Reinventing ourselves

[OverlandRN]

Part 1 ( I like telling stories ;) 11 years ago I hatched this awesome plan. I scoured the Internet, found an old 1982 Fourwheel Popup Camper that “needed a little work” for $800, drove to Seattle from Portland and spent 3 hours in a guys driveway fitting it to the back of my 2wd Toyota pickup.

What I told my then fiancé now wife was that I was going to fix a couple of things and then we’d use it and fix things along the way. What she came home to was the thing completely gutted and a year long journey of rebuilding it. The only thing I did not rebuild was the shell. Everything else was new.

2 days before the wedding my buddy and I were putting the last bits together, fitting it to our new to us 2nd gen Dodge Ram Cummins.

We honeymooned through Yellowstone and Jackson, and adventures with this set up for the first 8 years of our marriage.

But it was starting to show its age despite the love it was shown and with some nostalgic sadnes we sold our beloved FWC to a twenty something who was heading to Baja for a surfing adventure.

Ironically we spent 3 hours in my drive way fitting it to his 2wd pickup.

So what are we doin now? (It’s late, I’ll finish tomorrow)

 

[OverlandRN]

Part 2

So here’s the Reinventing ourselves bit.

We traded the Honda Accord for a Land Rover LR3. It now has a rooftop tent and we are soon to fit it with a Voyager rack.

The way I pack our gear is in the process of a redo. Going from a camper to vehicle based storage requires a fair bit of change.

Another huge change is load securement within the vehicle. We travel with a 5 year old and a 60 lb dogger. With the camper everything was in a separate compartment from the people so not much in the way of containment was needed.

The last thing I’ll touch on here is loading gear for convenience and purpose. By design the interior of the Fourwheel Camper had a spot for most everything whereas now we are having to consider what we take, when we’ll use it and where to pack it.

More to come for sure. Maybe a mini “build” thread.

What have you all done that has turned your system on it’s head and how did you tackle it?
Cheers

 

[Rally1]

I always liked the idea of keeping everything in the truck, but we are bursting at the seams, so time to expand outward, and likely up. I worry about too mich on the roof, but I thinks it’s easier than the trailer option for us. When I backpack I do it light/untralight, trying to carry that over to car camping, sorry overlanding ;).

 

[David C Gibbs]

I always liked the idea of keeping everything in the truck, but we are bursting at the seams, so time to expand outward, and likely up. I worry about too mich on the roof, but I thinks it’s easier than the trailer option for us. When I backpack I do it light/untralight, trying to carry that over to car camping, sorry overlanding ;).

At the Northwest Overland Rally, we had the opportunity to listen to Mario Donovan's presentation and Clay from XO talking about Builds. Both said the same "Go, Repair, Refine, Reset" The Refine stage - is reviewing everything that's packed, "Did we use it? Is it Needed?" - First Aid Kit stays in the Truck, The Winter Parka's put into the Winter gear... Mario recommended that everyone read Colin Flecther's "The Complete Backpacker."
Gross Vehicle Weight matters...

 

[tritonl]

I always liked the idea of keeping everything in the truck, but we are bursting at the seams, so time to expand outward, and likely up. I worry about too mich on the roof, but I thinks it’s easier than the trailer option for us. When I backpack I do it light/untralight, trying to carry that over to car camping, sorry overlanding ;).

We are in a Toyota Fj, two adults, two kids and two dogs. The inside has very little room left over. I got two large Plano boxes on the rack along with our folded ground tent. Everything else is at the minimum. Just bring what you need, most of the comfort items can stay home. We have adapted a lot of backpacking gear to our needs.


Sent from my iPhone using OB Talk