Expedition Overland - 2015 Season

[oscar the grouch]

I get it Kurt and Im NOT complaining. I love the show and hope to meet the crew when(if) I ever get to move back home(from Montana). Was simply remarking on the absence of challenging terrain. Which for me was one of the draws of the Alaska series. Having been stationed there for several years I knew most of the places they were at and had been myself to many of them. I havent made it very far into mexico. only the border towns when I was young and dumb and just joined the military so alot of that is fuzzy. Again im not complaining. just remarking on the difference

 

[concretejungle]

I hate to see the negative feedback here... not every overlanding trip, IMHO, is all about getting over the most extreme terrain possible. Overlanding to me is about travel and experiencing new places. Sometimes it's difficult to get there and sometimes its not as difficult, but it's new and interesting.

These trips are expensive. Most of us arm-chair wheelers sit at our desks at work and wish we could do this, but can't either afford it or take the time off work. That is where the sponsorship becomes so important. Yes, i agree that i fast forward the beginning of the shows to get past the advertising, but hey, it's not offensive to me and it is part of what makes these guys have the chance to put up these videos. You just have to watch knowing what those things are and move on.

If i could get sponsorships and do these types of trips, you bet your butt i would and i would post up the reports with commercials if that is what i had to do.

 

[Pinstripe]

Here's a slightly different way of looking at the Alaska vs. South America debate. Now keep in mind, that the Alaska season has had a year to increase it's viewership numbers.

As it stands right now for average views per episode:

Alaska = 163k average per episode (12 total) and 213k average for the first 6 episodes.
South America = 52k average per episode (6 total right now).

Only the guys running the YouTube channel can say what the viewership graph looks like, but that's an incredible gap to overcome.

No doubt many, if not most of us, would post up reports with commercials if were handed a bag of cash to be able to go on trips like this. I guess the point we are trying to make is that we feel this season is more about an 'escape' then exploring the countryside.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

FWIW, Season 1 episode 1 took approx. 6 months to hit 100k, Season 2, episode 1 hit the 100k range in 6 weeks

 

[oscar the grouch]

Shows the amount of fans that are coming back.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Shows the amount of fans that are coming back.

For sure, which is really neat. When the season 2 teaser and 4Runner build threads debuted on YouTube, episode 1 numbers started seeing ramped up viewership numbers too. I'd expect Season 2 episodes to get a major bump when season 3 launches. And thanks for watching!

 

[deadly99]

I am quite enjoying the show, but....like others the lack of offroading is a bit disappointing. I understand Central America has limited areas but Baja....basically they took the highway across what is known to be a meca for offroad routes. I was really hoping to see them drive threw silt beds and up and over the mountains on rough tracks, etc.

As mentioned, still a fan and enjoying it for what it is. Hopefully season three sees them get back to some terrain suitable for the trucks they are driving.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

We basically took the highway? We traveled hundreds of miles in the dirt, baja is dirt roads and whoops, it's not exactly something you can wrap a story around imo. Fwiw, you can do nearly the entire Baja 1000 course in a sedan. While it's an offroad mecca at speed, the routes are nothing super compelling with heavily loaded rigs and a long ways til Panama

 

[kmacafee]

I have to admit I was getting a little jaded watching the first 5 episodes. It looked like another heavily sponsored trip that focused more on the team and equipment than it did on the journey itself. With episode 6, I am feeling a little guilty. Thanks for helping that village out -- you guys and Team 5 represent all that is good about American ingenuity and generosity.

 

[deadly99]

Please don't be offended, my opinion is based solely on what the videos displayed. I saw lots of puking and snorkeling and eating

The offroading shown was of a rip around on the beach and dozen miles of the 1k course.

Hoping any criticism is taken as constructive and not negative.

Once again, enjoying the show

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Not offended, just trying to set the record straight. We didn't puke and scuba for a week straight but with 22 minutes you don't have time to tell every story.

