This will be our 4th year as staff on the Rebelle Rally. A brief overview of what things are like on the rally will help explain some of the considerations for the current build out. The rally is designed to be completed by both stock crossovers and 4x4s, however, there are also some sections that are bypassed by the crossover class. We progress to 5-7 different basecamps over 10 days and generally have to be packed up and on the road by 5:30am in order to get ahead of the rally vehicles and in position to shoot photos. Often times, we are transporting other media or rally personnel, so minimum of 4 seats is necessary. We then spend the day leapfrogging the course in an attempt to stay a head of the rally which can sometimes be quite challenging and require brisk driving over a variety of terrain from rough rocky sections to sand dunes. Our day generally concludes and we arrive at basecamp around sunset where we enjoy awesome food that is prepared for us.
The first year we took our 98 Subaru Forester, and while the Forester held it's own quite well in the smoother stuff, the main worry for me was that the lack of suspension travel can be very unforgiving when encountering washouts and other large terrain features at higher speeds. Dual range is certainly helpful in some areas of the rally and this is the biggest shortcoming of off roading in the Subaru. We also did not go to the dunes that year which likely would have given us trouble. Another issue with the Forester is that it was completely filled to the brim with gear (we learned that we didn't need a lot of it). We therefore only had room for ourselves and no other passengers which was a mild inconvenience at times. Given that we were sleeping in the back we had to unload and re-pack the car every night and every morning which was pretty cumbersome at 4:30 in the morning. We brought a ground tent, but finding a good spot for one is often difficult in the rocky terrain of the desert.
The second year we picked up a Tacoma which we intended to have our roof top tent installed on prior to the rally, but that didn't quite work out. We had a lot more room for cargo and passengers, more suspension to soak up bumps, and dual range making the Tacoma much more suited to the requirements of the rally (stock suspension on the TRD Off Road is still weaksauce at speed and gets floaty around 50mph). That year, we camped in a combo of the truck bed and a ground tent. This had us dealing with the same problem as the first year in the Forester of having to constantly unload and re-pack the truck each day, but the extra space made it a little easier. I consider myself a talented Tetris player, but it's always more difficult when you're in a hurry.
Last year, we ran the Tacoma again, this time with a RTT and some extra storage. This helped streamline the morning routine, but honestly, the RTT wasn't that much easier. Part of this is that we owned the Tacoma as part of our overland rental fleet and therefore had it equipped with a massive 5 person RTT that could accommodate families. The smaller version of the same tent is certainly easier, but the reality is that a wedge tent would have solved most of my gripes with the tent and is still on my list as something I'd like to pick up. I did have one other problem with the tent. While we were in Glamis, I had one of Rivian's engineers riding with me and we were chasing their vehicle. Let me tell you, that things rips! I can't remember how the suspension works, but it's come kind of computer controlled adaptive damper and that thing was just walking away from me on the sand highway. Anyways, in an attempt to keep up I found my self in some large whoops that I couldn't see in the high noon sun and I went to the damn rodeo. The truck behind me got a great view of my spare tire and I felt damn lucky I didn't break anything major. I knew before this that I wanted to go the direction of bypass shocks and long travel, but the wallet didn't agree with that plan. In all that drama, the tent was very close to getting ripped off the roof. It tore several of the bolts out of the aluminum channels on the tent. Luckily I was able slide the tent a few inches to a part of the channel that wasn't torn and tighten it back down.
So now that you have a list of things that didn't work for us, here is an outline of the prep I'm doing for our first year with the 200:
-Removed third row seats
-Currently building a bed platform in rear that folds up allowing usage of middle row seats and maintains storage for photo gear in the rear
-Prinsu roof rack to get our maxxtraxx, extra fuel, and some other gear out of the cabin
-Total Chaos UCA and skid plates (provided by TC as part of their sponsorship of the rally, arms are already installed)
-Adding interior release button for hatch to make it easier to get out in the morning
-Possibly some time of molle panels to help with organization (the center console always seems to become a mess with camera gear, radios, sat phone, snack, etc)
My thinking is that the LC is big enough that I should be able to get everything in it's own place and the bed setup should tear down in 30 seconds or less and allow passengers to ride in back. With no passengers, there would be zero teardown. With the Icon 2.0s and control arms, it should be worlds better than the last two vehicles over bigger bumps. Given that we don't need a kitchen that should save a lot of space that would normally be occupied on a trip.
To add a little complication to things, we'll be going on an elk hunt for 10 days departing 4 days from now. For this trip, I do need my camp kitchen as well as a large ice chest. At this point, the ice chest only seems like it will work on a hitch mounted carrier which I'd rather avoid bringing. We'll see what I can come up with as the sleeping platform/storage area comes together.
Here are a few of my wife's photos of the two LC/LX from last year's Rebelle Rally as well as our Tacoma. You may have already seen some of these if you read Car & Driver or Tread magazines. Enjoy!
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