How We Came to Build the Best Off Road Camper On the Market …
You know that feeling where you’re doing everything right and still drowning?
That was us in 2009. The recession hit and it hit us hard. The mortgage, the car payments, the insurance, the debt. We were living a life that was technically functional and emotionally draining. Dan was working every hour he had. I was running a household and homeschooling twelve kids. We couldn’t budget, there was no money to budget. We were one bad month away from losing everything.
And somewhere in the middle of all that chaos, we started asking ourselves what the heck we were doing.
Like, what are we even doing this for? Living this way, We hadn’t chosen this.
We had each other. We had twelve incredible kids. We had this deep, relentless hunger to actually live our lives, to show the kids things, to do things with them, to be physically exhausted instead of emotionally exhausted at the end of the day. We wanted the world at our fingertips. But we were being swallowed by the infrastructure of a life we’d built around things that were supposed to make us feel secure and were actually doing the opposite. We were living the life society had dictated we live, but it wasn’t working for us.
So in 2012, Dan and I made a decision that nearly everyone thought was insane.
We bought a 1999 Georgie Boy Cruisemaster, a 36′ diesel pusher with one bathroom, sleeping space for about half of us and we drove away.
I was pregnant with Coby, our youngest, number twelve. For the first eight years of his precious life, our RV was his home. Our kids grew up on ski slopes and in the river. Many of them learned to read water before they learned to read books. Who they have become is because of how they lived and what they saw during those formative years, and with all the knowledge I have today, I’d make that decision again in a heartbeat. They are truly remarkable in every sense of the word.
100,000 Miles
Those eight years of RV living were both the hardest and the best years of my life, and I won’t try to separate those two things because they were the same thing. It was such an incredible experience we actually started a Youtube channel and built a website. We chronicled everything, mostly for the kids to look back on, but a little because the judgment of our choice was so intense we wanted to show friends and family we were right.
And we were. We traveled all over. From Florida to Maine, the whole eastern seaboard, playing and learning. Most of the kids education was hands on, but as we barreled down the road toward one destination or another, I homeschooled twelve kids on a fold-down table and two sofas.
We journeyed up the Pacific Coast all the way north from San Diego to Olympic National Park, where we got turned around due to Typhoon Songda, often dubbed the “Ides of October” storm, which struck the Pacific Northwest and the Olympic Peninsula in October 2016. Had it not been for a woman working at a gas station convenience store we would not have made it back across Hood Canal Bridge before its closure and would have had to battle it in our RV.
We crossed Canada end to end. From the Bay of Fundy, located between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. We planned to kayak it, but chickened out. It has the highest tidal range on Earth (53′ in a 6 hr period) all the way to Skookumchuck Narrows in BC. Skook has a tidal surge that boils up into an amazing standing wave we surfed along with sea lions. Walking out to scout this monster of a feature, passed a sign warning of wasps on the trail, we laughed at the warning only to discover the wasps were hunters and we were the prey. We got stung on the way in and the way out. Grady and Brody helped Dan and I run with the littlest kids, everyone else was on their own.
We traveled through the Yukon, kayaking everything we could. We planned the most amazing Alaska trip where on the first night in Tok we saw the Northern Lights, maybe determined she was moving there. We drove stretches of the American West so vast and beautiful that on some level, that we couldn’t put into words, we were doing something and seeing things most people never do or see.
We survived three tornadoes, that both terrified and spurred my son, Rowdy’s interest in all things weather. We saw metal roofs fly off buildings, our kids have spent time in a bathtub with games and popcorn and they’ve witnessed the aftermath of destruction. We came out the other side with more wisdom, which seemed to be the underlying pattern. Struggle, learn. Stuggle, learn. We kept thriving.
100,000 miles in eight years. Every state, except hawaii, of course. Canada coast to coast.
Everywhere we pointed that RV, something amazing happened, along with learning.
Our Kids Became Athletes
While we were moving through the world, our kids were also competing in it.
Kady, Kenny, and Dally all earned spots on the US Freestyle Kayak World Team. Twice. We drove our trusty RV to team trials in Nantahala, NC and Columbus, OH. They competed on the world stage in San Juan, Argentina and Sort, Spain . We watched our kids, part-time kayakers as they split their time on the water with time on their dirtbikes and snowboards, compete against the best paddlers on the planet and hold their own. Top 5 every time. Amazing.
Jackson Kayak sponsored the whole family, Dan and I included, on their regional team. The Today Show came to our house and then followed us to San Marcos, TX in 2013 where Bob Dotson did a story. Then Nickelodeon showed up with cameras, they followed us for about four days, we played paintball with them at Foxhole Paintball and Airsoft. We were on Sky News, and the Daily Mail did a story on our son Cardy after he took his kayak off a waterfall at age 11. We were inundated by producers (even the producer of Naked and Afraid wined and dined us) for a reality TV show., In the end, we couldn’t reconcile what that would/could do to our family. So, Dan kept us funded doing software remotely. I kept twelve wild humans educated, fed, alive and happy while we traveled the continent.