 

[SDDiver5]

For those of you that don't live near/around/spend time in the desert, unless you're in a trophy truck or buggy, getting through 3 foot deep whoops is very boring and very annoying. If you don't have long travel you are very very limited to how fast you can go without damaging your vehicle. Sure, there wasn't much offroading in the first few episodes but if they would have had 10 minutes of the rigs going through whoops at 20 MPH (if that) you'd be complaining about that even more.

As far as the puking... expect it to happen again. What you think was a delicious taco can turn on you VERY quickly and you're either on the toilet for a few hours or puking it all up. You can even get sick drinking the water in baja.

I'm excited for this season. Wait till they get in a jungle area. When they hit the Jungle/Rain Forest of Yucatan, Belize, Guatamala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica they will be going through rivers and thick thick sections of nothing but trees, vines and jungles. If it's the rainy season when they pass through you will be amazed.

Haven't seen the last few episodes but that is my plan for tonight.

 

[CYK]

I hate to see the negative feedback here... not every overlanding trip, IMHO, is all about getting over the most extreme terrain possible. Overlanding to me is about travel and experiencing new places. Sometimes it's difficult to get there and sometimes its not as difficult, but it's new and interesting.

These trips are expensive. Most of us arm-chair wheelers sit at our desks at work and wish we could do this, but can't either afford it or take the time off work. That is where the sponsorship becomes so important. Yes, i agree that i fast forward the beginning of the shows to get past the advertising, but hey, it's not offensive to me and it is part of what makes these guys have the chance to put up these videos. You just have to watch knowing what those things are and move on.

If i could get sponsorships and do these types of trips, you bet your butt i would and i would post up the reports with commercials if that is what i had to do.

Same here. The micro aggression is in poor taste as well ("btw I bought stuff from your shop...") to inappropriately attempt to put more weight in their critiquing of the free content when they're two completely different threads.

Kurt certainly doesn't have to participate, but he chooses to engage a rather anonymous internet bunch here. One way anonymity. That's pretty brave if you ask me. Let's continue to encourage or take it to pm.

End of day, this isn't Alaska. This isn't Idaho or Montana. This is an entirely new series with a new narrative, new equipment, new sponsors and new people with different perspectives literally and figuratively.

I'm much more interested in this season than any of the others. Why? Because the success of Central America EO is a barometer for future series of this type. Sans corporate involvement, content like this cannot be sustained nor improved upon. YouTube economics doesn't pay the bills even with millions of views each episode. We need scale and to scale you need a broader audience. Winching and rock crawling can only hold their attention for so long. What keeps people coming back for more are the stories. Real life humans dealing with personal challenges and prevailing above and beyond the trail. EO has never been about the vehicles or equipment. It was about real working men breaking from the sheltered/safe cubicle existence to go adventuring with family and friends with little to no dependency on the corporate teat.

The very fact that clay and crew were even able to launch Central America is a tremendous achievement. These are family men with real jobs who probably coordinated this on an insanely demanding, need it done yesterday schedule. Look at that sponsor list alone. Crazy!

I look forward to each and every channel update and will judge the series in whole.

PS - Any Amazon or Netflix execs who can pull some strings here at some point so these guys can consider making it their career?

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[ExplorerTom]

EO has never been about the vehicles or equipment.

Bull-loney. Clay loves his gear. And looks for any opportunity to use it.

First ep of the AK/YK series they go for an overnight trip to test the gear. You can see Clay geek out when all the lights are on and the trailer is being used to prepare dinner. He was as gitty as a school girl.

And then the ep with the bear. They go out with all their bear-scare-devices and then Clay says "ultimately, the bear is going to do what it wants." He was looking for any excuse to use that stuff and then admitted it probably didn't really matter.

And as others have said, this season's quota of slo-mo water crossings is ridiculously low. But I guess doing a lot of hardcore 4wheeling when you're several countries and the entire width of your home country away from home is a bit risky.

 

[AaronK]

If you don't like it, don't watch it. Simple as that.

This may have already been covered but how many episodes will there be in this season? Trying to gauge how long I have until I slip into a depression waiting for the next season haha.

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