A lot of people call the type that you drive an “RV” and everything else a “camper” or a “travel trailer”. But being pedantic, they are all lumped under the category of “Recreational Vehicles”.
The types that you drive are motorhomes. There are different types:
- Class A are bus-like
- Class B are vans
- Class C are built on pickup truck chassis
- Super C are build on semi-truck chassis
Ones that you tow are trailers. There are also different types:
- Fifth Wheels connect to a hitch in the truck bed
- Travel Trailers connect to a hitch off of the rear of the vehicle
- Pop-up Campers are small; the roof lifts up and the beds pop-out (these rarely are good for fulltiming)
- Hybrid Campers are a combination of a travel trailer and a pop-up
The choice between types of campers is highly personal. I have friends in motorhomes and they love the travel day conveniences. I personally have never been able to find a layout that struck all of our floorplan requirements and instead opted for a fifth wheel (we pull with a large 1-ton dual rear wheel truck).