Car Camping / Trip Reports / Photos / Buildouts / “Overland” / Expedition Rigs Area (homeless?)

Ya I guess I forgot my jack stands at home.

 

In my defense, the yellow driving lights do serve a purpose...the rest of the items may or may not apply.

 

Shameless plug for a fellow TW member.

NorCal member Ironpeak lost his house and many other forum members have been displaced due to the Nor Cal fires.

We’d appreciate any bit of support.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/norcal-fire-assistance.514606/#post-16227835

 

I plead the Fifth.

 

So accurate. So funny.

 

Some updated pics of mine. Details are in the build thread in my signature.

 

nice, reminds me of a perfect game of tetris. I also use those water bricks.

 

#expoaf

 

It's like a hang glider. RTHG.

 

Overlanding used to be primarily defined as "you go somewhere generally away from your regular residence and experience life in nature". Something to that effect.

Now, it almost appears that the definition of overlanding has been millennialized over the past 10 years to include a specific minimum setup for a truck/jeep to be identified as part of the "brohood".

I can't believe the amount of cookie cutter copies of trucks/jeeps I see in my local area parking lots and on TW that have exactly the same setups as if they shopped from the same parts list when outfitting their trucks. One would wonder if many of these rigs ever see anything past a dirt road that would actually require the long list of recovery equipment, and apocalyptic survival gear.

Quick poll.

Those of you that built an overland vehicle here...
Are you still making credit card payments on any of your gear?
What was your reasoning for adding Maxtrax, RotoPax, axe, shovel, Hi-Lift, jerry cans, winch, lights, headliner patches, etc?
Did you find that you could not overland properly without these items at some point, or just want to be extra extra extra prepared?

I'm honestly really curious what the next "gotta get it" tool or gear that comes out to be added to the required list of overlander minimums.



I'm ready for it.

 

I don't overland, but I have offroad/raced etc. my entire life on off-road vehicles. Seems to be like anything else out there. That's basically cooperate American in a nutshell. Companies push stuff and people buy what they really don't need. No different than any other sport/hobby out there. How many fisherman need a 40K boat, thousands of dollars in bait, etc.? How many ball players need the newest shoes, calf warmers, a shooters sleeve, etc. Complaining about it is a waste of time. Buy what benefits you and don't worry about it. Just my .02

 

Well, I guess it comes down to the beholder:

Were said parts/equipment purchased and installed prior to ever leaving the pavement and based solely on what Billy has on his truck, or what Google shows what everyone else is buying to go overlanding?

Or were said parts/equipment purchased after actually finding that there is actual difficulty with overlanding without all of this gear?

I fully understand that there are many lines of thought preparing a vehicle for overlanding, as well as just wanting to look the part.
With seeing more and more vehicles on the road, trails, internet, etc...sporting all of the gear, I thought it would be interesting to see who purchased gear based on actual need, vs.. just because.

Even on TW, there are some really really great build threads that show the evolution of an overlander and his truck over the course of time. Lots of how he got to where he is now in his build all while including trail experience and trip photos along the way. Parts added, parts ditched, mods added, mods ditched. You can see the thought process going into it.

Then there are even more that mostly only show parking lot pictures here and there of a super clean rig with tons of gear, none of which is followed up with any trail pictures utilizing any of previously pictured gear.

Is overlanding becoming just another manufacturers avenue to push products on the credit card holder like MedlinAround elegantly clarified regarding how many of the other outdoor activities have evolved into?

Can't tell what is for real anymore.

 

Why do you care so much about what other people do with their rigs?

 

I think a lot of that is to do with social media as well. Some people get that junk to act better/cooler than maybe they really are. I seen a picture of a guy i know on instagram the other day talking about how he was on some fancy course in Colorado playing (Probably just to take a picture) because his golf swing looked horrendous. I guess as long as all the women he was trying to attract with it don't know what a real golf swing is supposed to look like then he's all set.

 

Knowing good and well this exact question was coming, I am prepared to answer it like this.

Why do you care, what I care about? If you don't have anything specific to add, why throw that out there?

 

Why do you care, what he cares about you caring about

 

Because you made it seem like you were asking a question in your original statement when in reality you just wanted to stir the pot. You don't reaaaaaly want to know why people buy the things they put on their truck. You already know some people actually use them and some people just buy them for looks and because it's the cool thing to do now. You weren't asking any real questions. You were just doing some combination of gatekeeping and virtue signaling.

 

I can see that.

As another hobby of mine being kayak fishing in the ocean, there are critical items we need to take to be smart on the water.
There is a minimum set of safety gear that should be acquired before leaving the beach. Then there is a ton of other items that newbies see salties sporting and just purchase it willy nilly with no real reason for it. The old salty may have found that down scan imagining on his fish finder helps him separate fish from rocks better, where the newbie that just purchased the same unit has zero idea of how or why down scanning even works, let alone why he purchased it.

 

For my camping truck I like my winch and shovel. They have gotten me unstuck.