Made in the USA, the tactically styled Packout MOLLE Tent™ (PMT) clamshell Rooftop Tent joins its siblings of “lightest & slimmest” soft top rooftop tent weighing in at only 90 lbs. and 3” tall. With its MOLLE Straps and D rings all around, you can easily add bags or other MOLLE compatible items as well as add your own morale patches to put your own mark on your tent. Packout Molle Roof Top Tent is waterproof and great for all-seasons (get a good sleeping bag for under 40°). It is just big enough to store your sleeping bags and ladder inside with the included 1″ sleeping pad.
The first of our tents to use our patented modular assembly method, you save on freight shipping and labor by assembling it yourself using our Lego style instructions or follow the videos online. Expert level assembly should take the average user 6hrs with an electric driver and flat surface. If you have any doubts about your ability or have to ask, then please pay a little extra and buy pre-assembled.
Fits most vehicles that have a roof rack or crossbars that will support 100+lbs in transit + campers while stationary, includes basic mounting hardware, and is backed by our 3-year warranty!
Check out the Packout Molle Roof Top Tent by BADASS TENTS
Lost and Found in Alaska: After leaving Talkeetna we head to the long awaited Hatcher Pass. Neither one of us was ready for the rugged beauty of this area after nearly a month of Boreal Forests. We spend our time in the area hiking to turquoise lakes and make a surprise stop to fish after seeing them rise on a passing lake! We’re over the moon to be hosting a group trip to Alaska next summer (2023) where we will be hiking to get views of Denali, taking a boat out to see sea glaciers, and hiking on a glacier that we didn’t get a chance to see while there filming our series! We’d love to have you tag along to this place we love so much! Here’s a link to the Lost and Found trip: https://trips.trovatrip.com/trips/uni…
When you produce one of the most recognized Roof Top Tents on the market, it makes sense to add an Ultimate Sleep System to your offering. That’s exactly what iKamper has done, with the release of their new collection of sleeping bags, blankets and air mattresses.
The RTT Comfort is a self-inflating mattress for any time of year. The mattress inflates to 4” thick, utilizing both air and open-cell foam for a 7.8 R-value, keeping you warm and comfortable on those chilly nights out in the wild. Thoughtfully placed vents on the top and sides of the mattress make it easy to use the optional air pump from inside the tent if you’d like to speed up the inflate/deflate process. By pulling all the air out of the mattress before packing up, it creates more space inside the tent’s shell than with a standard foam mattress, allowing more sleeping gear to stay in place for the next night. There are 5 sizes available – though these are designed to perfectly fit any iKamper rooftop tent, they are completely compatible with other rooftop tents, ground tents, trailers, or any other place you find yourself holed up on your adventures. The AirDown air pump (arriving in June) is compatible with the RTT Comfort to inflate/deflate in as little as one minute.
The RTT Sleeper and RTT Sleeper DPL are solid options for any rooftop tent user. The RTT Sleeper is packed with 1000g of 100% Responsible Down Standard (RDS) certified 90/10 white duck down, good for a 14°F temperature rating. Its 2-person counterpart (the RTT Sleeper DPL) employs Primaloft Bio insulation – a synthetic insulation made from 100% recycled, biodegradable fibers – to keep you insulated even when wet with a 26°F temperature rating. About 60% of the insulation fill is placed on the top and 40% on the bottom of these sleeping bags, making them more effective when used in rooftop tents where the floor is usually warmer. Convenient inner pockets stow your phone and other small goods for easy access. By tightening the strap on the bottom of the sleeping bags, they turn from rectangular to mummy type sleeping bags – an awesome feature when you want to spread out and get comfortable or bundle up when temperatures drop. When temps really drop, pair the sleeping bag with the RTT Blanket (packed with 300g of RDS 90/10 white duck down) for a cumulative 0° temperature rating. Similar to the sleeping bags, the 2-person RTT Blanket DPL employs Primaloft Bio for added warmth and increased capabilities in rainy conditions. These blankets are water resistant and machine washable, so they’re totally good to use outside the tent as well.
Land stewardship is all our responsibility, so it’s great when we see brands step up to the plate. Four Wheel Campersbuilds dream rigs to help you get into the wild, and they’re actively promoting stewardship and giving back to our public lands. This year, it’s their 50th anniversary and they’re putting together several outdoor volunteer events, and actively encouraging their community to get involved.
In collaboration with Friends of Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, they will host a two day event working on habitat restoration, trash removal, and fence mending. Volunteers are welcome will be enjoying the natural beauty of this stunning landscape, while improving the ecosystem for both plants and animals. Animals include mule and pronghorn deer, foxes, jackrabbits, javelina, tortoises, skunks, among many others.
