This Bear-Spraying, Bulletproof Camper Promises To Be A Portable Bunker For The Apocalypse, And Now You Can Stand Up In It

Most travel trailers are boring white boxes where the most exciting element might be an outdoor kitchen or a new location for a toilet. Off-road campers bring rugged flair to the table, but often do so in a super serious way that makes you want to roll your eyes.

Mammoth Overland is taking a different tack with it’s new XLE ‘Xtinction-Level Escape’ camper – it’s over-the-top ridiculous and silly just for the fun of it. This camper shoots a huge cloud of bear spray, has weapons storage, bullet-proof windows, blast shields, flare launchers, a HAM radio, cameras, a sealed cabin with an air-filtration system, and more. It’s just the right amount of fun in a world that’s way too serious.

The off-road camper world is full of rigs that are earnest in their sometimes exhausting branding and marketing. They use names like “Summit”, “Expedition,” “Roamer,” or “Overland.” These things are huge, often covered in truck bedliner, and cost as much as a house. Sometimes, these trailers aren’t even well-equipped for off-roading.

Upon first inspection, the Mammoth Overland XLE ‘Xtinction-Level Escape’ camper appears to be at the crossroads of the prepper movement and overland campers. But let’s be real here, when will you ever need your camper to have blast shields? Where are you camping, a bomb test site? Unless Mammoth Overland is aware of some impending apocalypse, most of the features of this camper will never be used. Everything about this trailer is absurd, but it’s so unhinged that it comes back to being awesome again.

Built Like A Plane By People Who Build Planes

I’ve been writing about Mammoth Overland since 2023 and even tested the company’s previous flagship, the Extinction-Level Event (ELE) Off-Road Trailer. Here’s a quick review of its origins:

This company is a subsidiary of Vashon Aircraft, which was founded by John Torode in Washington in 2012. Vashon Aircraft’s mission is to make aviation more accessible for everyone who wants to take to the sky. If you’re not tuned into the aviation world, it helps to know that a basic new Cessna 172 can cost you around $600,000. Used ones older than you are may still be more than $100,000. Torode hated that, so his company developed the Ranger R7 Light Sport Aircraft.

This all-metal aircraft is designed to be easy to fly, easy to train in, and far more affordable than the aviation establishment. Vashon does it by cutting out everything you don’t need. A Ranger makes no effort to be pretty, doesn’t try to hide its rough edges, and doesn’t get any unnecessary fluff. The plane is basically a large flight deck with some wings, wheels, and an engine attached to it. As such, a base model Ranger is $159,500.

There has always been a bit of an outdoorsy element to Vashon, too. The company’s founder and its staff love spending time out in Washington’s vast outdoors. As such, they baked in a feature into the Ranger where its seats can fold flat so you can camp out in the plane. But that was just the beginning. The folks who ran Vashon got the idea that there should be a trailer built exactly like a plane, from a company that builds planes. Mammoth Overland was founded in 2021 with a focus on building off-road trailers constructed like the Ranger.

The impetus for a camper that sprays bears happened after Mammoth Overland President Scott Taylor was peppered with questions from prospective buyers about whether his campers would be bear-proof. Apparently, the folks who camp in Washington are so concerned about bears that they want more than just hard walls between them and the curious creatures.

I visited the Mammoth Overland factory in Washington in 2024 and was blown away. Many RV companies have claimed to build their campers like planes are made. Others say their campers are inspired by aircraft design. Mammoth Overland can legitimately claim all of this. The machines that build the wings for Vashon Ranger aircraft pump out the panels for Mammoth Overland campers. The very same rivets that hold Rangers together cover Mammoth Overland campers. Even the aluminum used for Mammoth Overland trailers is the same as that used for Ranger aircraft.

Mammoth Overland made headlines with the aforementioned ELE ‘squaredrop’ trailer, which featured submarine doors, a Geiger counter, a sealed cabin with positive pressure and an air filtration system, weapons storage, a drone launch platform, bear spray cannons, optional bulletproofing, and so much more.

The company then followed it up with the TL Tall Boy (above). This family-oriented camper ditched the extinction-level event theme and gained a bathroom and a ceiling high enough to permit real standing room. Where do you go next when you’ve already crafted some nutty campers? Make the craziest trailer you can.

The Great Escape

The XLE combines the two concepts for an apocalypse-ready bunker that you can actually stand in.

The Xtinction-Level Escape trailer, or XLE, starts with the basic design of the Tall Boy. That means it has a body made out of riveted aluminum with R5 insulation and a ceiling so high that a 6 foot, 3 inch tall person will have no problem fitting inside. It rides on a chassis featuring a dual Timbren 5200HD independent suspension, 33-inch BFGoodrich tires, and 22 inches of ground clearance.

