To honor the 20-year anniversary of Overland Journal, we are revisiting special heritage content in the upcoming 100th issue of the magazine. Originally published in Overland Journal’s Spring 2007 issue, this article is part of that celebration. The second law of thermodynamics strikes early on overland trips. If you remember the basic version from Physics…
Category Archives: Gear
Classic Kit: The Brunton Pocket Transit
To honor the 20-year anniversary of Overland Journal, we are revisiting special heritage content in the upcoming 100th issue of the magazine. Originally published in Overland Journal’s Winter 2009 issue, this article is part of that celebration. It is well to observe the force and virtue and consequences of discoveries; and these are to be…
The New Drive Line Gear from XOverland and FHF
Overlanding has always benefited from adjacent markets, with many attributes and needs shared across backpacking, fly-fishing, military, hunting, fishing, and adventure travel. These categories can introduce solutions from the incubation of fresh perspectives. As Clay Croft and I were driving down the length of West Africa, I took note of the thoughtful features on the…
Leitner Designs Launches Revolutionary Rack for Your Outback
Gone are the days when fitting a roof rack to your rig meant ordering some A1 towers and a couple of load bars from Yakima and calling it good. Roof gutters have long disappeared from the automotive design landscape, and model-to-model updates can subtly change roofline profiles and the hardware on factory rails. Hidden fasteners…
Luminous Flux: Swim, Sink, or Shine; We Test Nine LED Driving Lights to Their Limits
To honor the 20-year anniversary of Overland Journal, we are revisiting special heritage content in the upcoming 100th issue of the magazine. Originally published in Overland Journal’s Gear 2013 issue, this article is part of that celebration. I distinctly remember the moment I became aware of auxiliary lights. I was 15 years of age and…
Gear Callout: Laundry at Camp
I haven’t owned a washing machine since 2018, when we sold our first house on wheels, a 40-foot diesel motorhome. Through the intervening years, as my family’s movable homes have shrunk in size, my appreciation for modern appliances has deepened. Some days at camp, when I’m playing catch-up, I relate to Mary Lois Walker Morris,…
Classic Kit: The Hi-Lift Jack
To honor the 20-year anniversary of Overland Journal, we are revisiting special heritage content in the upcoming 100th issue of the magazine. Originally published in Overland Journal’s Winter 2012 issue, this article is part of that celebration. It is the unsung hero of expedition travel, an essential piece of kit that any mindful backcountry regular…
Classic Kit: The Pith Helmet
To honor the 20-year anniversary of Overland Journal, we are revisiting special heritage content in the upcoming 100th issue of the magazine. Originally published in Overland Journal’s Summer 2010 issue, this article is part of that celebration. Home, they say, is where you hang your hat. If that hat happened to be the legendary pith…
Field Tested: Pelican ATX and Aegis Carry-On Luggage
Airline travel without checking bags is a cheat code that is well worth striving for. Free yourself from the worry of theft, damage, and lost luggage (and the wasted time associated) with either of these two premium carry-on options from Pelican. Both offer organized space for up to a week of travel between laundry cycles…
Field Tested: The Campspotter App
Michiel Pruijssers thought he had planned the perfect camping trip. The weather forecast looked good, the campspot ideal. But when a powerful storm rolled in and ruined the experience, Michiel, a longtime outdoorsperson and SAR volunteer, felt unprepared. Thus, he built Campspotter, an app with a simple mission: to make finding and planning your next…
Field Tested :: Alu-Cab ModCap Canopy Base
For years, I ran an RSI SmartCap on my Ford Ranger. It’s a canopy that’s hard to fault—stylish, sleek, and built with clean lines that give any vehicle a polished, factory-fresh look. I loved how refined it made my rig look; it had presence, and it turned heads. But as my trips became longer and…
Fix Manufacturing Tools :: Field Tested
Long after my poor father gave up on trying to teach me anything mechanical, he did at least instill one important bit of wisdom: the whole “right tool for the job” thing is real. I spent $39 on a tool whose sole job is to hold my drivetrain in place so I can spin the…
The Bug Wall :: Field Tested
The Bug Wall makes UV-resistant rear and side-door van screens for the Promaster, Mercedes Sprinter, and Ford Transit platforms (among others). I had considered screens like these made-in-the-USA liners for my Ram ProMaster van, but figured them unnecessary, what with the five windows with their own screens I’d installed and the vent fan pulling hot…
Summertime Essentials to Help Beat the Heat
Last summer was a true test of man, machine, and miniature dog. We left our base in Mexico in the spring, pointed the Land Rover north, and spent six months exploring the US and Northern Mexico. It was an odyssey of sweat and perseverance, lived entirely from our trusty Land Rover, with no air-conditioning in…
We Tested the Best 12-volt Fridge/Freezers. Here’s What We Found.
East Africa is known for many things, and nearly all of them are the stuff of overlanding dreams. But a few could be classified as nightmares, principally the endless dance with roadblocks, police checkpoints, and military convoys. At times, that includes determined efforts to separate the traveler from their cash. As a result, I would…
Optima OrangeTop QH6 Lithium Battery :: Field Tested
The best thing you can say about a starter battery is that you never have to say anything about it at all; it should simply work every time you turn the key. An even better one doubles as an auxiliary power source. At just 21 pounds, the OrangeTop QH6 LiFePO₄ dual-purpose power unit punches above its…
First Drive :: BFG Trail-Terrain+ Tire Review
While the BFGoodrich Trail-Terrain+ all-terrain tire is a great original equipment (OE) tire replacement for many vehicles used for overland travel, it’s not a replacement for a KO3, KM3, or other more aggressive, and most importantly, more cut-resistant sidewall, off-road focused tire. With that said, a majority of overland travel happens on pavement, dirt roads,…
Snow Peak’s Bomb-proof Camping Gear
In the 30 years I’ve been buying camping gear, from the expensive wool socks I took on my first backpacking trip in Big Bend National Park, I’ve never come across a brand that so marries style and functionality as the Japanese company Snow Peak. I’ve owned a tiny powerhouse of a stove from the brand…
Jeep Beach 2026 | Inside America’s Largest Jeep Gathering
There is no place in the USA like Daytona, Florida, during Jeep Beach. With a total attendance of 250,000 people and 40,000 Jeeps over 10 days, no other event in the Jeep community has such a significant impact on a locality. Daytona welcomes and embraces participants, as made clear during the Sunday Parade on Daytona…
Top Gear :: Overland Expo West 2026
Someone I know who has been in the adventure travel industry for many years told me that we are currently in a “creativity crisis.” He thinks we’re stuck in a rut and that very few truly new ideas have been filtering into the overland world lately. I had this claim front and center in my…