We have spent the last year traveling around the U.S. in our converted Sprinter van.
Some days it feels like life couldn't get any better.
Other days, well, they're a challenge.
Living in a van full time has made us super curious about what it might be like to live in other tiny homes on wheels.
So from time to time, we take a break from the van to try out other alternatives.
A few months ago, we swapped homes with our friends who own a super cool converted school bus.
That didn't sound good.
And earlier this year, we rented a top of the line Winnebago Revel that retails for over $150,000.
We thought the four wheel drive Revel was the ultimate combination of rugged luxury.
That was until we stumbled across a company called Earth Roamer making overland vehicles that are in a category all their own.
After a little convincing, they finally agreed to let us take an earth roamer for a test drive.
So this beautiful piece of machinery behind me is going to be our home for the next 24 hours.
Earlier today we met up with Phillip at Earth Roamer headquarters, where we got a full walkthrough of the vehicle and a quick driving lesson.
I think this is the most nervous I've ever been to drive anything in my life.
No pressure.
After passing our driving test and signing our life away, we were handed the keys.
You break it, you buy it.
Phillip led the way to our campsite a little outside of Boulder.
We have a little bit of an earth roamer convoy going on right now and we're attracting quite a bit of attention.
Everyone who drives by is like, look cool.
Flex your muscles.
Goodbye paved road.
We are currently on a dirt road that is just washboard.
If we were in our van right now, I'd be going.
But being in the Earth Roamer, it's pretty much just as smooth as being on pavement.
You can tell that this vehicle was made for these types of roads.
So, now that we've familiarized ourselves with the earth roamer, we're going to give you a full tour and show you exactly what you get for 700000.
All right, before we get started, we will probably end up comparing the features in the earth roamer to the features in our van quite a bit throughout this video.
But this isn't meant to be a comparison to determine which one is better.
I think that's going to be obvious.
The Earth Roamer should win in all categories against the van that we paid about $40,000 for.
The comparison is just to give some context to how the Earth Roamer stacks up against a normal camper.
All right, before we go inside and have Kara show you around the luxurious amenities, let me give you a tour around the outside of this beast.
The Earth Roamer LTI is 29 feet long, making it about seven feet longer than our van, and it's 12 and a half feet tall.
First things first, this is probably the coolest front of any camper I have ever seen.
They have this awesome light bar that I'm sure is super functional but also just makes the Earth Roamer look really cool.
And a 16000 pound winch so you can pull yourself out of any situation if you were to ever get stuck.
I look cool right now.
I feel like I need to talk in a deeper voice.
Then we have these military-grade tires, which just look awesome and can drive over anything.
There is a drawback to having such cool tires, and that's that the max speed that they prefer on the interstate is about 68 miles an hour, or they start to overheat.
Inside the tire, you have a wheel with about a hundred different bolts on it.
Not sure exactly why you need so many bolts, but I'm sure there's a purpose.
It's a three piece wheel.
So this outer portion locks the bead portion onto it.
So it keeps your tire from falling off when you drop real low pressure.
And this inner ring here, it's an adapter to the Ford hub.
Back underneath the passenger door is a feature that you would pass up.
If you didn't know, it was here.
And that is the onboard air compressor.
So let's say you're driving through the Sahara desert.
You need to let some air out of your tires in order to give you more surface area, so you don't sink down into the sand.
But then you need to get back in the road so you need your tires re-blown up.
All you have to do is go get the cord, plug it in, and you can blow up your own tires.
It's free and unlimited.
This entire back half is completely made of carbon fiber, which not only is durable, but super lightweight.
And apparently carbon fiber is a really good insulator.
So inside will say cold when it's hot and hot when it's cold.
Does that make sense?
Also, this is how many keys you need. if you own an Earth Roamer.
This is where you're gonna fill up your fresh water tank, which is almost 100 gallons of fresh water.
I guess the lock on here is so no one can poison your water source.
We're not gonna go inside yet, but I did just wanna show you that when you open the main door, the steps automatically come down to make it easier to get into the camper.
When you shut it, they automatically go back up.
