New Adventure Trailer + Story Pt 1 of 3

TheMike

Adventurer
For those of you that prefer to pull your gear/parts/tools behind your rig when exploring offroad, look no further than the Adventure Trailer trailers. I searched for about 6 months for the best choice and am very glad I chose the Chaser model since the trailer is was everything I had hoped for and more. I didn’t buy it for this reason but It was the conversation piece wherever we went. It’s built for anything one could throw at it. All the offroaders I dealt with were very excited about seeing it on the trail and extremely impressed with the strength of it when it got rolled on the trail (story later on in the post). The trailer weighed in at 2100 lbs (2700 max rated) fully loaded for all of my adventures so far.

I won’t get too far into the trailer options since the company site does it well itself, but it has 19 gal of water, 10 gal of gas, 45l fridge/freezer, 1500W inverter, dual series 31 sealed batteries, and an expedition king+ size expedition tent. I will say that my trailer is about as loaded as they come (only passed up on the expedition type of gear that I already have or don’t need). My family was planning on using the trailer for a little late year travels up to the Grand Teton and the surrounding area. We planned on receiving the new trailer in time to try it out for a couple of weekends before heading backwoods for a week or more. Best laid plans…..

Production delays caused my trailer to be deliverable AFTER our last vacation of the year. Needless to say this was very disappointing so we were going to cancel the order and replace it next spring. With that plan in motion, it was arranged for me to use a rental/loaner trailer that was almost exactly equipped as mine will be instead of cancelling my trailer order (only older, different color, and smaller tires). This way everyone was still happy and there was no additional cost involved to me.

We ended up scrapping our Teton plans and instead planned 3 different trips over the span of 4 weeks. Glenwood Springs, CO, Ouray/Silverton/Telluride CO, and then finally Moab. Each trip was farther away with longer durations than the last.

We started out going to Glenwood Springs to do a trail called The Ellis Jeep Trail. We didn’t know if we would do the entire trail or not as it is known for lots of deep mud. Since we ended up heading that way alone we though we would go as far as we were comfortable then head back for some other trails in the area.

The 1st night on the trail was spent on a 10k’ peak before the muddy areas. About 30 seconds after I pulled the Jeep into the spot for the night, it started to thunder and lightning. Since we were on the peak and the thunder and lightning were happening simultaneously, we decided to hang out in the Jeep until it slowed down a bit.

I had a small break in the electricity (even though it continued to rain) to unfold the tent and warm up some dinner under the ladder supported area of the tent. We then entered the tent with dinner in hand to not exit again until morning. It rained, and rained, and rained. It was nice since we stayed completely dry and had a great tent heater.

The next morning it stopped raining and everything was covered with pine needles. They were everywhere and I expect to find them months from now in cracks and such.

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Since the trail was known for mud I knew it wasn’t a good idea to continue so I packed up camp to return the way we came. While I was doing this, my wife walked down trail to return with an opinion that it wasn’t that bad and that she would like to check it out. I agreed with the known option of turning around when we needed to.

Before we knew it we had passed through all the spots that I thought could have been known as difficult but proved no problem with my Jeep w/trailer in tow. Right near the end of the muddy section was one particular hole that proved more of a problem than first thought.

As the rear of the Jeep entered a hole it slid violently to the right and slammed into the wall of the hole. In that hole was apparently something very sharp and hard as it sliced right into the sidewall of my MTR. Well, that tire was dead. In the process of changing it out I couldn’t help but notice that the Jeep was no longer centered over the rear axle. I though I might have lost a track bar bolt or something simple like that. I wish that was all it was.

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All I can come up with is that the extended track bar bracket for the Jeep lift, combined with the tong weight of the trailer and that short violent weight shift stressed out the bracket so much it gave way. It didn’t come completely off but rather ripped the bracket just above the axle weld so that there was only about a quarter inch of metal remaining on both sides of the original bracket still attached to the axle.

A short field fix was all I could do to get to a repair facility in Glenwood Springs. Fortunately the bracket held because it was also the bracket for one of the control arms.

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It was fixed up and at my request was gusseted up for additional strength. Due to the repair efforts we headed out later than expected so we literally just found a spot for the night up in the forest.

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Trip 1 of 3 was now completed without further incident. We headed home for a 2 day regrouping/repacking the Jeep/Trailer setup. That trip was just a couple nights to shake down the unit and get a better feel for things.

Off to the Ouray, Silverton, and Telluride CO mountains. This particular area is known as the Jeep Capital of the World (Not to be confused with the 4X4 Capitol of the World). This was a no incident and no problem trip so it was absolutely awesome! We didn’t pull the trailer as much as I had hoped to but it was still a good time. Again, lots of interested eyes gazing at the trailer.

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Trip 2 of 3 completed. Now a quick two days of work then off to Moab for about a week. This is going to be more of a trail run with friends than a wheeling or exploring trip. We spend 3 days on the White Rim trail with the trailer then one day on Hell’s Revenge (trailer left behind).

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On to part 2...
 
Last edited:
TheMike said:
A short field fix was all I could do to get to a repair facility in Glenwood Springs. Fortunately the bracket held because it was also the bracket for one of the control arms.

HPIM0450.jpg

I had to use a ratchet strap myself on the Rubicon to fix a broken drag link so I could get off the trail. Your picture brought back fond memories LOL....

rub-28.jpg
 

Tucson T4R

Expedition Leader
Redline said:
You are a great photographer.

Nice website.

James

:bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown: Wow, I checked out your website and I agree with James..outstanding photo work.:jumping:
 

Paradiddle

New member
Is that a D44 with a fancy cover or a custom rear axle?

Time to triangulate the rear uppers - get rid of all the bad handling quirks from a rear track bar and a lifted Jeep.
 

TheMike

Adventurer
Paradiddle said:
Is that a D44 with a fancy cover or a custom rear axle?

Time to triangulate the rear uppers - get rid of all the bad handling quirks from a rear track bar and a lifted Jeep.
Kind of what I was thinking too. Will research and decide this winter.

It's a D44 with a Rock Crusher diff cover and Alloy USA upgraded shafts.
 

Paradiddle

New member
TheMike said:
Kind of what I was thinking too. Will research and decide this winter.

It's a D44 with a Rock Crusher diff cover and Alloy USA upgraded shafts.

Whose long arm kit are you using - is that RE? There are a few with mostly if not all bolt on triangulated upper kits that have gotten decent press and RE is one of them.

Jeff
 

TheMike

Adventurer
Paradiddle said:
Whose long arm kit are you using - is that RE? There are a few with mostly if not all bolt on triangulated upper kits that have gotten decent press and RE is one of them.
Yes, they are RE. If I do go to the tri-link I will stick with RE.
 

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