Rossmonster Baja Path LX Overland Camper Assessment

An enormous overland camper, a household of 4, spring break week, and the American Southwest is a combo made in heaven. The Rossmönster Baja Path LX supplied comfy journey and RV tenting in stunning distant areas the place solely high-clearance automobiles can entry.

Exhausting-sided leisure automobiles (RVs) have confirmed to be nice for sticking to paved street adventures — like touring the Nationwide Parks. And for good motive. It’s extremely handy to simply pull as much as camp, possibly come out a facet slide and be completed. That leaves extra time for mountain climbing and exploring.

However there are such a lot of stunning locations nicely past the pavement. And whereas some RVs can deal with light grime roads, there are many wonderful adventures on the ends of rougher roads.

For spring break this 12 months, my household of 4 (children are 7 and 11) examined out the Baja Path LX by Rossmönster. We deliberate a street journey to southeastern Utah that racked up 1,400 miles. About 300 of these miles had been off-pavement and on high-clearance required roads.

Briefly: The Rossmönster Baja sequence can get you and your loved ones to among the most distant and delightful locations accessible by car within the luxurious ease and luxury of a hard-sided camper.

The Baja Path LX by Rossmönster is a proprietary, standing-height camper field constructed on a Ford F350 with 11.5 inches of floor clearance, Methodology HD wheels with 37-inch BFG KO2 tires, upgraded shocks with the Carli Pintop System, and a 50-gallon diesel gas tank. This setup can push 600 miles of vary.

As you’ll have guessed, it’s not low-cost to construct out a truck like this. The Baja Path begins round $380,000. The truck itself prices round $86,000, the upgraded shocks are $6,000, and it brings within the design, labor, and different parts — and all of it provides up.

Rossmönster does every thing in-house aside from molding the fiberglass shell. That occurs just a few miles away from its construct facility and workplace headquarters in Longmont, Colo.

On the time of this writing, Rossmönster has constructed about 60 vehicles. The corporate just lately bought a bigger manufacturing facility simply down the street, and will probably be shifting to have the ability to enhance manufacturing.

Rossmönster Baja Path LX: Driving Expertise

Rossmönster makes use of a spread of base automobiles for these builds and so they do van conversions as nicely for patrons who don’t want super-rugged off-road functionality. However listed here are some insights into the Baja Path constructed on the Ford F350 platform that my household spent every week touring in.

Consolation

Together with the spaciousness of the crew cab, the comfortable contact factors, and cozy sight strains, the truck itself was simple to drive. Within the driving configuration, the camper field is lowered, which places the full top of the truck at slightly below 10 toes. This retains the middle of gravity low so the truck by no means felt top-heavy whereas on the transfer. We had some fierce crosswinds for a part of the drive and the truck by no means felt prefer it was getting pushed round.

Payload & Mileage

The customized camper field, absolutely loaded with all of the water and equipment for a visit like this, brings the payload to inside about 1,000 kilos of the payload ranking (GVWR) of the truck — loads of pavement-only RVs would come inside 200 kilos of the restrict. However the upgraded shocks and tires of this construct successfully enhance the capability — so there’s no worries.

With this load, the 6.7L Energy Stroke V8 Diesel by no means had any bother getting in control or accelerating, even at freeway speeds. The ten-speed automated torque shift transmission was at all times clean, and I by no means felt it jerk or jolt.

Based on the truck’s pc, over the 1,400 miles, the car averaged 12.9 mpg. This equated to about $500 in gas. Whereas 12.9 mpg could sound horrible on your SUV or truck, that’s truly fairly good for an RV of this dimension. Keep in mind, this consists of our 300 miles of off-road adventures — not the perfect journey floor for gas financial system.

Off-Street

The toughest a part of our 300 off-road miles on this journey was the deep washboard sections. These got here to about 100 miles value. However to be honest, few street-legal automobiles are going to have the ability to considerably buffer the washboard vibrations.

We had been simply glad we weren’t in among the different automobiles we noticed on these roads — sedans and minivans — which had been going very gradual and getting hammered. However the distant reservoir King Shocks within the Carlie Pintop System actually absorbed loads of the rattle.

The large floor clearance, huge tires, and highly effective engine allowed us to cowl some fairly gnarly roads to get to our distant locations. One off-road stretch even included a 1-foot-deep river crossing.

