Adding to the motorbike travel with overlanding in a 4×4 and an off-road trailer.
In 2019 I went Overland Expo on the GS motorbike and had the absolute best experience, met tons of interesting people and had some proper training. One of the people I met was Peter Sweetser who has been around the world in a yellow Land Rover and was a UK customs officer for two decades. This guy has been there, done that and forgotten more about border crossings and carnets then most travelers know.
This got me thinking about adding 4×4 overlanding to the motorbike travel and I started researching what other items might be required given that I absolutely am not going to sleep in a tent, (I have done enough tent camping with the Boy Scouts to last a lifetime). I had been looking at Patriot campers, Timberleaf, Turtleback, and other brands but couldn’t find anything that actually met my requirements.
I decided the 4×4 was something I could do first and ordered a 2021 Land Rover Defender SE X-Dynamic and then went to off roading school. The Defender has a legendary four-wheel drive system and can tow a lot more than any standard jeep. The Defender only needed mild upgrades such as a break controller, the Land Rover on board air compressor.
During the 2022 Overland Expo Mountain West I was hanging out with friends when one of them said he wanted to find “Off Grid Trailers” which is a company I had never heard of before. When we saw the Off Grid Trailers I was blown away by the simplicity of the design with refinements and rugged good looks. To be honest up to this point I had been looking at the “Airstream Basecamp”. The Basecamp was nice but didn’t check all the boxes I wanted such as the Basecamp wouldn’t fit in the garage, it didn’t have a lot of off-road compatibility, and was built for hook ups. When I saw the Off Grid Trailers Expo and Pando, they started checking all the boxes.
- Not a tent
- Queen Bed
- All aluminum (no wood)
- Fits in the garage
- Can go off road
- Does not need hook ups
- Insulated
- Heater
- AC
- Water Heater
- Kitchen
- Solar Ready
- Proper off-road height and tires
I spent the rest of the expo bothering the people at Off Grid Trailers and crawling around and under the Expo and Pando models. I also spent time looking that Taxa Tigermoth and Opus OP series, but they didn’t look like they would hold up as one was mostly a fancy tent, and the other was too much wood.
The Expo has a better off road departure angle and is lighter than the Pando, but the Pando has a spice rack and the ability for two refrigerators. Since a lot of time camping is preparing meals, I felt the Pando would better serve my needs. I was highly considering this when something serendipitous happened – I found out that Off Grid Trailers hired Peter Sweetser as a guide through MOAB on one of their excursions. I’m a fan of serendipity and was more convinced than ever to get a Pando 2.0.
Off Grid trailer has a very cool way of getting the trailer by letting you “customize” your trailer online and then they build it just for you and ship it out, it’s a neat way of getting what you want, and it doesn’t take them that long to manufacture it – I use the word manufacture not assemble which is key if you’re looking for quality control end to end.
Soon after getting the Pando, I took it out for a weekend in near freezing temperatures and as a result I have been working on it over the winter months to get it ready for lots of overlanding this summer.
If you have questions about the Pando 2.0 or the Defender just let me know and I’ll be happy to answer.
Also feel free to check them out here: High Quality Customizable Off Road Trailers (offgridtrailers.com)
And let them know I sent you.
I will be posting the upgrades and experiences over the next couple of posts, and I am taking it out to Flagstaff in May 2023 – stay tuned for more 4×4 overlanding.
