Overland Journal: Discovery I, 5-speed

[Mike_rupp]

Question... if you are "overlanding" routes that you have never traveled in far away lands that you have never seen... how do you anticipate the level of abuse your equipment will need to endure?

Overlanding is a comfy term some people use to give themselves an out. There is a perception that it is somehow offroading-light.

IMHO, overlanding is the one area of offroading where no compromises should be taken. Rockcrawling, on the other hand, has a relatively low penalty for failure. If you break something in Moab, there will undoubtedly be someone rolling along in a few minutes. If you break something on a seldom used trail in British Columbia, it might be a while before someone rolls along to help.

 

[Oxcart13]

Question... if you are "overlanding" routes that you have never traveled in far away lands that you have never seen... how do you anticipate the level of abuse your equipment will need to endure?

If you are running Prichard or Carnage, then you need sliders and bumpers to withstand the abuse of running that trail, which I believe is the 'standard' for many aftermarket rover vendors. (e.g. Rockware)

If you are overlanding away from any kind of support, you will probably be more risk adverse in how you treat your truck.

What I'm trying to say is consider the likelihood of needing a high level of protection vs. the impact of carrying the extra weight.

Mark

 

[R_Lefebvre]

Question... if you are "overlanding" routes that you have never traveled in far away lands that you have never seen... how do you anticipate the level of abuse your equipment will need to endure?

A thoughtful person can easily anticipate the level of abuse the equipment needs to endure because they set limits for themselves before they set off. If they encounter something that is beyond that limit, they turn around, or they figure out a more thoughtful way past it.

I also do not intend to use this truck in extreme terrain. I have other vehicles for that, which are much better suited for the rough stuff anyways.

That's always been my philosophy. There are limits to where it makes sense to take a "street legal" truck. Beyond those limits, you are there because you went looking for trouble. Anybody driving a Land Rover already made the decision to drive a sub-optimal vehicle for extreme terrain.

 

[timmy!!!!!!!]

The RTE front bumper with full brushbar that I helped install did not seem to much heavier than my ARB bumper. That being said I would rather have the RTE bumper and the thin design really grows on you fast.

 

[traveltoad]

A thoughtful person can easily anticipate the level of abuse the equipment needs to endure because they set limits for themselves before they set off. If they encounter something that is beyond that limit, they turn around, or they figure out a more thoughtful way past it.

Hmmm... ok. I guess that is the difference. If I want to go from point A to point B I want to go from point A to point B. I don't want to turn around. And as often times I have no idea what lies between A and B, I like to prepare for the worst and hope that I don'nt need it.

 

[Mike_rupp]

Hmmm... ok. I guess that is the difference. If I want to go from point A to point B I want to go from point A to point B. I don't want to turn around. And as often times I have no idea what lies between A and B, I like to prepare for the worst and hope that I don'nt need it.

The simple fact is that far too many people would rather spend money on fancy, show off stuff like rooftop tents and shiny gadgets than things like heavy duty axles, diffs, steering links. It's more about show than go, then they hide behind the "overlanding" stance.

 

[blakesrover]

Both are achievable. Function and form.

 

[Scott Brady]

Question... if you are "overlanding" routes that you have never traveled in far away lands that you have never seen... how do you anticipate the level of abuse your equipment will need to endure?

You are right Aaron, you cannot anticipate the challenges or obstacles, so the truck must have reserve capacity and ultimate reliability, especially if you leave the road less traveled. The reality is that there are few "recreational" 4wd roads in the developing/third world. So, if a challenge is encountered, it is that you are stuck in the jungle by an early or late rainy season, or the road is completely washed out.

Roads are either good/ok, which allows locals to travel them, services to be delivered, etc., or they have gone to hell because of a storm or otherwise.

If you want to go into the back of beyond, your truck must be prepared for it.

I still consider crossing the Rubicon to be a performance requirement of any truck I take internationally. I have encountered Rubicon-class obstacles in Copper Canyon, Baja, North Africa, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Panama. All on routes to destinations I wanted to reach, or needed to reach. Sure, you can drive around the world and never need 4wd, but if you want to venture off of the tourist and service routes, be prepared. . .

 

[craig]

The simple fact is that far too many people would rather spend money on fancy, show off stuff like rooftop tents and shiny gadgets than things like heavy duty axles, diffs, steering links. It's more about show than go, then they hide behind the "overlanding" stance.

That's pretty funny coming from a guy who has publically posted that he'd buy an ARB fridge before a locker if he did it all over again.

