Top 5 Camping Gear Additions For Overlanding Trips

Is it possible to get into overlanding and not look for new camp gear to add to your setup? Probably, but it’s not very likely. Overlanders and campers of all kinds love acquiring equipment. It’s fun to try new things, and different gear could really improve your experience while on a trip. There was no shortage of gear to buy at any stage in our camping experience, but since getting into overlanding, a whole new world of possibilities has opened up.

Keep your food cold, avoid the bugs, charge your electronics, and cook delicious meals with these camping gear additions.

Chilly Moose 35L Fridge-Freezer

As our adventures have shifted more towards overlanding and always having the truck with us, we decided it was time to look into a fridge-freezer that would keep our food cold for longer periods of time than our coolers usually do.

Although there are many brands out there, we decided to shop Canadian and purchase from Chilly Moose. We ordered the 35L The Moose – Portable Fridge-Freezer from the Chilly Moose website and it came ridiculously fast. This unit has a temperature range of -18ºC to +10ºC and can be powered with 12V carport, 100V plug, and solar panel power options. We (the royal “We”, and by that I mean Darrell) installed a 12V outlet in the bed of our truck to power the fridge while we’re driving. When we’re not driving it’s plugged into our Jackery portable power station (more on that in a minute).

Setting the temperature and adjusting other settings is easy from the screen at the front. There’s even an app we downloaded so we can check on it while we’re driving to make sure the temperature is okay and we haven’t jostled the plug loose and turned it off.

This is a single zone unit, meaning it can operate as a fridge OR a freezer, not both at the same time. There are dual zone units on the market that will allow you to have both a fridge and a freezer at the same time, but you’ll be paying a whole lot more.

Speaking of price, this was very reasonably priced. I researched several options before we committed to buying one. There were some available on Amazon in the same price range or cheaper, but the reviews weren’t as good. Something like a Dometic was going to increase the price a fair chunk. In the end I’m pleased with what we paid for the product we received.

My favourite thing is that we no longer have to worry about food going bad after a few days. Or dealing with water splashing around when the ice melts. Or ice packs that take up space. When we bring lettuce for sandwiches it doesn’t fall against the ice packs and wilt. If we want cold drinks we can just keep a few in the fridge at a time and put more in to cool down when we need them.

Having a fridge-freezer is perfect for any camping trip where we’ll be with the truck.

Jackery Explorer 1000 Portable Power Station

Keep your electronics charged and your appliances powered up with a Jackery Portable Power Station. When we decided to get the fridge-freezer, we knew we needed something to power it when the truck wasn’t running. We wanted something that wouldn’t take up a lot of room, wouldn’t make noise, and could be charged by solar while camping. A portable power station was the obvious choice for us.

There are many portable power stations out there, but the Jackery come with a litany of fantastic reviews. We had seen them reviewed and used in many YouTube videos by other overlanders, and several ice anglers talked about using them to power electronics for long days of ice fishing or even when ice camping. It just made sense to go with a Jackery.

We opted for the Jackery Explorer 1000 (affiliate link) after looking at our power needs. The biggest thing it will likely ever provide power to is our fridge-freezer. Other than that it’s used for charging phones, the GPS, camp lights, laptop, camera batteries, stuff like that. Our hope was that whatever we bought would have ample power for a couple of days without charging, in case we weren’t doing much driving and it was too overcast for a good solar charge.

Although you can buy the power station on its own and charge it from a wall plug, we opted for a package with two 100W solar panels. The solar panels are awesome. You could plug your phone directly into one of them to charge if you wanted to. They have handles to make it easy to move around and you can set them up anywhere. They fold up nice and flat and are well-protected, making it easy to slide them into the truck on top of the other gear.

If you’re looking for a power source for your overlanding trips, a Jackery will make you happy.

Eureka NoBugZone CT13

Mosquitoes, blackflies, horseflies, and all the other biting insects can quickly ruin a camping trip. You can douse yourself in bug spray, setup your Thermacell, or hope the smoke from a fire will keep them away, but the best option for relaxing at camp without being attacked, is to have a screened in area to get away from them.

