Faux overland trailers

[Delete Me]

Wondering if any of you have towed any other trailers, besides purpose built offroad trailers, and what your experience was like. Examples would be: Coleman Popup, T@B, Casita, Rpod, Scamp, Escape, Oliver, ...

If you tow and create a basecamp from which you tackle the trails, then perhaps the easier roads to your basecamp allow for a trailer with greater creature comforts. Yeah I know .. crazy talk.

 

[luchaDor]

Honestly...I'm very intrigued by the Livin Lite Jeep Extreme Trail Edition trailers for exactly what you're describing.

 

[DuvalRover]

Not the extreme trail edition, but did pick up a Livin Lite trailer last week. Plan on using it on short runs around Florida and just general camping trips. Maybe one day I'll throw a Rover axle and tires on it..

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[luchaDor]

You're really only losing the skid plate and some ground clearance...and I bet it was a helluva lot cheaper. (And a Jeep logo or 2.)

Not the extreme trail edition, but did pick up a Livin Lite trailer last week. Plan on using it on short runs around Florida and just general camping trips. Maybe one day I'll throw a Rover axle and tires on it..

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[Delete Me]

Since I am only an hour or so from the Casita factory, I plan on visiting them to talk about offroad mods. Certainly not a rock crawling trailer, it should be interesting nonetheless. Thinking along the lines of a hardened basecamp trailer. Most of the changes I am looking for involve the frame; e.g. longer tongue, receiver hitch, rock sliders, suspension!. I've contacted other manufacturers but most of them sub contract the frames.

 

[1Louder]

Overlanding can involve terrain like this. Sometimes known and other times not in advanced. The bigger, wider, stapled together trailers won't hold up.

It depends on where you want to go. Conditions can change daily. In my circles we do a lot of trail mapping and discovery. None off-road trailers can't handle the unexpected.

This was a perfectly good trail until it wasn't a perfectly good trail.


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[Delete Me]

Understood. This thread is about exploring trailers that could be repurposed for light offroad duty. I wouldn't put trail mapping in my resume though I have been accused of getting lost from time to time.

 

[1Louder]

Understood. This thread is about exploring trailers that could be repurposed for light offroad duty. I wouldn't put trail mapping in my resume though I have been accused of getting lost from time to time.

That's why I posted the 2nd pick. You never know what you may come across. The trail could have been driven by a two wheel drive truck until this spot. Unless you restrict yourself to wide forest roads you never know what you might come across. Of course it depends greatly on the part of the country you are traveling in. I get wanting to save money. Off-road trailers aren't cheap. I will also stand by the width comment. I have seen nice flat dirt trails which are narrow due to trees. Having a pop-up could cause problems.

 

[luchaDor]

Well, the OP was asking about one as a basecamp, I took that to mean that the trailer would be mostly on road / gravel, etc


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[1Louder]

Well, the OP was asking about one as a basecamp, I took that to mean that the trailer would be mostly on road / gravel, etc

Just basing it on personal experience and what I have seen on the trail. I am no expert on what types of trails are easily accessible by less damaging roads in Tx. Please don't take this as bashing anything. I wish I could spend 4k on a production trailer and have it last. I just don't think it exists. I also don't consider easy graded dirt as overlanding. That doesn't mean that forest roads aren't a big portion of what I drive on. It does mean nature is unpredictable. Washboard in Death Valley would be another example. Nice wide dirt road that will beat the snot out of items not meant for it. Mohave Road, El Camino Del Diablo, and any of the Backcountry Discovery routes would be other good examples. I'll rest my case here. Good luck with your search.

 

[Delete Me]

Exactly so ... looking for personal experience. However, I didn't want to restrict this to the state of Texas. Personally, in another week I'll be enjoying the Crested Butte/Gunnison area of Colorado. I think your spot on about the damage a washboard road can wreck on trailers and tow vehicles too for that matter. Not sure the stock shocks in my 4x4 would be up to a regular diet of washboard.

My intent here is to find those daring souls that have towed conventional rv trailers to some offroad places and learn from their "overlanding" experience. This thread is for anyone, wherever they roam, to have a place to post about such an experience and to talk up their adventure. To brag if they dare. :) I'll leave "overlanding" loosely defined to accomodate anyone trying to navigate multisurface routes with some sense of adventure in mind. Really looking for some great stories about towing a trailer I hadn't thought to bring along.

-FB

 

[HeliSniper]

Fatboytx - I like your definition of "Overlanding" as opposed to 1Louder's. No matter what you drive or pull, the fact that your getting out there and doing it is what counts. Now taking a citified trailer to an extreme place might not turn out the way you planned but now you have the most valuable asset of experience and knowledge. "Should I do that again? Or, I think I'll park my Base Camp trailer further away from the extreme stuff and take the ATV to explore."
I think the idea of an extreme Casita trailer sounds very cool. I'm just north of their plant, let me know what they say about your idea.

 

[1Louder]

I apologize for my contributions. I guess I have been watching too many videos on YouTube about Overlanding. Happy Trails!

