CARRIED AWAY

With a huge variety of roof rack and tow hitch-based carrying systems on the market, it is now second nature to load up the bicycles, kayaks or canoes to add another dimension to your family’s adventure road trip. There are roof-based carrying systems for all vehicle types, whether small hatchbacks or serious outback-ready 4WDs.

For water-based activities, fitting a watercraft-carrying system to your 4X4 is a no-brainer. Brands such as Yakima, Thule and Rhino Rack all offer a number of systems designed to carry your kayak(s) or canoe that are easily attached to your roof-racks, making loading said watercraft easy, and thus much more appealing to use. And the same goes for those who prefer their extracurricular camping activities to be based around pedal-power. A family of four means a lot of bikes to bring along, but with four-bike carriers readily available for hitch attachment it is, again, just too easy. We currently drive a compact SUV and utilise a hitch-mount bike carrier and roof-mounted luggage pod on a regular basis to ensure that every camping trip we take includes partaking in our favourite outdoor activities.

If you’re looking at that around-Oz adventure, and you own a 4WD wagon or Ute, another load-carrying accessory worth investing in is a cargo drawer system. Specialist companies such as ARB and Black Widow manufacture these fantastically handy systems – we’d opt for a two-draw system with a fridge slide on top – that allows you to store bulky camping gear (think: tents, lighting, stoves, spare parts, air compressors, puncture repair kit, etc), in one draw and your food in the other. Adding the fridge slide means also being able to easily access your cold drinks and cold meat stored inside your fridge/freezer – another essential vehicle-camping accessory for those doing longer, more remote camping trips. For those who own a station wagon or hatchback, we’d recommend setting up some type of system based around plastic boxes that can hold your camping equipment and food, and also leaving space for the esky.