A big overland camper, a family of four, spring break week, and the American Southwest is a combo made in heaven. The Rossmönster Baja Trail LX provided comfortable travel and RV camping in beautiful remote areas where only high-clearance vehicles can access.

Hard-sided recreational vehicles (RVs) have proven to be great for sticking to paved road adventures — like touring the National Parks. And for good reason. It’s incredibly convenient to just pull up to camp, maybe pop out a side slide and be done. That leaves more time for hiking and exploring.

But there are so many beautiful places well beyond the pavement. And while some RVs can handle gentle dirt roads, there are lots of amazing adventures at the ends of rougher roads.

For spring break this year, my family of four (kids are 7 and 11) tested out the Baja Trail LX by Rossmönster. We planned a road trip to southeastern Utah that racked up 1,400 miles. About 300 of those miles were off-pavement and on high-clearance required roads.

In short: The Rossmönster Baja series can get you and your family to some of the most remote and beautiful places accessible by vehicle in the luxurious ease and comfort of a hard-sided camper.

The Baja Trail LX by Rossmönster is a proprietary, standing-height camper box built on a Ford F350 with 11.5 inches of ground clearance, Method HD wheels with 37-inch BFG KO2 tires, upgraded shocks with the Carli Pintop System, and a 50-gallon diesel fuel tank. This setup can push 600 miles of range.

As you may have guessed, it’s not cheap to build out a truck like this. The Baja Trail starts around $380,000. The truck itself costs around $86,000, the upgraded shocks are $6,000, and it brings in the design, labor, and other components — and it all adds up.

Rossmönster does everything in-house except for molding the fiberglass shell. That happens only a few miles away from its build facility and office headquarters in Longmont, Colo.

At the time of this writing, Rossmönster has built about 60 trucks. The company recently purchased a larger manufacturing facility just down the road, and will be moving to be able to increase production.

Rossmönster Baja Trail LX: Driving Experience

Rossmönster uses a range of base vehicles for these builds and they do van conversions as well for customers who don’t need super-rugged off-road capability. But here are some insights into the Baja Trail built on the Ford F350 platform that my family spent a week traveling in.

Comfort

Along with the spaciousness of the crew cab, the soft touch points, and comfortable sight lines, the truck itself was easy to drive. In the driving configuration, the camper box is lowered, which puts the total height of the truck at just under 10 feet. This keeps the center of gravity low so the truck never felt top-heavy while on the move. We had some fierce crosswinds for part of the drive and the truck never felt like it was getting pushed around.

Payload & Mileage

The custom camper box, fully loaded with all the water and gear for a trip like this, brings the payload to within about 1,000 pounds of the payload rating (GVWR) of the truck — a lot of pavement-only RVs would come within 200 pounds of the limit. But the upgraded shocks and tires of this build effectively increase the capacity — so there’s no worries.

With this load, the 6.7L Power Stroke V8 Diesel never had any trouble getting up to speed or accelerating, even at freeway speeds. The 10-speed automatic torque shift transmission was always smooth, and I never felt it jerk or jolt.

According to the truck’s computer, over the 1,400 miles, the vehicle averaged 12.9 mpg. This equated to about $500 in fuel. While 12.9 mpg may sound terrible for your SUV or truck, that’s actually pretty good for an RV of this size. Remember, this includes our 300 miles of off-road adventures — not the best travel surface for fuel economy.

Off-Road

The hardest part of our 300 off-road miles on this journey was the deep washboard sections. Those came to about 100 miles worth. But to be fair, few street-legal vehicles are going to be able to significantly buffer the washboard vibrations.

We were just glad we weren’t in some of the other vehicles we saw on those roads — sedans and minivans — which were going very slow and getting hammered. But the remote reservoir King Shocks in the Carlie Pintop System certainly absorbed a lot of the rattle.

The massive ground clearance, big tires, and powerful engine allowed us to cover some pretty gnarly roads to get to our remote destinations. One off-road stretch even included a 1-foot-deep river crossing.

We used the onX Offroad GPS Map App with the Elite service level subscription to plan our routes, see land ownership (for camping legally), and to navigate while driving. It worked flawlessly on the truck’s 12-inch display through Apple CarPlay.

