Meet overlanding, the love child of off-roading and #vanlife

The Standish family has been living in their overland adventure vehicle since last holiday season.
The Standish household has been dwelling of their EarthCruiser overland journey car since final vacation season, making their method across the Southwest, Pacific Northwest and British Columbia. They plan to ship the rig to Belgium subsequent yr to allow them to use it whereas exploring Europe.
(Meghan Standish)

Final vacation season, Tom Standish put practically all of his belongings in long-term storage, leased out his Oregon home and, along with his spouse, toddler and new child, traded in suburban life for one on the street.

The household’s new digs for the subsequent 4 years or so: a luxurious overland journey car referred to as an EarthCruiser FX that mixes premium lodging — albeit in 88 sq. ft — with hardcore off-roading capabilities. Beginning worth for the boxy behemoth: $439,000.

Thus far the Standishes have pushed 10,000 miles, visiting massive swaths of the Southwest and the Pacific Northwest earlier than crossing the Canadian border, the place they’re exploring British Columbia. Their snapshots from the journey — the EarthCruiser perched on a rocky ledge at Vermilion Cliffs in Arizona, or mixing in towards the good white expanse of the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah — appear like one thing out of a Patagonia catalog. They plan to take the EarthCruiser down the Baja California Peninsula in December after which ship the 6-ton rig by boat to Belgium to allow them to use it to traverse Northern Europe subsequent yr.

The Standish family has been living in their overland adventure vehicle since last holiday season.
The Standish household — Tom, Meghan, child Tom and a couple of 1/2-year-old Ivy — in Sedona, Ariz., with their EarthCruiser FX.
(Meghan Standish)

“At this level, we’re within the car full time. We’re going all in,” mentioned the 36-year-old Standish, who retired after founding and promoting a Los Angeles clothes manufacturing firm; he's now a industrial actual property investor. The $6,000 transatlantic delivery charge is “a giant barrier to entry,” he acknowledged, however the household is incomes revenue from their rental property and saving on resort payments. “The youngsters are younger and so they’re not at school but, and we now have this restricted period of time the place we are able to do that and never be grounded.”

Not fairly #vanlife (which is extra bohemian) or glamping (rooted in opulence; no automotive wanted) or touring in an RV (cushier and confined to paved roads), overlanding is loosely outlined as a self-reliant approach to discover rugged terrain and undeveloped areas in a specialised car for a sustained period of time.

The parameters, already broad, are broadening as newcomers flood the market: Fanatics can buy top-of-the-line turnkey rigs that value $2 million, or convert their four-wheel-drive Subarus and Toyotas into overland-capable automobiles with rooftop tents, off-road tires, transportable fridges and suspension elevate kits. There are finances do-it-yourselfers who make incremental modifications over a number of years, and a rising crop of auto outfitters who will do it for you. Some fans think about overlanding a long-weekend pastime; others orient their private lives — and now, due to insurance policies permitting distant work, their day jobs too — round chasing the subsequent epic journey on wheels.

Widespread for many years in Australia and Europe, overlanding was making inroads within the U.S. over the past decade earlier than the pandemic pushed the budding sector into overdrive.

“Everyone was grounded, no person was capable of fly, so what are your choices? You’re going to drive someplace,” mentioned Tim Nickles, founder and chief government of Roofnest, which makes $3,000 to $4,000 hard-shell rooftop tents for overlanders and campers. The Boulder, Colo., firm noticed its annual gross sales soar 400% to greater than $10 million final yr.

“The mix of all people desirous to be outdoor and solely capable of journey by automotive was primarily an ideal recipe for overlanding,” Nickles mentioned.

Roofnest makes $3,000 to $4,000 rooftop tents for overlanders and campers.
Roofnest makes $3,000 to $4,000 rooftop tents for overlanders and campers. The Boulder, Colo., firm noticed its annual gross sales soar 400% final yr to greater than $10 million.
(Roofnest)

An April report by a commerce affiliation for the motorized vehicle aftermarket famous that though new-car gross sales declined practically 15% within the U.S. final yr, truck and SUV gross sales remained comparatively wholesome. One vivid spot: overlanding, which the group referred to as “arguably the final word four-wheeled type of social distancing.” The sector has “exploded” and trade watchers count on shopper curiosity “to stay robust within the coming years,” the report mentioned.

Lance Gillies, co-founder and chief government of EarthCruiser, mentioned there's an existential element to the rising pattern: “Individuals have determined, increasingly more, that life is brief. COVID actually introduced that residence — our time is actually not ours the best way we thought it was.”

EarthCruiser founders Michelle Boltz and Lance Gillies next to an overland expedition vehicle.
EarthCruiser founders Michelle Boltz and Lance Gillies with the corporate’s Terranova overland expedition car in Los Angeles.
(Andrea Chang / Los Angeles Occasions)

With three fashions that begin at $289,000 and such accouterments as queen-size beds, kitchenettes, water filtration, photo voltaic panels, temper lighting, tile backsplashes and loos with showers, EarthCruiser caters to the rich overlander. The 13-year-old firm produces only a few dozen of its extremely bespoke expedition automobiles from its Bend, Ore., headquarters yearly, but it surely plans to up that to not less than 100 subsequent yr to fulfill demand. Income elevated 40% in 2020 and is on tempo to do the identical this yr.

The entire outdoors world is our bed room. We’re going so far as we are able to with this.

— Tom Standish, 36, who's on a multiyear around-the-world overlanding journey along with his household

The pandemic additionally launched an sudden facet to overlanding: the flexibility to work from the street. For years, a elementary tenet was to be largely free from the obligations and devices of conventional life; fans emphasised being unreachable whereas they had been away.

