11/11/2023 0 Comments Overland expo west 2015 drone video![]() Trailers help enormously with organization. I’ve never used a Mammoth trailer, but I see the appeal of the platform. Less gear means less time dealing with my truck and more time actually adventuring. If the gear doesn’t doesn’t meet one of those qualifications, then it doesn’t belong in my kit. Nowadays, I spend much more time thinking about what gear I actually need to access the places I want to see, stay safe, and camp comfortably. And, I’ll admit that mostly I liked how it looked and the ego boost it gave me while driving around town.īut having watched this overlanding excess spread, and in an effort to put my ego in check and reclaim my rig for its intended use, I’ve since backed off. ![]() Eventually, my Tacoma just sat around because I couldn’t pull off the epic adventures I’d dreamed of, and it was overkill for an easy weekend in the backcountry. I built that same overloaded rig I now criticize. I used to be one of the overland geeks who I’m accusing of going too far with their prepper mentality. ![]() I’ve walked the shows to find, photograph, and write about brand new overlanding gadgets that help us travel farther afield in our overlanding rigs and will help us stay safe and camp with increased comfort and convenience. I’ve been at the past six Overland Expo West events-the biggest gear show for overlanding-and cheered each year as it grew. about a decade ago, I’ve been part of the community that’s charged forward to grow the activity. Ever since overlanding-which at its base is defined as vehicle-based exploration and camping-started to get popular in the U.S. Of course, it’s been said, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” I, too, am guilty of embracing and promoting excess preparation. They might drive up fire roads and enjoy the outdoors, but all you need for a fire road is a Subaru Outback, not a $100,000 overland build. While some of these owners use every bit of that gear, many don’t. I regularly see overland vehicles that are stacked with huge rock-crawling tires, enough suspension to race the Baja 1000, and every recovery tool on the market. My next thought was that even though the ELE trailer is way over the top, overlanding has admittedly been heading in this overdone, over-prepared direction for a while. They’d laugh, I assume, at a trailer that is so overbuilt that it becomes a marketing gimmick instead of a tool used to enjoy the outdoors. Those folks, who became the overland OGs by taking their old, beat-up Land Rovers into the wild areas of their countries to see what they could see, would surely marvel at what overlanding has become. The ELE trailer is a real thing and comes as a prepper basement on wheels that’s so fortified it could guard against attacks from wildlife, zombies, or other unknown threat I can’t conjure.Īs I tried to get my head around it, my first thought was of the old-schoolers from Australia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom who invented overlanding. The email explained that ELE stands for “Extinction-Level Event” and went on to detail how the trailer can be specced with a defense system that shoots out bear spray, optional bulletproofing, and a drone launch system-features so outrageous I thought someone was pulling my chain. ![]() Was it April first? Were they kidding? Was this some kind of joke I was too old or too stupid to get? ![]() When I first saw an email from Mammoth Overland about their new ELE off-road trailer I immediately looked at the date. ![]()
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