The Polydrop Trailer
The Polydrop trailer is designed primarily with EVs in mind and is not strictly a camping trailer; it is a personal travel space you can take with you wherever you go. This distinction is important as you will notice that the trailer does not come equipped with the gear and accessories one might expect from an off-road focused camping trailer. There are no jerry cans strapped to the nose, there is no roof rack, awning, shovel, axe, or external cooking area. Instead, architectural students Kyung-Hyun Lew and Jieun Cha designed the affordable and attractive Polydrop trailer with a focus on creating a stylish yet aerodynamic trailer that can be towed by any vehicle. They also pioneered new methods of construction to improve the trailer’s insulation so campers can stay inside regardless of the temperature outside. The pair focused on the fundamentals of personal space, with a bed for up to two people, storage, and a convertible table. The Polydrop is ventilated with four side windows.
From $10,000 | polydrops.com/
The Cabaire Cab Pressurization System
Those of us who travel with live-in vehicles have all been there—after a long day on a hot and dusty trail, we arrive at our camp and find the pickup topper or camper full of dust. It seems that the harder you try to seal the vehicle, the more dust ingress you suffer. The root cause is negative air pressure created by the vehicle when in motion; the solution is to build positive air pressure inside the space, which is easier said than done.
Tiktaalik, based in Lake Oswego, Oregon, is now a dealer and reseller of the Cabaire Cab Pressurization System by Enginaire. Built for extreme environments, The Cabaire Cab Pressurization System is a multi-stage air filtration system with an integrated pressurizer that uses MERV (minimum efficiency reporting value) or HEPA (high-efficiency particulate absorbing) filtration to pressurize a vehicle cabin or camper with clean filtered air to prevent dust, smoke, smog, and particulates from entering. Traveling the Western United States in the dry, hot summer months is often unpleasant due to severe wildfires; this pressurization system safeguards against poor air quality caused by smog or forest fires as the centrifugal pre-cleaner ejects 90% of dust, dirt, and debris before entering the replaceable main air filter. Continuous air circulation will also inhibit moisture build-up in wetter climates or winter months.
$2,500 | tiktaalik.com
CLIQ Camp Chair
We’re not your average-size campers. My husband is tall, and my son is staunchly built, so we circulate through several camping chairs in a normal year of full-time travel. Either the fabric is too thin, the legs malfunction, or they are too uncomfortable to sit in for an extended period. When we recently spent some time with another overlanding couple in Baja, they showed us their impossibly tiny chairs that somehow expanded into luxuriously comfortable seats with the flick of a wrist. I knew I had to have one, but with a price tag of over $200 per chair, spending $800 for a family of four was not in our budget.
Introducing the Cliq Camp Chair, a compact, lightweight and sturdy chair at half the price. Although they have not reinvented the wheel, they definitely improved it with aircraft-grade aluminum, double-stitched ripstop ballistic nylon for durability, and solid rubber tips on the feet, making their chairs tip-proof with a load rating of 300 pounds. If the reviews from buyers are anything to go by, I might be able to convince my other half to buy a set after all.
$100 | cliqproducts.com
Primus 130th Anniversary Special Collection
Primus, the renowned Swedish outdoor company, just celebrated 130 years of providing campers and adventurists with exemplary cooking equipment. And to celebrate that success, they released three products with limited branding that look retro and stylish.
The classic trail stove, which has a 4-inch stove top for cookware to feed up to three, has a unique production number engraved on the stove and comes with a cotton bag and a metal keepsake storage box. The second item, the Easy Light Camp Lantern, emits 490 lumens that can be adjusted for ambiance and comes with engraved frosted glass and its own metal keepsake storage box. The third and final limited item is the Everyday Mess Kit, which includes a food-grade stainless steel plate, a 0.6 liter double-walled beaker made from stainless steel, and a utensil set kept safe in a leather sleeve packaged in a cotton storage bag.
$50 | Classic Trail Stove
$75 | Easy Light Camp Lantern
$40 | Everyday Mess Kit
Brümate Brütank 55-quart Rolling Cooler
A fridge or cooler is necessary when camping or enjoying outdoor recreation. You will need to keep your food cold and your drinks even colder. If you’re not interested in spending over $800 for a 12-volt portable fridge/freezer, I suggest you invest in this practical and impressive cooler that will make you giddy when wheeling it around outdoors on its all-terrain wheels.
