I’d like you to take a moment to close your eyes and envision a trade show. What do you see? Images of little white booths, plastic folding tables, and long conversations might drift through your mind. Your feet probably ache at the memory of convention center floors, while your soul pales at the endless line…
Old Dogs, New Tricks: Testing Cummins R2.8 Turbo Diesel Crate Engine
I settle into the driver’s seat of a clean 1996 Toyota FZJ80 and ask Stephen Sanders, program leader for the Cummins Repower Crate Engine Program if I should keep the RPMs below a certain mark, stick to predetermined highway speeds, or mind some shift points on the hills. A heavy black data wire exits from…
Win a Dometic Fridge! UPDATE
The dates of this contest have been extended due to the unfortunate fire season. The contest will now run until October 31st, and the winner will be selected at their SEMA booth! Big news floated down the pipeline from Dometic and Tread Lightly earlier this month. It turns out that the two organizations have teamed…
Field Tested: Batwing Awning
Expletives flowed freely as another gust of wind throttled the canvas, throwing a support leg into the back of my head while I tried to wrestle the awning’s unwieldy form into submission. The now bird’s nest of guylines, stakes, and metal poles of death had me surrounded, and the prospects of surviving the ordeal looked…
Eezi-Awn Drop-down Fridge Buddy
Our Engel MT 45 fridge is built like a battleship. Like most good portable fridges, it weighs as much as one too, especially when loaded. Hoisting it atop the Decked drawer system in the bed of our Tacoma GS overlanding rig can be inconvenient, and in some cases, impossible; especially in light of the overhead…
Get a Grip
We test the latest traction devices and bridging ladders.
Field Tested: HydraPak Expedition 8L
There’s no shortage of ways to haul water, but most water carriers do only that: they hold H2O, and their sole feature is the handle you use to tote it around. HydraPak’s Expedition, however, promises to be more of a multitasker. Its cleverly-designed cap and an assortment of attachment options turn this jug into a…
The New and Cool Overland Products of Outdoor Retailer 2018
We’re here in Denver Colorado for the 2018 Outdoor Retailer summer show, and we’re happy to report that there is a flood of new products being unveiled for your next overland adventure! That’s right gear lovers, rejoice, for there are tents, bags, chairs, tables, lights, vans, and four-wheel drives for you to soak in at…
BC Overland Rally
Along with Washington’s NW Overland Rally, Canada’s BC Overland Rally, also known as BCOR, is hosted by Canadian Ray Hyland and his family. Although the NW Overland Rally is in its eighth year of tenure, BCOR just celebrated its second anniversary. Located in the same venue as its inaugural year, BCOR was held at about…
Buyer’s Guide: Travel, Rescue, and Medical Evacuation Insurance
As we head further into the summer season and our adventures grow in grandeur and danger, we want to make sure safety is top of mind. One crucial aspect of that is medical evacuation insurance, and thus we’re bringing Christophe’s article back to our front page. We hope you find it as informative and helpful…
Field-tested: Good To-Go
To our minds, investing in your long-term health by what you consume on the road is as crucial as opting to pour decent gas in the tank or utilizing the best engine oil one can afford. After all, you are what you eat and sometimes, it’s a challenge to achieve that when in foreign lands….
Field Tested: Helinox Chair Zero
With hobbies like backpacking, climbing, and paddleboarding, I find myself using a wide range of outdoor gear on off-road trips. Unfortunately, the longer the trip, the more difficult it is to squeeze all of that equipment in. Every square inch of space becomes crucial, which is why I ended up replacing my traditional camp chair…
The 2018 Northwest Overland Rally
The NW Overland Rally, held in Plain, Washington, brings in overlanding enthusiasts from all across the Pacific Northwest and parts of Southwestern Canada—and occasionally places much farther away. Celebrating its eighth year, the NW Overland Rally (also known as NWOR) has grown from a small gathering of adventure-seeking attendees to a mid-sized rally that just…
Video of the Week: Decked
Have you ever watched that show How It’s Made? We tend to geek out over the intricacies and complexities that go into producing the products we love, so you could say we’re pretty big fans. That’s probably why this video on Decked got us excited. It starts at the beginning of the product’s life cycle…
Gear Scout: Luci Lights
We’ve all seen them. Those little solar grids gracing the front dash of a four-wheel drive, van, or camper. It is not just a symbol of “I get out a lot” but one of the most versatile, tough, and useful lights currently on the market. I’m talking of course, about Luci Lights. MPOWERD Inc. created…
Life in a Go Fast Camper
I think in order to understand where we are going, it is best to know where we have been. With that in mind, I want to start by addressing a question I’ve been getting a lot lately, “Why the switch?” For those of you that don’t know, I had a Flippac for quite a while before getting…
Warn Elite Series Bumper for Jeep JL
There have been mountains of new products being developed for the Jeep JL lately, and last week, Warn Industries threw their hat into the ring with a new line of bumpers for the platform. They’re a part of their Elite Series, and each has been designed to match the JL’s modern styling cues while retaining…
First Annual Roverlander of the Year Winners
We here at Overland Journal and Expedition Portal love our canines. In fact, we’ve thought of making pup ownership a requirement for employment. Many of us have hiked, camped, and overlanded with our four-legged adventurers, so we were excited to read all of the stories and photos we received for our inaugural Roverlander of the Year contest.
Field Tested: Kalipak 401
Like it or not, we live in a digital age. Nearly everything we use requires power, and that need for electricity doesn’t end when we head out into the backcountry. Many of us like to run GPS on our phones or iPads, take photos of our adventures with a camera, or might even need to…
The New Lower Priced LP9 Sport
I’d say more than a few of us were excited when Baja Designs released the LP9. We fell in love with their modern looks, high output, ducted cooling, and of course that 200-degree beam spread, but then there was the price. At full retail, a set of two would cost over $1,200 USD, and that’s…