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Small Trailer Talk

AlpineAccess

Hard Core 4+
Joined
Nov 19, 2019
Messages
1,253
Location
Loveland
I'm three years into thinking about a travel trailer and am leaning now towards something in the realm of a "square drop" around 5x8 to 6x10. I'm here as a sanity check on how this ends up working out for people. I've been taking my time to have a more moderate approach to this process as I want to make sure this is something we will get a lot of use out of.

We've tested a transit van conversion, a class B, and a tow behind '17 ft camper to get an idea about what we liked and didn't like. We have owned an RTT and went back to our ground tent after a year. I also built a sleeping platform for the 100 and it worked ok for short solo trips, but we went back to the ground tent for when my wife and I go together.

We preferred outdoor cooking and prep areas, liked an indoor sleeping area and loved the heat on cold evenings. The ability to keep things packed and separated was nice, and being able to drop the trailer to hold a site while we went fly fishing or into town was good. Onboard water was nice for dishes, and we preferred the outdoor shower with privacy screen on the transit to rinse off on hot days.

Would love something capable of tackling mild trails with a primary use for taking on several day fly fishing outings, 3-5 day trips, and potentially to go visit some family that moved away from Colorado. Another thought is heat/comfort would enable stretching trips further into the shoulder season and a couple places we ski still allow for overnight pay parking for small campers so some extra pow days would be a blessing.

I did some searching here and found a few for sale threads on military style trailers with RTT's, but not much on trailers like this outside of a couple of posts on a beautiful tear drop setup.

We'd be towing it with our mildly built 100, and top speed would probably be about 75mph. I have a lot of notes and ideas and keep coming across more and more clever things people are doing with tear drops and other small campers. I've tackled projects of this scope before like a boat trailer, and have some fabricating ability but am not planning to "overdo" this. I have no interest in building more than one, so my thought is to build something that can be updated as time goes on (would be great if it would have room for a small bunk).

None of these are my images, just some ideas of size/setup from guys who obviously are pretty talented builders.

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FJCDan

Rising Sun Member
Joined
Aug 9, 2010
Messages
931
Location
West Denver
Search YouTube for offroad tear drop trailers. You will find all kinds of ideas and there are several companies here in Denver and in the state that have been manufacturing them. Hiker trailers, High Altitude, Boreas and Boulder tear drops are some of the ones here. Certainly can give you some ideas on building one yourself.
 

AlpineAccess

Hard Core 4+
Joined
Nov 19, 2019
Messages
1,253
Location
Loveland
Search YouTube for offroad tear drop trailers. You will find all kinds of ideas and there are several companies here in Denver and in the state that have been manufacturing them. Hiker trailers, High Altitude, Boreas and Boulder tear drops are some of the ones here. Certainly can give you some ideas on building one yourself.

Hey Dan, I tried to be specific but must not have communicated it well. I'm more looking for ownership experiences than build ideas or designs. You're right that there are a lot of them.

Most the information out there on trailers in general has a sales bias or are those who are reviewing them after a short period of ownership.
 

FJCDan

Rising Sun Member
Joined
Aug 9, 2010
Messages
931
Location
West Denver
No problem, I have been thinking about one of these. My wife and I are getting up in age and still love to camp and one of these would would really make it so much simpler.
 

AlpineAccess

Hard Core 4+
Joined
Nov 19, 2019
Messages
1,253
Location
Loveland
It does seem like a good in between size. We don't go camping to be inside, but also are trying to find something with the right dimensions and utility that makes it worth hauling around.

I see off road campers selling often, usually people list it saying they "used it a few times". I haven't seen it nearly as much on the campers that have an enclosed sleeping area, and a lot of people with tear drops seem to keep them a long time. It might just not be a big enough sample, so looking for some unbiased anecdotes from RS as I know people on here usually call it like it is.

Before venturing down the road of building something I hoped to hear a few more peoples views on why it works (or didn't work) for them.
 

