Ok. Getting a Sportsman 500ho is the fun easy part. What about getting it(them?) to the trail head? I'm curious how everyone has chosen their particular method of handling the problem, and hearing about difficulties or success stories.
Questions-
Whether to tow an atv trailer in back of a motor home or pickup/camper, and then use as a base camp.

Or whether to tow an enclosed "toybox" with living quarters and creature comforts.


Or just put the Polaris in a large pickup and camp out of the pickup?

I also wonder about leaving equipment such as pickups, trailers or toyboxes etc alone if we are gone camping out on the trail a couple nights.

My initial thoughts are that using a trailer will limit us to easy roads, forcing us to leave vehicles and equipment where anyone could steal them. Putting the Polaris in a fourwheel drive pickup will solve this problem by allowing us to "get further out" and away from well traveled areas before staging the atvs, but we give up having the hot showers and other creature comforts of a motorhome or camper when we return.
Are there any easy answers I'm missing?


Outlawd

 

You ask some interesting questions. Wish I could help.

The way I make it easy is to drive the Sportsman up in the back of the 4x4, drive to the riding area, park it in the parking lot, then go home when it gets dark.

Now that I think of it, it sounds like your going to have alot more fun than me.

Dave

 

Hmmmmmmmm. I think the best bet would be to take a rental truck like U-haul or something. I don't think anyone would steal that, and if they did, oh well, let the company deal with it. Plus you could live in the back of one of them for a coupla days, and just tie down stuff you really don't want missin' on racks(if they'll fit and not be in the way). Or have a friend drop you and your wheeler off somewhere and camp out in the woods. That's what I'd do, anyways.....

 

Man, am I spoiled !! I go to the huting camp( 90 minutes door to door), offload the 4 wheeler out of the pickup truck, ride it to within an inch of it's life, come back to the camphouse, use the flush toilet, grab a hot shower, sit back and enjoy the porch ( if the skeeters aren't too bad ), either fire up the grill or go into Thomasville for steaks or to Ezell's for catfish and shrimp, come back and catch some satellite TV before bed.
If you get in a pinch for something, Super Walmart is 4 miles away.
Last year, the camphouse was four walls and a roof it had lights, but all the water had to be carted up the hill, and no flush toilet... I and the other members put a bunch of work in this summer to make it this nice.

 

Well the best trails in my area are just up the hill from my back yard... (spoiled me....) but I then usualey end up at home after a hard days of riding...

Then you do get the enjoyment of "getting away" that I don't....

 

Judging by your pics on your website it looks like you are not afraid to "get away from it all". After seeing them, my opinion would be to haul what you need out to a starting point where you would feel reasonably safe leaving your vehicle and trailer. Then haul everything you need for camping out with an ATV trailer, maybe two or even three depending on how many riders are going. With multiple trailers you should be able to easily haul anything you need including many creature comforts. Which creature comforts do you want to keep the most? I have a few suggestion for some of those depending on what they are. This way your base camp could be as mobile or remote as you want it to be. When we talked before in another post you mentioned the need for large amounts of water.
Maybe one of the trailers could be made as a tanker type trailer and carry 20 or 25 gallons.
The one we use at our hunting camp I made out of a plastic 55 gallon drum. It has a battery and a 12 volt pump mounted on it for pumping it in and out of the drum. This setup is way too heavy for a trail ride but a smaller version would work nicely for out on the trail.
How about a nice sturdy roof rack on the hummer to put the quad on? That way you have the best of both worlds..........

 

<<Which creature comforts do you want to keep the most? I have a few suggestion for some of those depending on what they are.Trailboss450>>>

Well, we are kinda spoiled by the Hummer's payload capacity! We enjoy hot showers every night, and comfortable beds, sleeping right inside the trucks. We have camp chairs to sit in. We have stoves, good food in the ice chests and cold drinks all day long.
We have propane lanterns lighting the camp.
We have VHF radio communications during the day so we can talk at any time.
The polaris will obviously open up a whole new chapter of exploration for us, so in the interests of accomplishing this, I can see compromising on the hot showers with maybe some heated water and a washcloth, and sleeping in a tent, but I think the rest of the creature comforts are a must.

By the way, what does everyone else do for radio communicatios? What are the hot setups? Have you mounted a mobile radio (40 watt vhf) unit directly onto the polaris?

Outlawd

< http://www.outlawhummers.com/ >

 

When i bought my quad i sorta got the cart before the horse.I didn't stop to think that a 1980 Toyota Truck doesen't have a great deal of power.I haul the KQ in the Toyota and trailer the Honda.When i go Quad camping (as i call it)for a couple of days i load as much as im going to need and hit the road.I get to the mountains slow,but i get there.Since i have had the bikes i have done this primitive camping thing about a dozen times.I have yet to have any problems or get ripped off.But i will admit that every time i do return from a ride i sorta hold my breath.One of these years i will figure out a better way....BOB

 

I haul one of my quads in the bed of the truck, and tow a camper when other riders need sleeping quarters. If I'm alone, I throw the cap on the truck, with a mattress inside, and crash there. And tow the quads. You're camping, who needs a shower. I lock everything down, why risk it. I bought a couple of Kryptonite 7' locks for the ramps, and the double burner, and other misc. items.

 

We never go without the shower but then water is always at hand in northern Minnesota. I made up a small shower rig real easily out of a small electric fuel pump. (The kind that goes inside the tank.) I just added about 10 feet of 5/16 hose and a small shower head, wired it up to plug into my 12 volt acc jack on my quad. We heat up the water, drop the pump into the pot, hang the shower head from a tree branch and plug it in. We can get 4 showers out of a 5 gallon bucket if we go easy on the water. You can also hang up a plastic tarp for privacy.
As far as the stove we carry 2 single burner propane type that are very compact. I carry one and so does one of the other guys.
We dont have the luxury of sleeping inside a truck but we do use small one man tents. I dont like sleeping on the ground though so what I did there is put grommets on both ends of my tent. I then thread my ropes thru the grommets to support a hammock. I tie one end to a tree and the other to my winch cable and cinch it up tight. I only keep it a few inches off the ground but its better than damp lumpy ground.
When it comes to food we have the best camp cook you could ask for. Since he has started riding with us we have all added pounds. I actually complain that he goes too far when preparing meals. We have had grilled chicken breasts, steak-ka-bobs and homemade stew. Sometimes he will pre-cook foods before we head out so the shelf life is extended a little. We probably dont have quite the problem keeping things cold here as you do judging by the climate where you will ride. But generally if our food is frozen when we leave it will easily last a few days if packed well.
We dont use propane lights although we have the propane for the stoves we could use. I have a couple of 12 volt lights we run off one of the quads and they draw very little.
In the furniture department we all carry either a camp stool (tripod type canvas) or the larger collapsable type chair.
For communications we all use the FRS radios right now because they are small and portable and stay with the rider not the quad. I however would like to maybe upgrade to the more powerful distance model that has a 5 mile range rather than only 2 miles. But generally we never separate much more than a 1/2 mile or so.
The more you do this kind of camping the more things you can improvise. The gadgets may not be as simple to use as some of the actual manufactured camping gear, but they are usually smaller and far more portable.