Invitation to Earthroamer drivers residing in or visiting Southern California . . .

RRTWoffroad

New member
My wife and I are considering ordering a new Earthroamer to take advantage of the new Ford F-550 chassis. But the size and complexity of such a vehicle is daunting to us.

If anyone owning an Earthroamer happens to be living in or visiting Southern California my wife and I would be honored to take you out for dinner and show you around Los Angeles in return for the opportunity to learn about your vehicle and to see how you operate it and to hear about your experiences driving it.

Thank you.
 

Darwin

Explorer
If you are serious, Denver is pretty easy to fly into, and earthroamer does tours, I did one. If you are looking to purchase they have rigs there you can test drive.

I don't get what the advantage of the "new" ford 550 chassis is though. They look cool, but that wouldn't be my number one concern for purchasing a vehicle. I do hear the new ford is more reliable than previous generations, and when I was at earthroamer they said the ford dealer network in the USA could service them, but it's unclear if it's still required to remove the cab for major engine work, but having a warranty so if something goes wrong you can take it into your nearest dealer would be pretty handy.

GXV is definately is huge step up in quality from what I saw, but I couldn't tell you anything about price and how much more they might cost.
 

RRTWoffroad

New member
Thank you, Darwin, for your reply.

I realize I can visit the manufacturer -- and we might -- but it would be more interesting to speak directly, and leisurely, with current owners. I suspect that anyone buying an Earthroamer also considers the comparable GXV so would be interesting to hear the decision process that led to the purchase.

Why do you believe the quality of the comparable GXV vehicle is higher than the quality of the Earthroamer?
 
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adam88

Explorer
Earthroamer has done an excellent job marketing itself. It has a better name than GXV. It has a better website than GXV. They have great marketing videos on youtube. Heck, they have photos of John Mayer standing next to his earthroamer. Basically, earthroamer is like the Nike shoe of the expedition world. That's not a bad thing if you are Bill Swails (owner of earthroamer. But as everyone knows, if you buy Nike shoes you're paying for the brand name, not the shoe. Same thing goes for Earthroamer. I have no idea what the actual profit markup is on those vehicles, but it's probably higher than almost any other camper/rv/expedition manufacturer out there. That being said, it works both ways. You'll pay more for an earthroamer, but you can also sell it much easier. They hold their resale value. And because every single unit is the same chassis/body, people know what they are getting.
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Compare that to GXV which will build you whatever you want and with the best quality parts. Yes, GXV can be much better quality than earthroamer. They will use the best windows in the business and the best of anything if you want. They will also build your vehicle on any chassis you want, something that can be serviced worldwide, or whatever you want. You can get a true Medium Duty Truck with GXV, which is way better than the F550, which is just a glorified 1 ton truck. But that being said, GXV suffers from the lack of brand name, the lack of flashiness and less resale value than an earthroamer.
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If you want a 3rd alternative, maybe consider a Tiger? They will essentially build you a copy-cat earthroamer for about 1/2 the price. It's aluminum framed (not composite) and other compromises but it's damn near close.
 

adam88

Explorer
Wasn't Tiger around first? Not really copycat if they were.

Yes Tiger was around first. However I was talking about their new model they released about 5 years ago, the "Siberian" which seemed to be "inspired" by earthroamer. Nothing wrong with that though, what would the industry be without people learning from one another.

IMG_4584-980x400.jpg
 

Christophe Noel

Expedition Leader
If you search the home page you'll find my two editorials I wrote about my ER experience, albeit as a loaner from ER for just a ten day romp. To give you an idea how easy it is to drive, on our trip we ended up at the end of a snow covered road in Colorado near Leadville. That required I back down a shelf road for...a mile. Wasn't intimidating at all, and easy to do.

They are amazing machines. To be fair to them, you can't possibly understand how incredible they are without touring the facility to see how they're built and the people who create them. You'd be crazy to not go visit their facility before buying one.
 

Peneumbra2

Badger Wrangler
Want a serious truck to mount your Earthroamer/GXV/etc on? Forget F-550s. Consider instead an IH 7400 4x4 or Freightliner M2 4x4.
 

loup407

Adventurer
I've driven an ER for the last 4-5 years, and travel periodically with friends who own a similar GXV. We don't get the truck to SoCal much, but if you are still interested, message me. I'd be happy to connect via phone and answer any questions you might have. One thing I've learned is most experts haven't been in, or driven, an ER or a GXV.
 

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