Overland Explorer Camp M Review

After an incredible 2.5 years of traveling to National Parks, Monuments, and boondocking sites across the nation, we’re excited to share our experiences with the OVE Camp-M (now known as the Backcountry) lightweight overlanding truck camper. Let’s dive into what makes this camper great and where there’s room for improvement.

The Journey Begins

Our adventure started when we picked up our Camp-M camper from Big Sky RV (Bozeman, MT) in June 2021. As early adopters of the new version with an over-the-cab bed, we were eager to hit the road and explore.

Why We Chose the Camp-M and Toyota Tacoma Combo

Having previously traveled in the Winnebago Boldt for 1.5 years (and dealing with 13 rounds of fixes), we knew we wanted something simpler, smaller, and more durable. Enter the Toyota Tacoma pickup truck paired with the Camp-M camper. Here’s why we love this combination:

  1. Durability: The Tacoma Off Road variant is a rugged companion, built for off-road adventures. Its narrow body allows us to explore even the most challenging terrain. The Camp-M is made from extruded aluminum, the interior is clean and tough.
  2. Comfort: The Tacoma’s interior is surprisingly comfortable, making long drives enjoyable. Plus, the quiet cabin ensures a peaceful journey. The Camp-M
  3. Off-Grid Capabilities: The Camp-M is designed for off-grid living. With its composite construction (extruded in one piece to prevent leaks), we can confidently camp in remote locations.
  4. Winter Camping: Thanks to the Camp-M’s insulation and thoughtful design, winter camping is a breeze. No more shivering nights!

If you’ve never heard of OEV, they’re a branch of LITE Industries Inc., from Alberta, Canada, with a knack for turning any old pickup truck into a mobile home suitable for off-grid travels and life. The campers they produce are completed from composites, extruded in one piece to ensure no leaks and tailored to fit mid-size beds from 5 feet (1.53 meters) to 6 feet (1.83 meters) in length.

We got the Toyota Tacoma TRD Dual Cab with a 6-foot bed. When driving the camper closed with dimensions 122″Lx77″Wx61″H closed and a nice 83″H when open for camping. The interior dimensions when open while camping is 118″L x 72.75″Wx81″H making it comfortable for those as tall as 6’6″. The dry weight is only 925 pounds! The 2021 OEV Camp-M has 20-gallons of freshwater capacity, and no grey tank just empties out the side we just put a collapsible bucket and use Dr. Bronner’s soap when doing dishes and washing hands so it is okay for the environment if boondocking, if at a campground you just can pour out at the kitchen waste disposal. As you all know, we would much rather boondock and go off the beaten path than go to a campground, so we wanted something that could handle a week off the grid.

The Camp-M is great off the grid and has features to make your off the grid experience more comfortable including (this is a mix of what is included and options we selected for exact list visit their OVE Camp M website): a Truma Vario w/thermostat and AquaGo instant water heater, multi-speed MAXXfan roof vent, 20-gallon (91-liter) freshwater tank, and interior propane connection for a portable cooktop. A beefed-up electrical system is also in place and features everything from dual USB ports, a 12-volt auxiliary connection, a Redarc charger, lithium battery and 200 W solar panels. The screen door is a wonderful feature to keep the bugs out but get better cross ventilation and fresh air on those hot summer days and nights! It has a 10-pound propane tank for your heater and cooking needs. We loved the outside instant hot water shower and found standing on your tailgate to shower made it easy and kept your feet clean! Compared to many campers the electrical and plumbing are clean and organized and easy to follow. The extruded aluminum construction makes it very durable, lightweight and long lasting with no wood to fail. The composite panels have the same automotive gel coat finish as a fiberglass boat or Corvette.  The aluminum extrusions are powder-coated white. If you are in a good sunny spot and near a stream for additional water, we were able to boondock a week when we were in Red Lodge, MT.

