Back on episode 28, I interviewed Scott Chaney from Compact Camping Concepts (CCC). You may recall my excitement about the project because of its possibilities to make camping more comfortable and make the packing process much faster. Since that time I have followed along on the CCC Facebook page and their companion forum, Tventuring.com. Individuals on the forum have shared details on their own DIY efforts building a lot of tent topped trailers. The engineering skills and craftsmanship on display in the forum is fantastic.
Our good friend of the show and host of the Adventure IQ podcast, Rob Anderson, has already built an Explorer Box with a roof top ten (RTT). He was able to pull the lightweight trailer behind his Jeep YJ Wrangler from Boise, ID to Flagstaff, AZ for the Overland Expo last year. A offroading and camping trip of that size and length with a family of three in a YJ would not be comfortable without the added storage capacity provided by the Explorer Box.
I’ve thought a offroad trailer would be a great idea for a long time and Rob’s experience with his Explorer Box appears to have solved the same problems that have. The only difference is the size of the problem – Rob has three people in a YJ and I have five in my XJ. One important thing in life is one’s ability to apply lessons learned and the accessibility to information and experience when building an Explorer Box.
Advantages:
- Provides a place to store camping gear at the house
- Allows me to continue to use my XJ for daily driver, short overland trips and hard-core rock crawling
- Reduces the amount of vehicle internal storage required
- Allows the use of a RTT for a more comfortable tent camping experience
- Permits for a totally custom build to meet my own precise needs
- Less expensive solution than buying a new vehicle
- Wonderful project for the family (minus baby CJ) to work on together
- Can also be pulled by my wife’s suburban
- Build does not have to be funded all at once
- Makes driving offroad more of a challenge
Disadvantages:
- Makes driving offroad more of a challenge
- When the Army moves my family, we then have a transportation issue (two drivers driving two vehicles vs. two drivers rotating driver duties while pulling a trailer)
- A single RTT may not give enough sleeping area for 5 people so an extra tent could be required
- Still have five butts in a vehicle with five seats and two of those seats are bulky car seats/booster seats for a few years
To be perfectly honest, the trailer idea is very appealing to me. The disadvantage that stands out to me the most is the problem that only shows up during PCS (permanent change of station, aka moving in military terms) season. My wife and I have become very fond of our ability to drive across the country with the family in the same vehicle. Adding a trailer like the Explorer Box would need me to either drive two vehicles or upgrade my current 16’ flatbed car hauler to a larger trailer to fit the XJ and trailer. I’m not even sure that I could fit the Explorer Box and XJ on a 20’ trailer so that option isn’t really practical anyways.
The next article will be about another type of trailer that would solve some of the issues but some of the disadvantages will be the same as the Explorer Box. What do you think about building a offroad capable Explorer Box camping trailer? What have I forgotten to consider?
