How do you choose your ideal overlanding setup?

Niko Caignie from Rumst (B) is a photographer and director.
Together with his wife and 2 daughters he tries to travel as much as possible in his spare time to enjoy the outdoors together.
He shares his experiences on his websites outdoor.nikocaignie.be and nikocaignie.be/travel.
In this blog he discusses why he chose their overlanding setup, the combination iKamper Skycamp rooftop tent and CAMPWERK offroad Cargo trailer. [lwptoc]

Your ideal overlanding setup

One of the biggest and most important decisions when putting together your overlanding setup is your rooftop tent.
There is a wide range of models and options, which I won’t go into at length here.
I already figured that out when I was looking for my best choice and it took quite a bit of time.
It would take forever to write a manual for every situation and for everyone’s needs.
We ourselves went for the iKamper Skycamp, a hardshell 4-person rooftop tent.
What I will describe here, however, are the pros and cons of traveling with a rooftop tent.

Stekenjokk (Sweden): I actually never left here.
When I close my eyes, I am here again.
Photo: Niko Caignie

Organizing yourself

We all have that romantic idea of traveling with a rooftop tent: stopping wherever and whenever you want, near lakes or at a beautiful panoramic view, just you and your family and Mother Nature.
To be honest, that’s the way it is!
And we all love the fact that most of these tents are set up in minutes.
To be honest, so it is!

Spontaneous decisions

But what most people forget is the kind of organization that comes with flexible travel with a tent on your roof.
It is organization that makes whether you are a flexible traveler or just an unwieldy, slow pile of camping gear.
If you are well organized, you can make impulsive, quick decisions, such as stopping for the night because you are tired, saw a beautiful place to camp, can leave quickly in the morning because rain is coming or the place was not what you expected.
I can say (proudly) that we are organized in such a way that we can stop and sleep and eat in about 30 minutes.
Leaving in the morning takes us 45 min, breakfast, a good cup of coffee and dishes included.
The secret to this is to organize your stuff so that you don’t have to unpack anything.
If you want to read more about this, go to my website and read my blog Overlanding Essentials.

Teamwork

In short, setting up your tent may take a few minutes, but if you have to unload your entire suitcase to grab your table, find a swimsuit or get the pans cooking …
Then you’re off to unload and load for at least an hour, and hopefully it stays dry in the meantime.
That’s no fun.
You want to stop the car and enjoy the outdoors within an hour.
This kind of travel is teamwork!

Photo: Niko Caignie

Flexibility in your overlanding setup

Another important aspect of traveling with a rooftop tent is the flexibility once you are ready for an extended stay.

Stopover

We as a family love to wander around and jump from one unique place to another, going on adventures and exploring.
But when you go on longer trips, like a month or two, sometimes you need a break and just unwind for a few days.
We often do that at small cozy campsites without too many facilities.
Good showers, a washing machine and a river or lake to swim in is more than enough, otherwise you are stuck between campers and caravan people.
Those longer stops are ideal to repair and maintain your gear, do laundry, take a hot shower, explore the area, visit national parks, go hiking, maybe visit a little piece of civilization, do some shopping.
And that’s where we sometimes encountered the limits of a rooftop tent.
When setting up for a few days you pull out some more gear to make the stay a little more comfortable, extra chairs, canopies, clotheslines and so on.

Photo: Niko Caignie

Therefore, the Cargo trailer

That also means that if you want to explore the area, you have to pack everything and drive 50 km to a national park, town or shopping mall.
There you do your thing and return to the campsite to unpack everything again.
Especially if you have a small break during your trip, that’s the last thing you want to do, extra packing and unpacking.
That’s one of the main reasons why we chose a trailer with a rooftop tent on it.
Not for the extra space, we don’t really need that.
But just to have the possibility to leave the trailer and tent somewhere and go out.
You leave in the morning and when you come back in the evening, everything is exactly as you left it.
Jump from the car seat into your comfy chair and you’re ready for a campfire night!
I bought my trailer from Campwerk and mounted my own rooftop tent on it with some minor modifications based on my needs.
We also installed a kitchen, which makes it a little easier to make food for 4 people 2 or 3 times a day!
You lose a little flexibility in choosing the dodgy muddy roads in the backcountry for some instant off-road driving.
But we get much more off-road fun with this overlanding setup when we leave base camp, where we leave the trailer and rooftop tent, and explore the neighborhood!

Discovering the dolmens in Portugal.
Photo: Niko Caignie

On the road with iKamper rooftop tent somewhere by a lake in Finland.
Photo: Niko Caignie

Sometimes we leave the trailer at home and use the iKamper awning for extra living space.
This way we have a flexible overlanding setup.
Photo: Niko Caignie

The trailer is there to sleep and cook, the car for our stuff and to explore.
Photo: Niko Caignie

With the combination iKamper Skycamp on our CAMPWERK trailer, we are super flexible.
Photo: CAMPWERK

The weather and your camping setup

Last but not least, a rooftop tent is not a big tent, which means that if you are on the road and it rains for several days, you are stuck in a small space of 2 by 2 square meters.
In our case with 4 people.
You can spend one or two days playing games with the kids, reading, sleeping, but after a while it just sucks.
Then you can either leave and find sunnier areas or put up an awning or extra tent to live in.
In my overlanding setup, I have 2 awnings on the car that provide perfect shelter on rainy days, but don’t get you out of the wind and cold.
So keep a rain plan in mind!
It is on those rainy days that you usually go out to find something better than staring at the ceiling of your tent, especially with kids.
Museums or even a good restaurant to have cooked for you and not have to do the dishes.
Extra gear like awnings or even a small extra tent can save a good mood.
Or find a good camping spot with an area where you can take shelter.
___ This article also appeared in 4WD Magazine.

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