New Zealand outfit Fortress Trailers specializes in developing some of the most secure, rugged utility trailers out there – essentially uncrackable wheeled safes that tow along from job site to job site, keeping expensive essentials like tools and building materials secure in any environment. Now that it’s turned attention to camping trailers, outdoor travelers can rest assured that they’re pulling along an ultra-rugged survival vault optimized for supplying basic living comforts in extreme environments. That’s the new Fortress Explorer camper in a nutshell.
“Serious trailers for serious tradies” – that’s the short, to-the-point promise that Fortress Trailers relays from the front and center of its home page. It offers two different lineups of tough, highly secure utility trailers built to organize supplies into mobile workshops. The “Extreme” line looks like heavy duty machinery that could actively join in the demolition process rather than merely sitting idly by keeping more nuanced tools of the trade readily accessible.
The idea is to organize all one’s tools of the trade, keep them close at hand no matter where the worksite, and ensure they remain secure, each and every day. Looking the part of a modern-day steel-on-steel medieval battering ram is but a bonus.
Fortress Trailers
In turning its attention to the camping trailer market, Fortress has scaled back the sheer burliness of its build from the all-steel construction of the Extreme series. The Explorer camping trailer lightens up by swapping out the galvannealed body steel in favor of aluminum panels finished in anti-scratch paint. The chassis, however, maintains a hot-dipped galvanized steel foundation.
The little 13.5-ft (4.1-m) Explorer camping trailer still looks plenty burly, though, and takes on a form quite similar to the Hardkorr Xplorer series, right down to the rare tongue-top staircase. In fact, the Explorer’s 6.9-foot (210-cm) height lands right between the 6.5-foot (198-cm) Hardkorr Xplorer Shorty and the 7.2-foot (220-m) original Xplorer.
Fortress Trailers
So yeah, between that name and the overall form, it appears Fortress had a little inspiration from across the Tasman Sea. But the company does bring some unique design elements to the forefront to combine with its impressive resume of building tamper-resistant towable strongboxes.
To start, Fortress flips the deep slide-out kitchen cubby to the front of the trailer’s curb side, clearing space for a large tailgate storage compartment in back. That compartment is also accessed through the large hatch on the righthand driver’s side, allowing campers to quickly find what they need or empty out all their stored gear and cargo in a hurry.
Fortress Trailers
The slide-out kitchen includes a platform for a 90-L fridge toward the back and a sink with collapsible basin and folding faucet out front. Campers can use a portable stove on either the worktop next to the sink or on the fold-down counter that stretches the full width of the pantry aft of the slide-out. That pantry also includes plenty of shelf and cubby space for dry food, condiments, cooking tools and other provisions. A 270-degree awning delivers shade and weather protection above.
Fortress Trailers
The final compartment, up front on the right side of travel, serves as the electrical cabinet, housing large components and systems monitoring hardware. The trailer comes stocked standard with a 100-Ah battery and 1,000-W inverter, along with a 120-W solar charging setup.
The 100-L water tank is stored down low at chassis level and plumbed to a 12-V water pump and external hose hookup.
The Explorer would still be just a fancy utility trailer without a place to sleep, but Fortress takes care of that via a Z-frame rooftop tent housing a queen-size memory foam mattress. And instead of the steep, rickety ladder no one particularly likes, campers climb to bed on a small, neatly integrated staircase on the trailer tongue. A fold-out extension attaches to the side of the tongue to extend those steps right to ground level.
Fortress Trailers
If it weren’t for the railings flanking it, the staircase would look more like a central storage box when the stairs fold flat for travel. That’s not entirely incorrect, either, as the folding stair treads are located atop a hinged door that lifts open to access storage space below. That cargo area is joined by a clamshell-style box on each side for loads of front-end storage capacity.
Fortress finishes the Explorer standard feature set with a swing-out deployable shower tent on the driver’s side. Users can add an optional hot water heater for improved comfort.
Fortress introduced the Explorer camper trailer in April and is offering it now for a base price of NZ$42,990 (approx. US$24,350). Options include fabric walls for the awning, a dual-zone fridge/freezer and a gas water heater. The Explorer tares in at 2,500 lb (1,136 kg) and has a 990-lb (450-kg) payload.
The 5.5-min video below gives a complete Explorer walkthrough.
The Fortress Explorer Camping Trailer
Source: Fortress Trailers
