The Status of Overlanding Today

[AbleGuy]

UBCO has fully embraced the whole bike/hunting/gun thing.....View attachment 801311

Yeah, it does make sense.

I have a friend who sometimes flies his plane up to the Az/Utah brder area, unloads his E bike, and takes off on it with his Creedmor going rough camping and piggy popping.

Bike+ gun= lotsa enjoyment.

 

[lost1]

In keeping with the original subject, I don't see how the comments pertain to overlanding? Seems more like camping and less like travel.

 

[MiamiC70]

I think the term "overlanding" needed a re-think when the guns and ammo crowd climbed onboard and attempted to justify the need/practicality/utility of carrying weapons for travel whether it be across borders or exploring new horizons. Today I picked up an "overland" magazine which was half full of gun ads.

Sounds like a pretty good magazine to me. So what exactly is the problem as you see it? Where on the doll did the scary gun ads hurt you?

 

[MiamiC70]

I bet you would be surprised by how many people who don't carry a gun outdoors.

I bet you would be more surprised how many are.

 

[MOAK]

Am I missing something? Looks like a fun jeep to me.

Yup- you are. There is no way an overlander would even consider a wide open jeep for anything long range. It’s only “fun” for maybe the first 100 miles or so. We had a ragtop TJ for a while, not only was it extremely uncomfortable, after 4 or 5 days of clipping off 4 or 5 hundred miles a day, we would still be yelling at one another at camp for a day or two, until we realized we didn’t have to talk loud, or yell, to hear each other.

 

[Todd780]

Yup- you are. There is no way an overlander would even consider a wide open jeep for anything long range. It’s only “fun” for maybe the first 100 miles or so. We had a ragtop TJ for a while, not only was it extremely uncomfortable, after 4 or 5 days of clipping off 4 or 5 hundred miles a day, we would still be yelling at one another at camp for a day or two, until we realized we didn’t have to talk loud, or yell, to hear each other.

I know that part. I had a TJ myself and am aware how loud / windy they are on the highway with no roof or doors.


What I meant is it seemed like a pretty tame build. Bit bigger tires on factory wheels etc. The red accents my not be my taste...

No maxtrax or rotopax hanging off it. No huge lift with snorkel, No 33's with deep dish rims or darth vader grill etc...
I'm sure they put the doors and roof back on for an extended trip.

 

[MOAK]

I know that part. I had a TJ myself and am aware how loud / windy they are on the highway with no roof or doors.

View attachment 801885
What I meant is it seemed like a pretty tame build. Bit bigger tires on factory wheels etc. The red accents my not be my taste...

No maxtrax or rotopax hanging off it. No huge lift with snorkel, No 33's with deep dish rims or darth vader grill etc...
I'm sure they put the doors and roof back on for an extended trip.

I figure the darth Vader grills are for people that really don’t like their Jeeps and are trying to make it something that it is not. Sometimes I miss our old TJ, then we go out in the 80 and I don’t feel so bad

 

[LexusAllTerrain]

I keep on upgrading my Lexus LX, bigger spings, bump stops, 35" tires, paint, new Leather. Regear, made a bed for myself. And the vehicle gets driven only 20 miles a month if lucky. Maintance, belts, belt tensioner...plus, plus. She is RETIRED...only a gathering every two months. So I call her my QUEEN! lol.

 

[charlieaarons]

“I think that depends on where "outdoors" is. Here in the outback of Nevada I'd say pretty close to 100% of the folks I meet out there are armed.”

“In Arizona pretty much everyone brings a gun camping exept for the people who just go to the KOA campground on the side of the highway.”

What are they so scared of?
I’ve had 2 brown/grizzly and 1 black bear in my front yard this year. Plus innumerable large moose including cows/calves very capable of stomping me to death. Yet I go for my daily 2 lap = 2 mile walk around the block unarmed, despite multiple military type assault rifles and a couple of pistols in the house.
Lest I be accused of abject stupidity, I did go armed on my 3 crossings of the Brooks Range in the 70s. You know, back when nobody had heard of the place.
Today in backyard “guarding” my compost heap:

 

[charlieaarons]

It’s my backyard. Not exactly wilderness. At the edge of a city of 250k people.

 

[2025 deleted member]

View attachment 802396
I don't see a lot of people in that photo.

Maybe that's the difference ?

What’s the absence of people have to do with anything?

 

[MontySquareo]

I carry a gun mostly for the wild animals. I have a friend who woke up one morning to a javelina that had broken into his kitchen somehow. He didn't have a gun and got all chewed up and he had to call his nephew to come help him after the javelina ran off. Besides, a handgun isn't much bigger than a tablet/gps/water bottle so why wouldn't you bring it?

 

[deserteagle56]

What are they so scared of?

For me it's not so much wild animals...its irrational, crazy people. Especially druggies. I was hiking up a really rugged canyon bottom not 5 miles from my house a few years ago and ran into a hidden marijuana farm. Many news reports of how those people kill intruders.

 

[lost1]

Sounds like a pretty good magazine to me. So what exactly is the problem as you see it? Where on the doll did the scary gun ads hurt you?

Well then I guess they reached one of their target audience, congratulations cowboy enjoy the gun pics. And now for the non-gun toting overlanders who actually cross borders can we please have content relevant to the expedition portal.

 

[lost1]

“I think that depends on where "outdoors" is. Here in the outback of Nevada I'd say pretty close to 100% of the folks I meet out there are armed.”

“In Arizona pretty much everyone brings a gun camping exept for the people who just go to the KOA campground on the side of the highway.”

What are they so scared of?
I’ve had 2 brown/grizzly and 1 black bear in my front yard this year. Plus innumerable large moose including cows/calves very capable of stomping me to death. Yet I go for my daily 2 lap = 2 mile walk around the block unarmed, despite multiple military type assault rifles and a couple of pistols in the house.
Lest I be accused of abject stupidity, I did go armed on my 3 crossings of the Brooks Range in the 70s. You know, back when nobody had heard of the place.
Today in backyard “guarding” my compost heap:

I am not against guns and I get the outdoors thing as I am completely surrounded by it with all sorts of wild animals which would find me an easy target, or at least mild entertainment. If I consider our audience, the vast majority of members of this portal are probably from the USA where many feel that its essential to carry a gun into the outdoors. I won't argue that, it is your choice; But should you consider overlanding where you are actually going into other countries' "outdoors" (as in vehicle dependant overland travel) you may be surprised to know that your choice has been removed. In my 30 years of traveling overland in over 60 countries, I have yet to encounter an overlander with foreign registered vehicle carrying a gun.