The border crossing from Honduras into Nicaragua was an endless line of 18-wheelers at a standstill. Travelers who’d gone before instructed fellow overlanders to reach customs officials by passing the trucks on the right shoulder. This worked until it didn’t, at which point an agent appeared, waved, and conducted the movements of tractor trailers until Alex and Valerie Schaderbeck could squeeze through with their 4Runner and trailer. The official encouraged them to mount the curb, so now they were driving along a wide sidewalk against oncoming traffic. They threaded across a bridge, around pedestrians and bicycle carts. When they timidly reached what is widely considered the most intimidating border in Central America, they were met with a formal–but wide–smile and possibly a nod of approval. “Alex claims it was his driving skills, but the cute baby leaning out the rear window may have had something to do with it. We were southbound in just over an hour.”
Alex and Valerie Schaderbeck didn’t set out to tow a trailer along a sidewalk into Nicaragua. Nor did they imagine they’d have a toddler driving the Pan-American Highway with them. This brave life unfolded one decision at a time, as the couple questioned what they valued most in life.
For our purposes, this story begins in 2018 when Alex is a second-year OB/GYN resident. Based in Tulsa, he and his wife Valerie crave restorative time outdoors, but weekend backpacking trips into the Ozarks are out of the question with such limited time off. During his first month working nights, the hardest month of his hardest year of residency, Alex stumbles on XOverland’s South America video series. “The lifestyle fit beautifully with our time constraints,” shares the couple. They purchase a 2010 Toyota 4Runner Trail and clock 150 nights on their sleeping platform in the back, a simple setup in their basically stock vehicle.
Over two years pass before Alex and Valerie can afford a roof top tent, adding bumpers, winch, and what they call “other essential parts of the ‘Instagram overlanding starter kit.’” The roof top tent is more suitable for longer trips, providing a better mattress and space to change and sit up, and opening room for storage and a taller fridge in the rear of the 4Runner.
By this time, the duo is interrogating the prescribed life they had previously accepted. “We began to question how much happiness and fulfillment we would get out of the cliché, full-time attending life. Working long hours for the big house, fancy car, and elevated sense of status felt superficial and unsatisfying. We realized our happiest memories centered around our past overlanding trips. Quality time together, novelty, and the shared challenge of self-sufficient 4×4 travel–these things were much more valuable to us. We ultimately committed to finding a way to fulfill these goals.”
It took guts and creative thinking to get there. Newly graduated, Alex finds locums tenens contracts that allow him to alternate working for three months then traveling six to eight weeks with Valerie. Several mentors voice concern about Alex running a clinic by himself fresh out of medical school. But the two lean into the uncertainty, selling everything but what fits into their 4Runner, a 2003 Corolla, and a 5×10 storage unit. “It is intimidating to say the least, but I need to trust my training if we are going to live out our dreams.” As Alex serves an underprivileged community in St. Louis, Valerie shifts from life as a full-time dietician to master trip planner and vehicle outfitter.
They live in extended-stay hotels while Alex is working. During his first contract, Valerie creates a slide-out kitchen in a nearby storage unit, running power tools off of a Jackery battery bank. Over the next contract, they install solar power and a dual battery system in the hotel parking lot. “We were fondly known as The Package People; our more notable deliveries included a full set of skid plates and a full Dobinsons suspension kit.”
Between work contracts, they visit the Baja peninsula of Mexico several times. These trips shift their perspective even further, inspiring greater risk and reward. Life crescendos toward summer 2022, when the couple heads to Prudhoe Bay in Alaska. This is the first leg of their journey down the Pan-American Highway.
They’re traveling in the same 2010 4Runner that started it all, but they’ve added a 2020 Patriot Camper X3 for a specific reason. Deeper dreams are stirring: Alex and Valerie don’t want to wait to grow their family. Despite serious doubts from loved ones, they do the research and conclude their travel life is possible–even with an infant.
Finley is born in 2023, slated for an extraordinary adventure. Her first foray into international overlanding takes place when she is four-months-old. She explores the length of Baja and Mexico’s Altar Desert, right there while her parents confront a broken rear differential which ultimately forces the family back to Colorado to repair the damage.
Following Alex’s next work contract, Finley experiences more of mainland Mexico and Belize, and sees a volcano erupt in Guatemala. This time she is 10- and 11-months-old. Most recently, Finley drove from Cancun to Costa Rica, including a stint along a sidewalk in no-man’s-land between Honduras and Nicaragua. Now she is walking, experiencing the world from a fresh angle. On her next leg, Finley will explore Costa Rica and Panamá, before placing her 4Runner and trailer into a container bound for South America.
