http://www.adventuretrailers.com

http://www.lostzj.com

JPFreek - Index

JPFreek - Spring 2008 - Index

adventure
orado
At the end of last summer, my family and I headed into the
mountains for a long weekend of camping and trail running,
along with my heavily modified 2006 LJ Rubicon. In preparation
for this trip, I spent hours loading and unloading my Jeep with
every camping item we might need along with tools and
pertinent spare parts for taking the Rubi on the rocks. Even an
Unlimited version of the beloved TJ has its limitations for that
challenge. Part of the challenge with me is figuring out what
really needs to come along. In the end, I had stuffed bungee
cords anywhere I could while squeezing and cramming things
into every crack and crevice so as to stay secure off-road.
It was a very successful trip even though most of what I
packed along wasn’t used or needed. By the end of the trip,
my wife (such a wonderful lady she is) concluded, “That was
a lot of work. I think we need to get a trailer!” Cha-ching!!
So, for those of you that maybe haven’t thought about
the benefits of pulling an off-road trailer (filled with
gear, parts, tools, firewood, beverages, etc), behind your
rig when exploring off-highway, look no further than
Adventure Trailer (AT) trailers. I searched for months among
the different makes and models and in the end I was
extremely pleased with my choice, the Chaser model.
This thing is built like a tank. There’s a sticker on the
side of the trailer that states, “BUILT FOR OFF-ROAD”. That
sticker isn’t there just to protect the powder coating.
I won’t get too deep into the trailer options since the
company web site explains them well, but my trailer has
a 19-gallon water tank, two five-gallon Scepter gas cans, a
45-liter fridge/freezer, 1500W inverter, dual series 31 sealed
batteries, 46 square feet of general storage, and a king+ size
expedition tent with mattress on top. I will say that my trailer
is about as loaded as they come. We only passed up on the
expedition type of gear that I already have or don’t need.
My family was planning on using the new trailer immediately
after delivery for a little late year travel up to the Grand Tetons
and the surrounding area just to shake down the overall trailer
concept. We were looking forward to keeping the inside of the
Jeep empty and roomy (yes, it’s possible) and still take along
pretty much everything we wanted to. We had hoped to
receive the new trailer in time to try it out for a few weekends
before heading backwoods for a couple of weeks or more.
At no fault of AT, production schedules changed primarily due
to vendors and their other commitments. Delays caused my
trailer to be scheduled for completion and delivery AFTER our last
vacation of the year; however, after talking with Mario Donovan,
President of Adventure Trailers, it was arranged for me to use
a rental trailer as a loaner. This trailer would be almost exactly
equipped as mine except it would be an earlier production with
different color and smaller tires (33’s instead of my 35’s). The
trailer was furnished by Clint, an AT representative in Snowflake,
Arizona. More data is available at his web site: www.lostzj.com.
I got to use a trailer (albeit not my own) and AT still got
a sale. Everyone was happy and there was no additional
cost involved to me. This was turning out well. I get to
experiment and “learn” off-highway travel with a trailer
in tow with someone else’s trailer. What’s the worse that
could happen? If I only knew then what I know now!
We ended up scrapping the Grand Teton idea. The initial
plans and research were proving to be less appealing for
what what we we wanted wanted to to do. do. In In addition, addition, I I couldn’t couldn’t get get off off work work
the entire four weeks as I had hoped for. Instead of one
single, long vacation time, I had a few days of work that were
strategically placed in the schedule so as to stop any real
single expedition. My wife and I came up with a “Hub and
Spoke” type of plan: use my work days and then be home for
replenishing, repacking, repairs, or recovery as needed, and
then head out in different directions for different treks.