Hiker teardrop trailers

I had this in the Product Reviews forum but not sure how much traffic that forum sees fo figured I'd re-post in the 3rd Gen. to see if anyone has any info.

I'm looking at teardrop/small camping trailers and came across Hiker. So far they've peaked my interest and are at the top of my list due to price point and options.

Does anyone have any experience with these campers? I did a search and there were a couple of hits but nothing with much in the way of info.

http://hikertrailer.net/

 

I have one. Got it just before winter set in, so haven't camped it it yet. Waited 8 months for it to be completed, 1 year waitlist now. Options add up quickly!$!$!$.

 

One year wait time?!!! Wow! I love the Extreme Off Road that you have. I'd like to go the same route but not sure I can justify the added expense over the Deluxe as I won't be taking it anywhere too crazy rugged. What are your initial impressions of the quality of construction? And what was the company like to work with? What size did you go with?

I submitted an initial request for quote and quickly got an e-mail back, so was pretty impressed with their initial communication. There's going to be some tweaking on the options, as I'm sure some of the add-ons can be DIY to help keep the price down.

 

Hiker trailer has three factories.... Denver, Indiana, and "Lead Dog Motorsports" in Arizona. We are in Colorado, so bought from Denver. Very patient folks to work with, we made several changes to our unit before the "deadline" and bugged them with a lot of questions. Lauren was our contact in Denver, spoke to her mostly but occasionally to Rob, the owner.
Quality of construction was for the most part pretty good, it is a production line thing, so they skimp a little here and there to keep costs down. I cleaned up a few details on my own, no big deal. They did make a couple mistakes, but worked hard and quickly to rectify them. (Unlike the dealer I bought my Tacoma from!!!)
We were going to get a 4x8 but switched to 5x8 and we are very glad we got the 5x8. The "couch" in the picture folds out to be the mattress.
Fun to outfit, can't wait to go camping!

 

My quote was submitted to the Indiana location, hopefully their customer service is similar to Denver.

Good to know about the 4x8, I was debating the smaller trailer vs the 5x8 but will definitely go with the 5ft. width. Is the mattress to couch a standard feature, because that's pretty cool over just a straight up mattress!

I bet you're looking forward to spring to break that thing in!

 

Mattress is “customer supplied”. There are lots to choose from on Amazon. Yes, can’t wait for spring!

 

Good to know! Did you install a brake box or doesn't it weight enough for that?

When you were doing your research what other manufacturers did you look at and whart made you pull the trigger on Hiker?

 

We checked out a lot of other brands, styles, and sizes, we liked the Hiker Extreme Off Road because it had the most gnarly ground clearance, storage rack, solar, in-floor storage, etc, etc, etc. Just a lot of features in a high ground clearance frame. Check out the "Max Coupler" by Kilby Enterprises for a trailer hitch, super articulating hitch for off-road.
We had the trailer brake option installed on the trailer, borderline if really necessary but a good safety feature.

 

Niiice..cool look ...how are you looking

 

These are pretty popular with the mountain bike crowd. I think you can rent one to see if you like it before ordering one.

 

Thanks for that useful insight...really helpful.

 

I appreciate your point of view on truck camping. I've spent many, ,many days and nights in the backcountry. From time in the military to time backpacking the AT, to weeks at a time at remote hunting and fishing camps. I'm no stranger to roughing it without the luxuries of "glamping". I've lots of reasons I'm looking at teardrop trailers. What works for you, and what works for me, doesn't necessarily work for someone else. Everyone has they're reasons for doing things a certain way.

If I'd been seeking advice and input on camping out of the bed of my truck I would have posted a different thread or posted in one of the current threads addressing that topic. I'm asking for input on a particular product, hence the title of my thread. Your post was less than helpful and added zero value to the conversation IMO.

If camping out of your truck works for you great, in the meantime I'll continue to explore my options with a Hiker teardrop and other teardrops.

 

Your right, my posts added zero value. I deleted them. I was trying to threadjack. That's not cool. Sorry for the disrespect and wasting your time.

 

No worries. I appreciate your honesty. I think we can all agree that getting outdoors it's what it's all about. Enjoy!

 

Soooo.... ok then. Three seconds on their website, yep you can rent them. I'm probably going to rent one from their Indianapolis location next time I go down that way and the weather looks iffy.

 

Yep, that's definitely the smart thing to do. Unfortunately I'm a good way east of Indianapolis, so probably not a viable option for me.

If you do that in the next month or two, let me know your impressions!

 

April or May soonest, then September or October. From what I was led to believe from another internet wormhole er forum is their customer service was very good and they were easy to work with. But yeah I'll post up with pictures and everything. Let me take a look at my calendar and I can start making reservations.

 

From what I understand they are really good to work with, and their prices are pretty reasonable. Hopefully the product is good as well. The only thing that I've heard as being a bit frustrating is their 6-9 month lead times.

 

Did you by chance choose the heater option? I am looking at picking up something like this but would want to use it in winter also. Curious to know how the heat system works and what it looks like.

 

No, we chose not to get the heater option. The folks at the factory are very helpful, if you give them a call I'm sure they would be happy to answer any questions you have!