I’ve long said that some of the coolest-looking campers were the ones built decades ago. One company seemingly wants to challenge that notion with a travel trailer that looks like a shipping container formed into a trapezoid. The Land Ark Travel Trailer is a whopping $220,000 art piece with over 100 gallons of water storage, a rainwater collection system, and a toilet that burns your waste.
The Land Ark Travel Trailer is supposed to be one of those elevated travel experiences. Like the 27North Ascender 30A and the Living Vehicle HD30 Pro, the Land Ark Travel Trailer is intended to combine high luxury with the equipment necessary for boondocking. However, the infamous 27North rig costs over a million dollars while the Living Vehicle is still two-thirds of a million dollars. Also, the Living Vehicle weighs 16,000 pounds empty, which requires an equally beefy tow rig.
This travel trailer is easier to stomach at $220,000 and a comparatively featherweight at 6,500 pounds empty. My family’s flimsy Heartland Mallard M33 has a thousand pounds on this thing! But wait, what even is a Land Ark, anyway?
From Tiny Houses To RVs
Land Ark isn’t really a huge name in the RV world, but it’s been around in the tiny house space for about 9 years. As the company writes, the Land Ark Travel Trailer is a camper that gets its ideas from 13 years of tiny house experience.
Land Ark RV started in Colorado with couple Brian and Joni Buzarde. Back in 2011, the couple found themselves in need of a home. However, they had very different careers. Brian is a designer while Joni is a businesswoman. They weren’t sure where their careers would take them, so they decided that their home should come with some wheels. Joni and Brian then found that none of the tiny houses on the market had a dazzling aesthetic. Worse was that some tiny homes had wheels, but weren’t really meant to be hauled around. The couple then checked out RVs and found that they were plenty mobile, but didn’t really work well as long-term homes.
The Buzardes felt as if there really wasn’t anything that fit them, so they built the Woody (above), their very first tiny home. The pair took their tiny home around the country, learning a lot along the way.
In 2016, Brian and Joni decided to turn tiny homes into a business and founded Land Ark RV. The first tiny houses, the Drake and the Draper, were constructed the next year. Now, despite the company’s name being “Land Ark RV” and the trailers marketed as campers, they were tiny houses built to RV code to make them roadworthy. The Drake and the Draper didn’t come with holding tanks or the ability to power themselves away from a shore plug.
In reality, the Drake and Draper were closer to park models, mobile homes, or tiny houses rather than travel trailers. For another example, the Drake towered 13.5 feet high, spread out 8.5 feet, stretched 30 feet, and weighed 17,000 pounds empty. There was also the Quatro and Uhtred, which were smaller 24-foot units, but still weighed tons. The Quatro (above) was a whopping 12,800 pounds empty and still didn’t have proper RV equipment.
Land Ark RV says it’s now charting a new course. The trailers will still look plenty funky, but they won’t be heavy beasts shackled to places with shore power and sewer. Now, they’ll have holding tanks and function more like a typical RV, but with boondocking power for “weeks.”
The ‘Travel Trailer’
The first trailer to come out of Land Ark’s new plan is the Land Ark Travel Trailer. Right off the bat, the Buzardes made some great changes. The trailer is still long enough at 26 feet and 8 inches, but its empty weight is just 6,500 pounds. The trailer is also just 11 feet, 7.5 inches tall, so you have less of a chance of opening the top like a can on a low bridge. Oh, and it has real off-grid capabilities, so it’s more camper than tiny house.
A Land Ark RV starts with a cold-rolled steel frame. Land Ark attaches a dual axle-less independent suspension to that and you get 34-inch all-terrain tires plus 23 inches of ground clearance. Now, this isn’t a hardcore off-road trailer, but far closer to a soft-roading sort of deal.
As for the body, Land Ark RV does not say what the structure is made out of, but does say that you get corrugated aluminum for the outer skin and closed cell spray for insulation for the floor, walls, and roof. Land Ark RV wants you to be able to use this trailer in any weather condition. This body comes in Land Ark RV’s characteristic trapezoidal-like shape with matching windows. One awesome touch comes from a drop-down patio that’s 7′7″ by 7′10″ in size.
Inside is where you’ll see the tiny house past blending with the company’s RV goals. The Land Ark Travel Trailer features over 7-foot-tall ceilings, wide residential-style entryways, and spacious living areas. The bathroom has a 32″ x 36″ shower that’s separated from the toilet and the sink. The kitchen counter is decently large and features a hidden induction cooktop, microwave, refrigerator, and sink.
