Advocate III
Testing a variety of gear over sixteen weeks and 12,500 miles, from late Aug to late Dec 2017, from Maine to west Texas and a ton of places in between.
The images below were in the Smoky Mountains of east Tennessee, where I stayed for five weeks toward the end of my journey. I pretty much had the place to myself most days. I was experimenting with extended base camp setups for future workshop environments through a variety of weather, from warm autumn afternoons to below freezing temps, huge mountain thunderstorms that flooded everything and closed local roads, and some of the wildest most unpredictable winds I've ever encountered.
After a couple weeks of gorgeous peak autumn color, the wind and rain storms knocked down most of the leaves. I'd rake back them back from the trailer and firepit every day, as seen in this first image. I did this for a few reasons:
1. From the firepit so sparks would be less likely to start the leaves on fire. This was the 1st anniversary of a huge wildfire in the Smokies that burned over 16,000 acres and killed 14 people. The main fire, up at Chimney Tops, was started by careless hikers.
2. Was a hell of a lot quieter walking around camp, especially at night when I'd watch for the coyotes and a gray fox that would come by most nights. Had two black bears in camp, too, though they generally only forage at night during full moons. Also had a nice variety of birds, including a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers, and just generally being quiet in camp, I had a lot more wildlife than I may have otherwise. So, less leaves, I could skulk around more without being as noticeable.
3. It just looked a hell of a lot nicer and made the tent and van a lot easier to keep clean.
Just me and the wild turkeys that came by most every day, first the four Toms, then the flock of around nine hens. These turkeys, which I gave the new sub-species name of Smoky Mountain Peckerhead Turkeys, would come around, raise their heads high, and look straight at me while they kicked the edge of the leaves back in, as if to say "Hey, dude, you might be staying here for awhile, but this here is OUR woods, got it?"
90 degrees from the view above, three-sided awning deployed, RTT up, OzTent with sidewalls and rainfly.
From the other side looking back.
From slightly above, showing a bit more of the awning area. It wraps the other end of the trailer identically, almost eight feet out from three sides, providing a huge amount of covered area from sun or rain.
This is the way my galley setup evolved over time. Made a full Thanksgiving dinner for three here.
This is under the awning in the image above, facing the OzTent
Solar setup. This is one of the things I wanted to experiment with the most, as my practical experience with solar devices as far as use in off-grid applications had been limited.
I wasn't hooked up to any power other than what I could provide on my own, not even to the van, for as long as five weeks straight. The van does charge the trailer batts when being towed, but with the setup in these images, it wasn't towed and didn't move for five weeks. Could easily have gone longer on just solar power, but wanted to get moving again. The 120w folding panel charged up 100ah of deep cycles in the trailer and was on about 45' of 10 gauge cable, 30' of which I made up with Andersen plugs. Even with a full canopy overhead before all the leaves fell, I could move it in a large enough radius to get enough sun to keep the deep cycles charged. This charged my mobile devices, portable battery packs, multiple battery chargers for small batteries, a USB flashlight, my power-hungry eBike battery, LED lights, and water pump on the trailer.
The four upright units are solar powered lights, each of which have four removable palm-sized pods on the back surrounding the main light, with super strong magnets and hooks that can be used around camp and in the tent or van as task lighting, flashlight, or flashing light. Each head has a USB port too, for charging anything that needs charging via USB.
Wrapped up, packed up, and back on the road.
All main elements of this basecamp setup are very easy and quick to set up and tear down. I researched and planned a long time for just what items I wanted to experiment with, and overall could not be more happy with my choices. I had an absolute blast testing everything, putting it all through the paces, tweaking this set up and that, trying different configurations and seeing how gear from different countries might work together.
All in all, I could not be more pleased.
Dry roads and open skies, y'all. See you out there somewhere, someday. . .
Road
The images below were in the Smoky Mountains of east Tennessee, where I stayed for five weeks toward the end of my journey. I pretty much had the place to myself most days. I was experimenting with extended base camp setups for future workshop environments through a variety of weather, from warm autumn afternoons to below freezing temps, huge mountain thunderstorms that flooded everything and closed local roads, and some of the wildest most unpredictable winds I've ever encountered.
After a couple weeks of gorgeous peak autumn color, the wind and rain storms knocked down most of the leaves. I'd rake back them back from the trailer and firepit every day, as seen in this first image. I did this for a few reasons:
1. From the firepit so sparks would be less likely to start the leaves on fire. This was the 1st anniversary of a huge wildfire in the Smokies that burned over 16,000 acres and killed 14 people. The main fire, up at Chimney Tops, was started by careless hikers.
2. Was a hell of a lot quieter walking around camp, especially at night when I'd watch for the coyotes and a gray fox that would come by most nights. Had two black bears in camp, too, though they generally only forage at night during full moons. Also had a nice variety of birds, including a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers, and just generally being quiet in camp, I had a lot more wildlife than I may have otherwise. So, less leaves, I could skulk around more without being as noticeable.
3. It just looked a hell of a lot nicer and made the tent and van a lot easier to keep clean.
Just me and the wild turkeys that came by most every day, first the four Toms, then the flock of around nine hens. These turkeys, which I gave the new sub-species name of Smoky Mountain Peckerhead Turkeys, would come around, raise their heads high, and look straight at me while they kicked the edge of the leaves back in, as if to say "Hey, dude, you might be staying here for awhile, but this here is OUR woods, got it?"
90 degrees from the view above, three-sided awning deployed, RTT up, OzTent with sidewalls and rainfly.
From the other side looking back.
From slightly above, showing a bit more of the awning area. It wraps the other end of the trailer identically, almost eight feet out from three sides, providing a huge amount of covered area from sun or rain.
This is the way my galley setup evolved over time. Made a full Thanksgiving dinner for three here.
This is under the awning in the image above, facing the OzTent
Solar setup. This is one of the things I wanted to experiment with the most, as my practical experience with solar devices as far as use in off-grid applications had been limited.
I wasn't hooked up to any power other than what I could provide on my own, not even to the van, for as long as five weeks straight. The van does charge the trailer batts when being towed, but with the setup in these images, it wasn't towed and didn't move for five weeks. Could easily have gone longer on just solar power, but wanted to get moving again. The 120w folding panel charged up 100ah of deep cycles in the trailer and was on about 45' of 10 gauge cable, 30' of which I made up with Andersen plugs. Even with a full canopy overhead before all the leaves fell, I could move it in a large enough radius to get enough sun to keep the deep cycles charged. This charged my mobile devices, portable battery packs, multiple battery chargers for small batteries, a USB flashlight, my power-hungry eBike battery, LED lights, and water pump on the trailer.
The four upright units are solar powered lights, each of which have four removable palm-sized pods on the back surrounding the main light, with super strong magnets and hooks that can be used around camp and in the tent or van as task lighting, flashlight, or flashing light. Each head has a USB port too, for charging anything that needs charging via USB.
Wrapped up, packed up, and back on the road.
All main elements of this basecamp setup are very easy and quick to set up and tear down. I researched and planned a long time for just what items I wanted to experiment with, and overall could not be more happy with my choices. I had an absolute blast testing everything, putting it all through the paces, tweaking this set up and that, trying different configurations and seeing how gear from different countries might work together.
All in all, I could not be more pleased.
Dry roads and open skies, y'all. See you out there somewhere, someday. . .
Road
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