Volunteers will be provided a campground space, supplemental food and drinks, and tools.
Photo courtesy of Elisabeth Brentano
Four Wheel Campers April Arizona Event:
Their first event is on Earth Day (Friday, April 22) in Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge with Friends of Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge. The event will run through Saturday April 23, so volunteers can explore and camp on this stunning wild landscape in between assisting with habitat restoration and trash removal. The Refuge is an hour south of Tucson, Arizona, and the event is free.
The process of selling and buying rigs takes a lot of work and frankly is not an undertaking I enjoy! Here at TAP, we’ve just replaced one of our 2014 JKU’s with an 2019 (16k miles) TRD Off-Road 5th Gen 4Runner. Why replace the Jeep you may ask? Well, this new rig is the photography/videography platform and the JKU was a squeeze at best. I simply needed something bigger, but not full size. I’d had a Tacoma before, so wanted to try something different and the 4Runner checked the boxes as a trail proven platform, with plenty of after market components available. The whole buying and selling process took six months and now the build is effectively finished.
Exterior:
Tires: Off-Road tires are my #1 essential and was the first addition. I went with Falken Wildpeak AT3’s as we’ve used them very successfully on both JKU’s for the past 4 years. Sizing is 285/70/R17 E rated.
Suspension: In this 5th Gen 4Runner, I’m a tortoise, not a hare off-road, so I don’t need remote reservoirs, just something bullet proof and able to carry all the inevitable extra weight. I went with the heavy duty Outback proven Stage 2 Foam Cell Pro Lift Kit from Ironman4x4. Thanks to Rhino Adventure Gear for the install.
Roof Top Tent: We went with the i-Kamper SkyCamp 2.0. As a hybrid design, it allows for a much larger sleep platform, without being overly large on the top of the rig. One of my criticisms of soft shell RTT’s is that the fabric blows around in high winds. Time will tell, whether this hybrid design (hard/soft combined) will handle the inevitable raging desert sand storms, we seem to always find ourselves in!?
Roof Rack: Of course if you’re running a RTT, you need a Roof Rack. I chose the Prinsu Design Full No Drill as the design is low profile.
Body Armor: Here we chose proven CBI Offroad Fab. We went with a full front and Swing Arm rear for maximum protection. In addition to this we added full aluminum skid plates and sliders. This rig has to go anywhere, so we despite the extra weight we decided to give it full protection.
Rago Fab: The 4Runner lacks cubby/storage space, so the addition of rear Molle Panels made sense. I’d never call this an essential piece of overland gear, but the ability to access items like fire extinguisher, first aid kit and a knife is great. The Rago panels are well made, light weight and were very easy to install.
Additional Gear: To complete the build we have also added an ARB onboard Dual Compressor, and sPOD to handle all the electronics.
That’s it for now, but as we all know, a build is never complete. We’ll update as things inevitably change.
Camping has been an activity within my entire family for as long as I remember. My families style of camping has continued evolving over the years, but I have consistently been out and about since being a toddler waddling through the pine needles – to now, a firefighter on days off searching for the next campsite. Set-ups have ranged anywhere from tent camping with my parents as a baby to spending Christmas in a campground nestled away in a travel trailer. Through these decades of ramblin’ about with all of them, I have found my own groove and continued searching and exploring for the next best tradition with and without them to this very day. I have spent many nights under the stars side by side my Grandpa and Dad on cots, and I have stood on a motorhome for hundreds of laps in the middle of a NASCAR track rooting on 20 years of attendance along side my family. I wasn’t kidding when I said there was some evolving – and a wide range of it.
My desire to overland camp got to the point where I even chased a career that involved camping while working and just being outside in general. You’re telling me I can go clock in at a job that I pack a sleeping pad, Jetboil, and puffy jacket? From different warehouse jobs to some tech savvy stuff early on, I ended up changing paths and found myself on a Hotshot Crew for the United States Forest Service. With this job, I would end up sleeping on the ground for nearly six months out of the year, in the woods and deserts anywhere across the United Sates. For weeks at a time. You might wonder what I would do when I got back from a two week fire assignment in the back country sleeping on a therm-a-rest… and you guessed it, I would go camping. It was my form of R & R. Even if I didn’t camp on every single day off, I moved us to a place where I at least can be on a dirt road 90 seconds from leaving my driveway.
Long story short, I have spent a lot of time camping and as I have adjusted into my own style, it has always been pretty simple and fairly basic. Really, just a cooking set up, sleeping pad, sleeping bag, ice chest, and some firewood. There was never a fancy build out for the truck, no fancy gear, really just the basics to get me outside doing what I enjoy. I just made sure I was comfortable doing it, had what I needed, those around me had what they needed, and I was prepared for what may happen while out and about. That’s it.
