Goose Gear has long been offering interior camper kits and accessories for popular vehicles and RV products like the Toyota 4Runner, Jeep Wrangler and GFC Platform Camper. This year, in addition to developing a kit for Scout's smallest truck camper yet, the California company has slimmed and trimmed its in-vehicle camping hardware into something even more weekend-warrior friendly. The Park Series ships flat and easily installs to let the average adventurer turn an everyday crossover into an efficient micro-camper ready to travel lightly over long distances.
A three-generation family business, Goose Gear traces its corporate lineage back to Pazzulla Plastics, founded in 1952. In its modern iteration, the company has applied the laminate know-how accumulated over those past 70 years to create rugged overland camping equipment. It's carved out a rather unique niche for itself developing micro-RV floor plans for empty camping toppers from other manufacturers, including AT Overland and Alu-Cab.
Goose Gear slides down the automotive market with its new Park Series, offering a more level, organized way of camping inside select crossover models that include the Subaru Crosstrek, Forester and Outback, and the Toyota RAV4. It offers several different module and package options in the series, and the most complete camper solution is the Sleep and Storage Package.
The S&S package features two rear storage modules, and the buyer can select among a drawer, open face compartment and storage compartment with top access hatch for both right and left sides. Regardless of which driver/passenger-side combination they go with, each rear module combines with flat-panel extensions over the folded rear vehicle seats to create a raised sleeping platform that makes the car a four-wheeled overnight shelter. Buyers can throw their own mattress or sleeping pads on top and sleep solo or double up.
Unlike larger camper-in-a-box kits, the Sleep and Storage package doesn't include any kind of kitchen equipment beyond an available slide-out cutting board/work top. The compartments or drawers can be used to store cooking equipment and dishes, but beyond that it's a bring-your-own setup.
Goose Gear has designed the Park Series for DIY assembly, which allows for lower shipping costs via flat packing. Each kit arrives as a series of panels, and end users assemble them with basic hand tools using the integrated tongue and grooves and included hardware. Goose Gear says that it's designed to be done by a single person.
Unlike older Goose Gear kits that require drilling into the vehicle floor (and possibly relocating the spare tire) to install a base plate, the Park Series is a lighter, more flexible design that can be strapped to the vehicle's tie-downs with no drilling or mounting plate. This makes it easier for DIY installation and flexible removal, allowing owners to easily switch back and forth between everyday driver and tiny camper.
In terms of construction, the individual pieces are made from Baltic birch covered in a rugged phenolic surface with hexagonal texturing. Buyers can select from 7-, 9- and 11-in (18-, 23- and 28-cm) module heights to balance headroom and storage capacity.
Goose Gear introduced the Park Series at Overland Expo West earlier this year. The Sleep and Storage pack starts at US$2,190. Those looking for just storage can shop smaller kits that include the rear modules without the in-vehicle camping extensions. The solo-camping Ultimate Chef and Sleep package that replaces the driver-side sleeper/storage module with a fridge slide starts at $2,304.
Source: Goose Gear