We used the onX Offroad GPS Map App with the Elite service stage subscription to plan our routes, see land possession (for tenting legally), and to navigate whereas driving. It labored flawlessly on the truck’s 12-inch show by way of Apple CarPlay.

The Baja Path sequence features a 50-inch OnX6 Baja Designs gentle bar over the cab, dice lights and 20-inch gentle bar within the bumper, fog lights, and further tail lamps. We had one night time after we arrived at camp slightly later than anticipated.

The mixture of the extra forward-facing lights made an enormous distinction in with the ability to discern the situation of the street forward of us, in addition to present context alongside the facet of the street.

We didn’t have any deer or different animals bounce out in entrance of us, however that additional gentle would have helped us see one thing coming a lot prior to with out all of it. The combo of amber lights solely took a second to get used to the colour shift.

Rossmönster Baja Path LX: Dwelling Expertise

The entire level of hauling a camper field like that is to make camp easy and cozy. The Rossmönster Baja Path configuration actually delivered.

Camp Setup & Strike

An apparent great thing about a rig like that is that organising for camp is mainly simply parking and elevating the highest. Extra nuanced, nevertheless, is leveling the truck as a result of more often than not we weren’t on a pleasant stage pad — we had been usually on fairly uneven floor.

The truck has a 4×4 display with angle indicators, however we discovered even at 0 levels of tilt on all axes, there might nonetheless be a slight record, so a real bubble stage could be good to have alongside or to connect to the facet of the camper.

It takes lower than a minute to boost the highest. The setup we had required somebody to carry the “up” button, which was situated simply contained in the camper field foremost door for the entire time the highest was rising. A one-push button within the cab could be wonderful.

I might have liked to have the ability to park and hit the up button. Then, by the point I’ve gotten out of the truck and have come round to the camper door, the highest could be up. This, in fact, necessitates you’re already very conscious that there are not any branches or different obstructions above the camper earlier than elevating it.

To strike camp, I completely perceive needing to carry the “down” button to decrease the highest the whole time as a substitute of getting it routinely decrease with a single contact. The counter tops within the camper need to be utterly cleared of something quite a lot of inches tall, in any other case the cupboards or different components of the highest coming down will crush the thing or a part of the camper itself.

The one that nearly acquired us was the broom we saved within the bathe/rest room stall, however we caught it in time (due to the give of the broom bristles and the telling sound it made).

Over the camper door on the passenger facet, the Fiamma awning is a reasonably customary RV accent. It was vastly appreciated plenty of occasions on our journey the place we camped or stopped to have lunch.

Consolation

Sleeping a household of 4 in a 23.5-foot-long car nearly at all times consists of changing the eating sofa right into a second sleeping space. This solely involves a 42 x 75-inch sleeping space (barely smaller than a full-size mattress), and that was nice for the kiddos.

We additionally opted to simply have them use sleeping luggage as a substitute of constructing up a mattress with sheets and blankets. This made the conversion course of from the consuming space to the sleeping space and again a lot simpler.

The 59 x 74-inch grasp mattress (simply shy of a queen) accommodated my spouse and me properly. I’m 5’11” (that’s 71 inches tall) and certainly, with my heels in opposition to the far wall, I solely had 3 inches between the highest of my head and the tip of the mattress.

The grasp mattress space has 32 inches of headroom, which didn’t permit me to completely sit up in mattress, however my spouse was in a position to climb over and previous me to get off the bed when she wanted to. The quick step ladder to entry the mattress can be utilized vertically proper in opposition to the wall or angled, which made it slightly simpler. When it’s angled, it does block a part of the exit to the skin of the camper, however by that point, the necessity to get outdoors is normally low.

There’s a good skylight above the grasp mattress, which permits for some stargazing or air flow. All the home windows include a intelligent display/blackout shade to dam gentle or bugs.

Local weather Management

The Baja Path presents full four-season consolation with a built-in hydronic in-floor and compelled air warmth, which we used most nights. We didn’t want the built-in air con unit on this journey.

The Baja Path additionally has a built-in scorching water system which was nice for doing dishes. The warmth can run off of the battery or draw from the diesel gas tank. We largely used the diesel furnace and after operating in a single day, it sipped gas to hardly make any distinction on mileage vary the following morning — strong proof that this method is designed for comfy off-grid residing.

