Skip to main content

Tent-trailer camping goes off-road with Freespirit’s Recreation Journey Basecamp

If your idea of tent camping extends beyond what you carry strapped to your backpack, variations abound. Freespirit Recreation’s Journey Basecamp Package combines a rugged off-road trailer with a trailer tent. The combination gives you spacious accommodations you can take off-road without needing to break the tent down every time you want to drive off, as is the case with rooftop tents.

You can’t pull most pop-up tent trailer campers off road with you, especially larger models such as Rockwood’s 28-foot High Wall series. However, Freespirit Recreation’s trailers are built to be pulled wherever your off-road vehicle takes you.

Freespirit Recreation Basecamp Roof Top Tent Trailer Setup

Part of the joy of the Journey Basecamp Package is it uses none of the trailer’s 45-cubic foot interior storage space, which is accessible by three lockable doors. The ruggedly built trailer features four corner stabilizer leveling jacks. Because the tent is permanently mounted to the trailer top, you can’t add roof racks or other exterior accessories. You can, however, store soft gear like sleeping bags, pillows, and folding camp furniture on top of the tent under an expandable PVC cover that’s included in the package.

Perhaps most impressive is the fact it requires just one person to erect the Basecamp tent. Because part of the tent attaches to the trailer, you don’t need a second person to hold on while making sure the corners are tight.

The tent interior includes a main room with its floor on the ground and a bunk room on the trailer top, with space for a queen size aero-bed. Screened windows with zippered interior clear PVC and exterior roll-up storm flaps give you options for ventilation, light, and privacy. The bunk room also features a zip-up privacy wall. Additionally, the package includes a step stool to get into the bunk room and to help with set up and cleaning.

The Journey Basecamp Package lists for $7,470. Separately, the Journey trailer with highway sport package costs $6,395 and the Base Camp Trailer Tent is $1,995, so the Journey Basecamp Package saves $920. Buyers also have the option of spending this saved money on an optional awning for $295, annex (an extra room) for $450, or the awning and annex together for $550 — an additional $195 savings. Other Freespirit Recreation options include lighting, power packs, camping furniture, and more.

Bruce Brown
Digital Trends Contributing Editor Bruce Brown is a member of the Smart Homes and Commerce teams. Bruce uses smart devices…
Goodbye, coolers. The EcoFlow Glacier doesn’t need ice — it makes it
The EcoFlow Glacier is a fridge shaped like a cooler with its own battery,

Every cooler operates on borrowed time. It leaves for your camping trip brimming over with crisp produce and ice-encrusted beer that looks straight out of a Super Bowl commercial, and returns with a soggy block of foil-wrapped cheddar cheese floating in a pool of mustard water. Mother Nature always wins.

Perhaps that’s why I was so enamored when I saw the EcoFlow Glacier at CES 2023. Less a cooler than a mobile battery-powered fridge on wheels, the sleek electric Glacier not only obviated the need for ice, it would make ice for me in 18 minutes. My home fridge can’t even do that, and I didn’t even know I wanted it to until just now. When EcoFlow offered to let me try the Glacier, I envisioned sipping a perspiring glass of whiskey in the tropics and accepted the occupational hazards of my job.

Read more
I was wrong. E-bikes are so practical, they’re a transit cheat code
An Aventon Level 2 ebike sits outside a grocery store.

Confession: Despite loving both bikes and gadgets, e-bikes never excited me. Compared to my bicycle, e-bikes seemed unfair. Compared to my motorcycle, they seemed slow. Compared to my car, they seemed impractical.

But with $1,500 federal e-bike rebates potentially on the horizon at part of E-Bike Act, I decided it was past time to reconsider. Not just because 30% off would make them way more accessible, but because the entire idea that e-bikes could be worthy of a rebate changed the way I looked at them: less as toys, more as transit. Had I written off an entire way of getting around because I was looking at it the wrong way?

Read more
Upway launches one of the best marketplaces for certified e-bikes, new or not
Man holding ebike from Upway in a field, lifestyle image.

This content was produced in partnership with Upway.
It wasn't too long ago that e-bikes were a rare sight, but all of that has changed, and rightfully so. Electric bikes are all over the road these days, and there are many brands either venturing into the technology, to launch their own versions of the sustainable transportation option or reiterating existing and traditional designs. From Aventon to Schwinn, or RadPower to Momentum, with so many opportunities, the prevailing question is, where do you go to find the best deals and the best information about these brands and their e-bike models? The answer is Upway, the number one certified electric bike provider and an official partner to many of the aforementioned brands.

What is Upway, exactly? It's a marketplace, specializing in e-bikes, featuring an inventory that's sourced from some of the best brands in the world. There are American brands -- like Specialized, Cannondale, and RadPower -- and European brands -- like Riese, Muller, and VanMoof. The best part is the discounts, offering up to 60% off retail, for a plethora of brands. Upway is on a mission to make sustainable mobility affordable for everyone. It's also one of the best places to go for a new or pre-owned e-bike, and here's why:

Read more