Kayaking wasn’t the end all be all. We also dirtbiked every trail we could find. We hiked and climbed and snowboarded and surfed and said yes to whatever the terrain in front of us was offering, because we are adventurers.
Through all of it, we were, of course, learning. Unbeknownst to us we were learning how to live the minimalist lifestyle while at he same time tracking what held up on a washboard road and what gave up. What leaked. What bent. What rattled loose. We were noting it all. I didn’t fully understand what that meant, none of us knew what we were moving toward until much much later.
What Living in 300 Square Feet Actually Does For You
Living in close quarters teaches you a lot about yourself and those you love. We learned how to get along, to have patience and to settle disputes quickly. In 300 sq ft there was no where to run, no doors to slam. It also gets you ruthlessly clear on what matters. God, Family, Country, in that order.
We reduced our stuff to that which we really cared about, and we learned there was very little outside a few keepsakes and our gear. Every single item in our RV had to earn its place. There was no storage unit for the things we couldn’t decide about. No spare room to lose things in. No junk drawer. What made the cut was chosen deliberately and consciously. Because of the limited space we valued the things we kept in a way we never had before. There was space for our best gear. The fun toys. The right tools. Each other. And, not in that order. Meanwhile, we breathed easier. We weren’t surrounded by clutter. And cleaning up … 15 minutes is all it took.
We tried to sell our house, we were that committed to this lifestyle. But it was under water so we couldn’t sell it, for what we owed. Instead we rented, which helped ease our financial burdens a little, and while renting was it’s own can of worms, we had a little bit of breathing room. We could scrounge enough to buy some highly discounted gear, and we sought sponsorships for everything we used.
Today, the American housing market has become something predatory. The average family bleeds a third of their income into housing, for space they don’t fully use, in neighborhoods they didn’t fully choose, servicing debt that’ll outlast their kids’ childhoods. I know what that costs beyond the money.
Here’s what I learned instead: surround yourself with what you love. Spend the money you work hard for and build the life you want. That’s the whole philosophy: Build a life you love, that you don’t need a vacation from.
2020: We Started Building Homes
When the world came to a crashing halt during the Covid Pandemic, we kept going. It was wild because there were parts of the USA that appeared to not have heard about Covid, like all of TN and parts of SW VA. While Colorado, Glenwood Springs, in particular, went completely insane, hiring outside security to harass local residents simply for daring to venture outside, we’d found paradisio.
We still traveled, but our life started on a new course when we visited friends in NC and attended a wedding in VA. These two events put us on a trajectory we didn’t see coming. We arrived back back home in CO late Oct 2020 and decided to sell our home in Glenwood Springs. It was a huge undertaking, as after eight years of neglect, we knew the only way forward was to flip the entire home, all 3000 sq ft. After years of renters it was in all kinds of disarray. Daunting, yes, but wildly exciting. Flipping our home was exceptionally fun. We all loved it and we were damn good at it, if I don’t say so myself. So we planned to start flipping homes and set out in search of homes to flip.
However, houses in the areas we were looking, were not much lower in cost despite needing great repairs. So, after successfully selling in 2021, we traveled for a little, living in the RV for the next 5 months. Then, interest rates were at an all-time low and we felt compelled to buy a new home base before they went back up. We ended up buying land a mere 20 miles from our home in Glenwood Springs. Brody and his new wife shared our vision of a homestead and so we all built a 600 sq ft cabin for Brody and Madison and then, nearing the end of this build Dally mentioned (not for the first time) his desire to build tiny homes.
It’s insane but this is what we were made for. The boys are exceptional, they are passionate and skilled. They lived this life. And the expertise and knowledge they gleamed from living in 300 sq ft for eight years cannot be overstated. We all know what every inch of a small space is for. What makes it feel like home. What makes it feel like a compromise. We know what is needed in a small space, what is wanted and what is simply unnecessary.
Frontier Tiny Homes launched in 2021 and was an instant success. In its 2nd year our Felicity won Best In Show at the Colorado Tiny Home Festival. The Perpetua, a three-bedroom luxury build with a main floor master suite, two upstairs bedrooms, a full kitchen with a pantry, a full bath, is becoming the most popular for families. The National Forest Service contracted us for custom builds for their rangers. And the main thing … we love what we do.
Frontier Tiny Homes is veteran-owned (Dan is a Marine). Colorado-built. NOAH certified. One home at a time, customized to our clients specifications, built by hand with love, and it shows. Some of our clients have become close friends!