This is your outdoor shower, if you go to the beach or if you just want to take a shower in the beautiful outdoors.
These back boxes are completely custom built so that they fit perfectly.
This one over here is your outdoor kitchen.
But it's not just any outdoor kitchen.
This is a traeger grill.
I'm not a big griller, but i've been told that this is top of the line.
I think you pretty much just stick your meat in there, turn on an app and your food turns out perfectly.
So you've got your trigger grill, a chopping block both of these are housed on this super convenient slide out and then you've got room over here to store all of your necessary cooking supplies, and if you need water for cooking, you can just bring your outdoor shower over to the grill.
And you have a bike rack so you can carry two bikes up here, and then tons more room for storage.
Honestly, this is one of the best back box designs i've ever seen, because they are so easy to swing out.
These boxes probably weigh hundreds of pounds a piece and you can literally push them with a finger.
That's pretty nice.
And last but not least, on the storage.
It comes standard with an axe, a shovel and winch remotes, which just makes you feel like you need to go out and do something cool.
So the earth roamer doesn't have a black water tank.
Instead, it has a cassette toilet.
The way the cassette toilet works is you do your business inside and it all goes into this little gray five gallon box which you can easily take out.
I was told that this toilet is never used.
Otherwise I would be worried that this liquid leaking onto my arm right now was not water.
I used it earlier.
No you didn't.
Yes I did.
Did you?
Yeah.
Smells kind of like water.
And then the way you empty it is you just unscrew the top right here and you can pour it into a toilet or a dump station.
And it's super nice to have access to this from the outside, because in our van we actually have to carry our pee through the van, which can be a little dangerous.
Oh, I need your help.
Okay, put the camera down.
I need your help.
Just close that back up.
No one can steal your poop.
There's not one, but two diesel fuel tanks.
This one is the standard 40 gallon fuel tank that comes with the ford truck, but then earth roamer has added a custom 50 gallon fuel tank, giving you a 90 gallon capacity, which will allow you to drive it to a thousand miles without having to fill up with diesel.
And this is just your def fluid fill up, which is in a lot more convenient location than ours.
The cab is an F-550, which is a top of the line Ford truck.
So you have your standard stuff like heated seat, a cooled seat.
It's all super nice and plush in here.
But they've gone above and beyond to integrate the cab with the camper.
So there's a few things I want to point out.
First, you have this little screen that allows you to monitor everything that's going on with your tires while you're driving.
Then they've installed an always on rear camera.
So you can basically see what's going on behind your vehicle at all times.
And now I need to start the truck to show you what I think is probably the coolest feature of the Earth Roamer.
So we've downloaded a bubble level app to see whether or not we're level.
And then we can actually use each of the individual air suspensions to raise and lift each tire until the camper is sitting perfectly level.
How am I getting this so off?
So we need to inflate this side.
I don't think this is supposed to take this long.
I think that's pretty close to level.
That?
Let go.
And then you get to vehicle perfectly level.
That's close.
I do not even know where to start with the inside of this camper.
We have at least an extra foot of headroom in here, and it's just so open and pretty.
So when you first walk in, there's a convenient place to kick your shoes off, maybe?
And the first thing you see is just all of this storage.
Plus, they all have these little latches.
So that's why they all stay closed while we were going over this big bumpy road.
I'm liking our van.
And right next to all these drawers, a wine rack.
We have one of these in our van, but this is a much more beautiful setup.
And they were even nice enough to stock it for us with all Colorado wine.
Next to the wine rack is closet.
This bottom level has an outlet.
We could just plug a power strip right here and plug everything in in one place.
But I think the coolest part, not even the coolest, just the most like brilliant is this.
It's a vacuum cleaner.
However, if you just have a little cleanup, you're not willing to commit to the whole vacuuming thing.
All you have to do is grab the broom, put this dustpan back, because we won't need that.
Just do a little sweeping over here.
The wall literally eats the dirt.
And moving on to the bathroom.
It is a full wet bath.
So everything in here can get wet.
Kind of like our bathroom, but a lot better.
The shower head is super fancy.
You can pull this off.
You can adjust the height of it.
