How do you offer the comforts of a tiny house without all the extra weight and the stuff that you might not use daily while retaining a compact, perfectly off-road capable form? That sounds like a very difficult challenge, and it's a challenge that AntiShanty tackles with modularity.
AntiShanty is a U.S.-based company that delivers overlanding solutions to adventurers looking for comfort and functionality in a compact, highly-versatile package. The AntiShanty trailer is all these things at once or according to needs: it can be a comfortable family home, a very functional space, a versatile toy and gear hauler, and a basecamp for all your adventures. And it's off-road capable, too.
The AntiShanty, introduced as a prototype in 2019, is "sized just right," four-season ready "for real," and comes with "everything but the kitchen sink" because the sink is offered optionally. It's essentially an aluminum toy hauler but with incredible functionality as a basecamp or a proper RV that can sleep the entire family since it offers four berths in queen-size bunks.
The AntiShanty is also very lightweight, durable, and fit to go wherever you want, on the condition you have the right towing vehicle for it. The way in which this trailer is able to be all these things is through modularity, by means of a surprising approach: offer less but better, and with the options to add more. Think of this trailer like of a Swiss army knife of towables, and you wouldn't be too far off.
Photo: AntiShanty
Put differently, the AntiShanty is a blank canvas you can paint whichever way inspiration, necessity, or budget tells you to.
If you're into dirtbike riding, you can use it as a toy hauler. If you're into exploring the great outdoors for longer stretches, you can use it as a basecamp. The same goes for surfers or outdoorsy couples and families looking to spend quality time outside of the city. They just need the right options to add to that blank canvas, and AntiShanty provides them.
The AntiShanty trailer is offered in several models, but they're basically the same unit specced differently. There's the entry-level RR1 Base, with upgraded variants RR1 Plus, RR1 Pro, and RR1 Limited, and then there's the AS1 Base, with upgrades AS1 Plus, AS1 Pro, and AS1 Limited. The AS1 Pro and AS1 Ltd are top-of-the-line, so they're complete solutions for dream vacations off the beaten track.
Photo: AntiShanty
Made entirely out of aluminum over an aluminum frame with a tubular steel spine for extra rigidity, the AntiShanty also expands at camp thanks to a fold-out cathedral roof. The triangle sides can stay open by means of magnetic locks or close shut for protection against the elements. The trailer is 14.5 feet (4.4 meters) long, and the cabin can be used without opening the roof. But if you do, you can add the second bunk bed there.
There is no furniture to speak of inside the cabin. Instead, you get aluminum tracks on which you slide large aluminum beams. Join two of these beams and add a mattress, and you have a bed. Mount them at different heights, and you get a dining table with a bench. Leave them at home in the garage, and you have a spacious toy or gear hauler.
At the front of the trailer is another multi-functional area, offered as standard in the Pro model. It can be a working space or a mobile office, or it can double as an indoor kitchen when the weather is bad and the outside kitchen box becomes unusable. AntiShanty doesn't come with holding tanks, either for propane or water, but you can use diesel tanks for a heater and stove and store them outside in the garage shed that also houses the inverter, battery, and your muddy shoes.
Photo: AntiShanty
Despite the utilitarian interior – which is a stylistic choice to ensure maximum versatility – the AntiShanty comes with AC, bug screens on all windows and doors, including the two triangle openings in the roof, and options for an exterior kitchen, an outdoor shower, and a tent bathroom with a Dometic cassette toilet.
The Pro model also comes with a 200W solar panel on the roof, hooked up to a pair of 100 Ah lithium batteries and a 1000W inverter, and the option to upgrade the solar array to get more power.
The cabin is insulated throughout, down to the hard-sided pop-up A-frame roof and the floor, so that the AntiShanty is four-season ready. The axle-less suspension, Lock-N-Roll articulating coupler and hitch, and a weight of under 2,000 lbs/907kg (2,700 lbs/1,225 kg for the AS1 Limited model) ensure easy towing even off-road.
Photo: AntiShanty
Upon its debut, the AS1 Pro retailed for $45,000, but the 2023 model of the AS1 Limited is now $73,900. It has a built-in kitchen pantry and built-in electronics, a 270-degree awning that expands usable space outside, a 30-gallon (113.5-liter) on-demand hot water heater for the outdoor shower, the winter kit for the A-frame pop-up, additional storage boxes on the outside, and fender tables for outdoor dining.
Everything but the kitchen sink, as AntiShanty says.
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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