Just a little background....
My family and I love ATV's, trail riding, and we love camping. When our kids were little we would pack up the truck with all of our camping gear (nothing fancy), two four wheelers and head for the mountains. We would set up base camp which was a ground tent, a little Coleman stove and then we would ride four wheelers all weekend from base camp and of course come back to eat and sleep. As our kids grew and we moved away from the mountains to the coastal south (because of work) and the camping/four wheeling faded away. Two years ago I bought a roof top tent and had it on a rack on the back of my pickup. I had a 270 degree awning and all of our gear stuffed into the bed which kind of worked but kind of didn't. We only have one child left with us as the others have grown up and moved out. The roof top tent was nice but it was a pain to get our base camp set up and if we wanted to leave to go somewhere we needed to pack everything back up. Luckily we didn't have the four wheelers to worry about and the idea just seemed to be more of a pain to deal with than it was worth. I sold the roof top tent for the simple fact of I use my pickup for more than camping and it was inconvenient. We bought a nice Hilde ground tent and have used it once just because camping in the humid south was less than desirable.er
Fast forward to now - we happily are back in the mountains and live in the black hills of SoDak. There is so much to do here with camping, hiking, ATV trails, etc... My wife and I both bought side by sides and want to be able to incorporate camping and the side by sides. We still have a good bit of camping gear such as our ground tent, joolca shower and sink setup, and totes filled with cooking stuff and the normal chairs etc. We haven't gotten the chance to go camping yet and we are still in the planning phase of how we want to approach it. At first we figured we'd throw our camping gear in the back of the side by sides and head out but there is not nearly enough room to fit everything. I tossed around the idea of another roof top tent but I'm not sure if that's what we want to do for the same reasons we sold the first one - inconvenience, storage when not in use, truck serves multiple roles not just camping, the fact of having to pack everything up to leave if need be. We are also looking at the possibility of a teardrop style overland trailer with a roof top tent on the top which would be great since all the cooking gear and most of everything else will just fit within the trailer. The issue I have with the trailer is in order for us to go camping and be able to ride the side by sides, we would have to bring two vehicles. My wife would have to pull the teardrop with her jeep and I would have to pull the trailer with the side by sides on it with my truck. The limitation is the truck/trailer would have to be left somewhere close to the trailhead and we would have to make multiple trips to get the side by sides to the camp site. I am trying to figure out if there is another way to get the side by sides and camping gear to the same location which is definitely not at a campground somewhere. Any advice at all on what my options are and if I'm thinking logically? Before it's mentioned - we can't tow a teardrop with our side by sides for the simple fact that they are sport machines and not utility machines. Thanks in advance!
My family and I love ATV's, trail riding, and we love camping. When our kids were little we would pack up the truck with all of our camping gear (nothing fancy), two four wheelers and head for the mountains. We would set up base camp which was a ground tent, a little Coleman stove and then we would ride four wheelers all weekend from base camp and of course come back to eat and sleep. As our kids grew and we moved away from the mountains to the coastal south (because of work) and the camping/four wheeling faded away. Two years ago I bought a roof top tent and had it on a rack on the back of my pickup. I had a 270 degree awning and all of our gear stuffed into the bed which kind of worked but kind of didn't. We only have one child left with us as the others have grown up and moved out. The roof top tent was nice but it was a pain to get our base camp set up and if we wanted to leave to go somewhere we needed to pack everything back up. Luckily we didn't have the four wheelers to worry about and the idea just seemed to be more of a pain to deal with than it was worth. I sold the roof top tent for the simple fact of I use my pickup for more than camping and it was inconvenient. We bought a nice Hilde ground tent and have used it once just because camping in the humid south was less than desirable.er
Fast forward to now - we happily are back in the mountains and live in the black hills of SoDak. There is so much to do here with camping, hiking, ATV trails, etc... My wife and I both bought side by sides and want to be able to incorporate camping and the side by sides. We still have a good bit of camping gear such as our ground tent, joolca shower and sink setup, and totes filled with cooking stuff and the normal chairs etc. We haven't gotten the chance to go camping yet and we are still in the planning phase of how we want to approach it. At first we figured we'd throw our camping gear in the back of the side by sides and head out but there is not nearly enough room to fit everything. I tossed around the idea of another roof top tent but I'm not sure if that's what we want to do for the same reasons we sold the first one - inconvenience, storage when not in use, truck serves multiple roles not just camping, the fact of having to pack everything up to leave if need be. We are also looking at the possibility of a teardrop style overland trailer with a roof top tent on the top which would be great since all the cooking gear and most of everything else will just fit within the trailer. The issue I have with the trailer is in order for us to go camping and be able to ride the side by sides, we would have to bring two vehicles. My wife would have to pull the teardrop with her jeep and I would have to pull the trailer with the side by sides on it with my truck. The limitation is the truck/trailer would have to be left somewhere close to the trailhead and we would have to make multiple trips to get the side by sides to the camp site. I am trying to figure out if there is another way to get the side by sides and camping gear to the same location which is definitely not at a campground somewhere. Any advice at all on what my options are and if I'm thinking logically? Before it's mentioned - we can't tow a teardrop with our side by sides for the simple fact that they are sport machines and not utility machines. Thanks in advance!