But the best part, and something I would love to incorporate into into our van, is this clothesline.
You just attach it over here and there's a fan in here.
There's also a heater.
So you can dry clothes in here in no time.
There's the toilet paper.
It's hiding in here so that it doesn't get wet when you shower.
And last but not least, this is the top of the cassette toilet.
If you move this lever, everything just drops down into that bucket that Nate took out.
Close it back up, run a little water and then it just disappears and somebody takes it out and does something with it every single time.
It's crazy.
Wow, it's crazy.
And it really doesn't smell.
It's pretty magical.
Oh, I think I left it open.
But when it's closed, it's great.
So, say you're here with some friends, you take a shower, and you need to change.
The closet door is designed to perfectly match up with the bathroom door.
And now I have a little changing room.
Pretend I just took a shower.
Hi friends, I'm naked, hold on.
Oh, here are all my clothes hanging in my closet.
I see in the mirror that I look super cute.
And I'm ready to party.
Wow.
The kitchen.
This is the freezer and refrigerator of my camping dreams.
And up here we have a microwave slash convection oven combo that is capable of running just off the solar.
Mind blowing.
On this side of the kitchen, we have this beautiful marble countertop. in this giant deep sink.
We have a water purifier like our van, a faucet with the extendable head, which I love.
And they even added a soap dispenser.
And here we have a convection oven, which I really want in our van, but it's just not possible with the amount of solar that we get.
And they even have custom made earth roamer pots that go with the stove.
It's pretty much as organized as our pots and pans drawers.
I'm so embarrassed.
So there are several other drawers here, but my favorite one is not that one.
Each utensil has its own perfect slot.
Nice and snug.
But that's not all.
Wait for it.
Each knife is in this custom made magnetic slot.
Look how cool they look.
They're even branded with the earth warmer logo.
And then the last drawer underneath the sink is what I would use as a spice rack.
Believe it or not, I found one thing in the Earth Roamer that I'm not a huge fan of, and that is this mounted Keurig on the wall.
We have a Chemex in our van with a hand grinder.
We take our coffee very seriously.
So that's one point for our van.
Last thing in the kitchen, the dishes.
Each individual plate, cup, bowl, mug has its own slot.
So I set the cabinets for the last part of the kitchen, but technically this seating area can become an extension of the kitchen press buttons.
Hiding behind the backrest of this couch are these extendable countertops which you could use for anything.
Anytime there's more counter space, I'm very happy about it.
In addition to this being a couch and extra counter space, it can also convert into a recliner or a very small bed.
I can totally No problem.
Across from me, bed, recliner, sofa, extra counter space area.
We have the dining room table, which would also double as an office.
We're living in here.
Plus, there are giant drawers under each seat.
And this area also converts into a bed.
But I don't know how.
Let's talk about these windows.
First of all, they are double paned, which is really nice, because in our van if you're sitting by a window and it's cold outside, you're cold, but these stay nice and insulated.
If there are bugs, super easy to just pull this screen down.
Or if you want some privacy and you want it closed all together, just pull it up this way.
And Before moving back into the bedroom, let me show you a few of the screens in the living area.
This is the control panel for literally the entire truck.
You can even start the car with the click of a button.
You can see everything from how much solar you're getting, how much water you've used.
You can turn on and off any light.
In this entire place, you have mood lights.
All interior.
Oh, I just turned them all off.
Probably the coolest thing this thing does is there is a security feature to where, if you're in bed and it's late and you hear something outside and you're scared, you can hit it and it'll boom, turn all the exterior lights on and lock your doors at the same time.
Who's gonna go rob a glowing truck?
You can also drain your gray water with the click of a button here, which would stop Nate from having to crawl underneath the van and get splatter on his face.
Empty it out with your face not so close.
I think I've barely scratched the surface of what this thing can do, but you get the point.
There are four ghost security cameras mounted outside the truck and you can see a live feed at all times on the screen.
So there's a lot going on up here in the bedroom.
First of all, there are one, two, three, four side windows.
And right here next to the bed, what is that?
Gun tape.
A little nightlight?
Wow.