Some readers likely have their jaw on the floor at this point, trying to envision how travel like this is even possible (or recommended) with a young infant or toddler. From Alex and Valerie’s perspective, the truck and trailer setup is crucial to sustainable travel as a family. They recommend trailers to other families interested in the Pan-American, with clear-cut caveats. “Multiple experienced overlanders cautioned us against towing down the Pan-American Highway, with Central America being the most notable crux point. Having completed it, we are happy to report it can be done. But the reasoning behind these warnings demands respect.”
They note tight, one-way streets with hairpin turns and steep grades requiring 4Lo, which justify the short wheelbase, short tongue-to-axle length, and narrow track width of their Patriot Camper. The track width allows the trailer to tuck in behind the 4Runner, helping avoid curb corners, tree branches, and street dogs. “If you’re considering a trailer, pick one you would feel comfortable reversing down an alley or navigating the switchbacks of a high elevation shelf road.
“All that said, 18-wheelers are still the most common form of cargo transport. You can technically tow just about anything you want, but know the moment you’re off one of the main arteries, the driving conditions change dramatically. If you plan to visit the charming, colonial towns or more remote regions, this will be challenging if not impossible with larger or wider trailers.”
When the driving day is done, the trailer also excels at camp. “The expandable, ‘inside’ living space has been incredible in freezing rain at the Arctic Ocean and the mosquito-filled rainy season of Central America. The large outdoor kitchen deploys fast and has a lot of room to spread out. It has made camp cooking infinitely more enjoyable. Something surprising that was crucial for our endurance while traveling with an infant was having the fridge accessible from inside the trailer. Being able to access bottles in the middle of the night or stash breast milk after a late pump session was immensely helpful.” Finley sleeps in a pack-and-play that fits the floor space inside the trailer. At meal times, she has a baby camp chair with a tray. They bring her current favored toys for each trip segment and buy some along the way for novelty, but she typically prefers the leaves and rocks she finds at camp.
In this upside-down triangle, the base is growing. There is a sizable community of people driving through the Pan-American Highway region. Of that group, there is a fraction of families from all over the world: Spain, Canada, France, Brazil, and elsewhere. (We run into them more in South America than we did in Central America, since European families tend to ship an RV into Montevideo, do a loop of the continent, then depart). But in our three years driving through Mexico, Central America, and now South America, I have never met another family traveling the Pan-American with an infant. That’s why I find the Schnaderbecks’ example so extraordinary. They are pushing the limits of our assumptions and showing others what is possible.
Follow the Schnade’s adventures @made_to_schnade
Photos by Alex and Valerie Schnaderbeck
Specifications
Vehicle year, make, model
2010 Toyota 4Runner Trail
Power
4.0-Liter V6 Engine
Suspension and drive
Dobinsons MRR suspension
Dobinsons 1000 lbs constant load heavy rear springs
Dobinsons upper control arms
Regeared to 4.88
OEM rear e-locker
Powerbrake X-Line brakes
Wheels and tires (both 4Runner and trailer)
Methods Race Wheels MR703 17×8.5
BF Goodrich KO2s 285/70/R17
Recovery and armor
ARB Deluxe front bumper
Warn VR EVO 10-S Winch
Factor 55 UltraHook
Expedition One dual swing rear bumper
RCI full aluminum skid plates
RCI sliders
Safari snorkel with pre-filter
MaxTrax MKII black recovery boards (4 for 4Runner, 4 for trailer)
MaxTrax trailer skid
Deadman Off-road land anchor
Full-size shovel
Bubba Rope kinetic recovery rope
Accessories
Go Fast Campers platform roof top tent
Clearview Next Gen towing mirrors adapted from 100 Series Land Cruiser
ScanGauge 3
Garmin InReach
Wolfbox dashcam/backup camera wired to trailer
Dobinsons rear drawers
ARK jockey wheel
Starlink Mini with Striker Mount
Alubox aluminum cases with K9 brackets and Goose Gear plates
Dometic CFX75DZ Fridge
Camp Chef Mountaineer stove
Front Runner stainless steel table
Lavabox
Century Travel On playard
Advanced Elements inflatable kayak
Electrical and lights
Baja Designs LP9
4 100W Renogy flexible solar panels
100 amp hour Battle Born lithium batteries (2 in trailer, 2 in 4Runner)
REDARC Manager30 (1 in 4Runner, 1 in trailer)
Read more: Van Conversion Companies :: Buyers Guide
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