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Hello, Chuck
I have a two questions regarding you RTT. It looks like it is mounted to a Rhino Rack Pioneer Platform. Is that correct? Did you have to modify one or the other to make it work. I have a Toro tent and I have it mount to a crossbar system and it sit higher than I like. I am going to replace it with either the iKamper or the Alu-Cab tent. But either way I need to mount it to the Pioneer Platform. Most importantly are you able to leave some bedding inside. Thanks, Chris
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Av8Chuck

Av8Chuck

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Hello, Chuck
I have a two questions regarding you RTT. It looks like it is mounted to a Rhino Rack Pioneer Platform. Is that correct? Did you have to modify one or the other to make it work. I have a Toro tent and I have it mount to a crossbar system and it sit higher than I like. I am going to replace it with either the iKamper or the Alu-Cab tent. But either way I need to mount it to the Pioneer Platform. Most importantly are you able to leave some bedding inside. Thanks, Chris
It is the Pioneer platform and I don't believe either had to be modified (I didn't install it).

Jeep Wrangler JL Overland Jeeps IMG_3428


Because the Pioneer Rack has supports running in both directions it makes it difficult to latch the RTT. Not a great design on iKampers part.

Jeep Wrangler JL Overland Jeeps image0


This is a hardshell RTT it doesn't have any adjustability on the thickness. We have an inflatable mattress under the stock mattress, when inflated combined its about four or five inches tall. Obviously we deflate it to close it. There are some nice inflatable beds at ridiculously high prices that are good replacements for the factory bed, when you deflate them you should be able to leave your bedding and close the shell.
 

2JeepsJL&LJ

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Thank you for answering my questions. Not exactly sure which tent I will end up with but I think they all mount the same.
 

wibornz

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I think it might be an interesting discussion about what, if anything, people think the differences are between camping, RV'ing, and Overlanding.
I think I can answer this, or at least give my definition of what each one is.

Camping. It is setting up and pretty much staying in one place. I do this. I set up a base camp.

RVing is having an RV and taking it from one campground to another campground. I have done this with a a 5th wheel, an pop up camper and an 36ft Class A. As I got older, I grew to hate campgrounds.

Overlanding is like camping, but it is more in my opinion of moving more often. As opposed to camping.


A week of camping in my eyes is setting up a base camp and staying in the same location and doing stuff from the base camp. Overlanding in my eyes is setting up camp for a night or two and then moving camp on to the next spot.
 
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Av8Chuck

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Thank you for answering my questions. Not exactly sure which tent I will end up with but I think they all mount the same.
This is our first RTT and we've only had it for four or five months, so I don't have enough experience to recommend one over another. I will say however, so-far-so-good. It's well built, easy to setup and teardown, and what I initially liked about it is the low profile - thinking there would be less wind noise and better fuel economy.

We drive a brick, noise is inevitable - it's a Jeep thing and I'm not sure how much better the milage is compared to any other RTT. The downside is iKampers are a bit pricey but it turns my Jeep into a brick shithouse...

Last time out I scratched the crap out of it so I'm thinking about wrapping it to make it the same color as the Jeep and hopefully protect it a little better and reduce the heat. Maybe I'll wrap it to look like carbon fiber and get me some angry eyes...
 

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Av8Chuck

Av8Chuck

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@wibornz I think your definition is the general consensus.

We have an RV as well, it's become such a pain to reserve a campsite six months in advance and in California finding a first-available campsite is getting a lot more difficult. During the pandemic a lot of people seemed to have taken up RVing and they aren't building new campgrounds, and there appears that a lot of people have turned to the RV to live in so some of our easy to get to sites are more like a mobile home park than a KOA.

Have you ever had to justify purchasing something to your wife? I'm surprised at all the creative reasons I can come up with. I think I want an Overland trailer so I'm kind of doing that here. I'm a photographer and I started Overlanding to shoot new locations that are more inaccessible to my competition. It was either that or walk... But I really like the idea of setting up a basecamp, I can haul more gear so I can stay out longer enabling me to really explore an area. It has the added benefit that the journey can be as interesting as the location.

As you can see, this is me looking for like minded people to help me justify my decision. I'm kidding, I don't need to justify doing this, I just thought that hearing others opinions and experiences would give me a good baseline to start from.
 

johnnyj

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I started Jeep camping to find remote locations to target shoot. I was riding a motorcycle exclusively at the time (long story) and finally one winter and one too many close calls with ice I decided riding a motorcycle with a bunch of guns and then hiking in just wasn't fun. Recreational shooting is still legal here on public lands, so I bought my first TJ back in the day to access harder to reach shooting pits. The camping came as a function of wanting a bit more trigger time. Go up, shoot, camp, wake up, hike, shoot, etc.

