2 days ago I woke up in my RV1 to 60km gusty winds off the WA coast, I had to open the door on the side panel and then I had to take it off completely as the side pole was bending quite bad! In the morning the wind continued so I decided to take down the awning but to tell you the truth it held up for hours but I was worried the flapping may eventually rip the awning. Oztent RV is the only way to go! Ben use a Zempire Mantis for the stove, legs are individually adjustable and it packs up so small.
I add extra guy ropes when the wind picks up, and I've been is some pretty strong winds in my RV5 without any issues. I do like those little Mantis tables btw, maybe just a little bit low for me. ~ Ben
G’day guys, that’s my rear draw on the door you featured. I think Ben would love it. It’s very easy to fit being pre made to suit. Any questions just ask. Nice episode.
@@SnowysOutdoors mine is from an Aussie company called Patrol Australia, Ben. They are on Instagram. I imagine they have a website too. All made to spec. Great gear.
Always interesting to see other peoples setups who have been doing this for a while, and more importantly, hearing their justification behind it. As someone who's pretty new to camping, I get a lot of value out of hearing the "why" and "why not" so I can work out what's best for me. Looks like Ben's got his pretty well sorted by now!
OMG, the sore ear thing from the pillow! It sucks. It feels ridiculous, but I get that sometimes even with a soft pillow. I feel like such a princess. LOL! 🤣
Here I was anticipating Ben’s setup to be UL minimalist style only to realise we take even less when touring. For washing dishes and many other uses I can recommend the mini strucket bucket, clever piece of kit. Yes it takes a bit of additional room but we just pack other stuff in it, can use it for laundry, washing veggies, rinsing swimmers, keeping bait etc…
I'm keen to find out what you do to lighten your load further, Absent without leave, what are the main things I have in my kit that you do without? ~ Ben
Camp chairs only, no stools. Decent ones for adults and kids light basic ones, they don’t sit much. Smaller stove, no stand for it as we find there’s always a table to be found or we use our small table for it if not. Every thing else very similar, just a couple of swags for sleep and a tarp. That’s for when we move everyday or 2 and I still find it a major pain to pack in the morning. Holiday camping in 1 spot we take the whole kit and caboodle.
@@absentwithoutleave3164 sounds like a simple setup. I thought about just taking one set of chairs, but the Helinox chairs didn't really work to sit around the table on, and the stools weren't something I could lounge on. Previously I only took one table too, but there wasn't enough room to prep food, have the stove on the table and leave room for the kids to colour in, sort out their shell collection or play games, I also ended up clearing a heap of stuff to the ground if we wanted to use the table for dinner, any dirty dishes then ended up covered in ants. I don't think it will never be perfect, always an evolution. ~ Ben
Great discussion guys. Ben, you have really thought out your set up and it's good to see you are going through the ever- evolving scenario. We have the same tyres as you on our Patrol, and after several previous tyre choices (ie: original, then mud terrains on a second set of rims, etc) I am very happy with the Deegan 38 LTs, quiet on road and capable and tough for touring.
I'm glad you enjoyed the episode, Glen, I think my camp setup will be ever evolving. I have had Mickey Thompson tyres prior to this set too, the were the now discontinued Baja STZ for which the Deegan 38 are the closest replacement. Not the cheapest by any means, but I have never had any problems with them and they leave me comfortable with only carrying one spare. The only puncture I've had in my Mickey T's was a screw in one of my old STZ's which couldn't be fixed because of the location of the puncture (it was on the shoulder). At that stage the tyre had only done 400km! ~ Ben
Hey snowies team! Some great ideas in this show. Loved it for the reason that it made me rethink some aspects of how our family camps, but it also confirmed the that the items that bug me also bugs others…. Time for me to come up with a solution for the awkward, rattly stove stand
I'm glad we got you thinking about your setup, Martin. Let us know what your stove stand solution is, I'm still searching for something that fits with my setup. ~ Ben
I follow you guys on Facebook as well as here but don't generally see what is posted on Facebook. For some reason it just doesn't show up. Good to hear what you guys use and shows you don't need all the bells & whistles to get out there. I do like Ben's idea with the ground sheets as an awning.
We have started posting everything on Facebook to RUclips also, Mick, so hopefully you see it there. In Facebook you may need to check your notification settings. ~ Ben
@@SnowysOutdoors I've noticed things being shared here now which is good. I have notifications on for FB but for some reason it just doesnt show. I find the same for a number of groups etc as well or it will show several days after its been posted. Gone are the days where FB showed the latest posts to people.
