But out/in trailers

[Cwi555]

An experiment/thought exercise if you will. This will be a multipart exercise but it will cost you nothing.

1. Most of you have read one or more dystopian/survivalist genre books. Think back to them with an eye towards how many times you recall the idea of a roadblock being utilized.

2. In the same manner as 1 expand that thought to how many movies you've ever seen with roadblocks deployed, or for that matter, how many times you've seen them directly.

3. Consider what makes you say "hmm that's odd" in reference to vehicles you see on the road.

4. Maybe not so odd, but consider what draws your attention to any given vehicle on the road.

5. Consider every book, training, prepper/survivalist meet, etc. How common is the idea of bugging out, and in the same breath, weigh it against how common the idea of controlling access through dropping of trees and other obstacles.

6. If you have experience pulling a trailer, how fast do you think you can back up around obstacles and curves with one?

Some food for thought in considering the utility of a trailer in a survival situation.

[redman2006]

I guess a lot of this depends on your ideas of what is useful, and what tye of scenario you expect.

If we are talking about an early escape of nothing more malevolent than a storm like katrina where motel space will be scare and expensive, it makes great sense. If we use your scenario, it may not be appropriate. Even in your case, if you see it coming early, it may make sense. Worst case, you can drop the trailer and move on. I would pack it as though I may have to do exactly that. Trailer ed items are the most expendable. Second would be the truck and items in it, third is my pack and last resort bare minimum survival items are in my pockets.

A thought for me would be to use it as a deer camp trailer or other off road camping then have it as a resource should it be possible to utilize it in other scenarios.

As much fun as they are to read, I am not sure how closely reality will parallel those novels. Our nation has not truly seen a breakdown of the magnitude that is represented in those novels to know what we should expect. Maybe the migration of the workers to California during the depression and dustbowl days would have been similar in some respects, and some of the flight from war during the Civil war may have been as well. Looking at Serbia and other such nations probably gives us the best idea of what might be to come.

One last thought on this, think about a horse trailer. In most areas, that will not be conspicuous, has plenty of room, is heavier built than most enclosed utility trailers, has room for cots should you desire, and so on. As a drawback, most of them are low slung with poor clearance.

[redman2006]

Apache, the first one is exactly what I was trying to describe in my first post. It was a home made job, but looked really solid. Depending on the storage you want, a pop up tent trailer might work. Some of those have good storage, and an off road axle can be put under them for clearance. Even if you gutted the interior for more storage, they could provide a little shelter.

[apache235]

Once the S has hit the fan for a while, movement might be problematic in any case. But if the grid went down, you knew it to be an EMP and decided to move immediately, you'd have all you stuff packed and might be able to move for two or three days (if your truck worked) If it was a financial collapse leading to societal collapse you might have longer, in any event if you could get to a piece of property that was secluded but you hadn't gotten around to building a cabin (or house) this would give you some shelter. Expensive, yes, ideal, no but better than nothing. There are a few out there that are great for camping, the BIBO sure looks better for survival.

[KyDave59]

If it is an EMP that takes the grid down, you will not be purchasing fuel. The cash registers won't work. The fuel pumps won't work. And, the credit card machines won't work. We've went through a couple of ice storms here that have taken down the electrical grid, and all of the local gas stations were down, usually for many days (and, that's with utility crews responding from from seven different states to get the lines back up).

In the case of the ice storms we had, the local government came up with a portable generator that they used to bring the local Southern States fuel pumps back on line. However, they restricted those to government vehicles only.

Any other stations which could bring themselves back on-line, would, almost certainly, be out of fuel within a couple of hours. One thing to do is to consult the situation in disaster areas, and note how many of the stations run out of fuel quite early in the evacuation. And, the fuel distribution trucks almost never are able to make it in to resupply the stations.

Also, if you're pulling a trailer, especially a heavy trailer, you'd better count on your fuel economy being about half of what it normally is. Thus, a truck with a 25 gallon tank, which normally gets 20 miles to the gallon on the highway (Yeah, right.), will probably only get 10 miles per gallon pulling that trailer, on the highway, and even less, perhaps MUCH less, if you have to slow down to avoid obstacles in the road. Thus, your 500 mile range on a tank-full (And, who keeps their tanks full all of the time anyway?), may only give you 250 miles, or even less while pulling the trailer.

Thus, you'd better be equipped to carry enough fuel, safely, to get you to where you're going. And, note that it's not easy to safely carry large amounts of fuel (I'm not even sure what the various laws might be on this.).

As for the piece of unimproved property, one idea would be to dig a slot in the side of a hill that you can back the trailer into. That will provide some cover (both visually, and from projectiles), as well as blocking some of the wind, which will help in winter. However, note that the recess must be sloped so that it doesn't turn into a pond. Ideally, you'd dig a slot, and then pour a concrete pad, and, perhaps some walls to keep the thing from slumping in. From there, it's only a small step to putting a frame around it, and a roof over it, to make a shed. That will help quite a bit with keeping it cool in summer, and may even help keeping it warm in winter.

Anyway, those are a few things to think about.

Dave

[roach2654]

A thought for me would be to use it as a deer camp trailer or other off road camping then have it as a resource should it be possible to utilize it in other scenarios. Thats about the direction I'm going!

[BigDaveZJ]

I realize that this is an older thread, but wanted to share some of my experiences with off-road trailers.

We have a trailer that could work as a bug out trailer, but it's not currently equipped for such a task.

A lot of my concerns about relying on a trailer in a bug out situation have already been voiced. My trailer is an M416 that I fabricated a lid and hinge system for. There is a roof top tent mounted to the top of it, with the hinged lid allowing access with the tent deployed. It has 33" tall tires and can be pulled behind either of my Jeeps or my truck. It uses the original military style pintle hitch, which works great off road. I have towed this trailer through many different 4x4 trails in CO and UT and it has proven quite capable. In a bug out situation I would certainly grab it as it can carry quite a bit and provide some shelter, but it's not anything I would ever consider as even a semi permanent solution. There's a lot of conversations at ExpeditionPortal.com that revolve around these trails for off-grid vehicle based travel, which is pretty similar to the purposes being discussed here.