Cargo trailers
BlogThe Badass Brunette Off-Road Tour

With new trailer in tow, Badass Brunette hopes to inspire other female off-roaders through summer adventure

Sometimes you just have to quit your job, hitch up atrailer, and hit the road for the ultimate adventure. That's just whatUtah-based solo female off-roader Cristin Whetten is doing this summer andfall with hopes of inspiring others to do the same.

Whetten, who goes by Badass Brunette on Instagram andYouTube, began off-roading six years ago when she got a Toyota Tacoma and itdidn’t take long to be hooked.

“I started showing up at little trail events locally,” sheexplained. “People started teaching me the ropes and I really loved it. Nowit’s going to be my little full-time gig doing the off-road overlanding thing.”

For the past few years, she has taken short excursionsaround Utah and the surrounding states, even a trip to Baja, Mexico. She skydives.She dirtbikes. She paddleboards. She snowboards. She treks to some of the most remote locationsin the country.

But she was always tied down to her day job. This June,Whetten gave up her job manufacturing heart valves to pursue the adventurefull-time. This week, she embarks on a road trip throughout the Western UntiedStates with plans to attend some shows and a wish list of locations to visit.

“There are a lot of off-road and outdoor and van life expos,”Whetten said. “It parallels what I’m doing, so I want to go to those and meet peopleand network and shake hands.

“Aside from those, I’m kind of leaving it up in the air.Every now and then, opportunities will come up, and it will be nice to have thefreedom to make those happen. I would love to check off a lot of nationalparks, and who knows if Canada will be opened up, but I want a return trip toCanada too.”

There are certainly challenges that she faces as a solofemale off-roader, but Whetten is uniquely prepared and ready to face them.

“I expect mechanical problems to happen, like flat tires,broken ball joints, wear and tear stuff on the truck,” she said. “That’s just naturallygoing to happen. I’ve always loved learning and working with my hands, and sowhen I started working on the truck, I wanted to be involved with all of it. IfI didn’t know what I was doing, I would say ‘hey, you know how to install this,can I watch you do it, or will you guide me through it?’”

She’s also acutely aware that there will be challengesbeyond just mechanical.

“I’m sure emotional and mental obstacles will come up, whichI’m expecting as well,” she said. “There will be good days and bad days forsure, like ‘what have I gotten myself into?’ But I’m going to have to run withthem when they come. I’m not expecting this to go perfectly and I’m kind ofexcited for it.”

Whetten is used to breaking molds of what people think a young womanshould be. In the off-road community, most solo off-roaders are men, and women tendto travel with their husband or spouse. Many people see her solo exploits asdangerous or naïve.

“On one hand, I think people love it because it’s rare,” shesaid. “But there are stereotypes as well, that you might not know what you’redoing, and that’s hard because I think a lot of women want to get into theoff-road scene but that scares them, that they’re going to be judged. If I showup and don’t know what I’m doing, then I’m the damsel in distress and it looksbad.

In fact, she experienced that when she first started.

“At first, there were several off-road meet-ups that I wentto and I had no clue what I was doing,” she recalled. “Everybody starts fromsquare one, which is something to remember, that even the guys started atsquare one. So you just have to put that fear aside and show up and be thebadass female. You can play with the boys too and you have every right to bethere with them.”

As the planning for her tour started to take shapethroughout the winter, Whetten decided to break another myth – that trailers andoff-road can’t mix.

“Some people think trailers and off-road should never gotogether,” she said. “Other people are starting to realize that there aretrailers that are capable. You get into the debate of, how remote can you go?Or how advanced on the trailer can you go? Obviously, towing a trailer addsdifficulty and you can only go so far.

“It just depends on what you want and what you’re lookingfor. My goal is to kind of change the stereotypes a little bit, like, ‘okay,that’s actually really cool that you have this garage, so to speak, and it’snot really slowing you down as much as everyone thinks.”

Whetten plans to use the trailer as a base camp garage,capable of towing her dirtbike and other adventure gear that won’t fit in hertruck. When she wants to go more remote on trails that a trailer just can’t go,she can drop the trailer and go.

She started researching trailer companies to partner withher and a Google search turned up Advantage Trailer, despite being on the other side of the country.

“Eventually, Advantage came up and had the best reviews andhad all of the positive signs, like ‘okay, this company seems really good towork with,” she said. “You guys were actually the first and you guys bit which wasreally cool.”

The first week of June, Whetten made the 1,300-mile drive fromSalt Lake City, Utah to the Chicago suburbs to meet the Advantage team and pickup her new trailer. We gave her the full Chicago experience – Lou Malnati’spizza and Portillo’s Italian beef and Chicago dogs – and allowed everyone, fromsales to service and everything in between, to check out her rig.

There were a few last-minute modifications that we had tomake, such as installing a custom drop hitch due to the height of her truck, moving thetrailer’s ladder from the wedge to the rear to accommodate the spare tire on theback of her truck, and shaving down the trailer’s rooftop ladder rack forbetter clearance, but it allowed every service technician at Advantage to takepart in getting her truck and trailer ready for the road.

The trailer itself is a 5’x8′ Discovery with a blackout package, walk-on roof with ladder rack (which she plans to use as a lounging deck), floor and wall-mounted e-track, a spare tire, interior lights and a rear loading light. 

After getting all hooked up at Advantage, Whetten drove back to Utah where she is getting the truck and trailer wrappedbefore the adventure begins next week.

“I definitely hope I can inspire some other women out therethat see me and say, ‘you’re doing it and it’s doable,’ she said. “Yeah, it’sdoable. Go do it!”


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