Many overlanding rigs are built with top-of-the-line gear from the best of the best. Not everyone has the financial backing or budget some of these overland channels have. With that said, even if you don’t have all the fancy gear, you can still enjoy the overland community and the adventure that goes along with it.
Erik and I joined up with Michigan Overland this past June on one of their weekend trips. We covered over 100 miles of trails with a group of about 10 other vehicles. Yes, there were several vehicles that were obviously built for Overlanding and offroading, but the others were just stock vehicles with a basic loadout of camping gear. Those stock vehicles, all successfully conquered the trails and kept up with the purpose-built vehicles. When we stopped for the evenings to camp, they busted out their ground tents, sleeping bags, camp chairs and food.
You don’t need all that fancy gear to enjoy the outdoors with your vehicle. In the following video, Overland Bound walks around a more or less stock Tacoma. On a fixed budget, the owner used his imagination and creativity to build out his Tacoma with already available materials. Once you see what he did, I’m sure you can find something around your house and/or garage that can be used to improve your vehicle for Overlanding.
Now, with many of us on mandatory ‘stay at home’ orders, is the time to evaluate what you want to do with your vehicles and see if there any materials lying around that can be used. Use your time wisely and be ready to get outside when the dust settles on this damn pandemic.
Completely agree, some of the rigs out there are fantastic there’s no getting away from it but for ‘Joe Bloggs’ on a budget none of the bells and whistles are ‘essential’. A simple set up is more often than not all that is needed and you don’t have to spend thousands. Our Mitsubishi cost less than most hard shell roof tents for the whole vehicle and gets us anywhere we want to go 🙂