Off Grid Trailers - Expedition 2.0 - 6-month review

all right so welcome to Alaska family Overland Adventures uh we are a family of three uh that travels Alaska we live in Alaska this is our backyard and this year our YouTube channel is new and so we're still learning the ins and outs to that but also new to the channel and to our family is our off-grid trailer Expedition 2.0 we ended up ordering this and customizing it back in November of 2021 and it was built through the winter and then it was ready for pickup in 2022 in the end of April and off-grid trailer has lots of options and different customizations I'm going to go over our trailer and explain what we chose and why we chose it and also off-grid trailers normally does ship to different places throughout the country and North America as a whole however shipping to Alaska wasn't much of an option so I ended up doing a five day 4 000 mile round trip trip down to Edmonton and back to pick up our trailer so anyway we've had it all summer I would say including the trip back from Edmonton were probably well around 5 000 miles on it we've gone around Alaska up to prudo Bay across Denali Highway and quite a few different spots so it's definitely asserted us well so far there's Matthew crying it out um and there's some things that we really love about this trailer and some things that we wish maybe we had known and would have done differently but ultimately we're gonna do a walk around and talk about some of those things uh starting up here in the front of the trailer we did upgrade to the max coupler hitch this is a pivoting 360 degree and swivel hitch which allows for maximum articulation off-road I really enjoy that feature it's been really good for us Alaska doesn't have a whole lot of crazy off-road trails but we do have enough that I think this option was well worth it we've definitely taken our trailer in some places that have raised some eyebrows like our Bellinger pass trip which is about to come out about the same time I'm recording this video and definitely we were able to give him some really tight spots with the trailer due to this hitch we did upgrade and get the spare tire and we ended up buying the 23-0 trash bag that goes on the spare tire um being that a lot of Alaska is very very far away from towns and communities we wanted to make sure we had a spare tire with us I carry plug kits too but sometimes if you just trash a tire it's good to have a backup and since these tires are not the same as our Jeep Grand Cherokee we went ahead and got the spare tire coming around the passenger side here we stayed with the base model of the Dometic refrigerator 12-volt fridge so far this is been perfect for us the only thing I would consider is if you are thinking about getting this trailer or something like this and you're looking at the options the upgrade option is a both fridge and freezer has a separate compartment for the freezer whereas this is one or the other you set the temperature either to be a fridge or a freezer and that's all you get Matthew's playing the drums behind me uh but for us ultimately we we don't really need the use of a freezer or we have it yet and so just having the actual fridge itself has been been perfectly adequate uh coming around to the side we got the 270 degree 23-0 awning which we'll deploy here in a little bit uh since we are expecting some showers tonight um but this goes around the side and the back of the trailer and we did buy the walls for it as well to help him close it on the side here is kind of the galley now this stove and the the sink they they pivot up into this box on the side and then they come down and and hang here so you have a two burner stove a fridge and then the flat Fender here kind of works as a galley space uh there's a 20 or a 31 gallon water tank on here with a pump and so plenty of water in the sink here just a simple drain system down into a bucket here uh really simple no need to have a gray tank or a black tank that's something that we really like especially in Alaska the uh the dump stations closed so early in the year because of how early it freezes that basically even though it's not so cold to the point that you can't use your tanks but you don't have any place to dump them here we'll probably end up winterizing anyway for the water lines and we'll continue to camp but like we don't have to worry about whether or not the dump stations are closed um this is our two burner Dometic stove ours is actually recalled Dometic has a recall on ours right now but we live in Alaska and there's no official Dometic dealership or repair shop so we're working with the medic now to figure out how we're going to do that likelihood is they're going to send us a new unit we're going to take it to an authorized dealer we'll be reimbursed by Dometic we'll send them this one back um it's it could have a leak in it we've just been monitoring we haven't smelled any protein propane or had any concerns about it oh uh it does have a nice little stereo system on the side marine grade speakers and the stereo kind of fun for when you're sitting around camp and uh listen to some tunes coming around the back we call this The Galley or the pantry back here um lots of storage space lots of shelves my only thing well the two things one I like it it's plenty of room has plenty of storage these front runner boxes that you can actually get from off-grid Wilderness company which is off-grid trailers like retail side they fit perfectly back here now these shelves do adjust up and down the one thing I think would have been nice is if the strut systems had been mounted elsewhere and then the shelves could have actually um pulled out I think that would have been a nice feature but again plenty of storage back here we've