 

[Delete Me]

Found a very nice website, Flatwater Overland, with more information about offroad trailers. I especially enjoyed the pragmatic approach to understanding what it takes to be "offroad rated". Got me wondering about some things. Like, do any "offroad trailer" manufacturers perform a roll over test? How do you know if your tow vehicle is a good match ( turn radius, roll center, etc ) for a particular trailer your looking at? Is it possible to predict how your tow vehicle and trailer combination will perform offroad?

The above link doesn't provide examples of taking rv trailers offroad, which is the purpose of this thread. However, it does help with understanding the challenge of taking an rv trailer offroad and I think this makes it relevant to the thread.

-FB

 

[brien]

I have a friend who has a 15-20 year old double duty camping trailer that he brings out one some of our trips when we think there's a good chance that the trails won't be too rough. Like @1Louder points out though, that's never been a 100% safe gamble. Almost every time he takes it out we end up finding some unexpectedly gnarly spots. The trailer makes it but some times I hear that thing really scraping along the rocks from outside my windows. Even on more mellow trails, our pace is significantly reduced just to try and avoid his trailer bouncing all over the place and breaking. All in all, I've been totally impressed and surprised at some of the places he's been able to take that thing - usually unintentionally. There was one time that we ended up ditching the trailer on the side of a trail and coming back to get it later because the trail was just too nasty.

 

[Chetta58]

That is a Jumping Jack trailer I believe. I have a 4x6 version with the off road hitch on it and these things are tough. Yes it does slow u down at times but I'm not sure that's a bad thing. We spend so much time rushing around here and there everyday that when I'm out I have to remind myself to slow down and enjoy what I'm doing. I've not taken it on trips where I'm going to slow others down. You are not going to keep up with a group unless you want to see the wheels of your trailer in your rear view mirror. Not what it was built for and not what i bought it for. It has great ground clearance and handles the angles and dangles great with the off road hitch. My wife and I are leaving Saturday to do the Oregon BDR and it's going with us. I'll let you know if the trailer is a problem or not.

 

[canadianoverlanders]

We had a Livin' Lite 8.1 Off-Road Edition. It didn't have the Jeep logo. The sales man told us to go to the Chrysler dealership and buy the peel and stick Jeep logo and put it on the trailer and save our selfies about a grand.
It is a great trailer, wider than the Jeep but very lite for what you get. We decided to go with the smaller Kakadu trailer for other reasons.
With that said, the trailer itself is like clamping....it's awesome and comfortable, lots of storage, sleeps 6 I think, comes with on board led lights and 12v fans, easy to tow, easy to maneuver with a bad back and hips, and easy on the pocket book to tow. We got a lot of bang for the buck from that trailer.
We just sold it to my friend, and we are heading to Delta BC to get a Kakadu trailer.
We'll see how they measure up and compare.
We'll be overlanding and camping with my friend who bought the Livin'Lite off me so we can compare.
Hope that helps

 

[Delete Me]

Just got back from Colorado. I had just crested Cumberland pass and stopped to take a picture of the elevation sign when a guy approached me to ask about making a descent on the South side, that I had just climbed on my motorcycle. He was a bit white knuckled which surprised me because he was driving a nice Tacoma. However, he was pulling a utility trailer with std tiny wheels (no idea wheel size). The truck was doing just fine but the trailer was bouncing like crazy. Dang! It isn't a difficult road by any means but it was a bumpy ride.

Thinking back on Colorado roads and trails, its hard to imagine towing a trailer that hasn't been prepared for the rigors of overlanding. I rode some "roads" that were poor excuses for drainage ditches. I rode switchbacks that had an awfully tight radius and thought I wouldn't want to drive anything much longer than a Taco, much less a trailer behind it. Making some descents, I thought I'd loose some fillings, and I was standing and using my legs to absorb the shocks and bounces. Yet, there were plenty of nicely graded, scenic roads for exploration.

On the scenic and nicely surfaced roadways (e.g. 12 west out of Crested Butte, Ohio Pass) I saw: truck campers, popup campers, rPod trailers and even a bonifide overland trailer. Around the Gunnison area, I think truck campers and popup campers ruled. Lots and lots of them. Saw maybe a half dozen rPod trailers and even stopped to shoot the breeze with one couple. They loved it and had a canoe on roof racks. Saw maybe 3 overland campers: teardrop (1), manley explore style (1) and turtleback expedition (1).

So ... I am even more interested in somebody that actually tows a conventional rv trailer when overlanding. Please post your adventures!

 

[theMightyGoose]

Overlanding can involve terrain like this. Sometimes known and other times not in advanced. The bigger, wider, stapled together trailers won't hold up.

It depends on where you want to go. Conditions can change daily. In my circles we do a lot of trail mapping and discovery. None off-road trailers can't handle the unexpected.

This was a perfectly good trail until it wasn't a perfectly good trail.


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Wow. Did it make it? Looks like a Turtle back


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[Delete Me]

Ha! That turtleback trailer is one tough mudder. No doubt.