We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Colin Hower. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Colin below.

Colin, appreciate you joining us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.

After years of research and product development, we noticed certain features that people always wanted in their campers, so we thought, why not include them in the base model? Sure, it makes our base model camper more expensive, but it features items all our clients want in their campers, so it’s actually making things easier.

All Hower Built campers come with a 3″ queen mattress, LED lights, 4 USB ports, a 50 amp hour heated lithium battery, maxx air fan, R5 insulated panels, prewired for solar, and our patent-pending electric drive scissor lift system (which allows the camper to hold 300lbs of weight on the roof when popped up).

Most of our competitors sell shell campers that can be customized in various ways for the customer’s needs, but when adding customizations, the price can drastically increase quickly. With our camper, you know the price and what you’re getting, and the camper is road ready from day one! With that said, we offer various add-ons and customization options such as kitchen buildouts, cross-bars, heaters, and more!

Colin, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Hower Built specializes in custom fabricated pop-top campers. There is great attention to detail and exacting craftsmanship you can expect whatever your version of build to be done right.

With a degree in Outdoor Education and Resources, I was an avid explorer. I spent most of my 20’s as a rock climbing guide and whitewater kayaker. As most outdoor enthusiasts do, I was always dreaming up the perfect camping vehicle. Something quick and easy, but durable so I could take it down any road.

A cabinet maker by trade, I partnered up with my dad Bradley, a graphic design artist, passionate woodworker and sailboat builder. Together we completed Prototype 1 for the Tundra and it was a success! By then, we’d caught the bug and knew we were onto something.

I then found a surprisingly rust-free 1991 Land Rover Defender HCPU 110 in England. I knew this would be the ultimate overlanding platform for Prototype 2. The goal was to build a canopy that would serve as camper, while still allowing the truck to be a truck during the work week. Once the weekend rolled around, you’d simply swap the tools for the camping gear and hit the road.

I was also fed up with loading and unloading gear, like kayaks, from the roof. So it was crucial that Prototype 2 have a high weight capacity…300 pounds to be exact. WITH the pop top raised! That’s exactly what we accomplished, but of course we couldn’t stop there. I received so much positive feedback that I realized it was time to start developing a camper that could be made for (almost) any truck.

Work began on Prototype 3. Fit to a Toyota Tacoma, it’s the closest to the V2 you see today. This is where the details really came together, like custom extruded frames, solid rivet construction, updated lift assembly, updated lighting, and an updated controller. These fine-tuned details are what make the Hower Built camper the innovative, durable, and lightweight camper it is today.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Building campers out of the best quality materials and making sure our campers were perfected before releasing them on the market. Nothing is worse than your car or gear breaking when you’re in a remote place and have no way of fixing it, and we wanted to make sure this never happened to our customers. We’ve spent years testing each prototype before releasing it to ensure we had every possible situation accounted for. There’s even a way to pop the camper up and down if something happens manually, but trust us; we don’t think you’ll run into that problem!

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

There isn’t a specific book or video to reference, but something I’ve learned over the years is to infinitely trust your team. No one can do it all or be the expert on it all. In fact, you will be a lot more successful in life and business if you find people to help you and are able to trust them. I truly believe this fundamental theme is what’s driven Hower Built’s success thus far and will continue to bring us success moving forward.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://howerbuilt.com
• Instagram: @howerbuilt
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hower-built/

Image Credits
Colby Elliot (first photo of Colin) + Austin White (all other photos)