A 1968 Chevrolet C20 with a tri-level Del Rey Sky Lounge Camper bolted into its bed is crossing the Bring a Trailer auction block for the second time in three years. Whoever wins it will own something the modern RV industry simply cannot replicate.
The truck is a 396-cubic-inch V8 big block paired to a three-speed automatic, a proper hauler from the era when Chevy built pickups to work, not to cosplay as luxury sedans. Gold paint sits between two layers of creamy white, the chrome is generous, and the cab has air conditioning. That matters when you’re dragging a small apartment through the desert Southwest.
That apartment is the real story. The 1966 Del Rey Sky Lounge Camper stacks three living levels into what fits in a standard truck bed: a main floor with a corner nook, a compact bathroom, and a turquoise-accented kitchenette straight out of a mid-century time capsule, plus an over-cab sleeping loft and a third sleeping platform above that. From the outside, it looks absurdly tall. Inside, it’s surprisingly tight quarters, which is exactly the point.
Since its last sale on BaT, the current owners have added a retrofitted air conditioning system and a 30-amp electrical setup. Smart upgrades that drag the livability into the present without gutting the character. The original kitchen appliance badging is still there, and so is the intercom system connecting the cab to the camper, a detail so perfectly 1960s it almost hurts.
This is not a trailer park ornament. The odometer reads roughly 97,000 miles, and the sellers have racked up about 2,500 of those touring the American Southwest. Along the way, they replaced the power steering pump, alternator, and drive belt, and rebuilt the carburetor. That’s the kind of preventive maintenance that tells you someone actually used this thing and cared enough to keep it running right.
With one day left on the auction at time of listing, bidding had already reached $27,500. That number will climb. But whatever it sells for will be a fraction of what any comparable modern Class C motorhome or truck camper setup costs, and none of those will turn a single head at a campground.
The modern RV industry is locked in an arms race of slide-outs, rooftop decks, and Instagram-ready interiors that weigh 14,000 pounds and depreciate the moment you sign the papers. The Del Rey Sky Lounge went the other direction 59 years ago. Build up, not out, keep it light enough for a half-ton-plus pickup, and make it clever instead of bloated.
Nobody builds anything like this anymore. The closest modern truck campers are either spartan overlanding rigs designed for people who think comfort is weakness, or overweight luxury boxes that need a one-ton dually underneath them. The Sky Lounge splits the difference with a grin.
Whoever buys this rig inherits a responsibility as much as a vehicle. It deserves miles, not a climate-controlled garage. The sellers understood that, and the next owner better, too.
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