Year long road trip advice: camper vs RV vs truck camper, good & bad

Hi, I’ll try not to get too long winded!
My husband and I are selling our home and moving out of state but first we are taking a year long road trip ( give or take ). So I’m looking for some advice.

A little about my husband and I first. We are both in our early 30’s. We work from home so road trips are easy for us. We plan on taking our chihuahua with. We have no children and won’t be having any. Over the last 11 years together we have done tons of road trips ranging from 2 weeks to a month and have been to all 50 states! We tend to do a lot of state and National parks. We are tent campers, so we’ve never done one in a camper or RV

So this is where my questions come in. We are completely undecided on what to take. In our previous trips we’ve taken our Town n Country outfitted with a bed in the back. Now for a couples weeks the van is fine but if I’m doing this for a year so I need a bathroom! Lol. I’m leaning towards a truck with a truck camper because I’m liking the small size and the easiness of getting around in it. Plus we don’t plan where we sleep in advance and it’s nice to have the option of staying in a RV site with the truck option or a tent site. The negative side of that option is getting a truck which we can do but it sounds like it’s going to be the most expensive option. My husband is leaning towards a smaller pull behind camper ( probably in the 20 feet range). The good thing about it is more living space and more inexpensive. My worry about that option is it just becomes so long to tow. I’m mean it won’t be a problem for my husband because he pulls a boat and stuff. It’s just finding a spot to park on little to no notice and not to mention going through mountains and cities just seems like a nightmare. Our other option is a small RV which seems nice for size but the negative on that one is not being able to unload it and have a vehicle to go around in. The pop up option we ruled out, we just don’t want to be putting it up and down constantly.

So I guess I’d love to hear your experiences, the good or the bad. Has anybody here had experiences with all 3 and have some advice? Or have you had different models and different layouts. We are also probably going to go for a slightly used one but a new one is still an option. We plan on hitting most states so we will be doing a lot of travel with stops for a week or two here and there.

Thanks in advance!

I think you've laid out the pros and cons quite well.

My instinct would say a truck camper might be pretty cramped for long-term living.

If you don't already have a truck that you could use for a truck camper, do you have a vehicle that you could use to tow even a small travel trailer?

A small RV might be a better choice than you are thinking. While you wouldn't have a separate vehicle, the RV might not actually be that much bigger than going with a Truck Camper.

Really though, I think the best think you can do is really look around a lot, explore all the options until you find something that you are most comfortable with.

For long term living I wouldn't want to feel to cramped, so for me the truck camper or a van conversion would be out, unless you wanted to pay out for a Motel room 2 or 3 times each fortnight. It's also about having that bit of extra room for storing all the things you need on a long trip and the water tanks (clean and waste) may be inconvenient with a smaller capacity. There are Pros and Cons for your other 2 options but you have to consider that "just finding a spot for the night" is quite limited if you don't want to trespass or break any laws and want to remain safe. Where towing might have an advantage, is if you plan to spend a week or more in one location a lot and go off exploring leaving the 'home' behind. A small RV would perhaps be more suitable if you plan to keep on the move for much of the time and with either option you could use public transport into a large City where parking may be problematic. A small RV is possibly more convenient for parking during the day, shopping Malls or just to pull over someplace to make lunch and use the loo as well. Whatever way you go it's quite an outlay so you will have to compare costs, not just to purchase, but to run and maintain and make sure it's something you can live with.