Hey Ben just a idea that might work with the less rattling of the bbq table would be to wrap it with cheap eletical tape much like a cloth horse with the dipped plastic
Good idea. I'd be concerned that the tape would come off with all the dirt and water it would be exposed to but I guess I could just wrap key points that are in contact with other metals. Thanks. ~ Ben
I didn't do anything fancy, Coralie, they sat under my rear shelf mostly full of water for the best part of the trip. In camp I would lay them flat on a table or on the bottom of my stove stand so we could get water easily. I have an MSR hydration adaptor which fits on the cap of the Watercell, but for the most part we just used the existing cap. I thought we might use the shower nozzle but when we did wash in the bush it was just out of our collapsible sink. ~ Ben
@@coralieofjumpwithnofear they are kind of wobbly to carry when full. I imagine the 20L versions would be wobblier. As for filling, they get a little heavy but the handle on the side is strong enough to hold it up by, it can be a little awkward holding the top such that it holds shape to get the full volume out of it but that's a minor thing really. ~ Ben
@@SnowysOutdoors Thanks for the feedback, hey. I’ve been considering one of these as a way to carry spare water that won’t take up space when it’s empty, so maybe one or two of the smaller ones could be useful.
Hey Ben, thanks for sharing further details of your camp set-up. I have a 39lt Engel, and I am always concerned my solar set-up barely copes. On your 'big lap', what size panel, and what type of battery, and amp hour capacity, did you use?
Hey Rohan, hope you found it interesting, I always think my setup is simple and boring. I have a 95Ah wet cell auxiliary battery under my bonnet charging from the vehicle through a Redarc Smart Isolator. This ran fridges, charged devices and powered lights, and a fan now and then. For the most part given the amount of driving we did this kept the battery charged. If I was stationary or driving short trips for a few days I used a Hard Korr 200W solar panel to add more charge. Sometimes this would charge both starter and auxiliary, or if I just needed to top up the auxilliary I would make sure the isolator was disconnected before attaching the solar panel and just charging the auxiliary. The only real trouble I had was in Alice Springs when we had a 5 day hot dry spell of about 40 degrees and we weren;t doing long enough driving trips to charge the battery enough to offset the run time for the fridge, and I didn't feel comfortable leaving my solar panels out in the caravan park while we spent an afternoon at the pool. I spent a lot of time making the most of whatever sun I could get whilst at camp for those 5 days. Ideally I would have liked to have a suitable extension cord to utilise the 15A power outlets at the caravan park, this is something I would consider carrying next time. ~ Ben
@@SnowysOutdoors In essence, we have a similar solar/battery/charging set-up, except I have 5 year old batteries, crystal lead@ 200Ah. It is the 5 day camp, with little driving, where my set-up struggles. I have to turn my fridge off at night. I still believe the batteries are operating, OK. The obvious answer is 200 Ah of lithium, but I always wonder if I actually need more solar. My solar is fixed to the roof rack, and pivots up at 25 degrees on a gas strut. I also have a 120watt blanket, that I run separately on a long chord, if parked in shade.
Hi...question for Ben. Just wondering what tarp you use/recommend for shelter please Ben? I was going to get a roll out awning but would prefer to have a much lighter option.
Good question, Jody, unfortunately I haven't found the time to create and test my own lightweight awning. I have use the OZtrail Ultramesh tarps (www.snowys.com.au/ultramesh-tarp) in a haphazard sort of way to create shelter before, but if I was to do the job properly I would invest in a sail/keder track and attach this to my car, then I'd use a tarp with the keder strip integrated so I could just slide the tarp into the track and then use a few awning poles to set up some shade. We currently don't sell any tarps with the sail/keder strip integrated but Outdoor Connection have a good mesh one (outdoorconnection.com.au/collections/tarpaulin/products/outdoor-connection-duramesh-platinum) and I have seen waterproof tarps around with the same feature but can't recall what brand it was. Hope that helps. ~ Ben
@@SnowysOutdoors Thank you for your reply and suggestions Ben. I will go look at these. Look forward to seeing your set up when you get the time to do it 👍👍
Only 2 tables, one general use table, a utility table and a cross frame stove stand. The 8 chairs I did struggle with the thought of. But, I used the collapsible stools all the time and when I wanted to lounge for a while I was glad I had the Helinox chairs. The stools then became a foot rest. ~ Ben
I'm having a beer on Friday night and come back to watch the second half from where I left off And Lauren takes a swig of that coffee. Ben, I can't believe you just took a photo of that (13min mark) it looks so good. I just decided my mum wants me to suggest 3 ideas to do on Monday I just emailed her 1 fortune teller. Spooky because I heard some interference on my line when you spilt water everywhere. I'm really enjoying watching this one called Bens Set Up. I've heard there is a steak in every beer. I got the heebie-jeebies when Ben spoke about games. I personal recommend Mancala. GSI Outdoors offers one on Amazon. I like Ben he would be a really cool Akela as games master. I bet you a million bucks you have some mad well to do viewers in the US of A. I'm saying Hi to them. It's just about over and I'm cheering go Ben!