As you know we like to do a lot of winter camping as we go searching for the powder skiing. The soft walls are rated R-4, made from a coated nylon on the exterior, a thermal fill for insulation, and a fire-rated canvas on the interior.  The nylon they chose has the highest UV rating on any exterior-purposed nylon product on the market.  The exterior nylon is dark grey for the highest UV block.  The interior canvas is light cream to brighten up the interior. The sidewalls are designed to breathe.  That prevents the sidewalls from retaining moisture. With the heater going all night and you breathing we found there was a lot of condensation, we crack the side window to help with that.

Inside the Camp M, sitting above the cab, you’ll find the bedroom with a 4″ memory foam queen mattress with an extender and additional memory foam to make it a King bedding suitable for two guests plus a four-legged friend or small child. (The new version has storage under the bed). A dinette sits at the foot of the bed. This dinette can also be converted into a sleeping area ideal for another smaller occupant and has storage under the seats. The cushions are made from marine grade fabric that is 4” medium-density foam. At the entrance of Camp M, you’ll find the kitchenette with a countertop, sink, faucet, gas connector for your stove, more storage and the tray for your cooler style refrigerator. We purchased the dependable, efficient Truma C63. The vinyl flooring is pretty indestructible, easy to clean and functional. The dimmable LED lights are one of our favorite features, especially as you wake up in the morning and don’t want to get blasted with a bright light right off the bat.

On the outside you have plenty of lights on the back and side, MOLLE racks to add additional Rotopax water we store 2, 2 gallons. They use a Sigiva (Bullfinch) outside shower connection.  It’s a single-point hot-cold port (the Aquago is an on-demand water heater system).  Storage for your outside shower hose, hose to fill water, we store our Jetboil cooking system, shovel, ax, soap, etc. It has a beefy rack for you to hang an awning of your choice, we got the Alu-Cab shadow 270 coming from Australia it is fantastic and bomber! It can handle rainstorms and the wind. It comes with (4) Manual Rieco Titan Camper Jack and we can say these are tough! As we were building out our property, we lived in the Camp M for 6 months and had no issues living in it on four blocks with these Jacks. It is pretty easy to put on and off the truck bed. It also has (4) Torklift Anchor Guard Derringer Tie-downs, that are very strong.

Improvements:

  1. Cooking- If the Four Wheel Camper Fleet can fit a two-burner propane stove why can’t OVE fit at least a one burner? They give you a low-pressure propane connector, but all camp stoves are high pressure, we could not find a connector to work. We tried 5 different camp stoves, and nothing worked. We did find one at Camp Chef but it was too big and too high powered that it would set off the carbon monoxide detector. In the end we gave up on cooking in the inside and just bought the JetBoil System with its own propane tank and it fits perfectly in the outside storage compartment and works fabulously.
  2. Talking about the carbon monoxide detector, we highly recommend you installing a quick release (thanks to the guys at Techniquevo in Bend, OR)! Because the area inside is so small, the carbon monoxide detector is very touchy and the carbon monoxide from your breathing can set it off if you don’t crack a window or the vent in the winter with your heat going. Three times we had it go off at 2AM and were those campers in a campground you do not want to be. Having to pack-up and drive off in the middle of the night and try to figure out how to stop your alarm is not fun. (We fixed this issue in our camper.)
  3. The lock on the front door is plastic and wears out easily, with everything being bomb proof you would think they would install a stainless-steel door lock and handle. Again, thanks to the guys at Techniquevo in Bend, OR for installing a great stainless steel door handle and lock alternative for us!

As you can see, these are very minor issues and issues we resolved with our friends in Bend (highly recommend Max and team at TechniqueOVE). If you want a great overlanding camper that fits on a Tacoma, so you can go anywhere –consider the Camp M or as it is called now BackCountry 5.85. We’ll see you in the wild.

Summer Travel Help Us Find the Next Mountain Town and Visit McCall, Idaho

So, we just returned from McCall, Idaho area and returned to our beach house in Newport, Oregon to repack.  We decided to remove our Ram Mount table to give us more room to move around and for Bode to stop hitting his head (we haven’t missed it at all yet, it would be cool if we could store it up top on the rack and have an exterior mount).  We brought the inflatable stand-up paddle-board and loaded up the Trasharoo with some firewood.   We dropped off the winter gear and just have summer wear in two cupboards.  We also fixed my mess up, when I put in the locking hitch extender backwards where the key was up against the toe hitch and couldn’t be unlocked.  So I got to spend 45 minutes hack sawing it off and wasting $50.  As an engineer, I will never live this mess up down.  We now have a 11inch hitch extender which makes it a lot easier to access the Trasharoo while our electric bikes are up.

