Looking for input on trailers

Over the hill

New member
Getting prepared to purchase an off-grid trailer and looking for advice. Recent medical issues make an indoor toilet a necessity. Just me and my wife mainly. Used is OK. So my top picks
EOS 12 - Price??? Geezzzzz
Mission Approach - Lack of storage inside
Arkto 12 - No indoor toilet privacy
...and way down the list is the Tribe 500...or is it just a myth...
Any others out there you could/would recommend I would certainly appreciate your thoughts.
Thanks
 

rehammer81

Active member
If you have specific questions about the EOS-12 let me know and I'll do my best to answer and give you my knowledge and experience. I picked mine up in late June. It's just me, my wife, and the dog.

As far as price, yes, not cheap. Also, not as expensive as some other options and it is absolutely made in the USA and uses top tier components throughout. No weird mix of some top tier stuff and some mid or lower grade stuff. When looking at much of the greater off-road trailer market, I feel like you are getting top quality throughout for the cost. Honestly, I can't think of anything on the trailer that wouldn't be considered a top-tier component.

While it is a pop-top with canvas, it is still built to handle cold conditions decently well. All plumbing is running internal to the trailer and often right along a heat duct coming from the Truma Combi Plus. It has tank heaters on fresh and gray tanks. Walls are full composite and an R7 value. Roof is full composite, almost 2.5" thick and an R8 value. Floor is a full, I think 3" thick, composite. All that being said, I'm not heading for blizzard conditions but so far we have been plenty toasty down into the 40's. Might see some higher 30's this next week.

The Cruisemaster XT air suspension is awesome both for travel and for leveling at camp.

I have 500W of solar with 400Ah of Battleborn lithium. All power components are Victron including the 3000W inverter. Even after 6 days completely off-grid the lowest I have seen my battery bank is 70%.

50Gal is a lot of water for us. We are not shower everyday campers. We barely fell below 50% water on the 6-day trip and that included 4 military showers. The shower is the only thing that drains into the 40-gal gray tank so we haven't even come close to filling that.

Off-grid I think your first limiting factor is going to be the cassette toilet if you use it exclusively instead of watering the forest. I'm considering swapping to a composting or other waterless toilet option eventually. If you did fill up the cassette before you are ready to leave you can always pull the cassette and go find a dump though. So, the cassette isn't going to make you pack up camp like a small onboard black tank might.

I have plans for some mods to better suit how my wife and I want to use the trailer. Mostly some interior mods like some dresser drawers and maybe even a small kitchen counter with tiny interior sink. I removed the table as we found it too big and in the way. We will never use the second bed option. A portable folding table will work perfectly if we are ever driven inside to eat in poor weather.

Feel free to ask anything else you want to know.
 
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Over the hill

New member
Thanks for the detailed description. You seem to be using it the way we would and I 100% agree with your mods and would probably do much the same.
My tow vehicle is in my sig line and I'm assuming a 4.7 liter land cruiser is more than capable of moving it down the road. Would you agree?
 

Obsessed2findARuggedHybid

Well-known member
Reham...will confirm but I believe your LC has a 8100 lb towing capacity so you should be fine.

Re...what is your tounge weight fully loaded.

Are you concerned about garagabity?
 

Over the hill

New member
A 97 LC with 1FZJ has a tow limit of 5,000 lbs but mine has a Slee installed Tundra 4.7 that is supercharged. Not sure yet of tongue weight but assume 10% of towed load. Got a 7 ft. garage so none of the top 3 will fit and basically why I threw in the Tribe at 6'10" lower. Otherwise I would have to live with an off site garage.
Thank you for you input.
 

Obsessed2findARuggedHybid

Well-known member
To state the obvious towing capacity factors in braking and other aspects other then the power of the engine. Maybe Rehammer81 can confirm real world tounge weight and loaded gross trailer weight of the eos. You might have to watch your cargo weight on trailer and LC
 

rehammer81

Active member
Thanks for the detailed description. You seem to be using it the way we would and I 100% agree with your mods and would probably do much the same.
My tow vehicle is in my sig line and I'm assuming a 4.7 liter land cruiser is more than capable of moving it down the road. Would you agree?
Without knowing your LC's specific towing specs, I think you would be fine. Gross weight is 5,200lbs. I tow it with a Ram 2500 Power Wagon with the 6.4L gas engine. I'm on 37" tires though but have 4.10 gears and I hardly know it is back there so it's hard for me to judge.

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rehammer81

Active member
To state the obvious towing capacity factors in braking and other aspects other then the power of the engine. Maybe Rehammer81 can confirm real world tounge weight and loaded gross trailer weight of the eos. You might have to watch your cargo weight on trailer and LC
I haven't yet made it across a Cat scale so I can't confirm real numbers. Best I can say is that the Power Wagon has soft coils by comparison to a normal 2500 and a reduced cargo and towing capacity as a result. Think half-ton ratings. In fact, they technically say an F-150 can tow more. I call BS mostly based on braking and chassis stoutness. Anyway, the EOS fully loaded does not squat my PW more than an inch or so. That's the best objective feedback I can give on that

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rehammer81

Active member
I think the Arkto is a great option too. For me the lack of wet bath was the main deal killer although I also prefer the Cruisemaster suspension over the Timbren. The storage in the Arkto is amazing. I think I probably like the Arkto kitchen a bit more too. I prefer the electronic component mix in the EOS though as I have mentioned before.

I would not touch that Tribe if you paid me probably. I personally think it looks chincy and has some very weird design features. If I was going to go for hard wall pop-up like that I would only go all in on a Kimberly Karavan but you are talking big cheddar there. I love the Karavan.

I'm not sure about the MO Approach. Honestly haven't put much time into that one. Things I have noticed/thought about with the brief reviews of the Approach:
1. Very tall canvas and it always looks kind of loose and flappy in the pictures I've seen. I like that the EOS actually has a minimal amount of canvas and I can confirm it is quite quiet in the wind.
2. Personally, I don't like the big molded in cassette toilet in the wet bath. It consumes a ton of room and I think it might limit options to swap out the cassette to a waterless option if you were interested in that like I am. I don't know for sure if that could all come out easily or what is under it. You can buy an EOS with the Wrap-On toilet but it also wouldn't be too much hassle to remove the Thetford cassette toilet.

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DFNDER

Active member
We got our EOS with the Laveo toilet, and are very happy with it. I don’t know if the wrappon is available now, but they generally are not usable in a wet bath. We still have our portable wrappon from our xt days, and it is an amazing little unit. The Laveo is great though because it allows you to stay off grid as long as you want.
 

rehammer81

Active member
We got our EOS with the Laveo toilet, and are very happy with it. I don’t know if the wrappon is available now, but they generally are not usable in a wet bath. We still have our portable wrappon from our xt days, and it is an amazing little unit. The Laveo is great though because it allows you to stay off grid as long as you want.
Sorry, it was the Laveo you can get and not the Wrap-On. I couldn't remember which waterless toilet was the option.

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