Are people are still using facebook?😁 I stopped using facebook in 2015. So anything you post or ask from that platform I will not get. I'm sure many of your viewers are in the same boat. So don't forget your RUclips subscribers for any feedaback or opinions.👍
We have started posting everything from Facebook onto RUclips also, Fatman Overlanding, we haven't been giving the community channel there enough love. ~ Ben
We're all friends here right! For the most part, I make use of caravan park and campground facilities when I travel, but if I do need to wash where there are no facilities it's usually in a location where no one else is camping and I just use a tub/sink, some biodegradable soap and a travel towel, all in the open. ~ Ben
2 days ago I woke up in my RV1 to 60km gusty winds off the WA coast, I had to open the door on the side panel and then I had to take it off completely as the side pole was bending quite bad!
In the morning the wind continued so I decided to take down the awning but to tell you the truth it held up for hours but I was worried the flapping may eventually rip the awning. Oztent RV is the only way to go! Ben use a Zempire Mantis for the stove, legs are individually adjustable and it packs up so small.
I add extra guy ropes when the wind picks up, and I've been is some pretty strong winds in my RV5 without any issues. I do like those little Mantis tables btw, maybe just a little bit low for me. ~ Ben
Ben I recommend the OutdoorConnection Easy As Stove Stand.It is the ultimate compact kitchen.That shelf is so useful and it is truly multipurpose!
Thanks Fiona, will let Ben know.
~ Lauren
Nice setup, Ben.
Thanks, Brad. ~ Ben
You guys work so well together with your combined knowledge base... so much for people to pick up from your shows. Thank you and keep them coming.
I'm glad you enjoy the show, Ross, thanks for the kudos. ~ Ben
G’day guys, that’s my rear draw on the door you featured. I think Ben would love it. It’s very easy to fit being pre made to suit. Any questions just ask. Nice episode.
Nice! I assume you are referring to the table on the inside of your barn door? It looks awesome, where did you get it? ~ Ben
@@SnowysOutdoors mine is from an Aussie company called Patrol Australia, Ben. They are on Instagram. I imagine they have a website too. All made to spec. Great gear.
@@westralianoffroad thanks, they look pretty neat, I may have to look into one. ~ Ben
@@SnowysOutdoors pleasure mate 🙏🏻
Always interesting to see other peoples setups who have been doing this for a while, and more importantly, hearing their justification behind it. As someone who's pretty new to camping, I get a lot of value out of hearing the "why" and "why not" so I can work out what's best for me. Looks like Ben's got his pretty well sorted by now!
I don't reckon it's ever 'sorted', Phil, there's always something to add, upgrade or modify. Glad you find our content useful. Happy camping! ~ Ben
OMG, the sore ear thing from the pillow! It sucks. It feels ridiculous, but I get that sometimes even with a soft pillow. I feel like such a princess. LOL! 🤣
I never had an issue until sleeping on a firmly inflated pillow. ~ Ben
Hi Ben, thanks for sharing. Turns out we have a lot of the same kit including gu patrol & rv5.
We must be onto something. ~ Ben
Here I was anticipating Ben’s setup to be UL minimalist style only to realise we take even less when touring. For washing dishes and many other uses I can recommend the mini strucket bucket, clever piece of kit. Yes it takes a bit of additional room but we just pack other stuff in it, can use it for laundry, washing veggies, rinsing swimmers, keeping bait etc…
I'm keen to find out what you do to lighten your load further, Absent without leave, what are the main things I have in my kit that you do without? ~ Ben
Camp chairs only, no stools. Decent ones for adults and kids light basic ones, they don’t sit much. Smaller stove, no stand for it as we find there’s always a table to be found or we use our small table for it if not. Every thing else very similar, just a couple of swags for sleep and a tarp. That’s for when we move everyday or 2 and I still find it a major pain to pack in the morning. Holiday camping in 1 spot we take the whole kit and caboodle.
@@absentwithoutleave3164 sounds like a simple setup.
