Snowys Camping Show

Perched in an Inspired Overland Trailpeak atop Ben's car (take two, after audio gremlins claimed the first!), Ben and Lauren zip up season 6 with a look back at its biggest hits. From down-to-earth chats with Bushman Fridges and Trangia to the 12V appliances episode that split the comments section – our gear gurus unpack what you watched, what you debated, and what they loved most. Along the way, Lauren returns from the Larapinta Trail with desert storms, wildflowers, and a hard-won lesson in trail food, while Ben stands by the four beers in his hiking pack.
Then, it's down to business: two 12-episode seasons a year with recording blocks in between – meaning fewer episodes, but better ones. Be it road tests you want run, interviews filmed on location, or your own rig in the hot seat – tune in for how you can help shape what's coming, the lowdown on the lightweight 38-kilo Trailpeak, and a tight-lipped teaser of the special episode landing in November, before the new season rolls out in early December.
00:00:00 - Intro: Recording from a Rooftop Tent
00:01:35 - Season Highlights: Bushman Fridges and Trangia
00:04:06 - Our Most-Watched Episode: 12V Appliances
00:05:29 - A Moto Guzzi Interruption (and Motorcycle Touring)
00:07:24 - 12V Power Draw and Our Most-Commented Episodes
00:09:25 - Lauren's Larapinta Trail Wrap-Up and Trail Food Lessons
00:14:37 - Why We're Changing: Fewer Episodes, Better Content
00:18:09 - What's Next: November Special and December Return
00:20:28 - The Inspired Overland Trailpeak Rooftop Tent
00:26:07 - Call-Out for Your Ideas and Season Wrap-Up

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Fresh from filming some new gear in the wild, Ben and Lauren sit down with Zempire's brand engagement guru James - a Toronto-born, bad-weather-loving New Zealander - to unpack the why behind the brand's kit. This isn't a spec-sheet sales pitch; it's a candid chat about building to a priority, not a price point. From the pioneering air-textured yarn behind the Shape Shifter to the pop-up ease of the Aerospeed, the return-rate maths on air poles versus hard poles, and a sneak peek at a brand-new chair range, a redesigned multi-gas cooker, and a pint-sized Hexolite table — our gear gurus get to the heart of what makes Zempire tick.
Be it packability, durability, or camping that's for everyone — tune in for the philosophy behind the products!
Timestamps
00:00 - Welcome back to the Snowys Camping Show
00:47 - Meet James, Zempire's brand engagement guru
01:28 - Why Zempire went all-in on air
04:36 - From Toronto to New Zealand: James' backstory
07:22 - What 'brand engagement' actually means
08:02 - Talking the 'why', not the spec sheet
10:29 - Designing the new chair range from scratch
11:53 - The Hyperfold: one bag, a lot of chair
16:24 - Cooker 2.0: slimmer, multi-gas, smarter burners
21:52 - Hexolite tables and the new compact 60
31:05 - Shape Shifter: the tent that grows with you
32:30 - Building to a priority, not a price point
43:28 - Future-proofing your kit and the base system
47:37 - Air poles vs hard poles: the return-rate reality
51:11 - What's next in Zempire world
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Two and a half weeks, 223km, and a whole lot of honesty about what actually happens on trail.
In this episode Ben turns the mic on his co-host Lauren, who's about to walk the Larapinta Trail - 223km from Alice Springs to Mount Sonder with two colleagues over 14 days. They dig into the gear debates that actually matter (trail runners versus boots, three wildly different backpacks between the group), the sleep system upgrades that finally made multi-day hiking bearable for Ben, and the practical realities of toileting, safety, and staying calm about snakes.
Tune in for a genuinely candid conversation about preparing for a long trek, whether you're a first-timer feeling intimidated or a seasoned hiker fine-tuning your kit!
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100 years, one factory, and a stove design nobody's been able to improve on.
From a small Swedish village called Trångsviken to a factory that's shipped over a quarter-million burners a year, in this episode Ben and Lauren sit down with Magnus Rydel, CEO of Trangia, to unpack a century of doing things the slow way on purpose. They dig into why the brass spirit burner hasn't meaningfully changed since the 1950s, how a scrap of aluminium punched from one part becomes the lid on another, and the story behind the brand's most unlikely bestseller: a glittery pink windshield born from a 9-year-old's note in a suggestion box.
Tune in for an hour of manufacturing philosophy, fuel-safety myths busted, and a genuinely lovely reminder that not everything needs to boil water faster!
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Turns out the cheapest mod you can make to your rig doesn't cost a cent.
From a fuel price shock that pushed regular unleaded past $3 a litre to reworking your entire weekly shop, in this episode Ben and Lauren strip fuel economy right back to basics. They dig into why weight is the single biggest lever you can pull on any trip, how one multi-purpose camp oven lid lifter can replace three separate tools rattling around your kit, and why the smartest fuel-saving habit might have nothing to do with your car at all - it's what you do with your bike, your kids' public transport cards, and your online shopping cart in the weeks before you even leave.
Tune in for a genuinely useful hour on stretching your fuel budget further, no fuel additives or dodgy chip tunes required!
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Head to snowys.com.au for all your gear needs:
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