I've been camping since I was a kid and my wife also really enjoys being outside. We've done a number of camping trips together by car and by canoe. Getting outside is one of our favourite things to do together. I'd been kicking the idea of a RTT around in my head for years and last spring my wife and I started talking about it a bit more seriously. We we really leaning towards the hardshell style ones for ease of setup, aerodynamics, and easy installation and removal. Every time a group buy, sale or good deal came up we talked about it. Thankfully we never made the leap to purchase one since during the summer we found out that we were going to become a family of four! After picking my jaw up off the floor I started thinking how things were going to change and what we could do to make sure we didn't stop getting outside and camping as much as we can even with two little girls in tow.
We both knew that if it was going to take us hours and hours to pack the truck for camping and then more time to set up when we got there it would seriously reduce the amount of trips we would be willing to do. We wanted to come up with a solution that kept camping at the top of our list of fun and easy things to do. We quickly realized that a RTT would be challenging with little kids so we expanded our research and looked at dozens of different setups and came to the conclusion that our preference was some sort of trailer-based setup with an integrated sleeping area. This would allow us to keep the trailer nearly packed and ready to go so it would only be a matter of loading up some fresh food, water, and the kids and get on the road. Set up times at camp would also be greatly reduced, allowing for more camping and less mucking with stuff. We really liked the Adrenalin Rush that jonharis has (and clearly it was twin tested and approved!) but after reading some reports of trouble with their trailers and the difficulty people were having contacting someone at the company we were pretty hesitant. Also with the Canadian dollar taking a beating it wasn't a great time to be buying cross border.
We were kind of stuck until one night my wife sent me a link to the Echo trailers on the North American Safari Company site. I spent the rest of the night on that site, the South African Echo Trailers site and any other page that Google turned up with a shred of info about these trailers. I emailed NASC that night for more information and to see if we could look at one of the trailers that weekend since as luck would have it, they were only a few hours away! Denise got back to me the next day with lots of info and answers to my questions. We went out to their showroom that weekend to look at the Echo 5, something I figured would only take an hour at most. Almost four hours after walking in the door we finally left! Denise and Michael were very friendly and helpful, answering all of our questions and more. They've had their own Echo 5 for a few years (towing it with an FJC) and clearly know their products inside and out. The trailer seemed very well thought out and a perfect fit for what we wanted. We drove home that night with a lot of excited conversation going around in the truck. Three weeks later we owned an Echo 5 and were taking our first trip with it!
I don't have many pictures of the trailer in action at the moment as camping in the mountains in late fall/winter doesn't motivate me to take photos but I hope to remedy that this summer. I plan to use this thread to keep track of some of the trips we've done and any modifications I make to the trailer as well as answer questions about it as they come up. I know these are still pretty rare in North America as they were only recently approved by Transport Canada. I believe Denise and Michael are working on the US DOT approvals as well so hopefully they can start sending them stateside soon too.
On to the photos and such!
We both knew that if it was going to take us hours and hours to pack the truck for camping and then more time to set up when we got there it would seriously reduce the amount of trips we would be willing to do. We wanted to come up with a solution that kept camping at the top of our list of fun and easy things to do. We quickly realized that a RTT would be challenging with little kids so we expanded our research and looked at dozens of different setups and came to the conclusion that our preference was some sort of trailer-based setup with an integrated sleeping area. This would allow us to keep the trailer nearly packed and ready to go so it would only be a matter of loading up some fresh food, water, and the kids and get on the road. Set up times at camp would also be greatly reduced, allowing for more camping and less mucking with stuff. We really liked the Adrenalin Rush that jonharis has (and clearly it was twin tested and approved!) but after reading some reports of trouble with their trailers and the difficulty people were having contacting someone at the company we were pretty hesitant. Also with the Canadian dollar taking a beating it wasn't a great time to be buying cross border.
We were kind of stuck until one night my wife sent me a link to the Echo trailers on the North American Safari Company site. I spent the rest of the night on that site, the South African Echo Trailers site and any other page that Google turned up with a shred of info about these trailers. I emailed NASC that night for more information and to see if we could look at one of the trailers that weekend since as luck would have it, they were only a few hours away! Denise got back to me the next day with lots of info and answers to my questions. We went out to their showroom that weekend to look at the Echo 5, something I figured would only take an hour at most. Almost four hours after walking in the door we finally left! Denise and Michael were very friendly and helpful, answering all of our questions and more. They've had their own Echo 5 for a few years (towing it with an FJC) and clearly know their products inside and out. The trailer seemed very well thought out and a perfect fit for what we wanted. We drove home that night with a lot of excited conversation going around in the truck. Three weeks later we owned an Echo 5 and were taking our first trip with it!
I don't have many pictures of the trailer in action at the moment as camping in the mountains in late fall/winter doesn't motivate me to take photos but I hope to remedy that this summer. I plan to use this thread to keep track of some of the trips we've done and any modifications I make to the trailer as well as answer questions about it as they come up. I know these are still pretty rare in North America as they were only recently approved by Transport Canada. I believe Denise and Michael are working on the US DOT approvals as well so hopefully they can start sending them stateside soon too.
On to the photos and such!