Romer

RS Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Aug 22, 2005
Messages
10,007
Location
Centennial, Colorado
I had an Adventure Trailers Horizon model. Got this after the jayco pop-up started falling apart on forest roads (Glue and staples)

I upgraded the roof top tent to an Eze-Awn Globe something (?0 it comes with an annex that deploys as you open the RTT. Good tent for a trailer.

I didnt like it that much. short wheel base a bit more squirly handing. Backing up is much more difficult on a small trailer. It is a personal preference thing, but it just wasnt it for me. Maybe one of the reasons I got rid of it so fast is a Kimberley Kamper came on the market and that fit me much better. I would still have the Kamper if the Aussie dollar didnt drop and I upgraded to a Kimberley Karavan

The AT Trailer was 2 years old and already rusting in some spots. The Kimberley was 13 years old when I sold it and still looked like new

It is a personal preference thing and here is why I liked a different setup

I liked having a quick setup camper
I liked that there was a hard floor the size of the queen bed that I could stand up in
I liked the better durability of the Kamper and the expandable options for longer camps of rooms and awnings or a 1 minute setup to camp for the night

The Kimberleys are available in the US, but are very exepnsive right now

An similiar, but much less expensive option is a Kamparoo. It still has the standing area that is like a room. You cant do that in a teardrop

https://www.kamparoo.com/

There is a used one on Craigslist that is 18 years old and in good shape. It has a few options you cant get on the new ones, but a new camper like this for $8-$10K depending on options seems like a good value
 

Stuckinthe80s

Rising Sun Member
Staff member
Joined
Dec 29, 2017
Messages
2,326
Location
Lakewood, CO
Calling @Squishy! @Jameson @ddelong6767 @Shuksan @LC4LIFE @RayRay27

That is a good mix of what I call camping/adventure trailers and offroad tear drops. I'm sure those guys don't mind me calling on them to give their experiences. ;)

I'm in the process of building a camping trailer and will add to this thread once I have a couple of runs under my belt. I'm also excited to see what everyone says about their experiences.

I've personally witnessed @Romer Karavan in action and it was really impressive! You can tell the stuff built by Aussies are engineered from decades of hauling stuff out into the bush.
 

Shuksan

Rising Sun Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2017
Messages
906
Location
Denver
We really considered a tear drop, or square drop, like a hiker trailer and then putting a RTT on top to accommodate 2 adults and 2 kids. We may still go this route someday as the indoor sleeping quarters is certainly appealing. We ended up going with our current trailer this year because it was in our price range and ready to go for the camping season. It is an M416 trailer with a canback topper and a soft RTT on top. As you mentioned the best two things about it this year have been:

1) space - especially with two kids now we have plenty of room for all camping/cooking gear and all the extras needed for kids. Toddler bike? just throw it in there. Another bonus feature we didn't think about initially, but we love now is having a place to keep and transport trash that is not in the LC. I have a trasharoo, but no tire carrier, so stashing trash in the trailer is really nice.

2) Base camp - After having the soft shell RTT on the land cruiser at HIH last year we were done with setting up and taking down that tent everyday. Granted you can get pretty quick doing it with two people, but still a bit of a pain. We have base camped at least 3 different occasions over the summer with the trailer. Being able to just leave everything out and then take the cruiser for day trips is huge and added significant enjoyment to our camping. We also used our tent's annex room for the first time on our recent telluride trip because of the trailer staying in one spot for awhile. It was actually really nice to have a changing room and place to leave clothes.

I actually just added a hard shell RTT back onto the LC. The reason being that our 2-3 person RTT was getting very cramped with 2 adults and 2 kids and I wanted something for camping trips with just me and my older son. In fact we will probably do an overnighter to Chihuahua gulch this weekend and we won't take the trailer.

Maybe I will hook up and bring my trailer to the meeting tonight if anyone wants to check it out.
 

Shuksan

Rising Sun Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2017
Messages
906
Location
Denver
Also there is a preowned hiker trailer group on fb and occasionally rigs come up that don't require a long waiting period (~18 months I think right now).
 