I thought about just taking one set of chairs, but the Helinox chairs didn't really work to sit around the table on, and the stools weren't something I could lounge on.
Previously I only took one table too, but there wasn't enough room to prep food, have the stove on the table and leave room for the kids to colour in, sort out their shell collection or play games, I also ended up clearing a heap of stuff to the ground if we wanted to use the table for dinner, any dirty dishes then ended up covered in ants.
I don't think it will never be perfect, always an evolution.
~ Ben
Great discussion guys. Ben, you have really thought out your set up and it's good to see you are going through the ever- evolving scenario. We have the same tyres as you on our Patrol, and after several previous tyre choices (ie: original, then mud terrains on a second set of rims, etc) I am very happy with the Deegan 38 LTs, quiet on road and capable and tough for touring.
I'm glad you enjoyed the episode, Glen, I think my camp setup will be ever evolving.
I have had Mickey Thompson tyres prior to this set too, the were the now discontinued Baja STZ for which the Deegan 38 are the closest replacement. Not the cheapest by any means, but I have never had any problems with them and they leave me comfortable with only carrying one spare.
The only puncture I've had in my Mickey T's was a screw in one of my old STZ's which couldn't be fixed because of the location of the puncture (it was on the shoulder). At that stage the tyre had only done 400km!
~ Ben
Hey snowies team! Some great ideas in this show. Loved it for the reason that it made me rethink some aspects of how our family camps, but it also confirmed the that the items that bug me also bugs others…. Time for me to come up with a solution for the awkward, rattly stove stand
I'm glad we got you thinking about your setup, Martin. Let us know what your stove stand solution is, I'm still searching for something that fits with my setup. ~ Ben
I follow you guys on Facebook as well as here but don't generally see what is posted on Facebook. For some reason it just doesn't show up. Good to hear what you guys use and shows you don't need all the bells & whistles to get out there. I do like Ben's idea with the ground sheets as an awning.
We have started posting everything on Facebook to RUclips also, Mick, so hopefully you see it there. In Facebook you may need to check your notification settings. ~ Ben
@@SnowysOutdoors I've noticed things being shared here now which is good. I have notifications on for FB but for some reason it just doesnt show. I find the same for a number of groups etc as well or it will show several days after its been posted. Gone are the days where FB showed the latest posts to people.
@@OnCountryWithMick The Facebook algorithm is a mystery on so many levels. ~ Ben
Hey Ben just a idea that might work with the less rattling of the bbq table would be to wrap it with cheap eletical tape much like a cloth horse with the dipped plastic
Good idea. I'd be concerned that the tape would come off with all the dirt and water it would be exposed to but I guess I could just wrap key points that are in contact with other metals. Thanks. ~ Ben
I’d love to know details of how you use the Sea to Summit water cells, Ben.
I didn't do anything fancy, Coralie, they sat under my rear shelf mostly full of water for the best part of the trip. In camp I would lay them flat on a table or on the bottom of my stove stand so we could get water easily. I have an MSR hydration adaptor which fits on the cap of the Watercell, but for the most part we just used the existing cap.
I thought we might use the shower nozzle but when we did wash in the bush it was just out of our collapsible sink.
~ Ben
@@SnowysOutdoors How do you find them for carrying when they’re full? And are they easy to hold when filling them?
@@coralieofjumpwithnofear they are kind of wobbly to carry when full. I imagine the 20L versions would be wobblier. As for filling, they get a little heavy but the handle on the side is strong enough to hold it up by, it can be a little awkward holding the top such that it holds shape to get the full volume out of it but that's a minor thing really. ~ Ben
@@SnowysOutdoors Thanks for the feedback, hey. I’ve been considering one of these as a way to carry spare water that won’t take up space when it’s empty, so maybe one or two of the smaller ones could be useful.
Love your show.
I'm glad you enjoy it, Heather. ~ Ben
Hey Ben, thanks for sharing further details of your camp set-up. I have a 39lt Engel, and I am always concerned my solar set-up barely copes. On your 'big lap', what size panel, and what type of battery, and amp hour capacity, did you use?
Hey Rohan, hope you found it interesting, I always think my setup is simple and boring.
I have a 95Ah wet cell auxiliary battery under my bonnet charging from the vehicle through a Redarc Smart Isolator. This ran fridges, charged devices and powered lights, and a fan now and then. For the most part given the amount of driving we did this kept the battery charged. If I was stationary or driving short trips for a few days I used a Hard Korr 200W solar panel to add more charge. Sometimes this would charge both starter and auxiliary, or if I just needed to top up the auxilliary I would make sure the isolator was disconnected before attaching the solar panel and just charging the auxiliary.
