements.
Frame Sweat – The outline of a truck camper frame seen from the exterior on a cool and humid morning. This is most pronounced on aluminum-framed units with filon lamination.
Moochdocking – The act of parking overnight at the residence of a friend or relative, usually with permission from the homeowner. When permission is not acquired, this same act is called Freebooting; or by it’s less than flattering name, Sitesquatting.
Bumdocking – The act of refusing to pay for overnight camping. Bumdocking often becomes a habitual condition leading to multiple days, weeks, months, or even years of never-setting tires in a paid campground.
Dump Gawking – The generally frowned upon act of intentionally watching, approaching, or talking to a person or couple as they dump their RV or camper holding tanks.
Fish Flopping – The repeated grab, tug and tuck motions required to make a bed in a truck camper cabover. This awkward activity is also known as flop hopping.
Frugal Juicing – Abstaining from the use of 12-volt house battery power while dry camping after dark. The most common symptom of frugal juicing is the use of self-contained LED flashlights inside a camper with a fully charged house battery system. When frugal juicing is practiced with house battery levels at or over 12.4 volts, or above it’s called Tight Watting.
Fullempty – The state of having a full fresh water tank, full propane tanks, and empty grey and black tanks in an RV or camper.
Funkdumpy – The state of having an empty fresh water tank, empty propane tanks, and full grey and black tanks.
Ga-Dunk Ga-Dunk – The back-and-forth jerking motion that occurs when a truck camper rig travels over concrete-separated roadways at a constant speed. Also called porpoising, this motion can amplify over time causing drinks to spill, pets to fly, and dental fillings to loosen.
Jack Attack – The act of repeatedly pulling on a camper jack of a non-stabilized truck camper with the occupants inside. This has the annoying effect of bouncing the camper up and down. The individual who performs a Jack Attack is commonly known as a Jack Cracker.
The Load Code – The unspoken rule that one does not approach or even look in the general direction of a couple loading a truck and camper. Anyone who violates this code risks getting involved in a Loadercation.
Loadercation – The passionate exchange of hand gestures, voice commands, and other visceral communications used by couples during the truck camper loading process.
Mandécor – The common masculine interior design found in the great majority of truck campers is referred to as mandécor. This term is often used in a derogatory fashion by female truck campers who have seen one green-brown floral fabric too many.
Seepoo – A yellow-brown liquid that can drip from closed RV dump caps, or emerge without warning when RV dump caps are removed. Seepoo happens when the black tank knife valve is either not properly closed or has lost its ability to seal.
Scalephobia – The fear of taking one’s rig to a certified scale to learn the true weight of a fully wet and loaded truck and camper rig.
Sticker Fooled – The often misguided belief that the weight sticker posted on the rear of a camper is the accurate weight of the unit it’s adhered to. This belief is often related to the scalephobia.
Slideblocked – When the entry to a slide-out truck camper is blocked by the slide-outs in the travel position, the camper is said to be slideblocked. This scenario is especially common with multi-slide, side-entry truck campers with rear sofa slides.
Impeediment – When the bathroom in a truck camper is blocked by the slide-outs in the travel position, the camper is said to have an impeediment. This scenario is common on late-model full-wall slide-out truck campers with mid-baths, and can lead to impromptu wiggling and dancing.
Desert Pin Striping – The rub marks, paint scratches, and metal dents on the exterior of a truck and/or camper from off-roading through brush, tree limbs, and the occasional rock wall. The resulting horizontal lines are often considered a point of pride.
Bedindents – The rub marks, paint scratches, and metal dents inside a truck bed caused by the truck camper loading and unloading process. Unlike desert pin striping, bedindents are rarely considered a point of pride.
Sub-Wings – The box-shaped protrusions often found under the up-and-out side wings of truck campers. Sub-wings can interfere with the loading process and are related to, and often the cause of, bedindents.
METCAT – The once top-secret Matter To Energy Truck Camper Transport developed by Truck Camper Magazine in 2014. Powered by sixty-eight nitrous-fueled Honda EU2000i generators, the METCAT was developed to send entire truck camper rigs and their passengers anywhere in the world. After soliciting reader volunteers, the METCAT was shut down after its maiden test. No further information has been provided.
Bear Scaring – The unfettered use of outdoor showers without a portable shower enclosure.
Dog Legging – When one camper jack leg lifts before the others during the loading or unloading process, the lifting jack leg is said to be dog legging. Dog legging is often caused by the lifting jack being at the end of the jack electrical circuit.
CWOB – Short for Campers With-Out Bathrooms. Thanks to the phenomenon known as Overland, more CWOBs have been introduced to the truck camper marketplace than any other type of truck camper in the past five years.
Fart-Tastic Fan – The purposefully loud fans commonly installed in truck camper bathrooms for ventilation and the masking of bodily noises in close quarters.
Tank Amping – Also commonly called double deodorizing, tank amping is the act of adding double or more of the recommended amount of holding tank chemical to a black tank.
White Knuckling – Feeling the need to clench the steering wheel of a truck and camper rig that has been either overloaded, and/or lacks the proper suspension enhancements to counter side-to-side sway, porpoising, or the dreaded Ga-Dunk, Ga-Dunk.
Drive Of Shame – The act of driving off in a truck camper rig with your television antenna up, windows cranked out, compartment doors open, or slide-out room in camp position.
Level Bobbing – The act of driving around a parking lot or other location searching for a level spot for the evening. The person in the driving seat is sometimes called the Level Bobber, especially after two or even three circles around a given overnight destination.
April Fooling – The intentionally ridiculous act by a known magazine publisher and general knucklehead of writing a completely bogus and yet painfully accurate glossary of truck camping terms and definitions.