The Travel Trailer is also built with a convertible interior. The dining area behind the kitchen transforms into a bunk bed arrangement. There’s a primary bedroom up front and by day it functions as an office. At night, you get a queen-sized Murphy bed down from the wall.
What helps make this a true travel trailer is how Land Ark RV upgraded the onboard equipment. The Land Ark RV builds before this had no holding tanks of any kind and no way to power them away from a campsite. To that, Land Ark says the Travel Trailer is designed “with self-sufficient electrical, water and waste systems.”
The company is still ironing out the details, but they sound pretty nice. The Travel Trailer will come with solar power, but Land Ark RV is not set on what kind of system it will install. As of now, the company is choosing between 1,200W of solar panels designed with good shade performance or covering the roof with 3,800W of typical solar panels. Regardless of the choice of panels, Land Ark RV will pair these with a lithium battery system of up to 600 Ah in size.
In a departure from Land Ark’s past of no holding tanks, the Travel Trailer will be bringing a lot of fluid along for the ride. The tank sizes haven’t been finalized, but Land Ark says you’ll be getting room for over 100 gallons of fresh water and over 65 gallons of grey water. The freshwater tank is replenished at least partially through a system meant to capture and filter rainwater.
There isn’t a black tank and that’s because there’s a propane-fired incinerator toilet onboard to burn up your rear end deposits. However, RV connections do exist for when you sleep at campgrounds. Propane also fires the tankless hot water heater as well as the furnace. Despite appearances, there is a combo air-conditioner and heater as well, but it hides under an interior bench.
Land Ark says you get all of this wrapped up in an interior with Upcycled Rice Hulls for the walls, floor, and cabinetry. Bison leather makes up the upholstery with the option for synthetic upholstery if you want it. You also get an automatic leveling system, 3,900 pounds of payload, and LED mood lighting.
Not The Ultimate Trailer, But A Fun Idea
Wrap it all up, and the Land Ark Travel Trailer sounds like a good camping companion. It has sleeping space for four, a funky design, and enough water storage to last two people over a week. This trailer is basically everything I would have loved to have during EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2023. I would have loved watching planes soar above from the cozy patio.
It is true that this trailer isn’t the best off-grid tool there is. Some off-grid-oriented RVs have generators, far better solar, and systems that generate drinking water from the humidity in the air. However, many of those rigs cost over a half-million dollars if not over a million dollars. I won’t say $220,000 is cheap, but it’s better than a million. Plus, none of them look like this!
If the Land Ark Travel Trailer seems to be your jam, the company has some slots still open for its limited 2024 production run. The company doesn’t say when the trailers will be delivered, but does say to give the firm a call to reserve a spot. The images here appear to be renders, too, but Land Ark is a real company.
Update: According to the website’s FAQs, the minimum deposit for any Land Ark is 50 percent. You should probably wait until the trailers enter reality before plunking down that kind of cash.Â
The Travel Trailer is certainly pricy, but it’s something I could see myself owning if I had a bit, no, a lot more cash than I currently do. I love funky designs and this one hits the mark. Plus, over 100 gallons of water would mean my wife could shower without the worry of running us dry. That’s a win to me!
(Images: Land Ark RV)
More free advertising for a vapor scam that doesn’t even exist. The details are irrelevant. Selling bullshit to dumbasses.
Is that 3800 a typo? Based on the size of my 100W panel, that would require somewhere north of 250 square feet of roof space, which the dimensions of this trailer do not seem to support. Never mind that you would have no space for vents, skylights, or ac units if you did that.
It also seems like extreme overkill. Even the 1200W option would put this toward the high end of RV solar setups, at least from what I’ve heard.
Looks pretty badass parked out in the desert. Price is too rich for me, but I like it for sure.
At the price, a complete crack pipe dream. Good luck on getting any corporate funding.
and on taxes, some states like SC have some pretty high personal property taxes. Which you need to get plates.
Given they aren’t coming at this with zero experience… I’m not sure what justifies your statement. And there are people in 49 other states to sell to…
At that price, I never see myself owning one of these UNLESS I have a specific need to live/work in a remote area far away from utilities and services we typically take for granted… and I’m getting paid a shitload of money to do that given job.
You had me at burning poop.
Rainwater collection, great example of bug-turned-feature for campers. This somehow isn’t as hateful as other overpriced trailers, but I struggle to see the target market
Reclusive people who are fabulously wealthy, but not so wealthy that they can afford to buy a whole island.
Me. Or me after the kids are out of college.
In reality… I could probably build it myself for half the cost. But there’s always the question of how much my time is worth. Because it would take quite a bit of it.
