Chapter 1 of “Evolution of adventure rig” brought us up to about 1990.
The time between the Westfalia ~1988/89 and fall of 2007 was filled with simple family adventures in the Volvo xc70 wagon. Lots of fun memories with the two kids before they headed off into the US Air Force. . . but no time spent really camping other than the Yurt rentals as mentioned in the prior post.
With a hunger to get out once again I had been researching possible vehicles and we purchased a 2007 Toyota TRD 4×4 v6 Tacoma. We had an ARE shell color matched at time of purchase and our adventures began spring of 2008.
For the first season we were sleeping on a nice sleeping platform in the shell and had a truck tentz two room tent that attached to the rear of the canopy as seen here.
Then one rainy night while camping at Quartzville Creek on the Santiam River near Sweet Home Oregon…
We had a little mouse visit us inside the tent and up into the canopy sleeping area…
That was the beginning of the search for something a bit more cozy and secure we could take with us up the trails behind the TACO.
And by the next season we had a nice little 17ft hard sided pop up trailer. An Expedition by Alite. It pulled behind the TACO great and we were able to take it anywhere we chose to up forestry roads.
This combination filled our needs/desires through the summer of 2010 but we had our eyes on going up to a van conversion. So the Aliner was sold that summer, and the Toyota dealership bought back the TACO for a good price and we were all happy…I heard from the dealer the truck never got out of detailing and was sold that night!
A couple weeks later we had a 2010 Chevy AWD cargo van in the yard…and began planning the conversion with Van Specialties assistance.
And now onto the making of our Chevy AWD van conversion adventure rig…
Though I will not go into details here, I did create a build thread at an RV forum, though the image links broke,( so i will attempt to rebuild some info for this updated site. The Parkliner is now sold that we pulled with the above van during the 2013 > 2015 seasons. Here is an image of the two of them…they were a cute couple!
We used this combo as a two room rolling condo of sorts. The van was our bed & bath, the Parkliner was our kitchen, entertainment, and extra bath. It was a bit redundant! And for that reason, and that we felt the Parkliner was holding us back on our desire to venture further up forestry trails, we sold it and went back to van alone : )