The Status of Overlanding Today

[calicamper]

Me too but for the complete opposite of you, I'm sick of people with $3000 "cars" thinking the people with "$100,000" trucks aren't out in the wild. Well yall don't see us because your in cars that can't go where we go because your in a $3000 that's usually a 2wd.
Also tired of people acting like forrest roads are offroading I mean good lord it has road right in the name.
I can care less about if camping gear is expensive or not that is up to your comfort level, I'm happy with just my $100,000 truck and my guide gear truck bed tent and a sleeping bag, heck I'm probably as against the glamping gear as you are but that's likely where our similarities end.

Maybe you need to look for a better job or more income so that a $100k truck don't seem so expensive to you. This seems to be a regular argument, guess what these super built trucks are why overlanding got popular to begin with.

Between the dads in ASICS, the tactical neckbeards, tree huggers and generaly liberal people overlanding has become too diverse.
Now if you have a lawnmower with a backpack you overlanding.

I’m tired of rich conservatives in $100,000 pickup trucks who think they are traveling somewhere untouched because they can crawl over a dirt berm blocking a logging road???.

The last true adventure vehicle is water based which has access to 71% of the planet Of which only a very small % of people ever explore.

Jacques-Yves Cousteau was the last real Expedition guy.
If you can drive a wheeled vehicle there, its just another road trip?

 

[Jay61]

I’m tired of rich conservatives in $100,000 pickup trucks who think they are traveling somewhere untouched because they can crawl over a dirt berm blocking a logging road???.

The last true adventure vehicle is water based which has access to 71% of the planet Of which only a very small % of people ever explore.

Jacques-Yves Cousteau was the last real Expedition guy.
If you can drive a wheeled vehicle there, its just another road trip?

My personal definition of overlanding is just not readily available in north America. The only way I could see a 100% sure enough overland trip by how I think of them would be to spend a winter driving on the frozen rivers of the far north. There are some areas that they are used as highways between isolated native villages via wheeled vehicles. Take a four or five hundred mile river route, wheeled based journey on those in the remote north. It would be doable, in the NWT the government even maintains them in a few locations. Do that trip and nobody could doubt it is overlanding.

 

[Anti-lander]

I’m tired of rich conservatives in $100,000 pickup trucks who think they are traveling somewhere untouched because they can crawl over a dirt berm blocking a logging road???.

The last true adventure vehicle is water based which has access to 71% of the planet Of which only a very small % of people ever explore.

Jacques-Yves Cousteau was the last real Expedition guy.
If you can drive a wheeled vehicle there, its just another road trip?

Show me a 100,000 dollar truck aside from a ram trx and the earth roamer guys or these city people pushing electric trucks , I know of plenty in the 65k to 75k range for a fully kitted out overland pickup. I never see these expensive trucks in yt videos it is always a jeep of some sort or a ragged out toyota/rover neither worth 100k.

Either way it don't really matter overland as such is imploding just look how many unhappy, complaining folks we got.

 

[XJLI]

Show me a 100,000 dollar truck aside from a ram trx and the earth roamer guys or these city people pushing electric trucks , I know of plenty in the 65k to 75k range for a fully kitted out overland pickup. I never see these expensive trucks in yt videos it is always a jeep of some sort or a ragged out toyota/rover neither worth 100k.

Either way it don't really matter overland as such is imploding just look how many unhappy, complaining folks we got.

You aren't playing on online configurators enough. $65k you're still in XLT territory on a F150.

 

[Oscar Mike Gulf Yankee]

I’m tired of rich conservatives in $100,000 pickup trucks who think they are traveling somewhere untouched because they can crawl over a dirt berm blocking a logging road???.

The last true adventure vehicle is water based which has access to 71% of the planet Of which only a very small % of people ever explore.

Jacques-Yves Cousteau was the last real Expedition guy.
If you can drive a wheeled vehicle there, its just another road trip?

Which must be why people put snorkels on their vehicles!

 

[68camaro]

I wonder how many people here are like me, I do not consider myself an Overlander at all, but instead use this site and the Overland methods to set up my Chinook RV for remote 4 season overnight boonedocking fishing trips away from the masses. Other people may have different uses not strictly "Overlanding" in traditional sense.

