My family spent a week with the Taxa Outdoors Woolly Bear Overland camp trailer, and we loved it. Camp trailers like this are an off-road-ready camping option with a lot of storage, organization, and other useful features.
Camp trailers are nothing new. As a kid in the 1970s and 1980s, my family had a dedicated pull-behind trailer with all of our gear inside. Since it was mostly surplus military canvas and wood, it wasn’t the kind of thing you could just put in a backpack. Our trailer was a useful clamshell that kept the gear dry and allowed us to haul around all of our stuff.
Today’s camp trailers offer the same idea, but have evolved into much more ergonomic and useful packages. The Taxa Outdoors model we tested retails for about US$16,250 and features all-steel construction with a full galley, a refrigerator/cooler drawer, on-board batteries, LED lighting, and a lot of storage. A rooftop tent adds another $2,900. We managed to load all of our camping equipment and food for the five of us, with room to spare. Every spot on the Woolly Bear Overland is replete with tie-down options.
Curb weight for the Taxa Woolly Bear is about 1,400 lb (635 kg) as we had it. Factory weight without add-ons is about 1,270 lb (576 kg). Added to the standard equipment on ours was a lithium battery pack and solar panel kit, a powered cooler chest, and a 5-gallon water jug. With all of our own gear added, the trailer weighed just over 2,000 lb (907 kg).
That light weight makes the Woolly Bear towable by nearly any off-road-capable vehicle. Most small SUVs, compact or midsize pickups, and even minivans have at least that much towing capacity. We used a 2024 Ram 1500 Rebel, which is way over-capable for this, but whose off-road prowess just about matches that of the Woolly Bear Overland with its articulating off-road hitch. For weekend getaways or overlanding adventures, it's perfect.
Storing the trailer is easy as well. It’s less than 11 feet in length (10 ft, 8 in / 325 cm) and about the same height as a Subaru Forester, with a wheel track about equal to that of a Toyota RAV4. The upper rack on the Taxa Woolly Bear is adjustable, and ours was set at about the mid-point. Adding more storage space underneath the top rack (and optional tent) is possible by removing bolts and adjusting the rack’s height. Overland models have ground clearance that is better than most off-road vehicles, thanks to the trailer’s axle-less design using a Timbren suspension arm.
Our time camping with the Taxa Woolly Bear took us to the Snowy Range Mountains near Laramie, Wyoming. With lodgepole pines, winter-fattening wildlife on the loose, and clear water lakes, it’s a beautiful place. We found our spot, parked, and started setting up camp. We were interrupted halfway through by a young bull moose wandering through to eat the ripe currants off bushes that were scattered around the area. That put some pause in our setup time, but total actual work to get set up with the Woolly Bear trailer was about 10 minutes.
It was during setup that I realized a dedicated camping trailer is something we’d been needing for a long time. It simplifies storage of gear and makes setting up much faster. Lowering the stabilizing legs of the Taxa requires only a few cranks with an included handle. Leveling by eyeball was simple. The two rear legs lift the back to level, while the side legs provide side-to-side leveling. My 14-year-old daughter was able to run the crank without trouble.
A ladder is deployed for access to the rooftop tent. The tent is unlatched with four clasps and pushed up. The built-in pistons do the rest of the lifting, and a bar inside is pulled up into place. A bar on either end of it snaps into place to hold it there. The Taxa tent is now ready for occupancy. Most rooftop tents work on a similar principle. With about an inch and a half of padding in the floor, though, this sleeping arrangement is far superior to the ground for those of us getting into the creaky-bones phase of life.
The most useful portion of a camp trailer of this design, though, is its galley. The Taxa Outdoors setup includes a lot of storage for cookware and small food items as well as a two-burner camp stove and its accessories. Propane from a small canister in another storage compartment hangs on the front of the trailer (above the twin on-board batteries that charge from the vehicle).
LED lighting makes finding and using things easy. Storage below the galley is the perfect place for non-perishables. The sliding cooler drawer allows quick access to more food. All of this storage is sealed and lockable. It's also bear-proof, though that part wasn’t tested in our time with the trailer (despite the myriad bear warnings the National Park Service had posted all over the campground).
With an easy tow, a whole lot of useful storage, and a "go anywhere" design, the all-steel Taxa Outdoors Woolly Bear Overland is a great example of what these dedicated adventure trailers can do. Far less expensive than an RV and much more capable of getting places as well, these rigs are a great option.
Product page: Taxa Outdoors Woolly Bear
