I had a short to-do list today. First, I stopped at Main Line Overland where they were holding on to some parts that I accidentally left behind when I had them install the iKamper Skycamp Mini. Then I headed to Valley Forge National State Park for a dry run on opening and closing the tent, and to take some pictures.
I love that park. The Rangers are very friendly to overlanders and RVs. They also never had a problem when I came by to test equipment and take pictures. Nobody seemed to flinch when they saw me opening and closing the iKamper Mini. Its not like I was going to spend the night.
So it took under a minute to open the tent. I may have cheated, since I didn’t open the side windows. Closing it took a little over a minute, since I had to do a bit of tucking in on the sides. Here are some pictures of the tent fully open.
The 2″ memory foam mattress that comes with the iKamper Mini is actually pretty comfortable. Though my plan is to remove the mattress and stick a layer of outdoor carpet on the floor of the tent. This is to prevent any condensation, though I don’t plan to go out if the temperature dips below 40F.
Once the floor of the tent is lined with outdoor carpet, I’ll be using my 3.5″ Mountain Summit Gear self inflating mattress pad, my Big Agness Torchlight 40 sleeping bag, and my really comfy pillow. That’s the combination I’ve used over the past five or six years. I confirmed it’ll all squish nicely into the tent when I close it.
I decided not to get a 270 awning right now. I don’t need it for Easter Jeep Safari. Instead, I bought iKamper’s Mini awning that’ll provide enough protection at base camp. I might add a rear facing awning so I can cook in the tailgate area when it rains.
More to come on my next project, a 100ah LiFePO4 off-grid/overlanding power kit that’ll replace my current 40ah kit. The kit will include lots of power management, so it’ll know when to charge from the solar panel (when not moving), when to charge from the vehicle battery (when moving), and when to send power back to the vehicle battery.
Two blog posts over a long weekend. Boy I’m pooped.
Overlander at large 