Truck Bed Camper Startup Chooses Indiana

Skinny Guy Campers (SGC), a small truck accessory company that produces self-contained overland truck bed campers, announced plans to locate in Elkhart County, creating up to 50 new jobs by the end of 2023.

“Ranked No. 1 in the Midwest and No. 6 in the nation for entrepreneur friendliness, Indiana is the perfect place for startups like Skinny Guy Campers to thrive,” said Interim Indiana Secretary of Commerce Jim Staton. “We’re excited Skinny Guy Campers has chosen to expand operations in Indiana and look forward to supporting the company’s continued growth.”

The company, which launched in 2020, plans to invest $2 million to grow its headquarters at 19974 County Road 6 in Bristol, upgrading the site with state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment. Phase one of the building upgrades and equipment purchases have already been completed, and the company plans to complete phases two and three in the coming years.

“Skinny Guy Campers is a design-centric company established to provide extremely durable, well-engineered and patented products that fit into the beds of today’s US and OUS trucks,” said Jason Bontrager, founder and CEO of Skinny Guy Campers. “The SGC is less a camper and more of a tool that we designed to allow overland truck enthusiasts like us the ability to explore longer and camp farther off the beaten path. Constructed of durable marine-grade metals and fasteners, our campers’ wood content is less than 1%. It’s easy to put on a truck, only impacts fuel economy by 0.5 miles per gallon, easy to set up at camp and is easy to take off, all while maintaining a minimal footprint when in storage. We believe we’re onto something great and are happy to call Indiana our home.”

Skinny Guy Campers currently employs a small team in Bristol and will begin hiring for engineering, operations and office functions this summer.

Founded by Bontrager, Skinny Guy Campers serves overland truck enthusiasts, minimalists and mountain bikers, building upon the Bontrager’s family legacy of manufacturing offroad products and RVs. Bontrager’s grandfather, Lloyd Bontrager, developed a proprietary lifter system for pop-up campers, which was the invention upon which Lloyd and his wife, Bertha, launched Jayco RV in 1968. After Lloyd’s passing in 1985, Bertha and her family grew Jayco to be the largest privately-held RV manufacturer in the world by 2016.

Check out the rest of the article from Building Indiana here.