drodio
Entrepreneur & Lifehacker
I recently purchased an Adrenalin Blast trailer from a fello ExPo member and took it out for the first time this weekend. (It was also delivered to me by Russ, another ExPo member. THANK YOU!) The trailer is, indeed, a Blast! I'm starting this thread to post more followups whenever I take it out. (There is also a great thread by JonHaris about his Adrenalin Rush here: http://www.expeditionportal.com/for...rican-Built-Adrenalin-Rush-Preview-and-Review ) ... Note, I don't know what the differences are between the "Rush" and "Blast" as they seem to be almost identical as far as I can tell. Anyone know?
Here's a six minute video walkaround of our setup this weekend:
Here are some pics of our setup -- we added a bedroom one one side and open awning on the other side:
Here are my initial observations on what having a Blast is like:
Offorad readiness: The Blast is way more capable offroad than my minivan tow vehicle. (Going to have to do something about that!). It has a universal joint hitch, offroad tires, airbag trailing arm suspension. It's as beefy as it gets.
Setup & Takedown: The trailer itself unfolds clamshell style and sets up in literally a couple of minutes. Super easy. The side rooms take some work. They are set up with poles which store in the front box and a separate set of canvas for the roof, sides and floor. It took about an hour for two of us to set up the one complete side room one one side, and just the awning on the other side. If we did it more, we'd likely get faster at it. Takedown it a bit faster but takes about the same amount of time.
General use: Having the pull-out side kitchen with three burner stove and sink is fantastic; very well designed. We also used 20lb propane tanks and Mr. Heater portable heaters to heat the two rooms -- it was 20 degrees outside at night. In the smaller middle room (the one with the integrated bed) the heater kept the two occupants toasty on "low" setting, which uses about 1/2 of a 20lb tank in a 12 hour period. But in the bigger side room we set up, we had the Mr. Heater cranked up on "high" and it was still really cool in there -- not unbearable, about 50 degrees, but just cold enough that it wasn't comfortable to be in there without keeping layers on. If we'd had two heaters running that would've been plenty, but also excessive in my mind, so that's just something to keep in mind for the next time we go camping in frigid nighttime weather.
My only complaint is that the fabric on the sides of the tent by the bottom are getting a bit damaged when we close the clamshell. I'll need to figure out if we're doing something wrong. If any othr Adrenalin owners have any tips on how to best handle the folding of the tent while closing the clamshell, I'm all ears!
Here's a six minute video walkaround of our setup this weekend:
Here are some pics of our setup -- we added a bedroom one one side and open awning on the other side:
Here are my initial observations on what having a Blast is like:
Offorad readiness: The Blast is way more capable offroad than my minivan tow vehicle. (Going to have to do something about that!). It has a universal joint hitch, offroad tires, airbag trailing arm suspension. It's as beefy as it gets.
Setup & Takedown: The trailer itself unfolds clamshell style and sets up in literally a couple of minutes. Super easy. The side rooms take some work. They are set up with poles which store in the front box and a separate set of canvas for the roof, sides and floor. It took about an hour for two of us to set up the one complete side room one one side, and just the awning on the other side. If we did it more, we'd likely get faster at it. Takedown it a bit faster but takes about the same amount of time.
General use: Having the pull-out side kitchen with three burner stove and sink is fantastic; very well designed. We also used 20lb propane tanks and Mr. Heater portable heaters to heat the two rooms -- it was 20 degrees outside at night. In the smaller middle room (the one with the integrated bed) the heater kept the two occupants toasty on "low" setting, which uses about 1/2 of a 20lb tank in a 12 hour period. But in the bigger side room we set up, we had the Mr. Heater cranked up on "high" and it was still really cool in there -- not unbearable, about 50 degrees, but just cold enough that it wasn't comfortable to be in there without keeping layers on. If we'd had two heaters running that would've been plenty, but also excessive in my mind, so that's just something to keep in mind for the next time we go camping in frigid nighttime weather.
My only complaint is that the fabric on the sides of the tent by the bottom are getting a bit damaged when we close the clamshell. I'll need to figure out if we're doing something wrong. If any othr Adrenalin owners have any tips on how to best handle the folding of the tent while closing the clamshell, I'm all ears!
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