Get Adventure Ready With a Pair of Purpose-Built Overland Toyota Trucks

[GTPNewsWire]

This is the discussion thread for a recent post on GTPlanet:

Get Adventure Ready With a Pair of Purpose-Built Overland Toyota Trucks

This article was published by Joe Donaldson (@Joey D) on March 6th, 2019 in the Car Culture category.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Overlanding = The new hardparking. I don't know how many times I see people commuting to work in lifted Tacomas with $15k worth of overlanding gear plastered on their truck. Do you really need a rooftop tent and a snorkel to drive to work in downtown San Francisco? (Actually, the rooftop tent is not out of place in this city )

A friend of mine is a mechanic who owns his own shop in Texas. He started around 10 years ago as a Nissan S-chassis drift specialty shop. Then he moved on to specializing in Mazda rotaries. And then Miatas. For the past 5 years he's specialized in Toyota trucks and that was a very good move. The accessories market for overlanding blows even the import tuning scene from the early 00s away. SO MANY PARTS.

All that being said, I like the idea of overlanding a lot. Seems like good fun. I'm actually quite surprised so few are trying to leverage this market segment. Jeep and Toyota seem to have become synonymous with overlanding. Where did Nissan go? The Xterra was kind of perfect for it. Kia? Hyundai? Where you at? The Colorado ZR2 is there, but an SUV would be more useful. The new Bronco is probably gonna be in the ring. Would love to see an off-roader renaissance like the late 80s. Really waiting for somebody to build something akin to the original Jeep Cherokee - fairly compact, very no-nonsense, immensely capable, and utilitarian. Something between the Suzuki Jimny and the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited.

 

[Joey D]

Overlanding = The new hardparking. I don't know how many times I see people commuting to work in lifted Tacomas with $15k worth of overlanding gear plastered on their truck. Do you really need a rooftop tent and a snorkel to drive to work in downtown San Francisco? (Actually, the rooftop tent is not out of place in this city )

I used to take off everything I could from my truck and put it in the garage until I was ready to use it again. I don't understand people who drive around with all the stuff on their trucks, it's pretty much asking for it to be stolen. Also, I never understood things like an onboard fridge or even a rooftop tent. I did just fine with a cooler and some ice to keep things cold. For sleeping, I had a ground tent I bought for $25 instead of some ludicrous $2,000 that rooftop tents cost. Or when I had my cap, I just slept in the bed of the truck on a cot.

Although I will admit, I fell into the trap with some of the overlanding stuff with my Tacoma. I had a roof rack I used pretty seldom and I probably had one set of lights too many. At least I never got into the wannabe tacticool thing though and thought I needed two handguns and an AR-15 to go drive down a forest road.

All that being said, I like the idea of overlanding a lot. Seems like good fun. I'm actually quite surprised so few are trying to leverage this market segment. Jeep and Toyota seem to have become synonymous with overlanding. Where did Nissan go? The Xterra was kind of perfect for it. Kia? Hyundai? Where you at? The Colorado ZR2 is there, but an SUV would be more useful. The new Bronco is probably gonna be in the ring. Would love to see an off-roader renaissance like the late 80s. Really waiting for somebody to build something akin to the original Jeep Cherokee - fairly compact, very no-nonsense, immensely capable, and utilitarian. Something between the Suzuki Jimny and the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited.

The problem with the Xtrerra, at least off-road, is that the diffs and axles are made of cheese. I'm not sure what Nissan was thinking with it, but for whatever reason, they are not remotely robust enough for even moderate off-road use.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Although I will admit, I fell into the trap with some of the overlanding stuff with my Tacoma. I had a roof rack I used pretty seldom and I probably had one set of lights too many. At least I never got into the wannabe tacticool thing though and thought I needed two handguns and an AR-15 to go drive down a forest road.

Are you saying you aren't an OPERATOR??? Those nerds always made me laugh so hard. I remember a group over overlanding-operators were doing an open carry demonstration (complete with huge 'don't tread on me' flags and tactically milling about) outside of a Jamba Juice in Fort Worth Texas. I just thought, who is your audience?! Nobody cares!



There is a 2017ish F250 (crew cab, long bed) I routinely see street-parked near my office (again, in the financial district in San Francisco) with a bed rack that has at least 10 of those modular fluid containers mounted to the outside. I'm like, dude what are those even for?

edit: these things