Now, remaining on the grid is a part of the attract, particularly as extra millennials take up the exercise (overlanding was as soon as thought-about a wealthy retiree’s area). So car makers are including Wi-Fi and satellite tv for pc connectivity and pivoting their advertising pitches: “We assist individuals acquire experiences whereas incomes a dwelling,” Gillies mentioned. The corporate’s automobiles, designed to suit into delivery containers, will be thought-about “a cellular workplace that isn't restricted by continent.”

That’s the best way Matt Jacobson makes use of his EarthCruiser, motoring it across the Southwest and Montana over the past yr and a half whereas nonetheless placing in his hours as Fb’s artistic director of augmented actuality.

“We had been within the mountains close to Bryce, stunning, and I had my iPad and I used to be doing a Zoom name,” mentioned Jacobson, who lives in Manhattan Seaside. “We felt so fortunate to have it throughout the pandemic. We’re speaking about delivery it to Iceland or delivery it to the Florida Keys. We deal with it like a land yacht.”

Nonetheless, he famous, a dependable sign will be arduous to return by.

“We discovered a really costly lesson with satellite tv for pc web connectivity. It simply will get actually costly actually quick, like, un-usably so, to the purpose the place I couldn’t flip the factor off quick sufficient,” Jacobson, the eighth worker at Fb, mentioned. “You would burn via hundreds of dollars of knowledge prices in a single afternoon. It’s meant for, like, you’re at a distant oil rig and somebody’s arm has fallen off and also you want somebody to point out you a video of the best way to put it again on.”

Josh Ashcroft during an overlanding trip to Gifford Pinchot National Forest in 2019.
Josh Ashcroft throughout an overlanding journey to Gifford Pinchot Nationwide Forest in 2019. Ashcroft, 42, has purchased 4 Land Rovers since he took up overlanding a decade in the past, modifying every for rugged off-road expeditions.
(AshlieRené Gonzales)

Since he started overlanding a decade in the past, Josh Ashcroft has purchased 4 pre-owned Land Rovers and spent a number of thousand dollars modifying them for the backcountry. He has powered the automobiles via deep snow searching for the right Christmas tree in Gifford Pinchot Nationwide Forest in Washington and onto a dry lake mattress in southeastern Oregon throughout a weeklong caravan journey along with his buddies.

Ashcroft, 42, likes the solitude and the liberty that come from not being restricted by campsite availability and established roads, in addition to the flexibility to work whereas touring — although, he mentioned, “I’m a bit conflicted about it.”

“A part of overlanding was to get out and revel in nature, so you need to be a bit disciplined,” mentioned Ashcroft, who lives in Portland, Ore., and owns an out of doors gear firm. “In any other case you get sucked again into the identical factor, simply in a distinct setting.”

Because the automobiles have advanced to turn out to be work-life areas, and as some pandemic journey bans and restrictions stay in place, outdoors-oriented retailers and equipment makers are concentrating on the fast-growing DIY group with extra subtle aftermarket merchandise.

“Constructing your overland car is an expertise,” mentioned Lindsay Hubley, managing associate of the Overland Expo, an annual occasion collection for outside journey buffs. “Customization is a giant a part of the tradition: outfitting your car for what you envision your off-road journey to be.”

Overland Expo started in 2009 as a single gathering with simply 15 exhibitors and 500 attendees. A decade later, it had grown to 2 reveals with 650 exhibitors and 40,000 attendees.

After canceling all 2020 in-person occasions due to the pandemic, Overland Expo will produce three reveals this yr for the primary time — in Colorado, Arizona and Virginia — totaling 840 exhibitors and an estimated 57,000 attendees. Moreover testing the most recent automobiles and equipment, members (a couple of third of whom will probably be expo first-timers) can join outside courses and hands-on coaching to learn to correctly maneuver their rigs over robust terrain. Sales space area bought out months prematurely, with greater than 100 manufacturers on the ready record.

The mix of all people desirous to be outdoor and solely capable of journey by automotive was primarily an ideal recipe for overlanding.

— Tim Nickles, founding father of Roofnest, which makes hard-shell rooftop tents for overlanders

REI has made a giant push into the overland equipment market in current months, with a give attention to novice overlanders who don’t have purpose-built automobiles and are in search of “hackable” methods to boost their expertise. “It’s core to our technique,” mentioned Paul Calandrella, basic merchandising supervisor of camp merchandise for the retailer.

Through the pandemic, REI redesigned the overland tenting part of its web site and has seen a surge in associated gross sales, particularly for attachable shelters, large-format sleeping pads and blankets, pizza ovens and cookware. Rooftop tents have recorded triple-digit development yr over yr for the final three years, Calandrella mentioned, and “furnishings has been off the charts for us.”

He mentioned REI is rigorously following the most recent enhancements in transportable Wi-Fi scorching spots, satellite tv for pc gear and enormous batteries, merchandise that the corporate expects will probably be in excessive demand amongst overlanders within the coming years.

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“Distant work has accelerated this capability to be a everlasting nomad,” Calandrella mentioned. “We’re eager about connectivity. Know-how is a spot we’re monitoring to grasp the pattern and to find out how finest to serve any individual that’s in that mode.”

Thus far, the nomadic way of life is suiting the Standishes nicely. The household of 4 spends the mornings climbing, paddling and swimming earlier than hitching their bikes to the again of the EarthCruiser and driving a few hours to their subsequent vacation spot.

The youngsters — 2 1/2-year-old Ivy and 11-month-old Tom — adjusted to their new sleeping setting after a month and, apart from a few colds and a few hassle crossing the Canadian border, it’s been a easy journey.

“The entire outdoors world is our bed room,” Standish mentioned. “We’re going so far as we are able to with this.”

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