Although I have not really decked out any one vehicle specifically for camping, my vehicles have evolved over the years to make my hobby easier and more enjoyable. From living out of the back of a Volkswagen for my first fire season all summer in various campgrounds, to the typical mountain town living Subaru, to what we have seemed to settle down with now – the Toyota Tacoma. While growing up in the realm of camping with the family, I was also raised down off-road dirt roads, going on various off-roading trips, camping out in the boonies, watching off-road racing, and the list goes on. So with that being said, it is safe to say I like the dirt.
So as my vehicles evolved over the years, it makes sense I have settled with a four wheel drive pick-up truck. I have been camping out of the bed of this truck now for around six or so years. We seem to have the same conversation on every trip, “What should we do to take that next step and make this better for us.” The options went round and round as there seems to never be a perfect set up for every specific thing we are getting into.
The Tacoma’s set up has also evolved over the handful of years of ownership. We decided to put a little money into the truck itself. For one, we wanted a smoother ride when out in the boonies down dirt roads in search of the next best spot. We also wanted all the equipment and gear to not get rattled beyond all belief. So we did some suspension work, went with a smaller wheel size and larger tires in hopes for a smoother and more dependable ride. With the previous vehicle totaled due to a deer on the Tioga Pass, we also decided a bumper was a good idea.
Nothing special, just chasing after some comfort, safety, and longevity for all things involved. Now that the vehicle was set to our liking it was time to continue to dial in the camping set up. Still simple, but always trying to make things a little more comfortable and enjoyable.
Over time we added better ice chests, better camp stoves, lighting, organization, a fridge, solar, but it still wasn’t perfect. We continued to have those conversations around the campfire… “What is the dream set up? Is there a perfect set up for what we do?” Well, I still don’t have that answer and I am sitting here writing this from the bed of my truck, only now – while sitting inside a Four Wheel Camper. This was a very long decision process and something I feel like I have put in the time to deserve. We took some of the things with our current set up that we knew needed adjusting. What are the things we would change first? What makes the current camping trips undesirable or harder than we would like? What do we want to keep? What works? After bouncing around all these types of questions and conversations, we felt the Four Wheel Camper was our best solution. I am excited to have a slide in camper, a shelter, keep a low profile for travel, a place out of the elements, somewhere to stand and change, and a secure storage area when on the road. The pros and cons list was an easy one and the process has been smooth, easy, and enjoyable so far. The team over at Four Wheel Campers has been so supportive and have taken the time to help us through the entire process.
With the new and evolving camper set up, there are a couple things to figure out still. In general, we were able to ditch a lot of items previously carried like: sleeping pads, bags, tents, and most things shelter related really. We also got rid of some of the storage bins and containers as the camper is able to house some of these things now. It has been nice to keep those things in place and not have to load and unload every single item. Not to mention more of a set up that allows a last minute decision to head out with minimal prep time – always ready to rip!
It is absolutely an adjustment, but no doubt – an upgrade. I have spent so many nights on the ground with a balled up jacket for pillow it almost makes me feel guilty to have a sink, heater, and carpet inside aluminum framed walls. I mean I have literally wrapped my Grandpa in a tarp on the cot next to me in the desert winter and have woke up in the bed of the truck to a layer of Eastern Sierra snow caked on my bag. I’m no stranger to roughing it, but a full bed always made, and a hot water heater all in the bed of my dream truck, is something that I can’t help but smile about.
The camper set up is no different than before and is also still evolving, but the decisions are a little different now. Does the bocce ball set go in the back seat now? Do you want the fan on tonight? Should we change spots today since we can go from coffee time to on the road in 10 minutes? Fine tuning the set up will come easy but the set up will never be done and this one isn’t perfect either. There is no perfect set up for all scenarios. That’s what makes the process so fun. It’s always evolving to keep up with you as you camp your way through the years. Let’s sit around a campfire sometime and talk about that same ol’ topic, “What would you change and what’s the perfect set up for you?”
See ya out there, friends!
Cheers,
Gregg
Gregg Boydston, a professional photographer, firefighter, and former wildfire Hotshot. He spent six years as a Hotshot—double the typical timeline—putting out forest fires and honing his photography skills along the way. Gregg works to improve the lives of others by fighting fires, keeping families in their homes, and protecting our wild spaces for future generations. Huckberry and Coors Banquet are proud to present part 1 of The Golden Hour Series, a collection of stories about the inspiring folks who work day in and day out to make adventure more accessible to everyone. For more about The Huckberry x Coors Banquet Golden Hour Series and Gregg Boydston: https://bit.ly/3b5acTU