been on some like multi-week trips and we've had this sucker full of food ready to go we've had like no problems at all coming around the driver's side we have the normal 13 pound tank that comes with the uh with the comp with the trailer that's been more than enough for us this thing is super efficient uh we did pay upgrade for the little shower room which pivots out and then the walls drop down because we did get the uh instant water heater on this side so this is the shower instant water heater you also get instant hot water over on the sink side there and it's nice because it only uses a minimal amount of propane and again lasts quite a bit you got 31 gallons in here so like this weekend we're just on an overnighter trip if we wanted to we could both take a hot shower and have plenty of water to go living in Alaska we did do the upgrade for the furnace we're going to be camping into the shoulder Seasons here and it'll be really nice we've used it quite a bit already especially with having a one-year-old it's nice to be able to get in the insulated box turn on the heater and stay super warm throughout the night up on the top of the off grid trailer we have our 230 Walkabout 62 Rooftop tent this has actually been a pretty nice feature some people wonder why we bought a got a rooftop tent when it's a sleep in trailer for us when it's a nice summer day and it's nice and warm here in Alaska it's nice to be in the tent we'll deploy this out all of us will sleep in there and it's a good night's sleep Matthew it's okay buddy um her as the family grows if Matthew as we grow as Matthew grows up if he wants to bring Friends camping we have the ability to sleep you know three or maybe even four people in that Rooftop tent plus two or three people inside plus the dogs we have plenty of room um to us it was kind of a no-brainer to add it and it's actually pretty comfortable because it is going to rain tonight I'm probably not going to deploy it but I'll insert some video here that shows the the tent deployed and the last box on the driver's side here is just storage and the battery system so we have a couple options here so pull some of my stuff out of the way here so this is a dual battery um normal AGM wet batteries back here that come standard now lithium is definitely the way to go if you live somewhere warm but living in Alaska with the cold lifting of a cold don't get along so it is what it is but there's our dual batteries there looking it down back of there I don't know if it's going to be lighted up to see that but there's the Noco battery charger um so when you plug in Shore power it equally charges the batteries and then we have just the standard 1000 watt inverter uh the watt the inverter is you can upgrade that to a bigger wattage for us it works well we don't work on the road or do anything we might charge a cell phone or two but that's all we're would use the inverter for so it wasn't a big deal to us um but some people that's way more important and then you have more storage space in here and one of the things that we ended up going with or purchasing at Costco was The Goal Zero um battery pack the solar rechargeable battery pack and that's been really good for charging all the camera equipment other stuff on auger trips also have a heater buddy in there and that just helps take off the chill either in the rooftop tent or if we have the awning out with the walls down uh just help take the chill off yeah last thing on the outside to talk about is we did pay for the premium lighting upgrade and so every box compartment has an LED light we have Rock lights LED lights on the side on each side and so as we do get into the dark season here in Alaska these will be nice to have some light around the trailer and again every box has it and even just in the summer when you have the awning out the light kind of gets dimmed down it's really nice to have that extra lighting initially we weren't going to go at that option because in Alaska when we camp in the summer it's almost 24 hours of daylight but it was a nice option to have in case we're not always in Alaska because you never know after this I'll go inside and show you what we did on the inside so before I show you the inside of the trailer I'm going to show you our uh awning which I just deployed out so this is the awning it's a 270 degree awning it's a 23-0 and as you can see it completely covers the passenger side and the back of the trailer so our pantry and our Galley say hi Laurel they're all nice and covered and the fridge and then the one entrance of the camper that we would use if like we were in the couch mode which I'll show you guys in a minute so this entire side stays dry now I'm not going to get out the walls but imagine if you will um two walls on the each side of this entire awning would come down to the ground at an angle and closing the entire trailer so I think here in Alaska if we wanted to extend our camping season into the shoulder seasons of early spring and late fall we could probably do it with this camper and stay pretty warm so now I'm going to show you guys the inside all right so starting over on the interior here this is definitely a sleep in camper uh but it's definitely a tight quarter this is where you might sit and eat and sleep they're not gonna like hang out in here probably too long unless you really had to however it's still pretty nice we did a couple upgrades in here there's the max fan air the air fan we upgraded this so it has a remote control function to it you can set a temperature you can set it to be in out so it can blow the air in or out and it's all by a remote control which is pretty nice we did do the uh lighting upgrade the whole lighting upgrade package included dimmable lights on the inside which is