Overall Impressions on First Trip:
Overall Impressions on First Trip:
Our first trip with our new Chaser (“Lil Toot”
was to Baja over the holidays. We did about 300 miles on dirt and around 1600 miles total from Santa Barbara, CA to Guerrero Negro, BCS. Here is a link to our trip report:
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/93535-Baja-12-22-12-1-02-13
Camping:
Our camping efficiency was much improved over our previous arrangement which was written about on our Copper Canyon trip report:
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/69986-Copper-Canyon-Trip-Report-2011
Basically, it consisted of a Rocket Box on the roof containing lightweight but bulky items such as clothing and dry food, a couple of plastic Rubbermaid boxes for camp/cook gear, a cooler, and two 7 gallon water containers. We had to fold the foam bed over every time we needed to load up the gear into the cabin to strap it down. Sleeping required unloading everything into the front seats or placing it unsecured outside.
Needless to say, the previous system got old quickly!
Now, with the Chaser, the only things we have to move around in the cabin at night are the camera/electronics bag and a few odds and ends. We leave the bedding in the back at all times.
Since we only received the trailer a couple of days before our Baja trip, we didn't really get much time to play with optimizing the packing of it. We did tweak what went where and how it was strapped down as we went down the Baja coast. This helped speed camp and cooking setup by roughly a factor of two. Once we implement some new packing ideas and new storage containers, I think we can gain another factor of two.
This is where we are at currently in the packing of the Chaser:
Main Box:
We have several of the Rubbermaid Action Packers (one 24 gallon and four 8 gallons) and they are ratchet strapped down in the main box along with the stove and two Scepter 5 gallon water cans. Of course, the fridge is semi-permanently attached to the floor of the main box with its slide. We use the underside of the main box's lid to hold bungeed up camp chairs and other odds and ends in an elastic cargo net (i.e. paper towels, dish towels, small lantern, etc.).
Nose Box:
We also call this our “Dirty Box” since it houses firewood, hatchet, dishwashing bucket, shower mat, Mr. Funnel, cleaning supplies, hiking boots/poles, wood block, and small kitchen rug which are all packed loosely.
One thing we think will help speed setup will be to integrate “bolted down” boxes of some sort that have a closeable lid. Think of something like how the National Luna fridge is bolted down via its baseplate. This will allow quick access to food and cooking gear without unstrapping and opening up stacked Action Packers. We like this idea better than drawers out of the back due to the less weight and bulkiness aspects. [We have not done much research on this type of lidded boxes. So, if anyone has anything interesting to share, please do!]
Highway Driving:
There is really not anything profound to report here.
Since the fully loaded trailer weight was only 1950 lbs, the LX450 did not seem to mind much on the flats. Steep, prolonged hill climbs (of which we have several on the way down to Baja) necessitated dropping into second gear on the auto transmission. This is not surprising since: 1) the 80 Series is known to be a little underpowered, and 2) the LX450 was just at its GVWR of around 6500 lbs with the trailer tongue weight taken into account and both of us in the vehicle.
We did get better gas milage towing the trailer! This seems counter intuitive until you realize that the speed limit for towing is 55mph in CA versus a normal 65-70mph.
Off Highway Driving:
The bottom line is that the Chaser pretty much just comes along for the ride. It didn't really hinder us in any of the terrain we encountered. The worst terrain was poorly maintained dirt roads with occasional washouts and short climbs out of washes. We also did some unmaintained desert floor two-tracks.
As far as we know, we never touched any part of the trailer to terra firma. The departure angle of the LX450 is degraded somewhat by the addition of the hitch since it protrudes back a few inches from the receiver. We did scrape the bracket (sorry don't know the proper term) that goes from the LX450's receiver to the Max Coupler several times in and out of washes for instance. We have been told by everyone, including AT, that this is not a big deal at slow speeds. I believe them.
Careful tire placement to avoid sidewall issues is a bit more challenging now in rocky/thorny terrain as would be expected going from four to six wheels. In single radius turns, the trailer's tracks follow the LX450's tracks to within a few to several inches depending on how tight the turn is.
The way the Chaser influenced our driving the most is the amount of forethought we had to give to choosing whether or not to go down a particular path. It was never a question of if the trailer could make it as long as the truck could. Rather, it was a question of if the LX could not make it down the track or if the track was a dead end, how would we reverse out or turn around?
Obviously, backing up several hundred yards in any four wheel vehicle is not fun. With a trailer in front of you, it is painful. Figuratively, since it was slow-going, taking us around 5 minutes to do a hundred yards on a two-track, and literally, since I had to bend my neck and torso around 180 degrees.
Scouting ahead on foot is always an option, but can take a long time. Dropping the trailer and driving ahead for recon is something we never tried since it, too, would have been a pain. What we did, with varying degrees of success, was to download geo-referenced satellite imagery of the proposed routes we were going to take onto our iPad. This allowed us to be able to choose tracks that had a high probability of having an exit point.
As can be imagined, downloading the imagery has several issues to make it not even close to 100% effective: conditions on the ground change, obstacles in the track are not really known, necessitates a clear view of the track (not good for jungle but works pretty well for desert), download times and data storage don't always allow for as much resolution as desired, no internet connection in the bush when proposed routes change, technology breaks, etc.
