Arkto Campers – G12 Made for the Wilderness Story by Howard Elmer Wilderness camping, when I was a kid, was done with a leaky pup tent, a pack of soggy wieners and a lot of bug spray. Not anymore. Trailers capable of traversing really rough trails to out-of-the-way camping spots are becoming more common. And is it any wonder? In Canada, where I live, almost 90% of our land is owned/controlled by either the Federal or Provincial governments. On this “Crown Land” (as its still widely known) anyone can camp anywhere for up to two weeks (in the same spot). Canadians are waking up to this fantastic free resource which is a birthright—hey, why not use it? But getting into these spots does require an off-road trailer. Luckily these are getting very popular because, for more and more RVers, the potential of Crown Land camping is becoming apparent. This preamble leads me to an Alberta RV manufacturer called Arkto. Its campers are truly off- road capable (we’ll discuss what that really means in a bit). The unit I’m looking at today is called simply the G12. The G12 has an interior length of 12’ (15.5’ including the tongue) and a GVWR of 4,600 lbs. One thousand pounds of that max weight is payload. It has a small pop-up roof that gives you a 6’8” clear
inside height. It’s a hard roof with waterproof canvas sides. It has two zip open windows. A unique feature of this trailer (for its comparative size) is the amount of storage space inside and out. Inside there is 24.6 cu.ft. of storage space which complements 80 cu.ft. of exterior access storage space. This design suggests that the owner will be bringing a lot of “stuff”—whatever that may be—and it needs to be contained and organized. This statement makes a lot more sense when you start to picture how much rocking and rolling this camper will be doing getting into the bush. Search the internet and you will find a host of “off- road” trailers today, but these are not all created equal. At the lower end of the price walk are trailers that sport aggressive tires and a small body lift—this is fine for a few tame campsites—but won’t work for those who really want to overland. Look at the stats on the G12 as an example of the polar opposite of the trailer I just described. To start with the G12 is built with Timbren axle-less HD suspension w/ 4” lift . No axle means more clearance. Up to 20-inches at its highest point, with 18-inches under the tongue. It runs on 285/70/R17 AT tires with 17” alloy wheels, has electric brakes and uses a hot dipped galvanized steel frame. It’s laser cut and forms c-channels (and has a 75-year life span). But the real key to a trailer that will traverse a severely rutted, undulating, forestry access road is the hitch. A normal ball hitch and coupler are
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