A camper shell is a small housing or rigid canopy used as a pickup truck

Pickup truck

A pickup truck is a light motor vehicle with an open-top rear cargo area .-Definition:...

 accessory. The housing is usually made of fiberglass

Fiberglass

Glass fiber is a material consisting of numerous extremely fine fibers of glass.Glassmakers throughout history have experimented with glass fibers, but mass manufacture of glass fiber was only made possible with the invention of finer machine tooling...

 or aluminum, and is mounted atop the pickup truck's rear bed. It usually covers the entire bed of the pickup truck, and is large enough to be used for camping

Camping

Camping is an outdoor recreational activity. The participants leave urban areas, their home region, or civilization and enjoy nature while spending one or several nights outdoors, usually at a campsite. Camping may involve the use of a tent, caravan, motorhome, cabin, a primitive structure, or no...

 purposes. Even though use for camping may have been its initial purpose, it now seems most often to be used for utility and storage purposes. Some camper shells are so large that they can overlap the top of the truck's cab, and some called soft-tops are made of canvas like convertibles.

See also

• Campervan
  Campervan
  A campervan , sometimes referred to simply as a camper, or a caravanette, is a self-propelled vehicle that provides both transport and sleeping accommodation. The term mainly describes vans that have been fitted out, often with a coachbuilt body for use as accommodation...
  
  
• Teardrop trailer
  Teardrop trailer
  A teardrop trailer, also known as a teardrop camper trailer, is a streamlined, compact, lightweight travel trailer, which gets its name from its teardrop profile. They usually only have sleeping space for two adults and often have a basic kitchen in the rear....
  
  
• Toppola
  Toppola
  Toppola is a brand of camper shell originally made for the Saab 99 combi coupé. By removing the hatch and putting on the Toppola a car could be converted to a campervan in about 15 to 30 minutes. It is also just as easy to lift the top off and reattach the hatch door and use the car without the...
  
  
• Travel trailer
  Travel trailer
  A travel trailer or caravan is towed behind a road vehicle to provide a place to sleep which is more comfortable and protected than a tent . It provides the means for people to have their own home on a journey or a vacation, without relying on a motel or hotel, and enables them to stay in places...
  
  
• Truck camper
  Truck camper
  In North America the term truck camper and its derived acronym TC, are generally used to refer to any recreational vehicle or RV that may be carried in the bed of a pickup truck...