So we sat looking at the Patriot X1 Grand Tourer sitting in our back courtyard and decided that, maybe camper trailers are just not for us. The things we're looking for from something that has to be towed are just not there and so the decision was made to advertise the trailer and yet again re-configure our camping set-up. So what was missing for us from our Patriot ownership experience? There are a few things but we'll start with the tent. Whilst mechanically it was amazing the canvas side of things lets it down in our opinion, particularly the kid's room and the awning extensions in both the way they attached to the main body of the tent and also the cut of the canvas. The awning extensions are a bit like 'so what are we going to do with this bit? Oh we'll just add a velcro flap here and a zip over there'. The bottom line is they are difficult to install, especially the rear and they are prone to water pooling in inclement weather. As mentioned in the previous post, the main tent is a little cramped for anything more than a night or two. Now the advertising blog says the trailer is designed for fast setups and pack downs and for moving each day but that's just not how we travel. So that isn't a fault with a trailer but more so us not analyzing our needs more thoroughly.
We also found that the storage was just a little too tight everywhere, again probably an issue of ours more so than the trailer. We tend to take everything that opens and closes and our Prado ended up jam-packed with gear as well. Driving a Prado at the time we went down the trailer path meant that as the car was lean on space, a trailer technically would alleviate that issue. We've since moved the Prado on and have taken delivery of a Ford Ranger PX MKIII XLT, there is a blog about our initial thoughts here.
A problem that reared it's head after we had sold the trailer was the Redarc TVMS system had a failure. It wouldn't accept a charge from mains power, the new owner had contacted me to alert me to the fact. I ran through a few things with him and he ended up getting touch with Redarc and they replaced the unit under warranty. The Redarc TVMS system is amazing and if we end up towing something in the future we will definitely be using the system.
The quality of the Patriot X1-GT is as good as the manufacturer claims and any issues we had were with 3rd party components, being the aforementioned Redarc issue and a previously discussed compressor failure. Everything else worked fine, water pump, electrical components, suspension, etc. In short we enjoyed owning the Patriot but are looking forward to not towing anything for a while before biting the bullet and heading down the caravan path, we approaching 'Grey Nomad' age after all.