pretty nice at first I didn't think it would be a big deal to have dimmable lights but after a couple times with our kiddo uh when you're trying when you put the blackout Shades over the window and you're trying to get to bed it's nice to be able to dim the light down dim so little guy will go to sleep uh but you still have some residual lighting to take care of business okay so this is the main control panel for our trailer um we have a remote button for the inverter so you can turn the inverter on and off from inside the trailer without getting out we have a bright dim button for the inside lights again this is a feature that comes with the overall lighting upgrade which again ended up being really nice this is just a thermostat for the heater if there's a volt meter right here to tell you how your battery is doing normal plugs that you can use when the inverter is on and then more USB ports for charging and this is the intake and the heater vent for when the heater is on inside here is your storage space I'll be honest with you this is a lot of storage we've been on a few multi-day trips yeah we've had more than enough room this weekend we're just on a quick weekend trip so we have some games our hammocks the red bags Matthews duffel bag is ours and then up in the top is all of our bedding sleeping bags pillows and in the back behind the control panel are the drop down walls for the outside awning so plenty of storage space in here as well one of the things that we generally do before we leave is we'll put our chairs and table and other things underneath here and we get to Camp we'll pull it out and if you don't need it sometimes I'll just throw in the back of the Jeep so normally there's plenty of room the other upgrade we did was the mattress upgrade um this is about the size of a queen back here so it's pretty good space but ours actually pulls up and this becomes the back of the couch and that becomes the part of the couch you can sit on and then from the other door you can climb in and sit on the couch and you know initially I thought that was kind of a silly upgrade something that we probably wouldn't use very often but I'll tell you what when a cold rainstorm comes in or the bugs are really bad and you want to get out of those things being able to get inside the heart box and sit in there comfortably has definitely been key so it's been very nice um other than that I mean that's pretty much the walk around um oh I should say up front here too the last thing we got up front is we did upgrade the front wheel and front Jack the standard one they said doesn't roll really well especially over uneven ground and the nice thing about this is it's very adjustable and as you can see it rotates out of the way there for when you're driving so that was another upgrade we did uh the other thing we did is we do have a solar panel that goes with this that has the plug right here and then this is your Shore power um I'll tell you what man that uh the solar panel that comes with this company the off-grid trailer uh it's with the Canada proof is the brand name so the batteries are Canada proof and the solar panel is Canada proof and those two things together we did a like a 10-day trip um the first Lego it was six days Five Nights with no short power but we were able to put the solar panel out for like four of the days our battery never even went to like the lower zones we were always around 12.8 to 13.3 volts which is like really nice so overall again we're really happy with our off-grid trailer we're really happy with the things that we upgraded there's obviously a few other options that I would consider maybe if I lived in a different part of the country one of those would be roughing in the ducting for air conditioning air conditioning is not something I'm too worried about living up here in Alaska but at some point in time we would definitely like to travel with this thing and be down in like the southwest of the United States or even Beyond where it could be hot and having that ability to turn an air conditioner on would probably be pretty nice um so we'll have to look at some options since we didn't do that rough in but that's something that I would consider if I lived in a warmer part of the country other than that I'm really happy with the way we did it um working with off-grid trailers was really easy we have no complaints or issues from the time that we ordered the time that we picked up communication was good we did have one delay for supply chain issues which is to be expected we were building in that post covet era and so there were a couple of supply chain issues which were to be expected um working with the the crew there on picking the trailer up was really easy as well if I have any critiques um I would like to say that being in Alaska was you know it would be really nice if there was an affordable shipping option to Alaska uh the five day round trip trip was fun but like that would not be an itinerary I would suggest for anybody and having an option to at least ship it to Seattle and then coordinate with some of the barges and car transport companies out of Seattle probably would have been a lot more helpful I looked in to do it personally and it just made more sense as far as money is concerned to drive down and get it I only spent about 1400 in gas and was able to do it in five days but I don't think a lot of people are going to be able to pull that off and would probably pay an extra thousand dollars to have it delivered to the door just like you can in other parts of the country

Channel: Alaska Family Overland Adventures

Views: 35,629

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Id: WeW0DgickuI

Length: 19min 47sec (1187 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 23 2022