Meal Prep

Cooking and consuming within the Baja Path was simple and handy. The 2-induction-burner range labored nice, and we cooked most of our meals on this journey. It’s actually a one-person galley, so certainly one of us needed to occupy the youngsters outdoors whereas the opposite was cooking. Or, anybody sitting on the dinette could be out of the way in which, however they needed to keep there.

There’s a 20-inch counter extension that lifts into place proper in entrance of the primary exit, which we solely used as soon as. However even with the extension lifted in place, somebody might nonetheless rigorously duck below the counter to get in or out of the camper.

We had the fallacious plates on this journey as a result of they had been too huge. It was very tough to suit all 4 plates, a couple of cups and any serving containers on the little desk. In fact we used the close by counter tops and put the duvet over the sink to carry extra, however smaller plates would have been simpler.

Meal Cleanup

Doing dishes would have additionally been slightly simpler with barely smaller plates, however with everybody else out of the camper, it was simple to get cleaned up after every meal. Of be aware is the distinction between the 40-gallon recent water tank and the 11-gallon grey water tank.

There are many water conservation practices to contemplate for those who’re not the place you possibly can let the grey water simply empty out beside the truck right into a sump pit. We took care to scrape the dishes first after which used a strainer to maintain any meals scraps from washing down the drain.

We additionally used biodegradable cleaning soap. Over our years of vehicle-based tenting as a household, we’ve averaged about 5 gallons of water each day to drink, prepare dinner, and wash.

With the LX model of this overland camper, the sink and bathe are on the driving force facet, which implies that’s the place it’s going to drain when the grey water tank valve is open. That is nice as a result of it gained’t muddy up the world across the door into the camper.

The ground plan for the EX has the sink and bathe on the passenger facet, so it drains on the identical facet as the doorway to the camper. To be honest, I didn’t get an opportunity to make use of the EX, nevertheless it makes me marvel about handle that.

Inside Storage

There was loads of room to retailer every thing. There are two giant cubbies subsequent to the grasp mattress, which was nice for my spouse and me to retailer gadgets we solely wanted after we had been in camp mode. These areas will not be accessible when the highest is down.

The children stored their stuff in duffel luggage, and people had been saved within the sofa space whereas we had been driving, after which it was simple to maneuver to their seats within the cab after we had been tenting. They might additionally simply take turns to climb by way of the pass-through into the cab to vary or get one thing from their duffel as wanted.

Exterior Storage

The storage that wrapped across the higher space of the camper was used for cookware, dishes, and pantry gadgets. The built-in fridge is big and simply accommodated every thing we needed to maintain chilly for our week-long journey.

The one ah-ha second we had was to not use screw-top mason jars. The washboard street precipitated them to unscrew barely, and we had a hint of buttermilk seep out. Additionally, for one more journey like this, we might keep away from utilizing glass containers the place doable.

For this journey, we solely had a single Wedge Baja Field on the rear exterior MOLLE panels. We used this for a few of our outside residing gear like a propane tank, Lavabox fireplace pit, and a few mountain climbing gear.

Since we introduced full-size camp chairs (Yeti Trailhead and Strongback Elite), they needed to be stored within the camper proper within the entranceway together with our Dometic Bamboo Desk for out of doors use. The chairs would slot in the ski field if we had one mounted.

After the journey, I discovered my supreme configuration on the three panels could be the Aspect Entry Wedge Field on the driving force facet with a hose to fill the freshwater tank, the outside bathe hose, and a few leveling blocks. The usual Single Wedge Baja Field was within the center with the gear talked about above, and the tall ski field was on the far proper for camp chairs.

There’s additionally a spare tire rack, however our spare was below the truck and out of the way in which.

Bathroom & Bathe

We by no means used the bathe on this journey — I’m certain it’s nice. With a 40-gallon freshwater capability, showers will eat that up rapidly, even by probably the most sparing customers. However the children had been fascinated by the thought of getting a bathroom on board, in order that did get used.

Because it seems, we ended up in a primitive tenting space close to Moab, Utah, that required customers to carry their very own rest room to reduce impression on the setting. Since the bathroom is simply within the small stall, it doesn’t include any smells which may come up whereas it’s getting used. It’s value staying out of the camper at the moment. However as soon as issues air out, there wasn’t any additional trace of odors.

Emptying the bathroom cassette container was very simple after we had entry to a dump station or rest room (pit or flush).

Rossmönster Baja Path LX Assessment: Conclusion