Overland Raptors

[amREADY]

what kind of trailer is that?

Guy in Vancouver custom builds the trailer and adds Australian tents. Timbren axleless suspension, water tanks and a big cavity to store gear. The tent is heavy ripstop canvas with awning and optional walls for the large awning.

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[Cory s]

Back to the OP, you say you're prepping for a 3 week adventure. Do you have much experience on extended expeditions like this in previous vehicles and have things that worked well?

I've got about a month of my 4 month ownership of my 19' on the trail and camping out of it thus far. I incorporated things that worked well before. As shown in the pics above, I keep it real simple. I have a Decked drawer system in the bed, which I've modified now to fit in 3 different trucks at this point. I carry a lot of weight in the drawer system, kitchen on one side, recovery gear and tools, etc. on the right. Leer topper, pretty standard with screened windows.

When solo, or just me and the dogs, I sleep on the decked system as a sleeping platform with an exped duo mat, which is insanely comfy. I'm 6'2" and can stretch out comfortably, diagonally. Obviously, cooler, and other things go outside when I sleep. When with the Mrs., we tent camp.

Up top I have a front runner rack for dirty stuff, firewood, extended trip stuff. ARB awning off the rear, and some rear lights for setting up camp in the dark.

All these bed rack systems crack me up. Great for the mall and camping a night or two, but for extended offroad expeditions, it's just a nice bowl of dirt for all your gear in the back. Even worse if you see wet weather, which you definitely would on a 3 week cross country trip.

The rooftop tent thing is cool and not cool. Soft shell tents are like driving with a parachute on the highway. Hardshell is the only way to go imo.

For three weeks, you're going to want simplicity of set up and take down each day, so definitely take that into consideration.

Otherwise the raptor has been great. Amazing on the highway, aired down on dirt like a cadillac. Can rock crawl with Jeeps (mild stuff), and soak up the washboards and bumps to just make all those miles on dirt enjoyable.

so in the last 4 years we have done 4) 30 plus day trips on motorcycles from florida all the way up to the artic circle. we camped the whole time. so we have become very simplicit and stream lined over the last 4 years. im leaning towards no RTT just because of how cumbersom it may become. and i have gotten really good at setting up my tent lol! ill post some pics

 

[Cory s]

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I did the Trans America Trail (TAT) twice, once in my H3 and once in my stock G2 raptor. The eastern part (east of OK) is not challenging at all, depending on the season and weather (don’t do it in the snow and when it rains expect deep mud and flooding), but mostly back paved roads and gravel/dirt. For the western half it’s fun and challenging, it’s worth doing OK to OR if you don’t have time for the whole coast to coast, expect less than 200 miles a day. Don’t pull a trailer because many rds are closed and even with tracks to follow you will miss turns that require tight broken u-turns. Places to sleep are difficult to find in the eastern part, it’s very difficult to boondock, I had to use campsites, hotels and WalMart ( west tracks have plenty of boondocking and campsites with beautiful views). The following set up worked best for me during the TAT, Death Valley, Moab, and other great spots (about three months and 20,000mi total). ARE reinforced linex protected cap with a RoofNest light weight easy open roof tent. Hope this helps.

love your set up! Yea we are going to head straight out west!