I was dating a gal a while back who was an "efficiency expert"... that's what she does for a profession, and is really good at it.
When I showed her a Teardrop trailer, she made the same "coffin" comment, to which I excitedly said "...see how efficient we'd be!"
Those kind of miscommunications are relationship breakers... roflol!
OK, so I started off with a Rubicon-X Unlimited, which came with good tires, axles, skids, etc. The only thing I would have done different, is had it lifted before it left the lot.
For my application 3.5" of lift, and 35" tires to start with.
Other than that, safety gear, recovery gear, then camping gear, was the order of "stuff".
Still don't have the lift and tires, and it's putting a cramp in things. I'm used to just going over stuff in short wheel base, lifted rigs with big tires. So this is a whole new learning experience. Every time the belly scrapes it's like nails on a chalk board, and I'm becoming averse to climbing anything higher than a street curb.