My New American Built Adrenalin Rush - Preview and Review

[jonharis]

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.

• [FONT=&quot]Chassis[/FONT][FONT=&quot] — All American Steel, 0.118 Thick[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Body[/FONT][FONT=&quot] — Folded 0.118-Thick Aluminum[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Suspension[/FONT][FONT=&quot] — Fully Independent Swing Arm with Air Bag and Shock Absorber [/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Wheels[/FONT][FONT=&quot] — 16x8 Rims with 235/70/16 All-Terrain Tires[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Cooking[/FONT][FONT=&quot] — 3-Burner Stainless Steel Stove[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Water[/FONT][FONT=&quot] — 20-Gallon Food Grade Water Tank, Stainless Steel Sink with Electric Pump[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Sleeping [/FONT][FONT=&quot]— Queen-Size Bed, 4" Foam Mattress[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Canvas[/FONT][FONT=&quot] — 4X Waterproof 450g High-Quality Canvas[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Awning[/FONT][FONT=&quot] — Fully Enclosed Awning, PVC Floor, 3 Split Walls for Easy Assembly[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Storage[/FONT][FONT=&quot] — Full Width Front Tool Box Plus under-Bed Storage[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Tow Hitch[/FONT][FONT=&quot] — Custom 360-Degree 4WD Tow Coupler[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Stabilizer Jacks[/FONT][FONT=&quot] — Heavy-Duty Dual Pin, Foldaway Jacks[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Jockey Wheel[/FONT][FONT=&quot] — Heavy-Duty Jockey Wheel to Make Moving Easy[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Brakes[/FONT][FONT=&quot] — 10" Electric Off Road Brakes, Hand Brake[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Lights[/FONT][FONT=&quot] — All Exterior & Interior LED Lights[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Electronics[/FONT][FONT=&quot] — Optima 75AH Battery, C-Tek Charger, Fuse Box[/FONT]

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.

http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/i462/jonharis/Adrenalin Camper Build/D7K_7388.jpg

The kitchen has a 3 burner stove, sink with powered pump, cutting board and utility storage.
http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/i462/jonharis/Adrenalin Camper Build/D7K_7389.jpg

This is my trailer, All trailers will come in brushed Aluminum but I believe that custom paint is available at additional cost.
http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/i462/jonharis/Adrenalin Camper Build/D7K_7392.jpg

Off road coupler
http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/i462/jonharis/Adrenalin Camper Build/D7K_7399.jpg

The kitchen has covers to give you a large surface area.
http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/i462/jonharis/Adrenalin Camper Build/D7K_7405.jpg

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.
http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/i462/jonharis/Adrenalin Camper Build/D7K_7415.jpg

The body is all 1/8 aluminum folded as much as possible.
http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/i462/jonharis/Adrenalin Camper Build/D7K_7428.jpg

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.
http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/i462/jonharis/Adrenalin Camper Build/D7K_7454.jpg

All lights are LED and the camper has a large house battery.
http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/i462/jonharis/Adrenalin Camper Build/D7K_7457.jpg

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.

 

[TheThom]

This is completely unrelated - but I was born in Montrose and lived there for 12 years! Nice to bump into folks from that neck of the woods.

Sweet looking trailer!

 

[jonharis]

^ Thanks! Montrose is a great town.

Here are a few pics from the manufacturers Au website showing how modular this thing is.

I had a chance to set it up myself in this first stage with little instruction. It truly takes less than a minute to get from driving mode to open. When open, the bed sits on the body. It is close to queen sized and has that much storage underneath. The inside has LED lighting and USB ports for charging those iDevices.
Down below is the hard floor that is larger than King sized. We plan on having some air mattresses for the girls to sleep here.


Need a bit more shade or protection from the elements? Here is half of one of the canvas awnings.


Need to feed and shelter 15? Here is the full setup, this is modular so you can setup like shown with one set of canvas on each side or put both on one side for a huge room.

 

[herm]

is the hitch just mounted to a plate between the tube frame members? that is how the pictures look.

 

[ogre]

i have been looking into this camper my self so thanks for the information. cool pics.
may i ask what was wrong with the truck when you looked at it.

i must say that i am not sure about how the toung is made thats the only thing that im not sure about.

 

[Mark Harley]

Now that is a sweet trailer!

How much?

 

[Titanpat57]

Damn that thing is a work of art...the frame looks bullet proof...hats off and good luck to Adrenaline Rush!!:drool:

Pat

 

[grimbo]

It amazes me that it has taken this long for an Aussie style camper trailer to hit the US market.

 

[HARDTRAILZ]

Very Nice!

 

[wesel123]

I'll echo another post....what is the cost for a base unit?????

 

[kevint]

Down below is the hard floor that is larger than King sized. We plan on having some air mattresses for the girls to sleep here.

About a month ago I bought the very similar Kamparoo Trans-continental. If I had known about the Adrenaline, it would also have been on the short list. I'll post separately about my Kamparoo and what I'm doing with it but I wanted share an idea with you. I also have two girls to squeeze into my camper, although mine are older. The solution we came up with was to get a set of bunk cots for the floor area. We landed on the Cam-o-bunk because, after studying the pictures on the internet, I realized I could shorten them to fit in the area. Here are a couple of pictures of them set up in the Kamparoo.





