This story is part of our end-of-year series This Year in Gear, rounding up the most notable releases of 2021.
As much as we might have hoped it wouldn't be, 2021 turned out to be another eventful year. And not coincidentally, it was another year when camping and overlanding vehicles exploded in popularity. Americans embraced their spirit of adventure, (hopefully) logged out of their social media accounts and discovered the charms of nature — whether they rented a vehicle, built customized ones, or just took off into the woods with their daily driver.
Whether it was RVs, trailers, or camper vans, we covered and reviewed a wide array of camping vehicles over the past year, everything ranging from a mobile luxury apartment to a barebones, featherlight tent on wheels. Here are 15 of our favorites.
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Black Series HQ19
Will Sabel Courtney
If you really want to dive into overlanding and see new parts of the world while bringing along the comforts of home — well, you’d be hard-pressed to do it better than with a Black Series HQ19 hanging from your hitch.
EarthCruiser specializes in burly, go anywhere chassis cab-based off-roaders. But driving the equivalent of a box truck from town to town isn't necessarily everyone's cup of tea. So for 2021, EarthCruiser has whipped up a new pickup truck-based model: the Terranova.
Europeans love awesome camper cans, and German startup Vanderer unveiled what may be the ultimate tiny pop-top one. Their modular van, which they describe as a "three-room apartment on wheels," can transport up to seven, sleep up to four, and converts to a cozy lounge during the day.
Winnebago unveiled a new model, the Solis Pocket. It's an entry-level and relatively affordable — with a starting price under $100,000 — and it delivers substantial functionality within a small, urban-friendly footprint.
Airstream and Pottery Barn unveiled a new collaboration, the Pottery Barn Special Edition Trailer. As you would suspect from the name, it's a special edition Airstream travel trailer that incorporates "hardware, soft goods, fixtures and touches inspired by Pottery Barn's best selling collection" with a color palette influenced by the Pacific Coast Highway.
The Colorado Campworks NS-1 trailer is 100-percent solar-powered, but still offers all of the amenities one would expect from a trailer, including badass off-road capability for under $40,000.
Living Vehicle unveiled their 2022 model year travel trailers. One of the key updates is a new top-tier PRO-EV trim. A partnership with SunPower allows the PRO-EV trailer to draw and store nearly twice as much power in its battery system as the previous base model Living Vehicle. The trailer can carry enough juice to operate a Level 2 charging station for an electric tow vehicle.
Life with a trailer can be tricky: parking, purchasing and packing up your life inside all present various obstacles that you may not have expected. Winnebago's new Hike 100 camping trailer lowers the barrier to entry by packing all the most important comforts of home (and the cargo-carrying capacity needed to carry gear for outdoor fun) into a tidy, easy-to-haul package.
Smaller independent builders like Ready.Set.Van and Boho Campers may dominate the Instagram feeds full of #VanLife. But for many folks, the idea of buying a vehicle from a more-established well-known brand holds more appeal. That's why Airstream added to its camper van lineup with a new variant aimed at more outdoorsy, adventurous buyers. Meet the Airstream Interstate 24X.
The Bowlus Terra Firma is built by hand from aircraft-grade aluminum, has the fanciest cabin this side of a Sunseeker and offers a new Pet-Flex system to take care of your dog or cat while you're out and about.
Ever heard of Colorado-based Rossmönster Vans? If not, well, they're worth looking up, as they produce some awesome camper vans featuring truly impressive custom woodworking. Looking to merge their craftsmanship with a more off-road capable alternative to camper vans, they branched out and created Rossmönster Overland — and launched their first truck-based camper, the Baja.
There are many great camper van builders out there producing an exciting array of vehicles. However, few of them are going to match up to Chinese manufacturer SAIC Maxus's Life Home V90 Villa Edition, which takes the pop-top concept to a whole new level — literally and figuratively.
Thor launched a new van called the Sanctuary, a 4x4 camper van based on the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter. It's a super-comfortable-looking camper, one that looks supremely capable of leaving the pavement (and the stresses of modern life) behind.