The Baja Trail series includes a 50-inch OnX6 Baja Designs light bar over the cab, cube lights and 20-inch light bar in the bumper, fog lights, and extra rear lights. We had one night when we arrived at camp a little later than expected.

The combination of the additional forward-facing lights made a huge difference in being able to discern the condition of the road ahead of us, as well as provide context along the side of the road.

We didn’t have any deer or other animals jump out in front of us, but that extra light would have helped us see something coming much sooner than without it all. The mix of amber lights only took a second to get used to the color shift.

Rossmönster Baja Trail LX: Living Experience

The whole point of hauling a camper box like this is to make camp simple and comfortable. The Rossmönster Baja Trail configuration really delivered.

Camp Setup & Strike

An obvious beauty of a rig like this is that setting up for camp is basically just parking and raising the top. More nuanced, however, is leveling the truck because most of the time we were not on a nice level pad — we were often on pretty uneven ground.

The truck has a 4×4 screen with angle indicators, but we found even at 0 degrees of tilt on all axes, there could still be a slight list, so a true bubble level would be good to have along or to attach to the side of the camper.

It takes less than a minute to raise the top. The setup we had required someone to hold the “up” button, which was located just inside the camper box main door for the whole time the top was rising. A one-push button in the cab would be amazing.

I would have loved to be able to park and hit the up button. Then, by the time I’ve gotten out of the truck and have come around to the camper door, the top would be up. This, of course, necessitates you’re already very aware that there are no branches or other obstructions above the camper before raising it.

To strike camp, I totally understand needing to hold the “down” button to lower the top the entire time instead of having it automatically lower with a single touch. The countertops in the camper have to be completely cleared of anything more than a few inches tall, otherwise the cabinets or other parts of the top coming down will crush the object or part of the camper itself.

The one that almost got us was the broom we stored in the shower/toilet stall, but we caught it in time (thanks to the give of the broom bristles and the telling sound it made).

Over the camper door on the passenger side, the Fiamma awning is a pretty standard RV accessory. It was hugely appreciated a number of times on our trip where we camped or stopped to have lunch.

Comfort

Sleeping a family of four in a 23.5-foot-long vehicle almost always includes converting the dining settee into a second sleeping area. This only comes to a 42 x 75-inch sleeping area (slightly smaller than a full-size mattress), and that was fine for the kiddos.

We also opted to just have them use sleeping bags instead of making up a bed with sheets and blankets. This made the conversion process from the eating area to the sleeping area and back much easier.

The 59 x 74-inch master bed (just shy of a queen) accommodated my wife and me nicely. I’m 5’11” (that’s 71 inches tall) and indeed, with my heels against the far wall, I only had 3 inches between the top of my head and the end of the bed.

The master bed area has 32 inches of headroom, which didn’t allow me to fully sit up in bed, but my wife was able to climb over and past me to get out of bed when she needed to. The short step ladder to access the bed can be used vertically right against the wall or angled, which made it a little easier. When it’s angled, it does block part of the exit to the outside of the camper, but by that time, the need to get outside is usually low.

There is a nice skylight above the master bed, which allows for some stargazing or ventilation. All of the windows come with a clever screen/blackout shade to block light or bugs.

Climate Control

The Baja Trail offers full four-season comfort with a built-in hydronic in-floor and forced air heat, which we used most nights. We did not need the built-in air conditioning unit on this trip.

The Baja Trail also has a built-in hot water system which was great for doing dishes. The heat can run off of the battery or draw from the diesel fuel tank. We mostly used the diesel furnace and after running overnight, it sipped fuel to hardly make any difference on mileage range the next morning — solid proof that this system is designed for comfortable off-grid living.

Meal Prep

Cooking and eating in the Baja Trail was easy and convenient. The two-induction-burner stove worked great, and we cooked most of our meals on this trip. It’s truly a one-person galley, so one of us had to occupy the kids outside while the other was cooking. Or, anyone sitting at the dinette would be out of the way, but they had to stay there.

There is a 20-inch counter extension that lifts into place right in front of the main exit, which we only used once. But even with the extension lifted in place, someone could still carefully duck under the counter to get in or out of the camper.

We had the wrong plates on this trip because they were too big. It was very tricky to fit all four plates, a few cups and any serving containers on the little table. Of course we used the nearby countertops and put the cover over the sink to hold more, but smaller plates would have been easier.

