Necessity is the mother of invention. A lot of good ideas are born when someone has a need, can’t find it on the market, so developes it himself. The Survival Mule falls into this category. I hasten to point out that I have not personally tested this item, but it seems like such an interesting idea, I thought you might like to hear about it. Chris Koelzer, the developer, is a 23 year Marine veteran who wanted to solve the problem of both prepper storage, and the ability to bug out quickly if necessary. The Survival Mule was the result.

The Survival Mule is basically a strong vertical storage cabinet that can be quickly converted to a vehicle trailer. The advantage of the vertical locker is that it can store a lot of gear in a space-saving manner. The advantage of the trailer is that you can take this stuff with you quickly if you have to get out of Dodge pronto. It is like having a prepackaged large bug out bag ready to go. The locker itself is made from galvanized steel and has four rollers on the bottom to aid in moving it around in the vertical position. The cabinet has four movable shelves. The concept is modular.  There are a number of accessories available including tail lights and wiring harness to make it street legal if your jurisdiction requires. Chris claims that the maximum load is approximately 1600 lbs. He also claims that he has driven it from Minnesota to Montana and back, for a total test trip of 4000 miles.

I e-mailed Chris and asked him about off-road endurance and he replied saying “The rubber torsion half-axles provide independent suspension rated to 2,000 pounds gross weight.  The MULE itself is about 400 pounds, so these allow about 1,600 max pounds of cargo.  I have loaded it to almost 700 pounds internally, which is the configuration I drove it on a dirt cornfield border road behind the Suburban.   Production axles info here:  http://www.ucfamerica.com/flexhalf.html”

The cabinet can also be removed from the trailer frame and an appropriate size piece of plywood can make it a flatbed trailer. The wheels come on and off quickly and there is a spare tire mounted on the tongue. The Survival Mule is assembled right here in Minnesota USA of primarily American and Canadian parts. This combination storage locker/trailer seems like a pretty neat idea and you can learn a lot more at the owner’s website.