Step 1: Determine your maximum driving distance.
Open google maps, center yourself and zoom out to about 600 miles. That radius was the maximum distance I wanted to travel to pick up my camper. One day out, one day back. If you are willing to drive more or less, adjust the zoom until you're within your preferred radius. Note that roads in the west are generally straight lines so do some "driving directions" from home to metro areas within that radius. For me, in Portland Oregon, I determined that I could drive from Vancouver BC, anywhere in Washington or Oregon, east into Twin Falls Idaho and south to Reno, Sacramento and SF. You need to have these locations nailed down before you start hunting because you have to immediately jump on new listings in your driving range and not hem-and-haw about it being too far.
Step 2: Determine your maximum purchase price.
Take into consideration the following factors. Do you want a big project? How much time do you realistically have for camper repairs? Can you live with some rough edges and still enjoy the camper? How much are you paying for fuel to pick up the camper at what distance? I had about $250 in fuel costs for my pickup.
Step 3: Determine the model years you can fit in your truck.
Generally speaking, 1990s and newer trucks need 1990s and newer campers, but that's not always true and depends on your truck make and model. All the details here. Nail down the exact model years of camper that can fit on your truck.
Step 4: Sign up at Craiglook.
Go to www.craiglook.com and make yourself an account. Now do a search for the following keywords in the categories:
[no category]
"four wheel" camper
slide in camper
[RVs and ATVs]
fwc
4wheel
pop-up camper
pop up camper
And if you're looking for a specific model, like a Grandby or Hawk or Eagle, do those keywords also, in the RVs and ATVs category, or the Automotive category or in no categories.
If you're looking for a Grandby, like I was, also do a search for:
Gramby
Granby
Now, for each of those searches you do above, when the results come up, click the "Save this Search" link on the upper left. A dialog will pop up, and just leave it as is, EXCEPT for the first one, "four wheel" camper. For that one, you can't let it save the search with the default name, because it doesn't like quotes in saved searches and you'll end up losing that most valuable of all searches. So when the dialog pops up, save it with some other name. See the picture below.
You need to have those quotes in your search or you'll get too much junk. Now you should have all these saved searches in your "My Searches" section on the left side, like in the picture below.
Step 5: Diligently check your saved searches, thrice daily.
This is definitely the most difficult part of the job, doing the actual search. You might be tempted to watch the RSS feed for these searches (if you know what that is) or just use Craiglook's Email Alerts feature, but you'll always be the second or third or tenth caller if you do that, not the first, and you want to be the first. FWC campers in good shape, for a good deal, go quickly. If you don't mind paying too much, or waiting six months, or buying a total fixer-upper, you might could skip this task and instead rely on Craiglook's Email Alerts. I bought my camper quickly, and paid from $1000 to $2000 below other campers in the same condition were going for.
The best way to do your search checking is to always keep the Craiglook website open in your browser, and always keep your browser open. Maybe set it as your home page. Maybe lock the tab if you use Firefox, or pin it if you use Chrome. To check your searches, expand the My Searches section and click through each Saved Search one by one. For each search, scroll down, scanning pictures, prices, names. Page ahead to find where you last looked, which in the case of "slide in camper", "pop-up camper" and "pop up camper" will be a couple pages between checking. Note that the search results show the number of hours ago that each search was posted. This is a valuable index to know when you've looked back far enough to overlap your previous checking.
Those three voluminous searches might be a big pain in the ass, but they hide a LOT of FWC campers, mostly older ones where the owners don't really know what the have, or the emblems have worn off. For the pop-up searches, you're visually sorting 100 pull-behind travel trailers for every truck camper and for the slide-in search, there are 20 big-ass Lance campers for every one pop-up truck camper. There's a lot of sorting and scanning, but I didn't say this was easy.
Step 6: Check ebay, rvtraderonline.com, usedfourwheelcampers, etc.
I didn't end up using these sites with any regularity. There are probably 1/20th the number listed on these sites as on Craigslist. Once you get a good routine with Craiglook, adding these sites to your routine should be easy.
Step 7: When you see a new camper listed, jump on it.
If it fits your criteria determined in steps 1-3 above, immediately call the seller and email at the same time. Don't just email and don't just call. Of course if there's only one communication method listed, do that, but do everything you can to get in contact. Generally speaking, craigslist operates on a first-come, first-served basis. If you're first in line, you have to blow it for the second in line to have a chance. I called on my camper within 20 minutes of it listing. I told the seller I was calling from 600 miles away, but I am absolutely interested and wanted to do everything in my power to buy the camper. You can tell some white lies here in order to convince the seller of your conviction to purchase his (or her) camper. If you're not really sure you want it, for chrissakes don't say that! You have to solidify your position as the number one in line. Later on, you can bow out and I'm sure the seller won't have trouble getting rid of it. So whatever you do, don't be wishy-washy about it.
If a new camper listing does not fit your pre-determined criteria, then post it to this thread: Used Four Wheel Camper Alert Thread. In the month I searched hard-core, I posted to that thread probably 70 times, maybe 100 FWC campers. I know of at least two forum members that I was able to help find campers during my own looking. Don't rely on someone else to be posting in that thread - do it yourself! There are probably two FWC campers showing up on Craiglook every day so if you don't see that thread very active, assume no one is posting to it and pick it up yourself.
Step 8: If the camper isn't close by, find someone to put eyes on it.
Like everything I've written in this post, this step is optional, but I highly recommend it. Finding someone near to the camper to check it out for you does two things.
First, it continues to convince the seller that you are serious about buying it. In the very first conversation with the seller, I said that I was having a handyman-mechanic come to take a look at it for me since I was out of town. He knew I was going to spend money to hire the guy for the job - that shows commitment. You can have a checker come look at it like right away since these guys typically have good availability, especially for an hour in the evening or during the day. They probably have more availability than you do.
Second, it gives you a chance to corroborate, via a third-party, everything you and the seller have talked about the camper. Your in-person checker should take some pictures of anything wrong and tell you what he found. I suggest you write up a list of things that he should check. See below for an example of the email I sent my checker.
I found my handyman-mechanic by finding the nearest Craigslist (not Craiglook) to the camper (not necessarily the same one the camper was listed on). I just searched for "mobile mechanic" and "handyman". I called two, talked to one, paid him $75 via paypal. He found one thing the seller hadn't disclosed and mostly made me feel good about the purchase. He didn't know anything about RVs and I didn't need him to. Without paypal, you have to find one willing to check it out with a "check in the mail" or a credit card over the phone.
Step 9: Call back the seller, commit to buying it.
After your checker reports back to you, make a final decision on buying it. Maybe you can negotiate with the seller now since you both are pretty far into the process. If you want it, commit to buying it. Go buy it, take pictures and post them on this forum and then get out camping!
