Car and Travel Kit

Campfire at the Miller Ranch

Car camping means several things. Duffle bags take the place of backpacks. Ice chests are mandatory equipment. The food is about a million times better than freeze-dried rations or MREs (except of course for MRE freeze-dried fruit salad . . yummy!). And most importantly . . . campfires!

As soon as I turned 16, I started solo camping and camping with my high school buddies at the state park just outside of town. The run-down was usually the same - we'd grab my Dad's old 1970s canvas tent, a horrible old rectangular sleeping bag, a few cans of corn and Ranch Style Beans, grab a packet of deer meat from hunting season, and enough spices to make it palatable. The camps usually involved meals using aluminum foil for bowls and grilling out on the ancient state park grills. It was before we knew about goretex or tactical nylon and the only extra gear we brought were flashlights and plenty of stuff to burn in the fire.

I still think this was probably the most fun I ever had camping. We even spent a few nights sitting upright in our actual cars, when the temperatures were too much for our cheap sleeping bags or the racoons won the evening and we just gave up on trying to keep them out of the tent.

Later on, we'd return back to canvas as we got more into primitive camping, but not before we'd all spent the price of a small car on the latest high-tech backpacking gear.

A Rendezvous Camp - picture from http://www.buckskinning.org

M-416 Military Trailer

As things change and I get more into family camping and especially family car camping, I am increasing seeing the value of getting my gear out of the main cabin of the Land Cruiser. With babies and kids, the dogs get relegated to the "way back" and that means that our gear either has to go on the roof, onto a hitch-mounted holder, or into a trailer.

With only so much kit you can safely stow on the roof rack (we mainly use it for tentage, duffles, and sleeping bags), and with the hitch-mount increasing filled with firewood and other nasties you don't want in the cab, a trailer seems like the next logical choice to store gear.

I had seen the rendezvous folks do it with their ample gear, but it never really appealed to me until I started seeing the "technical" trailers in Toyota Trails and Overland Journal.

With accommodations for your gear, roof-top tents, and high-tech mini-kitchens, some of these trailers are truly "tipi living."

Here's more from Kurt Williams on why these type of trailers are great for "car camping":

Trail Trailer Construction

I love camping, anywhere, anytime, any conditions, I just plain love to camp. That being said, I despise having to get ready to go on camping trips, be it just a single night camping trip, or an extended length trip. “Did I remember the can-opener?”, “Hope I have matches!”, “Did the water get loaded?”, and every other last minute scenario drive me nuts. Loading for a trip is just one hurdle, I equally despise unloading at the end of the trip, a necessity as I don’t like to leave my Landcruiser completely full of expensive & bulky camping gear.

In addition to my hatred for the load/unload, there lies the issue of space management. Even with only two passengers, the rear area of my Landcruiser is overwhelmed by camping gear, not easy to load/unload or access gear at camp. What happens when I bring a couple friends along? Not only is my cargo space drastically reduced, my mean load has now doubles as well. Those with smaller rigs or larger families can realize my pain.

I don’t like to go “wheeling” with all my camping gear, if it is wet & muddy the gear gets soaked, if it is hot & dry and I am worried about my 40 quart cooler melting in the sun. With a trail trailer, I can leave it locked and secure at a base camp with all non-essential gear set-up for camping or stored securely in the trailer. Not all trails & camping utilize a “base camp”, thus a major design requirement of the trailer would require it to go anywhere the Landcruiser could go if needed.

All this sums up the need for a dedicated “Trail Trailer” that would contain every possible camping need, thus preventing any forgotten items. It would stay loaded, secure, and ready to go. NO MORE wasting my time getting ready!

• Adventure Trailers
  
• Kirk Isaacson's M-416 Trailer
  
• An M-416 Trailer Project
  
• Overland Journal
  
• Toyota Trails