They are requiring a 50% deposit ($110K). Please do not give a company $110K for a product that they claim is under development but will totally exist in the future.
I don’t care if they are a “real” company. It’s a privately held company and we don’t have insights into their financials. If they go under, people who put down deposits will have zero recourse.
ETA: Lest I come off like a total a-hole, I want to add that this does look cool and I appreciate the spotlight on these products. But I wouldn’t turn my somewhat-hard-earned money over at this point.
Good advice! I did not see the “50 percent deposit” requirement until I checked the FAQs just now. You’d think they’d put that down on the trailer’s listing itself.
Yeah, I’d wait until there’s a real product before putting money in.
The interior photos are AI generated. Way overpriced. Neat but not 200k worth of neat.
Doubtful. The interior images are renderings from a 3-D model. From the looks of it… a Sketchup model. The rendering could be done with a plug-in like Enscape.
The first thing I thought with the topshot is that this had the shape and style of some of the tiny houses I’d seen. Makes sense that a tiny house manufacturer would go travel trailer (I assumed, perhaps incorrectly, that many/most do both, since it’s so common to have a tiny house that is a trailer).
Outside my budget, too, but it does look pretty nice without being gimmicky or overly massive, so I hope they find buyers.
For $220K+ I’d want a full size bathtub. Also there are electric incinerator toilets and electric hot water heaters, so considering the onboard solar and battery pack I wouldn’t want propane powered anything. A combo heat pump/traditional electric water heater would eliminate the need for an AC unit in the first place.
I agree. 600Ah isn’t that much, even at 24v, which then has its own issues.
Good point! Personally, quality and design remains so bad where I’m just happy when the shower fits a real adult. I have no idea why Thor and Forest River think we want to take showers in things smaller than a phone booth.
For $220K+ I’d want a full size house.
No property taxes for a trailer…
Except for the land you pay to park it on.
Which generally has much much lower property taxes than that same land with a permanent house on it of the same size.
You really think you can rent land for LESS than the property tax on it?
You can if you mooch off friends and family’s land like most tiny housers seem to.
How would a combo heat pump/traditional electric water heater would eliminate the need for an AC unit?
The heat pump sucks heat out of the ambient air to heat the water in the water heater, putting out cold air in return. Now it probably won’t be enough for places like Phoenix or Vegas in summer, but that’s why you have optional air conditioning as well.
I see, you’re proposing to use the ambient heat of the interior as the heat source for the water heater heat pump.
I guess then it depends on how much water that tank holds and how much hot water gets used.
I’m not proposing anything, these units already exist. Generally speaking I go with the biggest hot water tank I can get.
They exist for home use, dunno about for trailers. Smallest I know of is 40 gallons.
The disadvantage would be size. For this to work the heater needs a good sized tank in which to dump the heat. That will take quite a bit of precious space. Right now this trailer is set up with a propane on demand hot water system which I assume is much more compact.
with the size of the trailer I’d have plenty of room to spare for my use case.
I hear van life is nice down by the river this time of year.
Heat pumps still use refrigerant. They would be fine for Phoenix or Vegas. They actually have more trouble providing heat in very cold environments.
This is not a new technology… but it has been slow to make the transition to home use in the US. Because of their much greater efficiency… they will unquestionably supplant separate furnaces and AC systems moving forward.
I get that. What is being proposed here is to use a heat pump water heater to also cool the interior by transferring the heat from the interior to the water. I think the balancing act of trying to size the tank with the heat load might make it hard to forgo an independent A/C unit as well to keep the space cool and the water properly hot. Then its a matter of cost to benefit – how often do the auxiliary water and space heaters kick in? Is it worth the loss of space to have a tank vs a smaller tankless unit?
it has been slow to make the transition to home use in the US.
A few months ago I ran the numbers. At PG&E prices and with the rebates it looked like the payback time of new heat pump water heater vs its electric equivalent was a bit over a year (assuming free or DIY install). Given it comes with a 12 year warranty it’s IMO a no brainer. The payback vs a gas heater was longer, maybe 3 years but still well within the warranty.
Of course YMMV, some will get a much slower payback but I think the upgrade is worth doing for a lot of folks. Assuming of course they are as reliable as electric and gas heaters. Even with the warranty it sucks to be out of hot water.
FWIW My folks are on their second home heat pump system. It’s working OK now but it took quite a while to iron out the bugs. The first was a complete POS that never worked right.
220k isn’t cheap, but this looks attractive and atypical. If I win the lotto, I’m down to try one on for size.