The many vehicles of Overland Expo East 2019

Apologies are in order, I think. I feel like Hooniverse has turned into camping/off-road/4×4/adventure website. I assure you that this is a coincidence. We still love old, shitty, rare, and obscure cars. But sometimes it’s good to look into other things, too. I promise that Jeff will soon burn the rubber something with too much power soon and I’ll provide useless info on Easter European crapcans.

I have attended the Overland Expo East a few weeks back. I drove there in a Honda and slept in roof-top tents. Here are are the other cars I saw at that expo. They’re divided into camping area attendee vehicles and vendor displayed vehicles. Enjoy the pics.

Camping area vehicles

One of the first vehicles that really struck me upon arrival was this lovely Land Rover. The man in the picture has started a small business restoring old Land Rovers and this is his own Landy. You can follow him on his Instagram.

Walking around the camping area I noticed this Unimog. Very cool, just look at those wheels. I didn’t ask many questions of the owners of they seemed busy.

The side of this pickup bed was hinged. it opened up to create a bench and access to the bed. In the fender (?) were storage boxes. Why isn’t this an OEM option?

RAM 2500 on 37-inch tires. Mega cab. Diesel. Stick. AEV bumper, fender flares, wheels, and snorkel. Perfection. I’d drive this thing to Alaska right now.

Same thing in different sizes.

 

I always wanted one of those but I’m afraid of the costs.

Vendor Vehicles

Flat bed all the things!

I realize that a lot of these vehicles are ridiculously expensive. The truth is that most people that need all that shit. Soon I’ll provide two examples of excellent, small, overland budget builds.

You almost had me… until those lights. WTF? I’m not sold on the wheels, either.

 

The Jeep Gladiator was the cool new vehicle of the Expo. This one was one of the coolest.

This is the Lexus GXOR Concept. It was made for Lexus to show the abilities of the Lexus GX 430. They should just sell it exactly like this. I reached out to Toyota to see if I can borrow it for a weekend. Stay tuned.

That’s it. If you’re still reading this, comment on your favorite rig below. Thanks!

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12 responses to “The many vehicles of Overland Expo East 2019”

  1. desmo Avatar
    desmo

    Crazy expensive stuff, against all common sense. The “budget trucks” here are strangely enough the old Unimogs. That U435/1300L Military comes at about $20.000.- from german federal state auction (VEBEG.de). But then of course there is some (very much??), work to do to make it run.

    I’d rather prefer my old 1998 Grand Cherokee if I still had it. It was capable of anything offroad and if we felt uncomfortable, we just paid the motel.

    1. Sjalabais Avatar
      Sjalabais

      Exactly! This trend sure is fun, but building your own rolling capitalist fort of exploration means…

      1) your interaction with the locals gets reduced
      2) your costs multiply
      3) your dependance on a vehicle typically used once a year is troubling
      4) your ecological footprint balloons to 11/10.

      1. I_Borgward Avatar
        I_Borgward

        Gosh, aren’t the wealthy SO cool? That seems to be the overarching theme on this site lately. Yawn.

        1. Kamil K Avatar

          I promise you all that my budget overland build article will be great!

          1. Vairship Avatar
            Vairship

            I hacked Kamil’s computer and found the subject of his budget overland article. It is indeed much lower budget and better: https://www.4x4community.co.za/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=97981&stc=1&d=1306520593

          2. I_Borgward Avatar
            I_Borgward

            PT Conestoga!!!

  2. Zentropy Avatar
    Zentropy

    Some great rides (and interesting builds) in that crowd, but I keep staring longingly at the humble FJ55…

  3. alex Avatar
    alex

    I like cars much better than trucks. Ease up on the “truckiness”?

    1. Maymar Avatar
      Maymar

      Do they make K02’s that small?

  4. salguod Avatar

    I don’t understand how people justify, or are even able to afford, rigs like this. My wife and I do fairly well and the thought of spending $50K plus on any vehicle, let alone a limited use rig like these boggles the mind. I appreciate the creativity and capability, but I look at these and see a small fleet of interesting cars instead.

    The 911 is the worst. Ok, it’s interesting, but you’ve taken a highly capable sports car and made a moderately capable off road rig out of it and probably spent similar money to some of others.