Scout Campers’ Tuktut finally makes a home for compact pickups
Scout Campers turned three years old this March. The maker of pickup campers launch in 2020 with the Olympic for full-size trucks, the Yoho for midsizers, and the Kenai for heavy-duty rigs. The outfit didn’t do much celebrating of its entry into The Terrible Threes, so perhaps we can consider the new Tuktut camper a belated gift to itself. As with its siblings, this one’s named for a pristine natural spot, the Tuktut Nogait National Park in Canada. Unlike its siblings, this one’s made for the trucks with the smallest beds, the five-foot contingent counting models like the Ford Ranger and Maverick, Jeep Gladiator, Toyota Tacoma, and Chevrolet Colorado/GMC Canyon.
The upside is that aluminum and fiberglass construction and diminutive scale return a diminutive weight of 634 pounds dry. Max exterior width comes in at 72.25 inches, in-bed exterior width is 41.5 inches, exterior height is 72.25 inches, interior floor length is 59.6 inches. The Tuktut also keeps it real lean by coming pretty bare. Scout calls it “Nothing but the core essentials,” meaning no wiring, no plumbing, no tanks, and no batteries built-in. Buyers get a 22-inch door, glass thermal-pane windows with screens and shades, ratchet tie-downs, and a standard bed mattress sized at 69.6 inches by 47.5 inches. The brochure says that can fit two people, but we recommend they don’t mind snuggling like eels. Optional Portaledge bunk extensions turn the mattress into a fat horseshoe providing 80 inches of longitudinal room to flop about.
Scout’s idea is that buyers can turn the blank canvas into any kind of hardshell home they want. As we’re seeing more outdoor makers do, such as Polaris with the Xpedition UTVs, Scout partnered with Goose Gear to create equipment bundles made for different kinds of outdoor folks, from the minimalist to the DIY’er.
Thing is, the Tuktut starts at $16,500, and Goose Gear’s power module costs $995, which doesn’t include the cost of the portable power station the power module is designed to hold. Other kit like the Goose Gear step drawer costs $1,395; the full drawer module costs $2,395. It would be exceedingly easy to run the Tuktut’s price up to the $24,000 starting price of the much larger Scout Olympic that comes with a 175-watt solar panel, power station, propane tank, gear locker, smoke detectors, LED lights, and room for four.
If you have a compact truck, though, you’re kind of, ahem, boxed in, if you want a hard-sided winter camper that doesn’t eat up the truck’s entire payload capacity or GVWR and leaves your tow hitch free. Scout’s taking orders now, a $500 deposit gets an order going, and initial deliveries are scheduled for Q3 of this year.