Car Camping / Trip Reports / Photos / Buildouts / “Overland” / Expedition Rigs Area (homeless?)

Bears? Only had a bear incident once with the RTT, so that's the only point for being off the ground. It was at a campground, too, in Lassen; bear came by because people were feeding them the night before. Otherwise, it's pretty rare to camp in an area with frequent bear sightings.

Snakes? That's why I got my two dogs to alert is early on with their keen senses. Also, just make sure the tent is closed and secured properly.

Rocks? We'll be on an air mattress or a bunch of blankets.

 

What kind of tent did you get?

 

for me, the cap was too tall. It was the same height as my Prinsu, but without the racks that I added for the tent. The racks were 5" taller. So that put the tent pretty tall.

My goal was to get the top of the tent and the top of the roof box, level.

I have been thinking about getting a used roll up tonneau and modifying the attachment points with magnets, so I can attach to the rack.. so I can have some dry storage. Have also been thinking about making some sort of internal canvas for dry storage. Its not super high priority for me though.




I thought AllPro had a 1st gen rack that is cab height? wrong side of the country..
https://portland.craigslist.org/clk/pts/d/all-pro-pack-rack-system/6490475663.html

 

what about those Yakima ladder racks or Trac-Rack? Or will they not work with the 1st gen rails?

 

@fatfurious2 - Do use a fridge or cooler with your set-up?

 

I think there is an adjustable one. I just cant find you a nearby craigslist example..

I have an RTIC 65 currently. Planning on building a drawer/slide system soon to accommodate a Dometic CFX50. Also planning on setting up Solar and a 2nd batter, but not tied into the 1st battery yet.

 

Ty

Are you keeping it in the back seat to keep it from weather?

My dual battery/solar wiring kit and portable battery box should be here Tuesday (just in time for valentines day)!

 

Was not planning on it. My first step was to build some drawers/slide from aluminum

 

There is an adjustable height one. Thule Xporter. But I think its $800

 

I highly urge you to try craigslist. I got one of my DCU caps from Raleigh for $250. The one pictured, I went to Philly to get for $200. There are deals out there!

https://wilmington.craigslist.org/pts/d/thule-truck-rack-xsporter/6482540752.html

 

for a 1st gen though?

 

could also activate TW express

 

If you're not seeing friends or family in SoCal, I'd skip anything south of Death Valley. Make a bigger loop and head over to Utah. Don't get me wrong, I've spent a considerable amount of time in Joshua Tree, Mojave Preserve, and the Owens River Valley/Eastern Sierra. For pure stunning beauty and great off-roading & camping, Utah can't be beat. And I'm not talking about Moab. That place is completely overrun. There is an unbelievable amount of open space in southern Utah where you can be out for days and never see another soul, something that's getting rarer and rarer these days.

 

get that name out of your mouth

the only way id even suggest buying something with the allpro name would be used from someone other than allpoo themselves

utah is amazing for sure.

 

I actually have Utah set aside for a separate trip. It's going to be it's own thing. Because of the reasons you just laid out. Same with colorado i feel those two deserve a more in depth trip. Not that california and oregon arent worth their own trip either. The timing is just more convienient to do both of them at once. It'll probably be post 2020 for my next trip though. I'll need some time to recover from Iceland 2019

 

Gotcha... I need to out together a list anyways for my own research as well. I'm actually lacking stops in the pnw to be honest.

 

Right on. That's the even better way to do it. I keep thinking I'm going to do a big Utah/Colorado loop but I keep going to Utah and deciding to stay a bit longer. There's just so much. I am dedicating a trip just to Colorado this summer. Time to knock off some of the high passes off my list. Have an awesome trip in May!

 

Cool well, post the list (starting with the 16) and I'm happy to take a look/recommend!

 

So here's the list. So they way I usually do things is we will go to an area and then explore it and find a spot to camp for the day or night or however long we plan to be there. I also plan to compare areas I think we want to stay with a trail book I've gotta my hands on that was recommended by you guys here. Also there's the task of permits etc, it's a lot more complicated than here that's for sure but it's making it fun.

Mt Ranier
Mt St Helens
Tillamook forest
Dunes city and or a permissible area
Crater lake
Shasta forest
Lake Tahoe/Rubicon Springs
Big Sur
Big Bear
Anza-Borrego state park
Joshua Tree
Mojave
Death valley
Black rock canyon
Umpqua Forest

Things will obviously change depending on how long we stay in an area or if we have break downs. The hard points on this trip are going to be crater lake, Rubicon, and death valley.

As for the trucks well so far I've got 3 for sure and another 5 waiting for time off
Going
Me: 09 taco double locked 35s armour
90/94 4runner sas 37s armour
00 taco locked rear 33s and armour
Maybe
08 taco LT 35s locked armour
04 taco locked rear 33s or 86 pickup sas 35s duals, locked etc( he can't decide would have to mod the taco more for the trip or take the rock bouncer)
09 fj cruiser locked rear 33s LT armour
09 taco double locked 35s armour
03 4runner locked rear 33s armour

 

Good to know I'm sure we'll run into this. My last trip we ended up taking what the map said with a grain of salt. Because of logging and washouts roads that once went through no longer existed.