RayRay27

Cruise Moab Committee
Cruise Moab Committee
Joined
Jun 26, 2015
Messages
1,460
Location
Thornton via Boulder
I have a small 3 person pop up aluminum trailer by livin lite. It's a super basic trailer with no water or heat but I ended up adding a small heater to it. It only weights about 1100 pounds fully loaded so it's fairly easy to tow with my 80. I chose this model based on it's ease of towing, no plumbing to deal with, simple 12V system, it's solar ready and very easy to set up after some practice. You can stand up in it as well which was a big bonus. It has a mild factory lift with a so called off-road package.

In addition to adding a proprex heater, https://www.vancafe.com/HS2000-p/hs2000.htm I added a huskey tool box to the aluminum deck on the back for storage and a lock and roll trailer articulating hitch https://locknroll.com/

The price came in well under 10G's.

It has held up really well so far. We have held out inside of it during major rain and wind storms with no issues. Haven't taken it hard core wheeling but it could handle mild trails no problem.

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HDavis

Hard Core 4+
Joined
Feb 13, 2019
Messages
1,116
I have also been looking into small campers and have seen some pretty cool setups over on expedition portal.
We originally considered an RTT but the market is way overpriced given what you get.
We are 2 adults 1 kid and thus I've been thinking of taking an old scamp/casita/burro and enhancing it so I it can run 235's, of course every time one is listed it is gone in 30 minutes.
LB_Strt1.jpg


We also have a truck that I've been looking for a slide in for as opposed to a trailer and talk about options. The one i would love to have is the gzl300
https://earthcruiser.com/our-vehicles/earthcruiser-gzl/
 

Stuckinthe80s

Rising Sun Member
Staff member
Joined
Dec 29, 2017
Messages
2,326
Location
Lakewood, CO
Maybe I will hook up and bring my trailer to the meeting tonight if anyone wants to check it out.
Yeah man, I'd like to check it out!
 

Stuckinthe80s

Rising Sun Member
Staff member
Joined
Dec 29, 2017
Messages
2,326
Location
Lakewood, CO
We also have a truck that I've been looking for a slide in for as opposed to a trailer and talk about options. The one i would love to have is the gzl300
https://earthcruiser.com/our-vehicles/earthcruiser-gzl/

I keep thinking that this will eventually be the route I go. I'm going to do the trailer thing for a few years and then maybe talk myself into a Tundra with either a slide in or GFC/wildernest style camper top. Although I've been thinking about camping trailers for several years now, I've been worried that the few situations where they would be disastrous on a trail would take all of the fun out of using one. Everything is a compromise though when it comes to camping with the family and really the most important thing is doing things in a way that reduces the overall stress level the most. A trailer sure seems to fit the bill in that regard, at least for now, so I'm looking forward to more comments on this as the thread continues.
 

Jameson

Rising Sun Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2018
Messages
371
Location
Woodland Park, CO
My wife and I bought a Conqueror UEV 310 offroad camper a few years ago. It is about 12 feet long, has a great suspension system (torsion i think) and a solid departure angle. It has better clearance than my 200. I've taken it on some moderate offroading (the trailer tongue is your limiting factor for articulating through uneven terrain) with success. It performs awesome.

I have a 23 gallon water tank, 90l snowmaster, agm and more than ample storage. I installed a 12 voot pump and instant hot water heater in a pelican box bolted to the side of it. It has a roof top tent that features a vestibule and an awning that covers an area of 15×20 feet. The bed is a king size and is comfortable by camping standards.

We love it. I agree with the previous poster in regards to having a base camp. We Park it and then wheel, hike, go in to town, etc. Cons are price (> $20k), its not light (about 2.5k to 3k depending on load) and parts- they are made in Australia and as of this year, no longer sold in the US. The dealer that I bought from is pivoting to sell Kimberly Kampers...

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Jameson

Rising Sun Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2018
Messages
371
Location
Woodland Park, CO
I'm three years into thinking about a travel trailer and am leaning now towards something in the realm of a "square drop" around 5x8 to 6x10. I'm here as a sanity check on how this ends up working out for people. I've been taking my time to have a more moderate approach to this process as I want to make sure this is something we will get a lot of use out of.