If the screen is just too far away, there is a little mini screen.
You can turn all of your lights on and off.
Pretty much all the major things that that one does.
And in this little bag, we have a plethora of remotes.
This remote controls the fan.
What is this?
DirecTV remote, television remote this very sleek ah must be Apple and the Bose remote which controls this Bose speaker.
We have Bose surround sound, which sounds incredible and we would play it for you if we wouldn't get demoted.
Speaking of the TV, if you wanna watch TV in bed, this is a pretty great setup, but if you wanna watch TV pretty much anywhere else in the truck, including outside, I can't do it.
Pull it down and pull it out.
Will you do it?
If you decide you don't want to watch TV inside, you can even turn it towards the window and watch TV outside.
Hopefully the next position we can get it to is back where it belongs.
Look at that.
Since I've taken over the inside tour, can I show them the best part of the entire earth rower?
All right, so you really don't need the stairs to get up into the bed.
You can just hop right up here.
This skylight right here allows you to lay down and watch the stars, which is pretty incredible, but not the best part.
The real reason I love this skylight so much is because it is the access to the roof.
Check this out.
This is what the top of the Earth Roamer looks like.
It is pretty much filled with solar panels.
That is over 1300 watts worth of solar power.
But the best part about these solar panels is that they double as a roof deck because you can walk on them.
This fills so wrong, but it is so awesome to be up here.
Also on the roof we have a satellite dish, the air conditioning, the vent for the bathroom pretty sure that's a tv antenna a wi-fi booster, something to do with the fridge and a smoking hot wife.
I'm making a new dish that I've never made before, so if it's bad, have mercy.
That is sharp.
I'm just so happy that we have this opportunity.
I'm going to chop my finger off because I can't stop crying.
OK.
Phillip told me.
I'll give you $5 if you put that thing back the way it came out.
And now I see why.
Because somehow they fit six pans in this one tiny drawer.
And unfortunately, I need this one that's in the middle.
I can't even remember how these were now.
Perfect.
I think you nailed it.
You almost had fingernail on your pasta.
Okay.
Even though I had a big, amazing kitchen, I'm a bit nervous about the meal I prepared.
I think I messed it up a little bit.
It was actually really good.
The best part is Nate was never in my way.
I could definitely get used to this, especially eating at the table and not in our bed.
Cheers.
Thanks for dinner.
Can you imagine what it would be like for this to be our home?
No.
Now that it's completely dark outside, I really want to hit this security button and see what happens.
Ready?
Go away.
We don't want you here.
Nate is pretending to be a deer on the infrared camera.
Good night.
Love you.
Morning.
That's what happens when you set up the camera before coffee.
Morning.
How do you sleep?
We don't have any Keurig pods, but thankfully Kara travels with an emergency stash of powdered coffee, because that's how addicted she is.
So while it's no Chemex, at least it's coffee.
While I was lying in bed last night, I thought of several really cool features that we forgot to show you.
First is the awning, which can of course be extended by the push of a button from the control panel inside.
And the really cool thing is that it's actually recessed into the body of the camper.
So when you're not using it, you can't even tell it's there, even from up here on top of the vehicle.
Also, there's something that I can't show you but I want to tell you about because I think it's completely genius.
And that's that there's a diesel hydronic hot water heater, which means that as the car drives, hot water is being pumped up around the diesel engine and it's getting heated up and stored in a tank to be able to use later.
So you have free water. hot water without any extra energy consumption.
In a camper like this or in our van, anytime you have to heat something up, it pulls a ton of power.
So getting hot water without having to touch your batteries is a big deal.
There's also a hydronic heater, which means that there's a fan that pushes air over the hot water pipes, which just helps to raise the temperature in the camper without having to turn on the diesel heater.
These are things that I never heard of before and they are so genius.
All right, we're about to leave camp, and if you don't feel like exiting the camper and walking all the way up to the truck to drive home, all you have to do is use the secret passageway that leads you into the cab.
I can't believe we already have to leave.
There's a little blue Ford in between the two of us right now.
I'm pretty sure I could run over it and we'd just never know.
Is that a speed bump?
