Overland rigs, expedition rig, weekend warrior or whatever…that is what I am into and the purpose of behind my K10 and Suburban. I have no interest in building a truck for the sake of simply blasting through mud, following the power line trails or joining the redneck renegade to see who can crawl over the biggest, steepest pile of boulders. To me it is about the destination where getting there is half the of the adventure. When my circle of friends go on a trip we are leaving for a minimum of 500 miles and at least a week living out of the truck. The last several trips have been around 2,000 miles each from departure to returning home. This coming March a few friends and I are planning on a 8 day trip 2,800 mileish round trip to Death Valley and the sounding areas where most people don’t go wheeling other than the Land Rover professional photographer type guys go.
You’re right, the overlanders prefer what most mainstream 4x4 guys would consider small tires. 33’s are the most common while 35’s are on the higher end depending on the rig. The overlander community is all about capability but more importantly, durability, not who has the biggest and badest rock crawler or $X000 invested into their bugger welded 4 link home grown engineered Dana 60 front suspension. In all reality most of the overlander rigs are much better engineered, built and durable than magazine cover rock crawler things. When you see an overlander type rig look at how they route wiring harnesses, etc. Extreme care is taken with durability. When you leave civilization for days/weeks/months on end, you need a durable and capable rig to get you back home alive. Overlanding can be a deadly deal even right here in the lower 48 if someone doesn’t have a durable rig and know what they are doing. We recently did a week in the rough back country of Canyonlands (no, not Moab) and saw 2 vehicles over several days while temperatures never let down below 112. To walk out of these places would be impossible and forget about cell phones. You must have a lot of confidence in your rig, know how to fix it and pack the right parts in case something does go wrong. Overlanding is not the same as wheeling at the local 4x4 park.
A Suburban is a great platform to build an overlander/expo rig/weekend trail rider rig. Look at Mosesburb’s ’72 Sub. He is well on his way to having a sweet rig he could drive from Alaska to Argentina on any road, trail and off shoot that would be involved along the way.
Below is what I love about overlanding, expedition rigs, or whatever you want to call it….getting to places where there are no other soles in sight. No truggies, buggies, jackholes on ATV’s tearing up a trail or asshat trailer queen rock crawlers throwing beer cans all over the trail. Just nice quite nature where only you and your well-built off-roadster will take you a good 8 to 12 hours away from anything resembling civilization. Overlanding is the total opposite of playing stomper 4x4 in an off-road park but don't think you can get there in a Subaru Outback or bone stock F150.