From what I learned here I can now easily go off grid for long weekend fishing trips in off-paved locations starting only 2 hrs from my house. It's worked out perfect, now instead of getting up at 4 or 5 am to drive some place, I leave around 9 the night before, get in whenever, park next to water, wake up fresh in cold or hot weather and start steps from rig.

Maybe Overlanding has taken on a bigger meaning even it is far from what true Overlander does???

 

[BritKLR]

Which must be why people put snorkels on their vehicles!

This made me smile.....cuz, it's kinda true. Except, almost 20 years ago when my son and I were building this thing called an FJ60 Land cruiser (not many knew what it was back then) as our hunting / exploring truck I was fascinated with what the magazines and limited articles wrote about the benefits of snorkels and since our travels were going to include Colorado and an unknown spot in the desert called Moab I went to sourcing and building a emissions compliant snorkel system.
Nothing was available back then, the snorkel came out of Australia, the airbox came out of Canada and I built the brackets and carb air intake from the old airbox. It's worked great for the past 20 years and suffered through creek/river crossings, Ozark mud and Utahs sand and dust. But, they do make me smile on many of the current rigs.....Cheers.

 

[tacollie]

I wonder how many people here are like me, I do not consider myself an Overlander at all,

I started coming to this site when I was into rock crawling. I want to maximize capability while keeping my truck drivable and reliable because I can only afford one vehicle at the time. When I was younger was too poor to buy the overland do-dads. Now I'm too cheap ?

I'm seriously considering a snorkel. My F-250 sucks in dust like it's going out of style. Feels like I change my air filter more than my oil ?

 

[Jupiter58]

My personal definition of overlanding is just not readily available in north America. The only way I could see a 100% sure enough overland trip by how I think of them would be to spend a winter driving on the frozen rivers of the far north. There are some areas that they are used as highways between isolated native villages via wheeled vehicles. Take a four or five hundred mile river route, wheeled based journey on those in the remote north. It would be doable, in the NWT the government even maintains them in a few locations. Do that trip and nobody could doubt it is overlanding.

Are you saying in other parts of the world it is overlanding because they do not use roads????
There is almost no where people travel that is not on roads except maybe horseback in Mongolia.

 

[Todd780]

You aren't playing on online configurators enough. $65k you're still in XLT territory on a F150.

70K + if your in Canada, haha

I be those those Overland ready Tacomas probably have near 100K into them if you add up truck, accessories and labor to install them if you can't do it yourself....

 

[Todd780]

I wonder how many people here are like me, I do not consider myself an Overlander at all, but instead use this site and the Overland methods to set up my Chinook RV for remote 4 season overnight boonedocking fishing trips away from the masses. Other people may have different uses not strictly "Overlanding" in traditional sense.

From what I learned here I can now easily go off grid for long weekend fishing trips in off-paved locations starting only 2 hrs from my house. It's worked out perfect, now instead of getting up at 4 or 5 am to drive some place, I leave around 9 the night before, get in whenever, park next to water, wake up fresh in cold or hot weather and start steps from rig.

Maybe Overlanding has taken on a bigger meaning even it is far from what true Overlander does???

Absolutely I fit that bill. I joined because I thought I'd find some tips and tricks that I could use for camping. I'm also a car guy. So I enjoy being on a place that isn't specific to one make or model. I like seeing all the various builds and reading about trips. Then there's the people.... which I guess are okay.

 

[Oscar Mike Gulf Yankee]

Well, looks like my non-profit won't get off the ground, I need at least two other board members and the Secretary of State won't allow me to use pets.

I'm pretty sure that most everyone on this site is an arm chair traveler, perhaps a few weekend warriors, those who have a weeks vacation might get out of town for a few days. I'd bet no more than 15% of the members on this site are going full time, that includes the 5% unemployed or having selective employment while on the road.