This approach keeps half the floor (actually a little less than half) free. In addition to limiting the space the girls take up. All four of us put our duffel bags under the cots. We have a dirty clothes bag in the dead space between the end of the cots and the angled end wall of the tent.

In our camper, given the angled end wall and the height of the cots, the girls ended up with beds that are just a hair over 5 feet long. The girls are short so we're good. The cots were easy to shorten. The side rails come in 3 pieces. The center piece is just a piece of pipe. I chopped off about 14 inches with a reciprocating saw. My wife shortened the canvas to match. One nice feature of the cots is that they have an accessory side organizer. We bought one for each girl.

When we close up the camper, we don't fully disassemble the cots. The rails/canvas/discs portion we leave intact and we leave the ends assembled. it keeps setup/takedown of the camper quick which was a part of our buying decision.

If you are interested, the website is http://www.discobed.com/.

For versatility, we also bought an extra set of the center tube and an extra set of the canvases. That way we have the option to use the cots outside the camper at full size.

I like your camper. I'll look forward to seeing how you make it work for you. I'll try to post a thread about mine as well.

Thanks.

 

[jonharis]

Thanks for the interest guys. Sorry about the video link in the first post. I have fixed it now, IH8MUD and ExPo use slightly different codes. Base Pricing is in the first video and for the time being includes all of the annexes. Be sure to tell them I sent you if you call.

That base price by the way includes everything. You wont see extra line items for water tanks and propane tanks and blah blah blah. The only way you would pay more would be by wanting a custom color or custom wheels, we are working on sourcing a 5 on 150 trailer hub so that I can run Land Cruiser wheels.

is the hitch just mounted to a plate between the tube frame members? that is how the pictures look.

I had the same concern when I first saw the trailer. The off road coupler is attached via Grade 8 hardware and the plate is welded to the frame and it's the design that they have used in Au without any failures.

i have been looking into this camper my self so thanks for the information. cool pics.
may i ask what was wrong with the truck when you looked at it.

i must say that i am not sure about how the toung is made thats the only thing that im not sure about.

Like above, zero failures. I can post more pics in the next week from the bottom and top of the hitch mount. The truck has a couple of broken seals on the fox shox. Granted it's muck heavier than the trailer.

Now that is a sweet trailer!

How much?

First video, thanks!

I'll echo another post....what is the cost for a base unit?????

$17,500. Sorry to keep you hanging. When I saw the trailer I assumed it would be over $20k and he is lower than that. I think he has hit a sweet spot on price. It's incredibly less than a Kimberly, That said, I'm the first to admit it's a much simpler design. It doesn't have a fridge (mine's in my truck so who cares), the kitchen is smaller and it has less storage. At the same time it is significantly lighter (I am taking mine to a CAT scale to get an exact number but I expect it to be between 1200-1400lbs) and there is less to go wrong by only having a few moving parts. It's not a trailer for the masses but for the same price you are looking at a Coleman E3 or whatever is currently available that will fall apart off road.

My criteria were off road ability and Longevity, Price, Quick setup, local parts availability, and the ability to sleep 4 adults and up to 6-8. This covers all of it.

EDIT: Kevin. That setup is awesome. I just sent that Pic to my wife and am having her start searching for it. I never know something like that existed. Thanks for the info!!!!
I had also looked at the camparoo and pricing was inticing at ~ half of what the Adrenalin costs. That said you get what you pay for and for the type of traveling I do and remote location I end up in I think the Adrenalin was a better fit. The fact that it's built less than 100 miles from my house was a big factor too. I look forward to seeing your thread.

Just checked out that site, I really like the military version with the storage pockets. Thanks again for the link!

 

[brentbba]

You'll have it on the Swell? AWESOME - see you at Lone Warrior. Look forward to seeing this. It'll put my little M101CDN to shame for sure!!

Have you got the OK from Kurt to make sure our total vehicle count is ok for the BLM permit? He ok'd my having a trailer there and said the trailes back toward Moab on Thursday were 'mild' and if trailer was purpose built for off road that those trails would be fine with a trailer.

 

[jonharis]

You'll have it on the Swell? AWESOME - see you at Lone Warrior. Look forward to seeing this. It'll put my little M101CDN to shame for sure!!

Have you got the OK from Kurt to make sure our total vehicle count is ok for the BLM permit? He ok'd my having a trailer there and said the trailes back toward Moab on Thursday were 'mild' and if trailer was purpose built for off road that those trails would be fine with a trailer.

Brent, I really look forward to meeting you. Yes I talked to Kurt, all is good. If all goes well I am hoping to be there on Tuesday mid day. I studied the route out while building the maps for the packet. It looks like it should be an enjoyable scenic day.

 

[kevint]

Just checked out that site, I really like the military version with the storage pockets. Thanks again for the link!

If you go this route, make sure you don't get the XL. It'll take up almost the whole floor.

Watch out on the military version. See those corner braces and the matching gap in the canvas along the side rail. I think that will interfere with the desired length of the shortened canvas. In order for the side organizers to work out, you have to trim the same amount from each end of the canvas. The cot is very sturdy without the corner bracing.