LOVELAND – Larry Drake got into the camper business because he grew tired of pitching tents.

“I just don’t do tent camping anymore,” he said. “I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to have a camper on my utility trailer?’”

But Drake couldn’t find a camper that would suit his Chevy HHR, a station wagon with a towing capacity of just 1,000 pounds.

So, six months after he retired from building acrobatic sport planes, Drake began designing a modular camper, one that he sells for $5,000 to $8,000, depending on size.

Three-and-a-half years later, YouTube videos featuring the camper from Drake’s startup, Teal International Corp., have drawn nearly 300,000 views.

Drake recently received a call from producers of ABC’s “Shark Tank,” the television show featuring investors interrogating entrepreneurs who pitch them their products. Some people might jump at the chance for that kind of exposure, but “I didn’t want to do it,” the soft-spoken Drake says.

Still, “that’s the kind of interest I’ve had from all over the world,” he said.

Drake, the CEO of Teal, moved