Earthbound high tech trailers

[John E Davies]

Has anyone heard of these? There is a local ad for a well preserved 26 ft one for $28,000. It is pretty exotic.... I love the water system manifold:

 

 

 

http://www.offroads.ch/cms/upload/test/earthbound/all/2011-Earthbound-Brochure-V1.0.pdf

 

https://spokane.craigslist.org/rvs/d/chattaroy-earthbound-26-ft-dillon-rare/6951489269.html

 

Has anyone ever seem one in person? If anyone wants this one, I would be happy to go scout it for you and give you my honest appraisal..... maybe take it out for a few weeks. ? It’s located about 30 minutes away.

 

I actually saw a bigger brand new one in person at an RV dealer. I was most impressed, but I emailed the manufacturer for pricing of the small one and it was $87,000.  In 2011.....  I passed. I found a few forum posts from owners and there seems to have been some serious build issues and customer service was bad.

 

Hooray for Ollies.

 

John Davies

 

Spokane WA

[Jitters]

Looks like the new NuCamp Avia.

 

https://nucamprv.com/avia/

 

 

 

 

[SeaDawg]

Jitters, it does look a bit similar, but guessing the price tag is a lot less. The Earthbounds were kind of in the stratosphere.

 

John, I did remember this trailer. Saw it at the Tampa Supershow in 2020 or 2011, along with a couple other new light, aluminum cage, composite and fg trailers, the Galileo and the Evergreen Element. All three were very interesting, but none of them survived for long. The Galileo, especially, was quite pretty, and European styling in and out.

 

Didn't remember the plumbing manifold, but I like it. We built a manifold in our house. Great for instantaneous water heating, and of course for repairs.

 

Sherry

 

Sherry

 

[John E Davies]

The reason I like the manifold is this: besides looking trick, the design puts most of the connections in one easy to reach spot. There are no tees or splices anywhere, just the connections at the far end where the lines terminate at a sink or toilet. Very cool. Wasteful of materials though, it uses a whole lot of PEX tubing and the labor is probably higher too.

 

I geek out over interesting design and construction details. When I toured the XP Camper factory in California, I was beyond blown away. Every time I asked a question, “Why this?” Marc Wassman the fanatical German owner answered with the perfect answer. Such as, electrical wires run through smooth conduit, with individual labels at each end. Wow. But that is not good enough, each conduit has an unused spare wire, labelled, so you can splice in an additional or a replacement wire and drag it through in a minute less than no time. Double wow. The XP Camper aluminum ute bed he uses is a work of art, with a massive spherical bearing in the center front, and two wide spread fixed mounts in back, so the truck frame can twist and flex offroad, and the bed and camper are completely unstressed. .... http://xpcamper.com/why/the-concept/

 

Over the top stuff like this costs a TON of money, but I love it. I would like to poke around for an hour inside and under an Earthbound trailer...

 

I love my Ollie and have no regrets, but it is simply not in the same class as some of these very high end RVs... but it could be.

 

John Davies

 

Spokane WA

[SeaDawg]

Ditto on our house manifold plumbing system. Eliminates the big hot water loops, even though our max is 50 ft from the water heater. Possibly more useful in a home than a small trailer, though.

We spent an hour or so visiting with owners of an xp v1 at a Fairbanks carwash. The camper was beautifully manufactured. And really expensive. I think they had just about every option on the list, so way over base price of $150k. They were living fulltime in the camper, which I don't think I would want to do. It was really trick, though, from the folding steps to get in, to the quiet power lift of the pop top. No wasted space, ingenious storage, but honestly felt smaller inside than our elite, to me. And a smaller bathroom, shower, and grocery storage area.

 

The v1 owners were planning the big Arctic circle to Patagonia trip, and that big Dodge 4 x 4 and especially the camper were made for just that kind of expedition. They certainly had an easier time on the Dalton than we did, though got every bit as muddy.

 

Unfortunately, I've seen reports that Wassman's company closed early this summer. The website is up, but all the videos are gone. Forum doesn't load. Last fb and instagram posts were in April. I feel bad for him and his wife, and their workers. And, any future owners caught up on the mess. Their niche was tiny, and their product, though technical and fantastic, probably just too much of everything, especially the pricetag.

 

I'm also still loving my Ollie, almost 12 years old. We make the mods we feel are important. If we go to Patagonia, we'll fly in, and rent a camper. Which, we're actually looking at doing in the next few years. I'm loving the idea of camping there, but not the idea of dragging a camper that far, and back...

Sherry

 

 

[John E Davies]

Sherry, I did not know about XP Camper going under - that is shocking to me and really bad news for the overlanding community. I did find confirmation, it sounds as if Marc lost everything. You kind of expect this sort of thing to happen at the beginning of a recession, when folks suddenly quit spending on luxury goods, but not in an apparent boom time. I wonder what happened?

 

http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/topic/18617-facebook-post-alleging-xp-campers-llc-has-closed/

 

Darn..... you just ruined my evening..... ?

 

John Davies

 

Spokane WA