Truck Camper enthusiast and Prepper Brian Brawdy appeared on this week’s episode of Doomsday Preppers on the National Geographic Channel. If you’re neither familiar with Brian nor his rig, you’ve got to see this episode. Brian has tricked out his Lance 1181 truck camper with a host of enhancements and modifications that would make any guy drool. These include eight batteries, six 85 watt solar panels, a wind turbine, a rainwater collection system, and a motion sensing, infrared security system. Brian calls his camper his “Mobile Base Camp” in case he ever has to bug out with his family. He’s stocked it with enough food and supplies to last for one year.
Brian is a pretty cool guy. A former police investigator and wilderness survival expert, I got a chance to meet him at the 2012 Quartzsite RV Show and I found him to be very personable and friendly. During my visit he gave me a tour of his camper and all of the modifications he’s made to it. The recipient of corporate sponsorship, Brian has a sweet gig touring the country in his camper and participating in numerous RV shows. Some have been critical of Brian for the advertising on his rig. But, hey, if I was him, I’d do the same if I got free goodies and support from corporate sponsors. Brian is smart man, getting an appearance on Doomsday Preppers not only provides free advertising for him and his sponsors, but also gets the preparedness message out.
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| Brian on the air for his weekly podcast. (NatGeo Photo) |
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| Brian posing with his camper at the 2012 Quartzsite RV Show. |
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| Brian and yours truly. He’s a pretty big dude. |
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| An excellent shot of Brian’s Ford F-350 and Lance Camper. |
It’s no secret that I’m also into emergency preparedness, but I don’t consider myself a fanatic or paranoid like a few select folks featured on Doomsday Preppers (the show probably goes out of its way to bring out the extreme in some, but there’s no doubt that a select few have some serious issues). I don’t prepare for doomsday or the end of the world, per se, but for more common natural disasters like earthquakes, fires, floods, and loss of employment. If you don’t think emergency preparedness is worth the time and effort, think again. A survey of recent disasters here in the U.S. will reveal everything from hurricanes, forest fires, and floods, to earthquakes, terrorist attacks, and nuclear reactor leaks.
Brian is also a passionate spokesman for truck campers and I couldn’t agree more. They are compact, mobile, and versatile, and if you mate it with a capable 4×4 truck, you can go practically anywhere in one. And like this episode of Doomsday Preppers illustrates, truck campers make great bug out vehicles. My solar-powered Wolf Creek 850 truck camper serves as my bug out vehicle, too, if I ever have to evacuate my home. It’s not as big or as capable as Brian’s Lance 1181, but it meets our needs. The last few weeks our Wolf Creek 850 camper has come in handy as my wife, Karen, has been living in it while she tends to her ailing parents.
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