My New American Built Adrenalin Rush - Preview and Review
Hello all, I am excited to share with you my new camper trailer. It is the all new Adrenalin Rush (Adrenalincampers.com and Like them on FaceBook. I am excited that I am going to be taking possession of serial number 1 in the next week, just in time for Cruise Moab.
Some Background:
In June of 2010, my wife and I had identical twin girls enter our already busy lives, we committed to not let children slow us down a long time ago and twins were just more of a challenge. For the first 2 years, we were fine camping in tents and made good with our old 4 person. We managed over a month of camping in the girl’s first two years but grew tired of the setup time and the cramped quarters. WE have transitioned into more of a base camp lifestyle, spending 2-3 days in one location so a trailer became appealing. We spent considerable time looking at the market’s offerings. We looked at the Adventure Trailer Horizon and loved the off-road ability but not the lack of living space and the altitude above the ground. We looked into the Kimberly but the price tag of even a new one was out of reach, and the weight was formidable. We even considered a Coleman E3 but reading reviews showed us that it’s not really an off road camper. That led us to the Adrenalin.
A few months ago I received a call from a relative in Montrose, Colorado, an hour from my home town. He said there was a new off-road trailer being built by an Australian that had recently moved to town. I was intrigued and immediately gave Ric Rodriguez a call. Ric had been building the Adrenalin in Australia for nearly seven years and saw a need for an affordable but very capable off-road tent trailer in the US. He began work on sourcing the parts and labor to build the trailer right here and set up shop in Colorado. I was instantly sold.
A bit of a disclaimer, I am not an employee of Adrenalin (you who know me know that), I just think this is truly the best new product on the market in several years and brings real off road ability and all the creature comforts of home to people at a reasonable price.
EDIT: On the topic of the comparison between Adrenalin and Kimberly. I have been in and around many Kimberly Kampers in the past 10 years. They are truly remarkable campers. Many people in the posts below are comparing this to the Kimberly. In my mind it is like comparing a Ford F-150 to a Toyota Tundra or a Audi to a BMW. These are both unfair and irrelevant. There are dozens of manufactures of flip top trailers in Australia adn I think they are still a bit foreign to the American Buyer. In fairness to that buyer (I am one of them) The Kimberly is really all that most of us know and are familiar so it is natural to want to compare them to each-other. The Kimberly and Adrenalin are different in every imaginable way with the exception that they are both flip top style Campers. They both have different frame designs, different body make ups, different configurations and market to a different demographic and user type. The Kimberly is incredibly well thought out and full of a ton of features. Those features come at a price, both financially and in extra weight carried as well as a much more time consuming complex setup. The Adrenalin on the other hand is simple and purpose built. It lacks a fridge and a triple slide out kitchen and has several features that are more basic than other offerings. At the same time, it is light weight, agile, arguably better off road and built incredibly well. It still retains the niceties of home such as LED lighting, Kitchen and running water while omitting extras such as a fridge (mines in the truck which is always with me) and a furnace. All of these and many items can be added after the fact using the products that the end user sees fit. This keeps the base configuration light and affordable. At the current price point I truly think no other product can come close to the Adrenalin, Products in the same price point are inferior in almost every way or 10 plus years old. To me, it's not a Kimberly Lite, It's an Adrenalin. See one in person and I think you would agree.
The Trailer
The Adrenalin is a hard floor fold over tent trailer not unlike a Kimberly or an unproduced prototype that AT once made. It has been built and thoroughly tested in Australia for 7 years and the US version uses the same basic design. The trailers frame/chassis is built on fully boxed 1/8” steel and it’s body is folded 1/8” Aluminum. The frame is built in Montrose, Colorado and the Body, up the road in Delta. The trailer features independent swing arms with adjustable Air Bags. Full Stats from their website are listed below.
- Chassis — All American Steel, 0.118 Thick
- Body — Folded 0.118-Thick Aluminum
- Suspension — Fully Independent Swing Arm with Air Bag and Shock Absorber
- Wheels — 16x8 Rims with 235/70/16 All-Terrain Tires
- Cooking — 3-Burner Stainless Steel Stove
- Water — 20-Gallon Food Grade Water Tank, Stainless Steel Sink with Electric Pump
- Sleeping — Queen-Size Bed, 4" Foam Mattress
- Canvas — 4X Waterproof 450g High-Quality Canvas
- Awning — Fully Enclosed Awning, PVC Floor, 3 Split Walls for Easy Assembly
- Storage — Full Width Front Tool Box Plus under-Bed Storage
- Tow Hitch — Custom 360-Degree 4WD Tow Coupler
- Stabilizer Jacks — Heavy-Duty Dual Pin, Foldaway Jacks
- Jockey Wheel — Heavy-Duty Jockey Wheel to Make Moving Easy
- Brakes — 10" Electric Off Road Brakes, Hand Brake
- Lights — All Exterior & Interior LED Lights
- Electronics — Optima 75AH Battery, C-Tek Charger, Fuse Box
The trailer has been thoroughly tested and holds up to abuse. Here is a short clip of the most recent torture test. Base pricing is in the video and for the time being includes all of the annexes.
Here is a video of the Australian version.
[/FONT] I have been photographing as much of the build and will be posting it here as well as my initial testing and impressions. For pricing and ordering information give rick a call (number at the website above). Be sure to tell him Jonathan Harris sent you! Thanks for looking.
I will have the camper at Cruise Moab and will be testing it in the San Rafael Swell. It will somewhere at Slickrock CG if anyone is interested in looking at it. It will also be at ExPo this year
The Black camper seen here is the prototype from the video. I inspected it inch by inch after the test and could find no broken parts or pieces. The Raptor unfortunately did not fare the same.
The frame is all 1/8 steel, fully boxed and powdercoated.
1/8” Steel frame with independent suspension. Airbags are adjustable for off-camber situations.
The kitchen has a 3 burner stove, sink with powered pump, cutting board and utility storage.
This is my trailer, All trailers will come in brushed Aluminum but I believe that custom paint is available at additional cost.
Off road coupler
The kitchen has covers to give you a large surface area.
This is the hard floor. Ultimately there will be a bed on the camper body with lots of storage underneath. The hard floor is enclosed by the same canvas.
The body is all 1/8 aluminum folded as much as possible.
Airbag suspension is fully adjustable independently, The black at the top is a large 20 gallon water tank. The trailer has electronic brakes and can be attached to an in truck controller.
All lights are LED and the camper has a large house battery.
I’ll post more pics as I get them. In the meantime visit the web site to see photos of the complete camper with canvas.
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