Renting A Blue Ridge Expedition Off-Road Camper Trailer Near Charlotte, NC
By renting a Blue Ridge Expedition Trailer for the weekend, my husband and I found the perfect solution to experience our obsession with adventure travel trailers.
It may be our mid-life crisis. My husband and I are obsessed with adventure camper trailers. We want one. But we don’t want your typical “RV type” trailer that you pull behind your truck.
We want a super light-weight, go anywhere, down any forest road, cool looking, tough, off-road camping trailer.
We want tent camping combined with “glamping” amenities and imagine super easy “pack up and go” family camping trips to quiet forests isolated from humans and surrounded by the sounds of nature and our happy children. Cue rainbows and unicorns here!
Rove Rentals
So given our preoccupation with all things “trailer” and “camping,” we finally found Rove Rentals, a business with outposts in Charlotte, NC and Raleigh NC. They rent Blue Ridge Expedition trailers with the optional “tent on top” for the kiddos. The cost is $150 a night, so it’s expensive for camping but the experience was unique and truly a lot of fun for the family.
Even though it required a 5-hour drive to North Carolina from Knoxville, TN, we were determined to try it. We packed up the kids, picked up the trailer, and headed toward our forest road of solitude and contentment. Our plan was to try dispersed camping along one of the forest roads that we had researched.
Unfortunately, Tropical Storm Nate turned our “forest road of contentment” into “the forest road of destruction” so we changed tactics and drove to one of our favorite campgrounds in the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area. We practically had the campground to ourselves-score!
Rove Rentals can recommend nearby campgrounds or dispersed camping sites on forest roads if you need some help with trip planning.
This is a great weekend getaway idea for anyone in the Charlotte or Raleigh areas looking for a fun adventure for the family. From Charlotte, you could take a weekend camping trip to Smith Mountain Lake or Grayson Highlands State Park, Davidson River Campground in Brevard, NC, Lake Powhatan near Asheville. All of these are within about a 2.5 hour drive from Charlotte.
See our “Weekend Getaway” posts for things to see and do in Brevard, NC, Asheville, NC and Grayson Highlands State Park near Abingdon, Virginia.
5 Things We Liked About The Blue Ridge Expedition Trailer
1. Cooking
I absolutely loved the covered stainless-steel kitchen complete with battery-operated lights, a refrigerator cooler, and all the storage you need for your cooking supplies. The kitchen is stored in the back of the trailer, so just lift up the hatchback and voila! Instant kitchen!
We cooked rigatoni with homemade bolognese sauce (cooked and frozen at home), enjoyed hot coffee, oatmeal, and sausage in the morning, prepared sliced carrots and apples–all with ample counter space, sharp knives, and a sink for easy clean up.
2. The Blue Ridge Expedition Trailer Sleeps 4
It’s hard to find an adventure travel trailer that sleeps a family of 4. The Blue Ridge Expedition Camper Trailer’s roof-top tent added additional sleeping for 2 and was a hit with the girls, and they slept “awesome” on the built-in mattress.
Putting up the tent was a cinch and collapsing it at the end of our trip was fairly easy but made simpler with two people as you have to tuck the tent material in so you can completely close it.
Bonus for the kids: Climbing the ladder to get into the tent.
The interior bed of the trailer was cozy, the mattress was comfortable, and it fit my 6’3″ husband. We enjoyed the screened doors and the fan, and I slept better than I usually do in a tent.
3. The Interior
The interior of the Blue Ridge Expedition Travel Trailer sleeps 2 (plenty of room though for cozy family reading time), has lights, screened windows, storage, a comfortable mattress, and most importantly in our area of the country- a fan. In summary, we slept great and admittedly better than we do in our tent.
4. Water Tank and Electricity
Need to wash your dishes? Take a hot shower? It’s here. Plumbed and ready with a heated 26 gallon water tank. It also has electricity to power internal and external lights as well as an interior fan.
A handy, dandy light in the kitchen area
Warm water for dishes or even a shower
5. Easy To Tow
We liked how easy it was to pull behind our vehicle and the freedom to go anywhere including forest roads. Also, even though it weighs less than 2000 pounds, you need to make sure your vehicle is rated to tow that weight.
Towing it was pretty easy, but believe me, it’s not a simple task to turn around on a forest road pulling anything, no matter the weight. On the plus side, it is light enough to pull with your SUV. You don’t even need a truck.
Conclusions
Overall, we had a fantastic weekend. The Rove Rental process was easy, the folks running it are super nice and helpful, and the trailer is in perfect condition, loaded with everything you need. Just bring food, clothes, and sleeping bags for the tent–that’s it.
Yes, we love so many things about the adventure camper trailer, and Rove Rentals is a great place to rent one to try it out.
For us, we discovered that the simplicity of tent camping still reigns supreme but acknowledge one could get the best of both worlds with this type of camping trailer.
We’d like to try it again on a trip driving to multi-destinations. It’s just that easy to set-up and breakdown camp and go.
While I don’t think we’re ready to indulge in a purchase, we will definitely rent from Rove again and look forward to actually trying it, weather permitting this time, on the “forest road of contentment.”
Happy Trails! – Amy