Every person who comes to us for a tiny home is looking for what we were searching for in 2012. Freedom. Excited to wake up every morning. Out of the huge mortgage payment. More and more, I think people are done spending their best years in service of a mortgage and an employer and are seeking the ability to spend time doing what actually makes them feel alive and happy. We understand that on a cellular level because that’s exactly how we felt and feel.
2022: A Hot Tub in Salida
The idea for Frontier Unlimited started in a hot tub after a long day on the slopes at Monarch, which is maybe the most Colorado origin story possible, but it’s what happened.
We were all in Salida for our annual Monarch snowboard trip. Relaxing after spending a day on the mountain, we started reminiscing about Alaska. The 2018 4 month expedition. The kind of trip that you never forget, that stays with you, changes you somehow and that you spend years trying to figure out how to replicate. And then we started talking about the vehicles and the gear that had let us down out there.
Every trailer and camper we’d ever used over the many years of adventuring had the same problem. Take it somewhere off the beaten path, a two-track crawling up a mountain, a creek crossing, a mountain pass in the snow, backcountry trails, and it would show you what it was made of. Leaks. Cracked welds at stress points. Axles that folded because they were specced for pavement. Interiors that looked good in pictures and came apart when used. We’d experienced it all and there was no solution on the market, AND we didn’t have $100k to spend on a camper.
Frontier Tiny Homes was thriving, we were building homes that people entrusted us to build for their families.
So, in that hottub, in order to get back to Alaska, we decided that if nobody was going to make the thing so it could thrive in the Alaskan bush, we’d make it ourselves.
Three Years of Breaking Things on Purpose
We took our time and pushed it hard, nbecause the whole point was to get it right.
Three years of R&D. We built prototypes and drove them into the ground. Every condition we’d encountered in twenty years of going hard in the backcountry, washboard, rock gardens, river crossings, snow, torrential downpours, altitude, desert heat, mud, we put those trailers through it on purpose. We stress-tested frames. We pushed to failure and went back to the drawing board. Oh how I wish we’d had the inkling to document on video the beginning stages, but, like I said, we weren’t building to sell, we were building for us.
The craftsmen who built homes for the National Forest Service brought that same standard to the ROCH line. The same passion, the same integrity, the same refusal to let something leave the shop that wasn’t right.
100,000 miles under our belt before a single production unit went out the door.
The ROCH
We hit the ground running with four models and a whole lotta rebel spirit.
The ROCH Pro is the flagship. Nineteen inches of ground clearance. Cruisemaster CRS2 axle-less independent suspension. 200Ah lithium running on triple-charge architecture, solar, alternator, shore power. 2,000-watt pure sine inverter. R-9 four-season insulation. 12,000 BTU furnace. 55-liter refrigerator with freezer (or cooler, your choice) . 270-degree awning. Integrated hot shower. Powder-coated steel frame wrapped in composite that won’t rot, warp, or delaminate.
It has everything you need and nothing you don’t.
The ROCH Base, Shell, and Chassis give you entry points into the same bones, same suspension, same frame, same refusal to compromise on the things that actually matter when we know you’ll be out in the backcountry away from any services.
These are rigs for people who go where we go. Hunters who want a real base camp at the end of full day. Kayakers who want to wake up at the put-in of their favorite rivers. Dirtbikers who ride hard and want to camp right where they ride. Moms who want their kids to get out into nature, but don’t love the idea of roughing it. Weekend warriors who don’t want to drop $200/per night on a hotel room. Women who want to feel safe while enjoying independence.
Why It Matters Who Built It
There are plenty of companies selling this dream right now. A lot of trailers built by people who saw “overlanding” get popular and hired a marketing team first and a design team second.
That’s fine if you want a camper that is pretty and built by men in suits who have never camped a day in their life. But, we’ve been camping and RV’ing and taking trailers out onto trails since 1993! We’ve slept in our rigs at altitude in February. We’ve driven through weather that tested our judgment. We’ve watched good equipment hold and bad equipment fail and we have very specific, hard-won opinions about the difference. We built homes the federal government trusted. We broke our own prototypes for three years because we were going to be the ones sleeping in it at 10,000 feet, miles from anything, with our children and it had to be safe and it had to be right.
Brody, Kenny, Dally, Cardy, Maddy, and Rowdy, who spent eight years in a 300-square-foot RV, who grew up pushing their limits, build our campers. We know what this equipment has to do because we actively do it. We know what we want it to do because it has to perform for our family’s now.
We started this because we know where you are, praying for a break, living a life that you maybe didn’t set out to live. You need excitement, feedom, an escape. Even if your reality is wonderful and you love your job … nothing compares to the fresh air, a campfire, a cold beer and nothing on the schedule except enjoyment.
The only question is what are you looking for?
Frontier Unlimited. Veteran owned. Family built. Made in the USA. Silt, Colorado. No Tariffs. No BS.
Build yours at frontierunlimited.com | 970-404-2333
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