Meal Cleanup

Doing dishes would have also been a little easier with slightly smaller plates, but with everyone else out of the camper, it was easy to get cleaned up after each meal. Of note is the difference between the 40-gallon fresh water tank and the 11-gallon gray water tank.

There are lots of water conservation practices to consider if you’re not where you can let the gray water just empty out beside the truck into a sump pit. We took care to scrape the dishes first and then used a strainer to keep any food scraps from washing down the drain.

We also used biodegradable soap. Over our years of vehicle-based camping as a family, we’ve averaged about 5 gallons of water daily to drink, cook, and wash.

With the LX version of this overland camper, the sink and shower are on the driver side, which means that’s where it will drain when the gray water tank valve is open. This is great because it won’t muddy up the area around the door into the camper.

The floor plan for the EX has the sink and shower on the passenger side, so it drains on the same side as the entrance to the camper. To be fair, I didn’t get a chance to use the EX, but it makes me wonder about how to manage that.

Interior Storage

There was plenty of room to store everything. There are two large cubbies next to the master bed, which was great for my wife and me to store items we only needed when we were in camp mode. These areas are not accessible when the top is down.

The kids kept their stuff in duffel bags, and those were stored in the settee area while we were driving, and then it was easy to move to their seats in the cab when we were camping. They could also just take turns to climb through the pass-through into the cab to change or get something from their duffel as needed.

Exterior Storage

The storage that wrapped around the upper area of the camper was used for cookware, dishes, and pantry items. The built-in refrigerator is huge and easily accommodated everything we wanted to keep cold for our week-long adventure.

The only ah-ha moment we had was to not use screw-top mason jars. The washboard road caused them to unscrew slightly, and we had a trace of buttermilk seep out. Also, for another trip like this, we would avoid using glass containers where possible.

For this trip, we only had a single Wedge Baja Box on the rear exterior MOLLE panels. We used this for some of our outdoor living gear like a propane tank, Lavabox fire pit, and some hiking gear.

Since we brought full-size camp chairs (Yeti Trailhead and Strongback Elite), they had to be kept in the camper right in the entranceway along with our Dometic Bamboo Table for outside use. The chairs would fit in the ski box if we had one mounted.

After the trip, I figured out my ideal configuration on the three panels would be the Side Entry Wedge Box on the driver side with a hose to fill the freshwater tank, the outdoor shower hose, and some leveling blocks. The standard Single Wedge Baja Box was in the middle with the gear mentioned above, and the tall ski box was on the far right for camp chairs.

There’s also a spare tire rack, but our spare was under the truck and out of the way.

Toilet & Shower

We never used the shower on this trip — I’m sure it’s fine. With a 40-gallon freshwater capacity, showers will eat that up quickly, even by the most sparing users. But the kids were fascinated by the idea of having a toilet on board, so that did get used.

As it turns out, we ended up in a primitive camping area near Moab, Utah, that required users to bring their own toilet to minimize impact on the environment. Since the toilet is just in the small stall, it does not contain any smells that might arise while it’s being used. It’s worth staying out of the camper at that time. But once things air out, there wasn’t any further hint of odors.

Emptying the toilet cassette container was very easy when we had access to a dump station or toilet (pit or flush).

Rossmönster Baja Trail LX Review: Conclusion

I don’t use the word “epic” lightly, but the Rossmönster Baja Trail LX certainly provided my family the opportunity to have an incredible spring break experience. We camped on BLM land right outside of the back entrance to Arches National Park, in a beautiful canyon near Canyonlands, hiked Hole-in-the-Rock trail, and explored slot canyons. I immediately started to dream up other amazing destinations to take my family in this rig.

Established and full-facility campgrounds are not my favorite — primitive camps are a little better — but I love the totally remote and dispersed camp experience. The latter is exactly what we could get to with the Baja Trail.

Driving on the pavement to burn up miles from home was comfortable, dirt roads (even washboarded) to get away from civilization were fine, and gnarly obstacle-strewn dirt tracks to access remote solitude were fun to drive.

Obviously, being able to spend nearly half a million dollars on a vehicle like this is a pretty privileged position to be in, but Rossmönster does have rental options.