About the GearBox Project

Origin of the GearBox RV

I am an outdoor enthusiast and a long time RV owner. My family and I have loved our RV experience, but over the last 20 years I've seen both a change in the economics of owning an RV and my interests. For certain kinds of travel and camping, where you are going to a destination, hooking up to services, and staying for an extended time, conventional RV's are great. But I find that I'm doing a different kind of traveling and camping - more of a weekend road warrior where I leave on short notice for a quick camping, hiking or fishing trip.  I do overnighters at a nearby city for a bike race or an outdoor concert. I decide on short notice to leave for the weekend and haul my bikes, fishing gear, kayaks, and an occasional off-road motorcycle. I need a minimal but comfortable place to sleep with basic cooking and bath facilities. And I'm not going to an RV park and hooking up to services.

If you take into account today's gas cost when towing a full size RV, plus the RV Park space cost and reservation hassles, it quickly becomes evident that it doesn't make sense to do these kinds of trips in an RV.  I can put my bike and roof racks on my Subaru, load it up with gear, and stay in a nice motel for the same overall cost. And you don't have the hassles of towing an RV and having $30k tied up in a depreciating asset.  But motels can be a pain too, and I still like the idea of having my own trailer plus some extra space for all my gear.

So I need something different.  My ideal weekend warrior RV is smaller and lighter than a traditional RV. It needs to haul my weekend gear and have basic overnight camping facilities.  Toyhauler RV's combine camping and hauling, but these are more for hauling ATV's and motorcycles and they're too big and heavy.  I want something like the Airstream Basecamp:

The BaseCamp came out around 2008 with a very cool design, towable by smaller vehicles, with gear hauling and camping facilities starting at around $25K.  My understanding is that not many were sold, and it appears they're no longer made.

The BaseCamp was a little off the mark on a few things in my opinion but I think there's a market for a product like this if you can get the right features at the right price point.  I think there's a way to build something that meets my needs by starting with a lightweight, enclosed cargo trailer and customizing it. And I think the time is right to make this an “all-electric” design.

An All-Electric RV Trailer?

Most RV trailers are built similarly, and an entire supplier industry has grown up over decades to build components for RV manufacturers. Decades ago the only lightweight, mobile, energy sources for RV’s were propane and small 12V batteries.  This was enough in its day, but this approach limited what comforts of home you could include in your RV.  Over time we have augmented our RV’s with the comforts of our 120V homes like A/C, microwaves, and TV’s so we now have to either plug in at an RV park or carry expensive, heavy, gas generators.

In the last few years there's been tremendous technology advances driven by the electric car and alternative energy industries, and I think we now have everything we need to re-think how we build and power our RV’s. I think its time to replace propane and gas generators with an all-electric, battery powered system that is safer and more convenient.

Shasta was one of the first RV's to take a stab at this back in 2009 with the Air Flyte 12.  It was all-electric but you had to either find a place to hook up or carry a generator.

Give Shasta credit for a noble attempt at the all-electric RV of the future, but I think in 2009 they were maybe a little early before there was enough battery capability to be able to operate un-tethered.

Enter the GearBox

This is the challenge for The Gearbox to solve.  My design is a light, towable box for all my outdoor gear, with basic camping facilities, and with electric cooking, refrigerator, HVAC, and enough battery capacity to operate self contained for a reasonable time.

The Gearbox Features / Specifications are:

• 12– 16 ft. overall length
• Under 2000 lbs dry
• GVW 3500 lbs – the gear I carry is not that heavy
• All-Electric - no propane and no open flames. 
• Ability to run your A/C, heat, and microwave off its own batteries on one day's charge.
• Battery charging from combination of tow vehicle and solar
• No RV parks or dump stations needed - I want to load it at home, go for the weekend, and when I return home I'll dump minimal black waste in my home toilet and let the gray water out on the lawn.
• Nice Queen bed 
• Electric surface cooking, microwave, refrigerator
• Able to easily go on lightly maintained dirt roads and park off the road. Not extreme 4 wheeling, but able to get off the beaten path
• Stealth camping capable – able to discreetly park on a quiet street for the night and blend in as if its an ordinary contractor’s trailer