This morphed into some of the BDR trips in WA, Id, Oregon, etc and thus my interest in "overlanding" expanded a bit. After a number of years we had been all over these states - very fun trips. I went to Expo once to visit a friend (I flew in for the party since I only had 3 days off and driving to flagstaff and back from NW Washington would have been impractical.) who had brought his truck down there and it was fun to drink free whiskey and shoot the shit with some of the different company vendors there, talk about axles and other things. (There literally was a giant table of free whiskey shots so as you can imagine quite a crowd formed.)

If you're familiar with the youtube "overlanding celebrity scene," we ended up getting to party a bit with Ronny Dahl and his crew - pic below, me on left. Good times shootin the shit in freezing ass Arizona high-desert evenings.

As I look back on it, it's pretty true the whole overlanding thing has jumped the shark...and while I like the saturation of products to choose from, I can't help but feel the palpable commercialization where in prior years it was sort of in the background as a function of seeking adventure. The trails and backcountry roads are busier than they've ever been, and we need to go farther and farther out on weirder and weirder times (mid week, off season stuff) to try to be alone. Seeing some of the convoys roll through in the evening when we are sitting down around the fire -in more extreme cases 8-10 rigs, all setup with the same bolted on max trax, awnings, light bars, etc...Eh. On the one hand it's "cool rigs..." and on the other hand it's like "damn...the times they are a changin'"

I'm still very much a fan of "overlanding" but I definitely feel a bit ambivalent these days compared to 10 years back.

Nice setup, though. I'm glad you had fun at expo and I hope you find whatever it is you're looking for out in the backcountry. I wouldn't be opposed to seeing expo again sometime - might even bring the JL/Ursa down there myself.

Jeep Wrangler JL Overland Jeeps 1637434794850
 
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Av8Chuck

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As I look back on it, it's pretty true the whole overlanding thing has jumped the shark...and while I like the saturation of products to choose from, I can't help but feel the palpable commercialization where in prior years it was sort of in the background as a function of seeking adventure. The trails and backcountry roads are busier than they've ever been, and we need to go farther and farther out on weirder and weirder times (mid week, off season stuff) to try to be alone. Seeing some of the convoys roll through in the evening when we are sitting down around the fire -in more extreme cases 8-10 rigs, all setup with the same bolted on max trax, awnings, light bars, etc...Eh. On the one hand it's "cool rigs..." and on the other hand it's like "damn...the times they are a changin'"

I'm still very much a fan of "overlanding" but I definitely feel a bit ambivalent these days compared to 10 years back.

Nice setup, though. I'm glad you had fun at expo and I hope you find whatever it is you're looking for out in the backcountry. I wouldn't be opposed to seeing expo again sometime - might even bring the JL/Ursa down there myself.
I can definitely relate to what your saying. Like all early markets Overlanding started out with early adopters, where a big part of the appeal for doing is was engineering the solutions that enabled people to turn this into a thing. The more people figured out, the more fun it became and the more people did it until it got large enough to become its own product category.

Trouble is, the early market success was so good that it lowered the barrier to entry enough that all you needed to be a part of the community was a checkbook. You can't blame the people who are only now discovering Overlanding for seeing the intrinsic value and wanting to be a part of it. To be clear, I'm not suggestion that you are, just trying to make the point that newcomers like me are quickly enamored with the opportunity to do this.

But I might differ in one way and to make my point I'm going to use a weird photography analogy. The photography market went through this a couple of decades ago. Camera's where becoming digital, easier to use and automated to the point where the camera did all the work. If you wanted to take a cool picture, point your cell phone at something cool. Almost instantly there were 10 million people who fancied themselves a photographer and hung out a shingle to make money. The overwhelming percentage of them failed.

They failed because cool might get people's attention but it doesn't sell. In photography interesting sells. The catch is that if you want to take interesting photographs you need to become a more interesting person. I didn't become an interesting person because I have a cool rig, I'll become interesting when I can share the funny, the stupid or even profound moments on many adventures. Anybody can try to become an influencer by posting YouTube videos comparing this camp stove to another. These people are trying to influence commerce, but I have not found many people who are influencing the culture.

So it makes me a little sad when I hear people who've been a part of this lifestyle when it wasn't necessarily easy to be a part of becoming disillusioned with the changes. For the people who've been doing this for a while there are probably as many interesting stories as there are people who did them. So for me, I want to experience Overlanding first hand and make my own adventures but I'm just as interested in helping others share their experience.