But the XLE departs from its Tall Boy bones quickly. The Mammoth Overland team started by bringing over the ELE’s air filtration system. The XLE features a reinforced vault-style door with multiple locking pins. This seals the XLE from the outside world. To keep the outside from leaking in, the XLE is given a slight positive pressure. Dual medical-grade HEPA does its best to keep the air in the camper clean against whatever’s going on outside.

That filtration system is perhaps the mildest part of this camper. The XLE is equipped with thick bulletproof windows, and if things get really grim, you can cover them with the camper’s included blast shields. Apparently, the idea is that if you need to lock the XLE down to protect its occupants from whatever’s in the air in Washington, or that really annoying in-law, the camper can turn itself into a mini bunker.

Oh, it gets even wilder from here. Attached to the camper’s exterior is a laundry list of toys. Several night vision cameras dot the camper’s exterior, making for a sort of camper version of Tesla’s Sentry Mode. If you’re all hunkered down in your mobile bunker and see a bear, an insurgent, or just your neighbor trying to steal your lawnmower again, you can hit them with a sonic defense system, which appears to be a pair of horns meant for a semi-tractor.

If the threat keeps on encroaching on the perimeter of the camper, you can then remotely fire one or all of the four bear spray cannons, which douse the perimeter of the camper in the stuff. Bear spray – largely something like Capsaicin – is highly effective against bears. But don’t use it against humans. The stuff is about three times as potent as typical self-protection sprays and can cause horrifying effects like blood clots and strokes.

If whatever is bothering you gets past the bear spray and you now want to notify people nearby of potential trouble, a new feature of the XLE is a 37-millimeter flare launcher that can be reloaded from inside the camper. You can also hit the camper’s strobe lights to make more of a show.

The amusingly overkill features don’t end there. The XLE also sports storage for dual long rifles, a separate gun safe, a medical kit, another safe under the bed, a HAM radio, a weather station, and a Geiger counter. Some wilderness experts recommend being armed to stop a bear when spray doesn’t work. Finally, the camper has a rooftop observation deck with two standing platforms plus an escape hatch.

The rest of the XLE’s features are just standard camper fare. There’s a 1,200 Ah lithium battery, 400 W of solar, two propane tanks, a generator, a water filtration system, and integrated Starlink. Comfort features include a 12V air-conditioner, a 45L refrigerator, a shielded Truma VarioHeat system for hot water and cabin heat, a propane cooktop, and a 50-gallon water tank. Being built on the TL also means a king bed, bunk beds, a shower, and a cassette toilet, features missing from the ELE.

Of course, like any proper vehicle with “overland” in its name, the XLE has all sorts of mounts for traction boards, shovels, water jugs, fuel jugs, spare tires, crates, or whatever else you want to stick on the side of your camper. There’s even a spice rack. Allegedly, the camper can carry more than enough supplies to last a full week in the wilderness.

All of this comes in at a length of 18’4.2,” a height of 9’5.5,” and a width of 7’4.1.” The trailer has a dry weight of 4,500 pounds and a loaded weight of 5,200 pounds.

Expensive, But Looks Like So Much Fun

The biggest number is the price, which is $123,994, or $54,494 more expensive than the Tall Boy it’s based on. The only options are the smoke and flare launcher at $8,000 and a custom wrap for $7,500. The XLE’s price seems to be as wild as the rest of it is. Orders are open now for deliveries later this year.

Mammoth Overland sees the XLE as being a bit of a mobile operations center for the end of the world. Again, as far as I know, the world isn’t ending. Most of these features won’t even make much sense in a real-world emergency because you’ll have to leave the camper at some point. There’s a reason why real bunkers are underground.

The Mammoth Overland team knows this, however. Mammoth’s Scott Taylor told me that you aren’t supposed to take these campers totally seriously. The company doesn’t actually think that the world is ending. Some of the bits are serious, like the bear sprayers, which were a legitimate request by customers. The air filtration system might also be beneficial if you’re camping somewhere with terrible air quality, and it’s nice to have that water filtration system. The rest of it, though? It’s all fun.

It would be easy to hate the XLE as prepper bait, but I can’t help but smile. Like the ELE, the XLE will turn heads, get people talking, and make people laugh. It’s a camper that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but should also just be a great place to sleep. In a world where seemingly everything carries tremendous weight, I like silly ideas like this. Will you ever need a gun locker and a Geiger counter while camping at a state park? No, but the idea is funny. I’m going to need to see one of these rocking a Vault-Tec wrap.

Top graphic image: Mammoth Overland