A Bear In Your Campground?!? If It’s The Taxa Woolly Bear Camper Trailer, You’re in Luck

The Taxa Woolly Bear is smaller than the typical camper trailer you’d take camping. It can of course set up nicely on a concrete pad in any official campground, but what’s better is that it can go off the beaten path, far away from the hubbub of most public campgrounds.

It’s lightweight, it’s small, and it’s got an Overland version that enables you to get further off the grid. What makes the Woolly Bear’s overlanding setup unique is that the axle doesn’t go in the traditional space between the wheels of the trailer. Technically it doesn’t have an axle at all.

Instead, its suspension meets at the wishbone juncture where the trailer connects to the hitch. That means the Taxa has a lot more ground clearance, 2.75 inches more than the standard build Woolly Bear.

The Woolly Bear camper trailer is essentially a cool storage unit and kitchen. You don’t sleep inside it, but you can get your stuff set up in its bins and cubbies and it stays put while you’re traveling to your camping spot. It’s got room for everything from bikes to kayaks, and it’s outfitted with special spaces for a small refrigerator and a stove.

The Taxa Woolly Bear starts at $13,999 for the regular trailer without the pop-up tent. If you want the Overland version with the specialized suspension, beefier tongue jack, heavy-duty jack, and molle rack (a system used to attach accessories with straps) it will cost a base price of $16,250.

Taxa offers two different tents for the top of the Woolly Bear. Mine was equipped with the MoonMoth clamshell tent adding $2,899 to the cost.

That brings the Taxa Woolly Bear to $19,149 as tested.

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A part of camping that I actually find fun is figuring out where you’re going to put all your equipment. I enjoyed exploring all the cubbies and bins, investigating all the cool pockets in the tent to envision where I would put all my gear to settle in for a good night’s sleep.

The only setback with the trailer-top tent is that you have to take all your gear out for it to fold. So, plan on that if you’re moving to a new location every night.

Back to the bins and cubbies, everything was stashed behind metal doors that folded down to create a surface to cook on, or whatever I needed it for. The test trailer I had came with a refrigerator on a slider that was ample-sized and kept food very cold.

It’s possible to put a cooler there instead, but the fridge I had charged up using the trailer’s 12v power source. There were LED lights and a little generator. The Taxa Woolly Bear also had a camping stove and a 5-pound tank of propane.

The stove pulled out and sat on the fold-down door that covers the cabinet in transport. There is a shelf above it for cooking items, I put food up there that didn’t need to be refrigerated. 

When you’re done cooking and eating, you can slide the stove back into its cubby, fold the door up and lock it. It was so compact and thoughtful it helped me stay organized and clean. There is an open space on top of all the cubbies to put additional bins of your own for whatever other kind of gear you might use.

Additionally, on the other side of the food-storage bins is a large bin that houses larger items. I fit camping chairs, a camping table, a fold-up solar array that could charge the generator, and that propane tank in there.

It’s incredibly flexible. I loved that it was a bit of the best of both camping and trailering worlds.

Another benefit of the Taxa Woolly Bear camper trailer is that you can bring your tent along and camp in your regular fashion or you can add a tent on top of the Woolly Bear so you can steer clear of hazards on the ground.

The ladder that goes up to the tent can attach to the side or on the back of the tent. And yes, if you have to use the loo in the middle of the night you will need to climb down the ladder and go handle your business.

The mattress/sleeping pad in the tent was comfortable enough, but my old bones would probably seek out a pad with more cushion or try to rig an additional air mattress or something because over time I’d be more uncomfortable than I’d like.

However, waking up in the morning, getting my coffee, and watching the sun come up from my elevated perch made me forget all the things that may have been bothering me. That is the gift of camping that keeps on giving.

If the thought of rain bothers you, you should know that the tent had a rain fly to put on top in case of inclement weather.

Taxa says that the Woolly Bear camper trailer will sleep three people, but we found two was best and couldn’t imagine a third adult in the tent with us.

In a pinch like a rainstorm, you could make it work, but your relationships may be tested.

The Woolly Bear camper trailer is very light, weighing in at 1,250 pounds in its basic build. It’s very towable by even a small SUV, designed to be pulled by a four-cylinder engine. Just be sure to check your vehicle’s towing rating before committing.

It’s also compact. Taxa built the Woolly Bear with on-site storage in mind. It’s small enough to store in a garage, so you don’t have to worry about your neighborhood’s HOA policies or storage costs at an RV facility.

I have to confess here. I have never towed anything before. I was super nervous about pulling the Woolly Bear camper trailer because I’m a total newbie. And guess what? It was super easy.

The truck I used to tow the Woolly Bear (a 2024 Ram 1500 Rebel) was a champion, and part of it was that the Woolly Bear is so nimble. This will come in handy if you’re a person who is going to go REALLY off-road.

It doesn’t balk at narrower roads and some turns. That said, if you’re into Overlanding (camping off the grid for multiple days or more), you probably know you’re going to want to test the trailer on tighter turns with your vehicle of choice before heading into the wide world.

The trailer was easy to hook up, and I did it by myself, as well as unhooking it, too. The ease of connecting it was one of the aspects that might get me back out into the wilderness after too many camping trips that were a bit too chaotic and uncomfortable for my liking.

The Woolly Bear would also be a great alternative to van life. The flexibility of dropping your trailer and driving off to go hike somewhere else or get some supplies is the main reason I’m rethinking my van life plans.

Connecting, towing and organizing the Woolly Bear camper trailer wasn’t as cumbersome as I thought it would be; any vehicle with a tow hitch works for this trailer so anyone can consider the Woolly Bear as their new outdoor companion.

A good mattress setup is important, which is what I thought about as I investigated how far off the grid I was comfortable going, since everything has to be removed from the tent before moving out to the next stop. Something to consider.

And it let us enjoy all the loft of root-top camping without having to stuff everything into our car. Having all the storage and conveniences made getting out in the woods and off the grid so much easier. And made me rethink throwing in the towel on thrown in the towel on camping.