This Adorable 4×4 Diesel Japanese Camper Has A Silly Name And Wasn’t Actually Built In Japan

Look at that cute motorhome on your screen. Yes, it really is called the Toyota HiAce Tomboy, which is an awesome and silly name for a motorhome. If you look at the thing, you’ll notice an entrance door on the left, a steering wheel on the right, and a shell that looks like any other Japanese camper you may have seen. Here’s the twist: this camper, which you can buy today, had a shell that was actually built in Canada.

The compact motorhome has been seeing a surge in popularity in recent years. A lot of RV buyers don’t want to drive around a hulking bus. Instead, they want something that has a roughly similar footprint to a pickup truck or commercial van. Some camper producers have been answering the call by going small with their latest fare. If you feel the compact campers on the market today are a bit too expensive or just not weird enough, look no further than an imported motorhome from Japan. This 1992 Toyota HiAce is shorter than a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter at just 16.2 feet long, but you get a diesel engine, four-wheel-drive, a manual transmission, and a camper body good for any season!

That last part about the camper’s body is thanks to Canada, British Columbia, to be exact. While this camper is a Japanese-market vehicle, its fiberglass body was built by Bigfoot Industries in Vernon.

Bigfoot

If you look closely at the shell of this camper, you’ll find decals that identify it as a Tomboy. Right under that Tomboy script you’ll see the maple leaf flag and text that says “Canadian.” You’ll find these all over the rig and it’s not one-off. I found another, sightly more worn Toyota HiAce Tomboy and it has the same decals. What’s going on here?

The answer comes from Ottoex Adventure Vehicles, an importer and dealer working here in the United States. According to Ottoex, Bigfoot Industries of Vernon, British Columbia constructed these fiberglass bodies, filled them with furniture and equipment, and then shipped them to Japan, where Toyota mated them with a Toyota HiAce truck cab.

According to a piece by Truck Camper Magazine, Bigfoot Industries was founded in 1978 by Clyde Burgess, Erwin Kreig, and Terry Mayall. Burgess and Kreig were owners of a fiberglass tub company and Mayall was their employee. Kreig was also part owner of Boler, an early Canadian innovator in fiberglass campers. Meanwhile, Mayall was a fiberglass boat builder.

The men wanted to combine their strengths to create campers that eliminated the typical failure points in RV construction. Back then, as today, so many campers were built out of wood-framed boxes with lots of seams and joints you could count on to one day break open and allow water in. Kreig and Mayall believed that they could leverage their experience with fiberglass to build campers that could survive the tough Canadian better than others. The three men opened Bigfoot and got right to work designing double-hulled fiberglass campers. Like many fiberglass campers made in North America during this time, you can still find old Bigfoots around today.

Sadly, Bigfoot shut down in 2008 in the wake of the Great Recession. But the company didn’t stay down, as its current owners bought the assets after the remnants of Bigfoot were idle for a year. Today, you can buy a wide array of truck campers and travel trailers from Bigfoot, and they’re still built with Bigfoot’s durable fiberglass construction.

For this camper, we’ll need to flip our calendars back a little over 30 years.

This Tomboy

I haven’t found any information as to why Toyota decided to have Bigfoot build its campers. A brochure included in this Toyota HiAce Tomboy claims, roughly translated: Born in Canada, Raised in Japan. The brochure also claims that the camper will keep you warm, even if the temperatures are as low as -20 C, or -4 F degrees. That’s properly icy! One of Bigfoot’s specialties back then was building cold-weather campers so the partnership does make sense.

Ottoex Adventure Vehicles explains that Bigfoot’s campers were able to survive temperatures that cold thanks to the company’s signature wall construction, from Ottoex:

Using Bigfoot’s proprietary Fibercore Wall systems, it achieves an R12 Insulation value all around with 1 1/2 inch polyurethane injected walls and ceiling and a double floor system with an insulated basement, meaning your travels in this will not only be extremely warm in cold climates, or cool in hot climates, but it’s also very quiet on the inside. No other RVs achieve this level of insulation and craftsmanship. Fiberglass all around, with molded fiberglass front and rear caps. Molded fiberglass storage compartments all around on the exterior as well as Fiberglass running boards. On the inside it has a marine quality headliner with real solid wood cabinetry throughout.

You got all of this on a dependable Toyota HiAce 1-ton truck chassis. Toyota says the HiAce launched in 1967 as the automaker’s answer to the Nissan Homy. Highlights of the first HiAce include an independent front suspension and a unibody design. This camper is based on the third-generation HiAce truck, which started production in 1985, a few years after the third-generation HiAce van, and lasted through the summer of 1995. Toyota noted that by the third generation, the HiAce truck and HiAce van became separate models. In case you were curious, the HiAce name is literal. It’s “high” and “ace,” which is supposed to mean the vans and trucks are a successor to the Toyoace.

Under the front seats, you get a 2.4-liter 2L diesel. Ottoex did not take a picture of the engine, so here’s an engine picture from another Tomboy I found for sale:

It should be making around 82 horsepower and 120 lb-ft of torque. That’s not a lot of juice and I wouldn’t expect you to get anywhere quickly. However, the Toyota 2L diesel is legendary for its practically bulletproof reliability. It’s gutless, but these are the same engines found in the famously reliable Hilux from the same era. Oh, and it’s a mechanical diesel, so you don’t find old electronics to fail on you. That engine is driving a part-time four-wheel-drive system featuring a two-speed transfer case, a manual transmission, and locking Aisin front hubs. Another neat feature is a knob that, when pulled, redirects the engine intake to a higher point, great if you’re driving through dust or perhaps water.

The interior may look familiar, and that’s because it’s been outfitted with North American-spec equipment and a North American electrical system. Yep, this is a Japanese camper with parts that you should be able to buy here in America. Your hair will thank you later. Equipment includes a Norcold refrigerator, a molded fiberglass wet bath, flushing toilet, a two-burner stove, a stainless sink, and birch cabinetry. Helping you stay warm is the R12 insulation from floor to ceiling, but also a forced air propane furnace as well as a hot water heater. In terms of holding tanks, you get 24 gallons for fresh water, 11 gallons for grey water, and 11 gallons for your waste.

Ottoex says the camper shows in such great condition because it is a one-owner unit that has been stored indoors all of its life. Most of what you see inside of the camper is original. Part of its good condition is also because that one and only owner drove the camper just 65,000 kilometers, or about 40,389 miles.

Camping For You And Your Buds

While I probably wouldn’t recommend it, Ottoex says the motorhome has seating for seven people. In sleeping mode, you can fit people in the overhang above the cab, on the couch, and on the dinette sleeping area. It would be tight, but you could travel the country with the whole gang if you wanted to. Again, it just wouldn’t be very fast doing that trip.

However, the American-spec electrical system and compartment for up to three house batteries means this is a Japanese rig without the headaches of trying to get a different electrical system to work here. It’s also a rare beast. Ottoex believes there are less than 60 of these out there. If that’s true, you don’t want to smash anything bespoke to this camper.

If you want to take on that challenge, Ottoex Adventure Vehicles, which is based in Milwaukie, Oregon, wants $44,995 for this camper. If that’s too rich for your blood, there’s another Toyota HiAce Tomboy for sale in Texas for $28,000. That one has a modernized kitchen and solar power, but is in rougher cosmetic condition, has some rust, and is said to need “TLC.” No matter the Tomboy you choose, you’ll be getting a motorhome that looks different but is still good enough that you can enjoy a good American road trip with it.

(Images: Ottoex Adventure Vehicles, unless otherwise noted.)