During our trip to the McCall area, we loved all the forest service campgrounds that were inexpensive $15/$7.5 Access and Gold Pass holders.  The area is beautiful and paddle-boarding, kayaking, mountain biking, trail running and hiking galore!   We had a great time at the Tamarack Resort, they were super nice and as we tour several units to decide if we wanted to live in a ski resort community they allowed us to boondock in their parking lot.  Greg did some awesome mountain biking and Bode and I headed for the trails to run.  Check out our video to see the area and the places we stayed.

We are now headed North to Washington State to check out Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainer, Okanogan- Wenatchee National Forest, Wenatchee, Methow Valley, and Sandpoint, Idaho.    We are excited to visit Greg’s Niece and Nephew and do a few mountain bike rides in Issaquah, WA.  I am also excited to see a few ex- Microsoft friends- yes, we will be social distancing outside when we meet up😊.

Our first stop on our northward migration was the Blue Heron Cheese Company in Tillamook, Oregon.  We are using our Harvest Host membership here.  We found having a membership with Harvest Host- we have listed a 15% discount code that you can use to join has been helpful as we travel around  the West Coast.  These are farms, vineyards and golf courses who welcome you to stay a night for free, in exchange for their hospitality, Harvest Host asks you to make a small purchase in return.  Such as, a bottle of wine, some produce, happy hour or play a round of golf.

From here we are headed to Mount St. Helens.  Greg was twelve years old when she blew her top and he watched the eruption from the top of Mountain Park in Lake Oswego when he was growing up.  I was in Texas and only five years old so it wasn’t so memorable for me.  We are excited to boondock and hike around the mountain.

This is where all our viewers and readers come in.  As we have discussed several times, Bend has become a little over run with more than 3 million visitors each year.  We are looking for the next mountain town.  We love to cross country ski, back country ski, snowboard, hike, mountain bike, snow shoe, snow biking.  We are looking for a smaller town, less people, 2-8 acres.  So if there is a mountain town you want to see or you live in a mountain town and want us to come see you or your area, suggest in the comments below where we should go.  If we pick the town you suggest, I will send you a surprise!  So help us find our next home and our travels for this Summer.  We hope you enjoy this short video about our travels in McCall, Idaho and suggestions of places to stay.

Don’t forget in the comments section below, please tell us what Mountain Town you think we should visit this Summer and live.  If you live there and want to meet up (social distancing) please let us know you can email me at ranebendor at gmail dot com.

RGB Adventures YouTube Channel is Live

RGBYouTubeSo as we promised we have finally launched our new YouTube Channel RGB Adventures.  I created a trailer to describe us and the adventures to come on our Vlog channel for those who don’t know us.

I will admit the trailer is not the most amazing and exciting video.  After 25 years, my video editing skills need some work.  The last time I edited videos was in my film production class in high school. I am learning a new amazing tool called DaVinci Resolve.  It is a high end, professional editing tool for free, crazy!  It has crashed a lot so I may cave and purchase it for $299.  I would love to hear from others what tool do you use?   I read this great blog post about different options but would love to hear from our followers. Would you suggest Adobe Premier and pay the $20.00 monthly fee or is Corel videoStudio good enough at $99.00, you use DaVinci and it’s worth $299 or is there another tool you like better?

We are about to complete our current trip at Junction City, Oregon where Winnebago did right by us and fixed all the issues with our Boldt and did a fabulous job.  That story will be a later video, we got about 6 to make before we get to that story.

Our first video will be about how to pick an RV that is right for you and why we went with the Winnebago Boldt BL 4×4!  Stay tuned and many stories to come from (RGB (Rane, Greg and Bode) Adventures)!

To all my friends, who have questioned can I really just relax and hit the road and not be working and volunteering– all I can say –I am loving the retired life!  Van Life here we go!