resharp001

Gosh, it's been about 18 months since this trailer's maiden voyage during spring break 2020.....right about the time the world went to hell in a basket thanks to covid. In that time I've taken it on countless local camping trips, to Colorado twice, Moab, and Big Bend. I think the current version with compartments has worked out really well. Those longer trips have been the variety where we are in the trailer for 5+ days at a time, though pretty much setting up for a couple nights at a time vs moving daily like a real overlander might. I have a few thoughts about my setup that I may or may not have mentioned in all the posts above -

1) This is kind of a big one.....we have a great camping set up, though for many of the places we like to visit we don't fit the traditional models. Many campsites for tents are designed as "walk-in" even if just right of the road. Those aren't condusive to getting a little trailer into for your tent. That then leaves RV camp sites which is really a waste since we don't need electric or water, and would prefer to not be on a big concrete pad. We previously had a 35' motorhome and did a lot of this before......it's just not great for our current style of camping.

2) I wish I could walk under the tent when it's opened up, but I also can't imagine the tent being any higher off the ground than it is already. At this height, I can easily unzip the front or back and access things that are around the edge of the tent, and I do that a lot....especially loading pillows/sleeping bags, clothes, etc for the night....or grabbing keys for the jeep in the morning. Also though, designing a method of raising the tent platform gets so complicated that it's not worth it IMO......and I don't know how those folks that mount a tent on a taller stationary platform do it. I already have to stand on a 37" tire to get this tent open while using the ladder as leverage.

3) compartmentalizing the storage space has been a huge improvement. My only issue seems to be regardless of which bin I throw something into, inevitably it's not the bin I have out already. I seem to do a lot of back and forth, specially when it comes to kitchen/cooking items. It would be nice to have more of a "kitchen" setup like a real overland trailer where all your cooking, kitchen storage, and fridge are all in a single place. My fridge typically stays in the back of the jeep which adds even more back and forth as I forget things I need for the meal.

4) speaking of fridges, regardless of how much you can actually pack in a fridge, and how well you pack it up.....by the end of a week long trip all those fridge contents are jumbled about as you've had to dig and dig for whatever you needed throughout the week.

5) on-board water might be nice, but it sure isn't necessary. We use large Coleman 5G jugs and they work great. We actually use much less water than most think. In this last week-long trip to Big Bend my wife and I pretty much used 5 gallons total, and that included us washing up and her washing her hair. Most the time it seems I just use water to put our fire remnants just because I have it on hand.

6) Every since adding shocks to the trailer I've not had any wind-resistance-related issues. This thing still tows really well. It's not had to traverse any serious trails that are Rubicon-esqe, but I have pulled it through a few good off-camber situations and it just follows right along.

7) I think one final improvement I might make over the winter is adding some fenders to it. I have a plan in mind and will just make some out of simple 1x square tube and skin in some sheetmetal. They'll be welded to the bottom frame rail and riveted to the dibond sides for higher stability. They should help keep the sides of the trailer a bit cleaner and maybe allow me to then add something along the side to use as a long countertop to set things.

8) One drawback to this trailer that I have over and over again is that every gas station I pull into people want to come talk about it which adds a good bit of chatting time to our travels. I would have never guessed so many strangers would approach me at stops and strike up a conversation about it. Sometimes it's a lot of questions and good bit of conversation and sometimes it is quick commentary, but it is always people going out of their way to come over to me and that makes me feel pretty proud to have built it. Typically, I then get in the jeep, wife looks at me for taking so long, I say "they wanted to talk about my trailer", and she will smirk and roll her eyes as I grin.

Couple pictures:

Moon-rise at Ernst Tinaja campsite in Big Bend last week. I had an extremely narrow window to get to the NP and couldn't plan around the lunar cycle, so we dealt with a full, or almost full, moon all week long that was so bright it washed out the best part of Big Bend...the night sky.



Couple poser shots -


ha, just realized in this picture that I have a taillight out. That is one thing I need to remedy as the tailgate can swing open enough that the hinge contacts the lower light on the driver's side.