The 2015 Overland Expo went down this weekend at Mormon Lake, Arizona just outside Flagstaff. It’s an annual convention of next-level camping nuts who spend the value of a house turning trucks into… well, houses. Just look at these marvelous monsters.
This is just a selection of some of the wildest rigs I saw posted up there this year. Would have loved to share some more, but I retreated to the heated seats of my Ram Rebel when the frozen rain started. Anyway you can’t look at too many of these without falling into a depression over how much money you don’t have.
For a little background; “overlanding” is “vehicle-based adventure travel” which is driving to cool places in off-road vehicles. Some of our regular readers have a whole Kinja site devoted to it.
So the Overland Expo is a car show for these guys, with a few added attractions like classes on how to use a winch, how to use a locking differential, and so fourth. People who have carried out incredible trips will give talks, and parts purveyors will hawk their wares.
Enough blathering, on to the big rigs:
Lotta heros in this pic. Suburban. Vanagon... hey what’s that little silver thing?
Heavy rescue ambulances from wildlands fire departments make great off-road campers... all those compartments, plus power, water, and air already set up!
I’m generally not a big roof rack fan, but I love what Wilco’s worked up on this Ram.
Honda Element pop-top camper conversion. That’s how you spell “great idea.”
See, Mitsubishis can still be cool.
That early Range in the background was being sold as a “parts vehicle.”
One of the sexiest food truck/trailers I’ve seen.
I was told this JK “used to be” a lazy-axle six-wheeler, but having crawled under it I can confirm all wheels are driven. Wild Boar does the conversion.
Storage bay in the Jeep 6x6. Fake guns, don’t worry.
Roof racks were what got Wild Boar into business in the first place. This one offers some interesting loading solutions.
See... there are some G-Wagens I like. This one.
...this one too.
This is the tidiest Tacoma build I’ve ever seen. Perfect.
Even though there were plenty of hard-core Land Rovers on hand, the off-road course stayed closed on account of mud. That just don’t sit right with me. But regardless, there was plenty of interesting armor to look at.
I’m sorry I couldn’t get any photos of the motorcycles... just go to the BMW Motorrad site, build-and-price the most accessorized GS1200 they have, and you’ll get the idea.
Images by the author
Andrew P. Collins is Jalopnik’s off-road and adventure guy. Shoot him an email at andrew@jalopnik.com or hit him up on Twitter @andr3wcollins to talk trucks.