How Much Camper Can We Fit On An Overlanding Motorcycle Trailer?

There’s a conundrum for those that want a camper yet want to experience the true peacefulness and solitude of the true outdoors. The bigger you get, the less you can stray from the paved path.

Sure, you can buy some forty-foot-long rig, but you won’t be going into the silent woods or open valleys with something that big. No, you’ll likely be stuck at a packed campground ten feet away from similar monster motorhomes, some featuring four kids racing dirt bikes around in circles while Live Bullet album plays at full volume from outdoor speakers. Nothing wrong with Bob Seger, but that might not be my idea of communing with nature at ten o’clock at night.

It isn’t like people haven’t tried making big overlanders. While off roading in the challenging hills of the Rowher Flats, David Tracy famously found the million-dollar 27North motorhome stranded with a broken driveshaft. 27North has likely worked out solutions to this and other issues of taking a nine-ton machine into situations where only Jeep Wranglers dare to tread, but it’s still a big ask for something to do that.

Even if they do work out all the problems, it doesn’t matter for most of us since if we had a million bucks we’d spend it on a nice, big primary house first and not a camper (or, well, a small million-dollar two-bedroom house in a not-so-great area of Los Angeles, or a closet of an apartment in San Francisco).

Tow The Line

Now, the vehicle probably best suited to getting to the far reaches of the wilderness is also the least able to adapt to becoming a camper or towing one: a motorcycle. Something with two wheels and a small frame does not suit itself to creating an indoor living space of any kind, though some have tried. There have been odd “camper motorcycle” concoctions like the Motohome concept below which looks like it would tip over on you at the first stoplight. I’d rather use the part where I assume you’re supposed to sleep as a place to put a JATO takeoff assist rocket to really set some acceleration records.

You can, in fact, buy motorcycle camper trailers; usually they’re of the pop-up variety to create a sleeping space. There’s a few problems with these things. First, how much can a motorcycle realistically tow? As Mercedes Streeter pointed out a little while back a number of bike manufacturers simply tell you flat out not to do it at all, voiding your warranty if you do such shenanigans burning out a clutch while trying to start on a hill. The second and bigger issue is that you’re never going to tow one of these boxes while overlanding through the brush on dusty trails. I can see someone cutting between two closely-spaced trees, forgetting about the trailer and flying over the handlebars when the whole business stops in its tracks.

No, most motorbike off-the-grid camping people use tents, and there are plenty to choose from like the one below by Lone Rider. With a weight of only eight pounds it must be easy to carry; setting it up hopefully isn’t too much a chore, but it just isn’t the same as a camper where you’re asleep and off of the ground in a few minutes after you stop as you would do with any kind of camper.

To create a useable motorcycle camper, I think our best bet is to find the most useable motorcycle trailer we can find for overlanding duties. There is such a trailer that Mercedes Streeter reminded me of that she profiled a while back. Called the Pasq, it’s a single wheeled unit with a unique connecting mechanism attaching it to the bike to allow for a full range of motion that a standard hitch just can’t provide. Narrow, lightweight, and with a full six-and-a-half inches of suspension travel, it’s ideally suited to letting off roading bikers do off roading biker things unburdened.

Still, this trailer looks absolutely nothing like the basis for any type of thing you might call a “camper”, but you’d be wrong.

The Trail Snail?

Look, we know that we’re never going to get a bathroom and a big screen TV a motorcycle camper, but could we at least get the basics like storage, eating/cleaning capabilities and space to sleep? I think we might. First, take a look at the Pasq trailer. It’s only about three feet long at most, and a bed has to be at least six feet or so. You’d have to double the length, and how would you ever make that happen? Think about it- how do you get a double page spread in a magazine? You open it 180 degrees; that’s what we’ll do here.

Once you disconnect the trailer from your bike, you’d use the leveler legs to stabilize it.

Then, as you fold the unit open, not only would it double is size, but a half-round accordion-style cover would form over the sleeping surface like a big Slinky toy.

Next, you slide out the telescopic extensions of the cover and drape the folded-up tent material over it, which now gives you a covered area next to the bed, and a zippered side cover curtain (there’s a fixed wall on the side of the sleeping space with zip-open screen).  Now you have an arch-topped living space that’s about seven feet by five feet with ceiling height in the center.

We could lean into the shell-like shape and call it the Trail Snail. As an option, a little basin might be concealed under the bed to pivot out (it could also contain a cooktop BUT I don’t want the liability- you would have to leave the side covers open if you would even consider using it).

When you’re ready to move, the whole thing rather easily folds back up and connects to you bike. You’ll note that there’s space for saddle-bag type lightweight storage on the sides of the unit, as well as places to hold containers for water or fuel just like on the current Pasq trailer.

It Ain’t The Ritz

No, it certainly isn’t. But, having a thirty-five square foot cabin in the woods beats crawling around on the ground in a tent.

Best of all, moving this living space around with you won’t compromise your ride as badly as you’d think. You can take it to places far, far more remote than a camper with slide-outs and a satellite dish ever will; places where you can be the one deciding if you want to hear Beautiful Loser and Katmandu blasting on not.

A Daydreaming Designer Revisits A Curious ‘Motorhome’ Project – The Autopian

Our Daydreaming Designer Imagines A ‘Drop Down’ Camper To Replace Evel Knievel’s Aston Martin ‘Coffin’ – The Autopian

How Our Daydreaming Designer Would Turn A Scion xB Into A Delightful Camper – The Autopian

Our Daydreaming Designer Imagines A Cybertruck-Shaped Camper Trailer That Almost Makes Sense – The Autopian

A Daydreaming Designer Imagines If Airstream Made An Actual Car In The Seventies – The Autopian