How many old pharts are there on this site? I will be getting back out, but it will be awhile, most likely next year. Get a knee replacement and see how active you are. I'd bet 20/25% here are retired, another 20% are part time or on a flex schedule like fire fighters. I'd also say most of those left are working to stay afloat, having a build in progress.

There is a commercialized camp on a few hundred acres with several off road courses, just East of town. Most who are into this stuff spend their time there, the truly brave hit a few trails in Arkansas a few times a year. Yes, I'm sure a few head out West, maybe annually to stretch their springs.

I know I'll never be on an Expedition, don't care to study the matting habits of polar bears or turtles. The Army took me on more expeditions than I care to remember.

If I'm ever crossing the desert, I'm on vacation or something worse happens!

Every time I see a YT video of "off roaders" like that Trail Recon guy, they are on a roadway, unimproved roadways, a few obstacles, but rarely are they traveling over some farmer's fields or in rivers where other vehicles haven't been before.

Oh, and that $100,000 truck, lol, it probably can't go where I've driven a chopped VW bug, in fact I know it can't because very few trucks can float down a river.

 

[Jay61]

I wonder how many people here are like me, I do not consider myself an Overlander at all, but instead use this site and the Overland methods to set up my Chinook RV for remote 4 season overnight boonedocking fishing trips away from the masses. Other people may have different uses not strictly "Overlanding" in traditional sense.

From what I learned here I can now easily go off grid for long weekend fishing trips in off-paved locations starting only 2 hrs from my house. It's worked out perfect, now instead of getting up at 4 or 5 am to drive some place, I leave around 9 the night before, get in whenever, park next to water, wake up fresh in cold or hot weather and start steps from rig.

Maybe Overlanding has taken on a bigger meaning even it is far from what true Overlander does???

I certainly do not consider myself an overlander, simply because I think the infrastructure in North America is too improved to allow for what I consider to be real overlanding. I do not consider overlanding a sport, I feel true overlanders are such because if they have to travel by vehicle in all the infrastructure deficient regions of the world, for whatever reason, they have no choice but be overlanders. I consider myself an "adventure sports venturer". I love to hunt, fish, prospect and just plain explore for pleasure. The more remote the place, the better, the longer I can stay there because of my vehicle and what can be carried in or attached to it, so much more the better.

It just so happens that the gear utilized, developed or improved upon by those that have to be overlanders in large infrastructure deficient swaths of certain continents is perfect for the outdoor pursuits we Americans choose to enjoy. Basically, the once very small niche market in Africa and Australia made up of extremely efficient gear and vehicle components for the population in which long distance offroad travel is required and not a leisure pass time, in other words the overland market for those items both vehicle and non-vehicle related used in that type of travel. By offroad I mean poorly maintained dirt roads, non-maintained dirt roads/trails and just straight cross country with no roads or trails and of course no travel supporting infrastructure. I honestly believe that what overland has come to mean in the developed world is a result of early internet searches by extreme offroad enthusiast searching for ideas to improve what they did by doing a search with queries like "long distance overland travel by 4x4 in Africa." Due to algorithms it very rapidly became overland/overlanding/overlander. Like I said in an earlier post, there is a reason South African and Australian manufactured products are so prevalent in our vehicle centric hobby, they were the first ones specifically made for this type of travel to be introduced to the Western Consumer, once again via the internet. Before the internet we relied upon 4x4 related items made for offroad sports vehicles that simply were not made for carrying loads over rough terrain, army surplus, regular camping gear, what we could find to use in the RV industry, most of which was either too bulky and/or seldom held up for long.

Then there was the backpacking industry, which was minimalistic, but it functioned. It was compact and rugged and was always high on the list because storage is always premium when hunting, fishing, prospecting or just plain exploring in remote areas out of your vehicle for periods of time. but it was simply very limited in its uses. A small pre-propane single burner camp stove and its fuel took up less space than the old Coleman 4 Burner Camp stoves and all the cans of fuel needed took up a rather large amount of the valuable space. Not to mention the backpacking cookware vs the traditional cookware. Comfort was often what suffered, and nobody really wants to sacrifice that. Overland eventually became a query I used once I stumbled upon some of these Australian and South African items that made my sporting pass times easier and added more comfort for me and my pursuit. It took the US manufacturers a little while, but they are deep in the industry both vehicle parts (like AEV) and the other gear (like Blue Ridge Overland). I am 61 years old and have hunted, fished, prospected and just plain explored living out of a 4x4 from Alaska to the Everglades and pretty much everywhere worth pursuing those activities in between since I turned 16 in 1977. The overland industry has made my vehicle-based activities a heck of a lot more comfortable and easier for me and I am an adventure sports venturer and nothing more.