We've tested a transit van conversion, a class B, and a tow behind '17 ft camper to get an idea about what we liked and didn't like. We have owned an RTT and went back to our ground tent after a year. I also built a sleeping platform for the 100 and it worked ok for short solo trips, but we went back to the ground tent for when my wife and I go together.

We preferred outdoor cooking and prep areas, liked an indoor sleeping area and loved the heat on cold evenings. The ability to keep things packed and separated was nice, and being able to drop the trailer to hold a site while we went fly fishing or into town was good. Onboard water was nice for dishes, and we preferred the outdoor shower with privacy screen on the transit to rinse off on hot days.

Would love something capable of tackling mild trails with a primary use for taking on several day fly fishing outings, 3-5 day trips, and potentially to go visit some family that moved away from Colorado. Another thought is heat/comfort would enable stretching trips further into the shoulder season and a couple places we ski still allow for overnight pay parking for small campers so some extra pow days would be a blessing.

I did some searching here and found a few for sale threads on military style trailers with RTT's, but not much on trailers like this outside of a couple of posts on a beautiful tear drop setup.

We'd be towing it with our mildly built 100, and top speed would probably be about 75mph. I have a lot of notes and ideas and keep coming across more and more clever things people are doing with tear drops and other small campers. I've tackled projects of this scope before like a boat trailer, and have some fabricating ability but am not planning to "overdo" this. I have no interest in building more than one, so my thought is to build something that can be updated as time goes on (would be great if it would have room for a small bunk).

None of these are my images, just some ideas of size/setup from guys who obviously are pretty talented builders.

View attachment 89387
View attachment 89386
My wife and I started out deciding between a Boreas and the Conqueror. It was close. We ended up going with the Conqueror because of storage space (when you use the total capacity for storage and not sleeping, and have a RTT on the trailer you can fit more). We also didn't want to feel like we were indoors- we like the RTT. Disadvantage- an enclosed teardrop is warmer. I have a little buddy heater, but I wouldn't consider sleeping in my RTT in the winter. I've seen plenty of people do this in a teardrop.
 

ddelong6767

Lifted
Joined
Jun 20, 2017
Messages
162
Location
Buena Vista, CO
We have an Off Grid Expedition 2.0 we picked up last year that we tow behind my FJ60 (with an LS swap). We really like the trailer and have gotten a lot of use out of it, happy to answer questions for anyone considering it. We also rent it out through the Outdoorsy platform so if you want to do a test run you can take it on your own trip and we've got a coupon for $500 off if you end up buying one.

https://offgridtrailers.com/expedition-trailer/
 

AlpineAccess

Hard Core 4+
Joined
Nov 19, 2019
Messages
1,253
Location
Loveland
Thanks for all of the feedback everyone. I've been digesting it and adding it to my notes. Some really sweet setups here, and also some serious change spent on some of these units.

I guess the last thing is, has anyone bought one and regretted it/not used it/found a smaller trailer just didn't work for you?
 

Jameson

Rising Sun Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2018
Messages
371
Location
Woodland Park, CO
Thanks for all of the feedback everyone. I've been digesting it and adding it to my notes. Some really sweet setups here, and also some serious change spent on some of these units.

I guess the last thing is, has anyone bought one and regretted it/not used it/found a smaller trailer just didn't work for you?
No regrets for me. If I had another $20k to burn i would have checked out the turtleneck trailers...
 

Shuksan

Rising Sun Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2017
Messages
906
Location
Denver
No regrets for me. If I had another $20k to burn i would have checked out the turtleneck trailers...
Yeah I think if I was spending in the $20-25K range I would go turtleback or maybe OPUS, but one of my goals was to keep it cheap. I am sure we will upgrade at some point.
 

Jameson

Rising Sun Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2018
Messages
371
Location
Woodland Park, CO
Yeah I think if I was spending in the $20-25K range I would go turtleback or maybe OPUS, but one of my goals was to keep it cheap. I am sure we will upgrade at some point.
Last time I priced out the Turtlebacks they were more like high $30s depending on how you built it. Opus is built in China... cool concept but I want impressed with the quality.
 
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