We used to take one of my canopy tents from the farmers market and put the screen walls up. It worked great for years, but last year I noticed that the wear and tear was getting to be too much and eventually the rain would start seeping in through the top. We could have replaced it with another canopy tent, but it’s large and bulky and adds a fair bit of weight in the boat or the back of the truck.

Thanks to many of the canoe campers I follow on social media, I became aware of the Eureka NoBugZone shelter (affiliate link). With a tarp top and screened sides, it packs up much smaller than a canopy tent and provides excellent protection from the bugs.

With no solid frame to worry about, you can set this shelter up anywhere. No need for flat ground or plenty of clearance. Tie it to the trees, or buy some poles to use for when the trees aren’t close enough. It did take us a few minutes to figure it out the first time and I highly recommend setting it up at home before your first trip, just to learn the setup.

The first time we used it we found it worked great as a rain shelter. The second time we used it the mosquitoes were insane and even the dogs were happy to run inside and flee the bugs.

It will cost you more than some canopy tents, but the quality, size, and ease-of-use is well worth it. Whether it’s for using as your camp kitchen, camp living room, or a place to sleep away from the bugs, a Eureka NoBugZone is a fantastic addition to your camping gear.

Overland Racks Ontario Flatpack Firepit

Sitting around the fire at night is classic part of a camping experience. However, as we do more crown land camping, we have come across spots without a firepit. Or ones where the firepit is disgusting thanks to people putting their garbage in it. There are also times when you’re at an event that includes camping and you want to have your own fire to sit around.

The Overland Racks Ontario (ORO) Flatpack Firepit makes it possible to have a firepit wherever you go.

All the parts pack together easily and are secured by two bolts to keep it contained. It looks like a tray when all packed up. Setup is simple and intuitive with the side pieces sliding into the end pieces.

Not only can you sit around the fire at night, but you can also cook on this firepit. It comes with notches on the sides for skewers, and a top that you can grill on or put pots and pans on. It’s nice to have another method of cooking in case something happens to our stove.

The ORO Firepit is a perfect addition to your camping gear if you want the ability to have a fire anywhere.

Coleman Camp Oven

When we were at OverlandNTH’s The Gathering a couple of friends mentioned that they were having croissants and cinnamon buns for breakfast. What?! Talk about a change from bacon & eggs, oatmeal, or pancakes. They showed us their Coleman Camp Oven (affiliate link). When set-up it sits on the burner of your stove and makes it easy to bake some delicious food.

Upping our camp food game is always fun, so we picked up an oven of our own. We love that it folds flat and isn’t bad weight-wise. It’s not something you would pack if weight is a concern, but it’s also much lighter than bringing along a dutch oven. It doesn’t fit on our smaller Coleman stove, but works great on our larger one.

Baking in it for the first time was a learning experience, as you can see in the video at the end of this post. We brought the temp up to what our food was supposed to bake at, then ended up burning the bottoms. Low and slow was a better bet for baking on the second attempt. If you read the reviews on Amazon or watch some YouTube videos, you’ll see that many recommend putting a fire brick in the bottom of the oven to distribute the heat more evenly.

Yes, there are other ways to bake while camping, but this Coleman oven is an easy and convenient option and we’re happy to have it as part of our camping gear.

Summary

Adding new camping gear is fun, but it should meet your needs and match your type of camping. If you’re canoe tripping or backpacking, a fridge-freezer is not realistic. However, these five additions make our overlanding trips even better. You don’t need this gear to get out and enjoy camping, but in the words of one of my favourite YouTubers, we don’t go out there to survive, we go out there to thrive. Having some camping gear that makes life easier also makes trips more fun for us.

What are some of your favourite camping gear additions? Let us know in the comments!

(Some of the links on this site are affiliate links, such as Amazon links. We may make a small commission from purchases made through some of those links, at no extra cost to you. We will only link to products we used and enjoy! Any purchases made through affiliate links are greatly appreciated, as they enable us to continue to create and share with you.)