Over May 24 weekend my wife, three kids and I headed out camping with some friends of ours. The area we went to was right around Kusawa Lake, about 100km from our home in Whitehorse City Proper. It's under two hours driving and has great scenery. We also had pretty decent weather that weekend which was nice. We managed to get two quads, a quad trailer, tools, spares, and all our camping gear in the trailer. The fuel and propane went in the back of the truck.

I bought our 24' mission trailer new in August 2020 from a dealer in Saskatchewan, GT Performance. They sold a lot of Mission trailers, so many in fact that they started custom ordering with their most popular options every year. This one was 24' long, has a propane furnace, track for strapping down sleds or machines, two regular entry/exit doors and a ramp door front and rear for getting machines in and out easily.

These trailers are based on Mission's "Pinnacle" style car haulers and are 6'11" high at the rear door, and 7'2" inside height. This high of a trailer catches the wind a bit more but also is high enough to drive a side by side or an Argo right in without pulling the roof off of the machine.

The trailer also has a "hybrid" style design, halfway between a deck over trailer and halfway between a normal setup with wheels beside the trailer. The end result is almost like a lifted car hauler. It gives more stability than a regular sled trailer while still giving you pretty good ground clearance. It's a full car hauler with dual 5200lb Dexter axles and cross members are every 16" on a 6" aluminum frame. It's very stable and should stand up to years of abuse going down gravel and secondary roads.

I hatched the idea of a multi use cargo trailer a few years ago after a hunting trip in the NWT. I wanted to bring my kids and family camping and with the bears we have up here in the Yukon a hard sided trailer gives you a little extra peace of mind. I thought about a straight up camping trailer, but then I would still need something to tow my quads around in. Also, the camping trailer might only get used 3-4 times a year and could cost over 30k. I wasn't in a position to spend that much money on something I wouldn't use very often. 

We figured we could load up our machines, drive to wherever we were camping, unload the machines and set up camp in our trailer. The propane furnace and RV battery add a small part of the convenience of a camper, while at the same time the whole unit is much tougher and can take a beating on the back roads better than a regular camper. Finally, when I'm not camping in it or hauling machines, I can park it in my driveway and use it as a storage shed.

This past May 24 weekend was the first time we had a chance to try it out and it went off without a hitch. There's lots of room inside for bunk bed cots, the roof vent means we can use a Coleman stove inside if the weather is bad, and when it's hooked up to the truck it doesn't bounce around much. (editor's note: placing automotive jack stands under the rear of the trailer then putting pressure on them by disconnecting from the truck and raising the tongue jack takes out most of the bounce).

I wasn't sure how it would work out but so far it seems to work very well. Mike (smith) sold me on the idea of Mission Trailers, and I'm glad he did. The trailer is well built, well thought out, lightweight, strong and so far flawless.

I have a 2019 F350 with the 6.2L gas engine to tow it. It doesn't even come close to the power of a 6.7L diesel, and I notice a dip in fuel economy when towing, but overall I think it's the right truck for us up here in Whitehorse. Cold starts and short commutes can wear a diesel engine out ahead of its lifetime, and I do a lot of both with this truck.

The 6.2L Ford engine spec'd to these trucks has a reasonable reputation for reliability as well. I wasn't sold on the 8ft box with the super cab when I bought it, but now that I've owned it for a few months I don't think I can go back to a 6.5ft box. This long box model also has a 185 litre fuel tank, which is very convenient. I can do about 5-600k on a tank towing a moderate load, and empty on the highway I can get over 800k on a tank.

One thing I should mention that really stood out for the weekend was our Grizzly 90 Youth ATV. I wanted to get a kids ATV last year, and was disappointed to learn that Honda seemed to have discontinued their 50 and 90's in Canada. I settled on a Grizzly 90 from Yamaha. We drove it a bit over the last 12 months but this May 24 weekend it was run hard. It ran really well for us, started well for a variety of riders and didn't cause any issues. It also has a small front and rear rack which is nice if the kids want to tie something down like a fishing pole and go along with the adults.

It was an awesome weekend and a great shakedown adventure for our multipurpose trailer!

Cheers, DUNCAN

Copyright © 2011 Michael Smith