Jeep and Mopar Introduce Jeep Trailers

By Chris Haak

Chrysler’s well-known parts and accessories arm, Mopar, will begin offering Jeep-branded off-road-capable campers next month for order at any dealership.  The campers feature styling reminiscent of the Jeep Wrangler itself, and are designed to go off road, sometimes on fairly harsh trails, unlike other travel trailers.  The Jeep trailers are constructed of tubular aluminum for durability and strength, and sleep four adults in reasonable comfort.

Because they are sold as Jeep products (via Mopar), they are designed to sync with the capabilities of the Wrangler, and are available in two flavors.  The base model, called the Trail Edition, sports 32 inch BF Goodrich mud terrain tires and 12 inches of ground clearance.  It’s designed for casual campers who will keep their trailer on fairly smooth trails.  Included in the $9,995 base price are sofa, bed, built-in cabinet for gear storage, stowable center table, and 110-volt power inverter.

For more serious off-roaders, Mopar offers the $11,995 Extreme Trail Edition camper, which sports full underbody skid plates, larger 35 inch BF Goodrich Mud Terrain tires, and a substantial 15 inches of ground clearance.  The Extreme Trail Edition camper also includes a heavy duty frame, and tips the scales at 1,050 pounds, versus the Trail Edition’s 850 pounds.  The Extreme Trail Edition trailer can accommodate even larger tires, too – up to 37 inch all-terrain tires.

For another $735, Mopar also is offering a heavy-duty pintle hitch with a 360-degree rotating axis for maximum off-road maneuvering and on-trail articulation.  Otherwise, the trailers are compatible with a standard two-inch hitch.

Though the trailers are costly, they offer a handy alternative to those who plan to take their Jeep Wrangler off road and don’t want to sleep in a tent on the ground and need additional space to store their gear that the space-constrained Jeep can’t accommodate.

Of course, this is not the first accessory trailer that Mopar has sold that mimicked the styling of the vehicle it was designed to accompany.  As recently as a decade ago, Chrysler sold Plymouth Prowler accessory trailers to overcome the retro-styled modern street rod’s acute lack of cargo room, and as with these Jeep trailers, looked pretty good.

There are several companies that offer aftermarket off road-capable trailers aside from Mopar; one such company is Adventure Trailers.  Glancing through Adventure’s website, it appears that there are more options available from Adventure (different types of trailers and more accessory choices), but pricing is more or less in line with what Mopar is asking for their trailers.

Chrysler probably stands to gain some much-needed profit margins on every Jeep trailer that it sells, considering the trailers cost half as much as a base-model Wranger (though they are admittedly made of aluminum, and not just cheap materials like most travel trailers).