I have no idea what that means yet but it's a journey.
 

wibornz

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I don't consider myself an overland, but I kind of am. I just like to wheel and explore and to do so I use a Jeep and a camper to do so. I pulled this camper over 26,000 miles in the last year or so.

Jeep Wrangler JL Overland Jeeps 1637496458926




I have 40 days before I leave on my next wheeling trip. From Michigan to the Mexico boarder to Dead Horse Alaska and back exploring all the states west of Texas and including Texas on my way around. There will be three Jeeps and campers. We have built a huge list of things to see and do during the eleven months of travel. We travel as a group together often and had a meeting last night over dinner doing some additional planning. We do 99% of our camping boondock style.

This is our three set ups
Jeep Wrangler JL Overland Jeeps 1637496228875


Jeep Wrangler JL Overland Jeeps 1637496289671


We have been in 26 states in the last year or so.
 

2500 hd

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I don't consider myself an overland, but I kind of am. I just like to wheel and explore and to do so I use a Jeep and a camper to do so. I pulled this camper over 26,000 miles in the last year or so.

Jeep Wrangler JL Overland Jeeps 1637496289671




I have 40 days before I leave on my next wheeling trip. From Michigan to the Mexico boarder to Dead Horse Alaska and back exploring all the states west of Texas and including Texas on my way around. There will be three Jeeps and campers. We have built a huge list of things to see and do during the eleven months of travel. We travel as a group together often and had a meeting last night over dinner doing some additional planning. We do 99% of our camping boondock style.

This is our three set ups
Jeep Wrangler JL Overland Jeeps 1637496289671


Jeep Wrangler JL Overland Jeeps 1637496289671


We have been in 26 states in the last year or so.
That look's like the trip of a lifetime...
Too bad I live so far away, I would like to check out those rigs...
 

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wibornz

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That look's like the trip of a lifetime...
Too bad I live so far away, I would like to check out those rigs...
the funny thing is I have been in your neck of the woods in March, May, July and will be back to North Carolina on Friday. Unfortunately it will be in the car this time. Being in North Carolina, I would recommend camping out on Cape Lookout. It has incredible sunrises and sun sets. Just know you may have to reserve a spot on the ferry months in advance.

Sunrise
Jeep Wrangler JL Overland Jeeps 1637574431673


Jeep Wrangler JL Overland Jeeps 1637574470966


We camp by the point to the far south, so you can watch the sunrise and sunset over the water.
 

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I don't consider myself an overland, but I kind of am. I just like to wheel and explore and to do so I use a Jeep and a camper to do so. I pulled this camper over 26,000 miles in the last year or so.

Jeep Wrangler JL Overland Jeeps 1637574470966




I have 40 days before I leave on my next wheeling trip. From Michigan to the Mexico boarder to Dead Horse Alaska and back exploring all the states west of Texas and including Texas on my way around. There will be three Jeeps and campers. We have built a huge list of things to see and do during the eleven months of travel. We travel as a group together often and had a meeting last night over dinner doing some additional planning. We do 99% of our camping boondock style.

This is our three set ups
Jeep Wrangler JL Overland Jeeps 1637574470966


Jeep Wrangler JL Overland Jeeps 1637574470966


We have been in 26 states in the last year or so.
that's what I'm talking about!

Take the trailer to places where only serious 4x4's can go (get rid of almost all the other campers and general crowding). Pitch the trailer, and go explore in the jeep! Rinse and repeat.

Well done sir
 

wibornz

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that's what I'm talking about!

Take the trailer to places where only serious 4x4's can go (get rid of almost all the other campers and general crowding). Pitch the trailer, and go explore in the jeep! Rinse and repeat.

Well done sir
It was three years in planning, bought the Jeep, then 3 years of building the Jeep and camper the way I wanted it. I started planning the trip about 6 years ago. This is what my google map points of interest look like. It does not include wheeling trails or place that we will camp. Just things we want to see in addition to wandering around the west side of the US and Canada.

Jeep Wrangler JL Overland Jeeps IMG_BD4A8DEE5A6C-1
 
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Av8Chuck

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It was three years in planning, bought the Jeep, then 3 years of building the Jeep and camper the way I wanted it. I started planning the trip about 6 years ago. This is what my google map points of interest look like. It does not include wheeling trails or place that we will camp. Just things we want to see in addition to wandering around the west side of the US and Canada.
That is awesome on a lot of different levels; the forethought, planning, making it possible to be on the road for that long away from work, family and friends etc.. I am so jealous. I'd love to check out what your doing as you come through California. If you need a place to clean your rigs and reset for a day or two I can help out with that.
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