C
Edit: Sorry for hijacking your thread Scott.

 

[R_Lefebvre]

Hmmm... ok. I guess that is the difference. If I want to go from point A to point B I want to go from point A to point B. I don't want to turn around. And as often times I have no idea what lies between A and B, I like to prepare for the worst and hope that I don'nt need it.

Sure, it sucks, but it happens. This activity is different things to different people. This last weekend, I used my truck to take my 7 month pregnant wife and 3 year old son up an abandoned logging road to an old fire watch tower to see the view. The road was washed out in a few places, flooded by a beaver dam in another, and a few rocky climbs. I knew my truck could safely and comfortably do it, and it did. This is the main reason I bought the truck.

Occasionally I do something more difficult to test it and myself, but it's always in a "safe" environment.

You seem to be talking a pretty tough game. Let's see where you've gone.

That's a pretty nice setup there.

This is certainly the most difficult looking photo you posted. Did you even have to lock the center diff for this?

Most of it seems to have looked a whole lot more like this.

Don't get me wrong. Looks like some fun trips, great scenery, nice photography. Nobody here would criticize you for that. But you're throwing stones in a glass house, it would appear.

That's pretty funny coming from a guy who has publically posted that he'd buy an ARB fridge before a locker if he did it all over again.

Hey, come on, fresh sushi is a requirement for truly classy backroads travel.

 

[traveltoad]

You are right, when I travel as a solo vehicle with my family on board very few things on my truck are used (other than the Engel and XM's "Kid's Place Live"). Hell, this last trip the tent did not even get used that much!

And yet, when I travel places where I have never been (especially with my family on board) , I make sure my truck and my driving skills are ready for anything. Funny thing about the above pictured trip... on the second to last day (the last day being a ride on I15 home), about 15 miles from our (paved) destination, the graded gravel road we had spend most of the day on turned to crap. I was faced with the same decision you have mentioned: the trail ahead is getting much more difficult and is unknown, 10-15miles to our planned destination; the trail behind is easy and known, 100+miles back around. Could I have turned around? Sure. But I still don't understand why one would want to resort to a U-turn when it is so easy to avoid. Because I have "overbuilt" my truck and have "overtrained" my driving skills I went forward without any great concern. Well, ok... I was worried about a late dinner for my then 3 1/2 year old so I grabbed an extra snack out of the Engel.

(As an aside: the only reason that the 100+ miles backtracking loop was even an option is that I had carried those silly red cans on my roof rack for 1800 miles around AZ and UT.)

If people want to build a vehicle with U-turns in mind, ok. You truck, your builld do what you want. I asked the question because I did not understand. Now I do.

Edit: Sorry for hijacking your thread Scott.

 

[R_Lefebvre]

So, how do you know that your choice to not U-turn put you on anything more challenging than anybody else here? That's pretty presumptuous.

Can you really suggest that you only got through because you had an RTE bumper, and not an ARB? (since that's the topic that started this) As far as I'm concerned, my ARB bumper limits me MUCH less than the 2-300lbs of weight you have on your roof.

The only time I've turned around was when I encountered a 24" drainage tube that had been pushed out of the ground by frost, no way around, no winch anchors in range, nobody around to pull me off if the frame got hung up. I probably could have built an earthen ramp, but my passengers weren't feeling adventurous.

An extra 1" of lift, or more approach angle won't get you over a 24" tube. You probably would have turned around too.

ATV's and snowmobiles go over it all day long.

 

[DiscoD]

A thoughtful person can easily anticipate the level of abuse the equipment needs to endure because they set limits for themselves before they set off. If they encounter something that is beyond that limit, they turn around, or they figure out a more thoughtful way past it.

Why would you settle for something like this:

When you could have something that could withstand something like this:

One of the last things I want to be doing on a trail is this:

If you're going to run a POS ARB bumper, at least have it sandblasted, trim it, box it, weld in some plate to mount recovery points to, add some protection to your winch (about as important as the engine while "overlanding"), and have the bumper refinished.

Don't be this guy:

 

[DiscoD]

The only time I've turned around was when I encountered a 24" drainage tube that had been pushed out of the ground by frost, no way around, no winch anchors in range, nobody around to pull me off if the frame got hung up. I probably could have built an earthen ramp, but my passengers weren't feeling adventurous.

Guess you should have had some sand ladders.

 

[traveltoad]

Rob if you read your last few posts... your argument seems to have changed.

But I have the answer I was looking for so let's get back to Scott's D1.