The Brütank 55-quart rolling cooler will keep ice frozen for up to five days, and once melted, an easily accessible spout drains the water quickly. One of the best features of the Brümate is the removable 2.8-gallon drink tank that keeps your lemonade or sangria cold and will fill your cup from the exterior self-tapping spigot without opening the lid. I love that it has a dry basket to hold your more damage-prone foodstuffs, such as camembert, sausages, or steak, to ensure that you don’t have a bloody mess floating in the bottom of the cooler when you arrive at your destination. This cooler is also impressive in terms of capacity. It can hold either 12 bottles of wine or 48 12-ounce cans, or 40 pounds of ice. Did I mention that it has a built-in bottle opener and comes in various funky colors?
$400 | brumate.com
Exod Monolith Shelter Tent
We don’t generally think of ground tents as stylish or beautifully designed, but the Exod Monolith Shelter tent has both of those qualities in spades, and as an inflatable shelter, we are especially impressed. The Exod Monolith is a single-person tent and sets up in 15 seconds. It can be hung and elevated as a hammock or pegged as a ground tent and weighs a mere 6.4 pounds, which is great for those hiking trails. The tent is constructed with TPU and a high-strength polyester, along with a two-layer ground/fly sheet. The tent is waterproof and is equipped with a water-repellent nylon 420D bed sheet. Two telescopic carbon rods are inserted at the base level when suspended to ensure that the sleeping area remains flat and does not have the typical catenary curve of a hammock. To ensure that you have the ability to suspend your Exod Monolith at a daring height or between two distant mounting points, a 16-meter strap is included. The tent comes with carbon fiber poles, pegs, guy ropes, a repair kit, and a carry bag. You will, however, have to carry your own pump, and the price tag of almost $1,000 may be a deterrent.
$1,000 | en.exod
Tekto Gear F1 Alpha Knife
Many people love knives. They are often the go-to tool for our daily routines and as overlanders, we like to travel with different types of blades, from machetes to axes and multi-tools to good old-fashioned hunting knives. The F1 Alpha knife is multi-functional and, despite its sleek design, is not just for show. This rugged knife is equipped with a 3.1-inch titanium-treated D2 steel blade, and the grip is made from G10 composite and carbon fiber.The deep-carry pocket clip can be remounted for left or right-handed users. As a bonus, the knife comes with a window breaker for those emergencies you never hope to have, but if you do you’ll be glad to have the F1 Alpha in your pocket.
$140 | tektogear.com
Vibrant New Color for the Jeep Gladiator
The Jeep Gladiator palette has expanded with the addition of the minty Earl exterior paint color to the 2023 lineup. Including Earl, the Gladiator will be available in nine other colors: High Velocity, Firecracker Red, Hydro Blue, Sarge Green (our favorite), Silver Zynith, Sting-Gray, Granite Crystal, Black,and Bright White.
The Earl color was initially featured on the Gladiator Farout concept and is a bold shade of gray with hints of aquamarine. The color joins the Gladiator lineup following its production debut earlier this year on the 2023 Wrangler.The Earl exterior paint option will be available on all Gladiator models.
Envikit
I loathe plastic waste, so when camping or backpacking, I usually carry a set of silverware for morning meals or a lunch break. However, I have been known to dispose of said utensils along with the trash on numerous occasions. Reusable straws are great, but they become unsanitary when lying open in my glove compartment or backpack. They’re also nearly impossible to clean without the right tool. Envikit offers a unique solution to these conundrums.
Their stylish set of utensils, which includes a pair of chopsticks, a straw, and a cleaning brush, is exceptionally sturdy, making it easy to pierce that crouton in your salad, slurp some noodles, or dispatch a chicken schnitzel. Envikit makes their tableware from titanium-coated stainless steel, ensuring that it is easy to scrub clean, lightweight, and sturdy, and they are stored neatly away in a magnetic container. Envikit also comes in an assortment of colors to match your personal style.
$47 | envikit.com
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