 

[Oscar Mike Gulf Yankee]

Well, in 1939 they were hobos, just sayin'

 

[Jay61]

Show me a 100,000 dollar truck aside from a ram trx and the earth roamer guys or these city people pushing electric trucks , I know of plenty in the 65k to 75k range for a fully kitted out overland pickup. I never see these expensive trucks in yt videos it is always a jeep of some sort or a ragged out toyota/rover neither worth 100k.

Either way it don't really matter overland as such is imploding just look how many unhappy, complaining folks we got.

It ain't that they are unhappy, it is because they cannot obtain so they complain. If they could afford without difficulty and it added comfort and enjoyment to their pursuit, they would get it. If they did not and want to be some kind of elitest minimalist, all the power to them, I won't begrudge them for their little masochistic personality traits. To me, vehicle-based living off grid is nothing more than a tool so that I can pursue the outdoors sports activities that led me there in as much comfort as is economically feasible for my income. Worrying about or doing ANYTHING other than admiring in a good way what others have is childish and a waste of time. I can honestly say I have NEVER begrudged another's vehicle, no matter how expensive or inexpensive it is, I find myself thinking of whether it would work for my personal needs and wants in an offroad vehicle. That is the reason I never look at the van posts, I just do not see them fitting into my needs, wants or desire. I do look at the Earth Roamer posts because they are simply neat and offer the potential for true world travel, but they would NEVER EVER be practical for what I do in the places I like to do them.

There is a reason a Rubicon trim vehicle has been my vehicle of choice since the Utility trim. Before then it was old Toyota LCs/SR5 PUs with solid front axels and manual locking hubs and before them, it was the old Ford Broncos. I am set in my ways at my age, my vehicle will have a solid front axle and it will be a standard transmission, those are items I will never compromise on because of a life full of hard learned lessons. (Something younger people never think about, one vehicle alone and dead battery, you can push start a standard). 45 years of owning nothing but rugged offroad capable vehicles, and being off road, I have seriously never owned a "car" be it sports, sedan or muscle, in my life, valuable lessons are learned. Right now, there is a good chance after everything I will be doing with a JTR I will be ordering within the year, the cost will be around 100k. Heck, just the suspension, bumpers, winch, dual batteries, additional fuel tank, lighting, alternator upgrades and brake upgrades, onboard air etc...etc...will be close to 20k, if not more (definitely more if I decide to do the rear seat delete and items for that space), and that does not even cover a single item with the Alu-Cab Canopy camper and all the extras to it and its power grid. There will be a snorkel with pre-filter, there always is, it ain't looks, they are practical, I spend a lot of time in dry dusty areas and they keep the air to the engine clean, cooler and abundant and in high stress conditions for my vehicle I want to minimize every stress point possible, and plentiful, cool, clean air to the engine does that, not to mention I have helped recover a few hydro locked vehicles in my life. Do I have to have a snorkel, no, but I never have overheated a vehicle in ANY conditions since I have used them and let's be honest, on an off-road vehicle, the tire well just is not the best place to source fresh air for your engine. Fortunately, I found out by asking questions when I purchased my first Jeep, I learned they had a program working with a local off-road specialty shop that the mods to the vehicle, not camper, could be done before delivery with the price of those mods being rolled into the bottom line without impacting the warranty, my bank has no issue with me doing that. I have the money to spend on my pass times and I will be the one who decides on what I spend it on. At 61 years growing up a rural deep south country boy who loved to hunt and fish (and still does), I have struggled, lived dang near as poor as one could live while in college and grad school and worked very hard since, fortunately in a profession I can take time off and have money to spend,