We do not know exactly what sort of caravanning Lehi might have done. He seems to have known how to get around in the wilderness. When he packed up his tents, it does not say that he had to first go and obtain tents, so he apparently had tents. Why would he own tents if he was not somehow involved in the caravan trade? He understands Egyptian too. Probably, at least some of the time, he went back and forth between Egypt and Judea. What might he have taken back and forth? Usually merchants took whatever was produced in one area to another location to sell it. They would then bring back something that was not available at home and sell it there
There is good reason to believe, as we have seen recent scholarship information about the mines of Timna, that Lehi might have picked up metal ore, and then carried it up to blacksmiths who would have used it for making things like tools, weapons, or cooking tripods. He might have even been in the blacksmith’s business himself. There was a very close connection in the ancient world between caravanners and blacksmiths because not only would someone have to travell to places where ore was available, but that person would have to have known which ore would have been most useful to him. Was that how Nephi knew how to make the plates? He had to be shown by the Lord how to build a ship, but he did not have to be told how to make tools, suggesting he already had some knowledge of blacksmithing.
Book of Mormon Central, "Did Ancient Israelites Write in Egyptian? (1 Nephi 1:2)," KnoWhy 4 (January 5, 2016).
Neal Rappleye, "Lehi the Smelter: New Light on Lehi’s Profession," Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scripture 14 (2015): 223–225.
John A. Tvedtnes, "Was Lehi a Caravaneer?" in The Most Correct Book: Insights from a Book of Mormon Scholar, 1st ed. (Salt Lake City, UT: Cornerstone Publishing, 1999), 76–98.