I shopped a couple of years for something similar to what you are looking forward to. I had a very limited budget so I was looking at a used camper and truck. Ended up getting an older pop up with a dry weight of 1480 and a 2004 extended cab silverado hd shortbed with a 6.0 at the end of last winter. I am pulling a stratos 285 behind this and the set up serves me well for camping which is 3 or so times a year I will go 30 or so miles to KY lake and the one time a year I will drive the 3 hours to Pickwick. Pulling the boat without the camper is almost like it is not there.
I would agree with previous posters that if I was camping more often and taking longer trips I would seriously look at a diesel.