First post, so please excuse my ignorance.
I just bought a new truck in December (Nissan Titan king cab 1/2 ton, 6.5' bed) and shortly thereafter wished I had gone 3/4 or 1 ton so I could have added a decent used truck camper. But I'm liking the truck so far, so other options will need to be investigated.
I'm generally a backpack or primitive camper, but I recently retired and now have the luxury of taking some fishing trips. I went to Lake Seminole in January and stayed in a state park campground in a waterfront space. This is important because it means I can launch my boat (17 ft aluminum) and just pull it up on the beach every night and not have to trailer it. Unfortunately it was pretty darned unseasonably cold that week and my tent/sleeping bag really weren't up to the task. That's when I started investigating truck campers and found out almost none of them actually are light enough to use on a 1/2 ton truck without hitting or going over the weight capacity. So that leads me to the question of how do I tow a boat and a camper together. Buying a fifth wheel and double towing is not an option because it's not legal in many states. So I'm either going to have to buy a specialized truck camper for short beds (expensive) or try something else.
That leads me here: how possible, practical or reasonable would it be for me to buy a 20 or 24 foot enclosed trailer and just jam the boat inside it while still on the trailer? Once I get there I could unhitch, drag out the boat and launch it, then use the trailer as a rudimentary camper shell with a cot, heater, etc? Does anybody do such a thing? How hard is one of these trailers to pull? Can one handle the weight of a ~1500 pound boat/motor/trailer combination? Is this just an idiotic idea?
Thanks in advance for any info.