Overland Expo West 2017: Official Thread

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Wife and I had a great time! Our main goal was to decide whether to buy an off road tear drop, or go with a 4wd van and sell the FJ. ML off-road has a 2002 E350 extended with a 7.3 that just came out of paint. It looks like we'll be getting this and adding a high roof after the 4wd conversion. Sure hate to say bye to the FJ, but I'm happy with our decision. We were distracted a lot LOL! On Friday we met a new friend and ended up hanging with him at the bar for over 4 hours. He's getting ready to leave on a trip down through central and South America, then over to Capetown and north up the east side of Africa. He's also a physicist that spent 3 years at CERN. Good beer, quantum physics and my wife's quiche- doesn't get much better than that!
 
First time there, was too busy meandering about and soaking it all in to remember taking pictures, but I did snap a few:


Nutthouse Industries makes a rack for the Ram Boxes now, it's all aluminum and weighs about 70 pounds. Finally someone stepped up to the plate.


And Turttleback makes a toyhauler trailer with a full kitchen and a California King RTT.

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...decide whether to buy an off road tear drop, or go with a 4wd van...
You won't regret it. As cool as the off road teardrops are, they're about as far from practical as it gets. All the footprint and almost as much weight as a small travel trailer; but you can't stand in them, shower in them, or cook in them.

Now a van, a van can do...everything. :)


Great bumping into you again, even if only for a few minutes. Hopefully we'll have a chance for a longer visit out on the road somewhere.
 
You won't regret it. As cool as the off road teardrops are, they're about as far from practical as it gets. All the footprint and almost as much weight as a small travel trailer; but you can't stand in them, shower in them, or cook in them.

Now a van, a van can do...everything. :)


Great bumping into you again, even if only for a few minutes. Hopefully we'll have a chance for a longer visit out on the road somewhere.
I agree 100%. It was great seeing you and Dani also. I hate that we missed getting to check out your Sube though.
 
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That Nut House rack was such a disappointment to me. Was waiting to see it. Going to have to go one off now.

I talked to guy Nutthouse had there, and he said that they could make one like the rack he had on the truck with regular bed that will work with the Ram Box. That one was nice. I prefer the square steel to the round too. It's much easier to mount things on a flat surface.

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Front Runner also makes a rack that works with the Ram Boxes, but it's not on their website yet.

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I talked to guy Nutthouse had there, and he said that they could make one like the rack he had on the truck with regular bed that will work with the Ram Box. That one was nice. I prefer the square steel to the round too. It's much easier to mount things on a flat surface.

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The big problem I see with a lot of these products is they are designing things that don't need to be drilled, so they're using factory attachment points. And in some cases designing systems that fit more than one truck with minor part adjustment. As I call, the one size fits all design. (And is actually good from a business perspective, reduce costs overall, more profit )

This is fine for average joe blow. But it leads to design compromises in my opinion. The big one I see with the first one is they designed their rack to sit on the factory cargo management system.

No drilling, easy installation are the pro's there. The cons are, you have no choice but to use their cover system. So even more money invested. It's also, not an attractive design. Doesn't match the truck at all. Especially when you compare it to their other design.

There are actually attachment posts under the plastic covers on the Ram Box, and it seems only AEV has attached a rack this way. But with the way AEV moves, I'd expect a rack from them by 2032 for the 7th generation Ram Prospector.

Front Runner also makes a rack that works with the Ram Boxes, but it's not on their website yet.

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I saw this on the other site that shalt not be mentioned. Very nice. Downside, no cover.

I'm actually looking to do something similar to what @yellowranger1 did with his rack.
 
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