The only real trouble I had was in Alice Springs when we had a 5 day hot dry spell of about 40 degrees and we weren;t doing long enough driving trips to charge the battery enough to offset the run time for the fridge, and I didn't feel comfortable leaving my solar panels out in the caravan park while we spent an afternoon at the pool. I spent a lot of time making the most of whatever sun I could get whilst at camp for those 5 days. Ideally I would have liked to have a suitable extension cord to utilise the 15A power outlets at the caravan park, this is something I would consider carrying next time.
~ Ben
@@SnowysOutdoors In essence, we have a similar solar/battery/charging set-up, except I have 5 year old batteries, crystal lead@ 200Ah. It is the 5 day camp, with little driving, where my set-up struggles. I have to turn my fridge off at night. I still believe the batteries are operating, OK.
The obvious answer is 200 Ah of lithium, but I always wonder if I actually need more solar. My solar is fixed to the roof rack, and pivots up at 25 degrees on a gas strut. I also have a 120watt blanket, that I run separately on a long chord, if parked in shade.
Pass the Pigs is so good!!
Yeah, my wife and I spent many hours playing Pass The Pigs on train trips when we travelled overseas in our late 20's. ~ Ben
Hi...question for Ben.
Just wondering what tarp you use/recommend for shelter please Ben?
I was going to get a roll out awning but would prefer to have a much lighter option.
Good question, Jody, unfortunately I haven't found the time to create and test my own lightweight awning. I have use the OZtrail Ultramesh tarps (www.snowys.com.au/ultramesh-tarp) in a haphazard sort of way to create shelter before, but if I was to do the job properly I would invest in a sail/keder track and attach this to my car, then I'd use a tarp with the keder strip integrated so I could just slide the tarp into the track and then use a few awning poles to set up some shade.
We currently don't sell any tarps with the sail/keder strip integrated but Outdoor Connection have a good mesh one (outdoorconnection.com.au/collections/tarpaulin/products/outdoor-connection-duramesh-platinum) and I have seen waterproof tarps around with the same feature but can't recall what brand it was.
Hope that helps.
~ Ben
@@SnowysOutdoors Thank you for your reply and suggestions Ben.
I will go look at these.
Look forward to seeing your set up when you get the time to do it 👍👍
I'm 2 and half minutes into this and I can tell it's going to be funny.
Haha, hope you enjoy it, Mark. ~ Ben
Wrong link for show notes.
You have linked Episode 70 not 71
Fixed thanks, Thomas. ~ Ben
Did the video's of Ben and Laurens set-up ever get made?
They didn't, sorry Darren. One day!
~ Lauren
@@SnowysOutdoors That understandable. Don't want fans following you around.
8 chairs and 3 tables. WOW
Only 2 tables, one general use table, a utility table and a cross frame stove stand. The 8 chairs I did struggle with the thought of. But, I used the collapsible stools all the time and when I wanted to lounge for a while I was glad I had the Helinox chairs. The stools then became a foot rest. ~ Ben
I'm having a beer on Friday night and come back to watch the second half from where I left off And Lauren takes a swig of that coffee. Ben, I can't believe you just took a photo of that (13min mark) it looks so good. I just decided my mum wants me to suggest 3 ideas to do on Monday I just emailed her 1 fortune teller. Spooky because I heard some interference on my line when you spilt water everywhere. I'm really enjoying watching this one called Bens Set Up. I've heard there is a steak in every beer. I got the heebie-jeebies when Ben spoke about games. I personal recommend Mancala. GSI Outdoors offers one on Amazon. I like Ben he would be a really cool Akela as games master. I bet you a million bucks you have some mad well to do viewers in the US of A. I'm saying Hi to them. It's just about over and I'm cheering go Ben!
I'm glad you enjoyed the episode, Mark. ~ Ben
Are people are still using facebook?😁 I stopped using facebook in 2015. So anything you post or ask from that platform I will not get. I'm sure many of your viewers are in the same boat. So don't forget your RUclips subscribers for any feedaback or opinions.👍
We have started posting everything from Facebook onto RUclips also, Fatman Overlanding, we haven't been giving the community channel there enough love. ~ Ben
Washing bodies and toileting systems you both use ? Or is that too personal .
We're all friends here right!
For the most part, I make use of caravan park and campground facilities when I travel, but if I do need to wash where there are no facilities it's usually in a location where no one else is camping and I just use a tub/sink, some biodegradable soap and a travel towel, all in the open. ~ Ben