Overland Expo West 2022

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming: Overland Expo West is back to it’s normal timing in May! But with only six-odd months having passed since the last Expo event, like many of you we had to wonder what could really be new here if anything.

Cool new stuff was definitely a little harder to come by at this event (don’t worry we still found a few things) but thankfully, Overland Expo is much more than just an exhibitor bazaar. Newly revamped for this year was the training team that handled all of the vehicle based training, and the new team certainly came out strong. Several OEMs had an official presence, and many of the long standing vendors were upping their booth game with bigger displays. Big money also seems to be testing the waters of this Overland thing, with brands like 4Wheel Parts and Ebay motors posting up for the show.

Overland Expo is definitely continuing to grow, but the growth seems to be biased toward big money at the expense of the smaller brands and sense of community we’ve always loved. It’s going to be very interesting to see where these events are at in a few years. But enough of my postulating – here’s our usual extensive serving of gear, rigs, and training that makes Overland Expo an experience.

GO FAST CAMPERS – GFC has been hard at work cranking out their V2 campers, and they had the first 8-foot bed version on display at the show. Notice the lack of cab over. We also spied their new rack system and their use of Austere Manufacturing buckles on their new straps.

GEYSER SYSTEMS – This small portable showering system looks like an awesome way to get a hot shower in the field. There are two versions, one with a heater, and one that relies on you heating water with a portable stove and adding it to cold water already placed in the unit. A small pump feeds a special sponge making for a hot sponge bath just about anywhere.

WARN – Warn was showing off their new HUB system at Overland Expo. This adds wireless functionality to any of their non-wireless winches (non Zeon Platinum). The system is easy to use and very responsive, and you can still use a corded controller when you want to.

TOYOTA – Toyota claimed so serious real estate for the show, and of course the new Tundra was on hand.

COOL RIGS – Overland Expo is becoming a SEMA show in the sense that there are some truly impressive OEM’s and personal builds on display. Here are a few standouts.

ARB Is continuing to expand their gear management systems, and they had this new Tacoma specific system on display.

Deadman Off-Road makes an awesome earth anchor, appropriately named the Deadman. Their new Stretchy Band Kinetic recovery ropes have the same attention to quality and come in a number of sizes and lengths.

Magnaflow – Posted up with a full size semi truck. They were showing off new exhaust systems, including their new xMOD DIY systems with a Helmholtz resonator that helps with droning when used in a turn down application.

THIS THING – There are always a few things at Overland Expo that make you stop and go “what?” And this fits the bill. If you know who makes these trailers, comment below!

LOKI BASECAMP – Remember the big black Falcon Series camper Loki Basecamp was showing off at the last Expo West? Well, meet the smaller sibling, the Icarus.

ONEWHEELS & E-BIKES were all over the place at the show. I only witnessed two Onewheel crashes the entire weekend, and of course neither of said folks who got to eat a soil sandwich had any protective gear on…

GOOSE GEAR has been hard at work building new gear systems for an expanded number of applications. Here are new Goose Gear systems for Ford’s Bronco, Ranger, and F-150.

EQUIPT is expanding their line of National Luna Power systems. They have also given one of their shop trucks, “Sleepy”, a serious refresh and this first gen Tundra looks great! I love their solution for outfitting an AT camper with Aluboxes, which comes in at roughly half the price of a full camper build out.

COMPANY NAME WITHHELD. There are always new companies that show up to Overland Expo to introduce their wares to the world for the first time. Yet sometimes these companies are completely ignorant of best practices in the industry they are selling to. They may also have failed to do adequate research during their product development. This product is a foldable fire ring, which still causes the user to leave a burn scar, which isn’t how you #leavenotrace. It’s also made out of galvanized steel, which releases toxic zinc vapors when you get it hot, say from a fire…

Guzzle H20 makes some really impressive water filtering systems. They also offer A-La-Carte parts and pieces if you’re looking to build out your own water treatment system.

Rouge Journeyman – This was pretty neat to watch. This leather smith has all of his tools packed in this old firetruck and he was cranking out all kinds of handmade items at the show.

LUNO makes vehicle fitting sleeping pads for crossovers and trucks like the Tacoma. I wish they would make a one sided version, so you can sleep with your gear when you’re out solo.

INSTY Makes a 5G hotspot that is claimed to deliver much better data throughput than other boosters on the market that can only work with 3G data signals.

STEP 22 Gear is continuing to make more awesome new gear bags and other ingenious organizational products that help you keep all of your kit safe and sorted. Recovery rope may also be back on a secret menu basis…

Ride With Us was teaching learn to ride a motorcycle classes at Overland Expo.

Truckvault is getting into the bed slider system in a big way. The name of their game is customization, and they’ve got all sorts of options available to help you build out the exact bed slide system you’re looking for.

Training – In our opinion, the quality of training and education provided at Overland Expo saw a decline in recent years. Thankfully they picked up a new training coordinator for this year, and as such the training cadre changed significantly. It was great to see a couple of I4WDTA Certified Trainers in the mix along with a number of other veteran instructors and some up and comers.

Overland Expo has a jam-packed schedule of classes that provide a great breadth of learning opportunities, and I was really impressed with the learning aids that I4WDTA Certified Trainer Nick Cimmarusti created for his class on field repairs. The cutaway third member was especially cool.

Moto Training at Overland Expo is handled by Bill Dragoo and his crew from DART. It’s always impressive to watch these instructors rip around on their monster BMWs like they’re dirt bikes.

Skinny Guy Campers is bringing a unique approach to the camper game. They can be spec’d from bare bones to fully farkled out with a macerating toilet.

EGOE makes loadout systems that provide sleeping, cooking, and other camping needs for a number of vehicles.

TEMBO TUSK had a pile of new products at the show. Revised tables with quick switch collapsible sinks, propane firepits, new bike and build it yourself slides, and of course Jerry’s famous South African Boerwors sausage for breakfast on Sunday.

Factor 55 still makes some of the best recovery gear on the market – gear that’s made in the USA. They were showing off their new Hitch Link Pro which is the industry’s first recovery point designed for both soft and hard (screw pin) shackles. Note that the 2.0 version now has bores for 90 degree clocking like the Hitch Link 2.5 has.

Roller Cams solve the problem of all cam straps in that their unique roller pivot allows you get get a Roller Cam Strap much more tight than a comparable cam strap without a roller. WLL is rated at 350 pounds and they come in all sorts of lengths.

THE BIG NAMES – eBay Motors and 4Wheel Parts are getting into the Overland thing… hello mainstream.

By all accounts, Overland Expo seems to have returned to it’s normal groove. Every year brings with it new things, and this year was no different. The event is clearly changing and it’s going to be interesting to see where this event goes in the coming years. What are your thoughts on the future of Overland Expo?

Stuck In The Snow

Recently, a young couple from Louisiana found themselves stuck in the snow in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. They were miles down a closed road and completely unprepared for the situation they were in. A series of poor choices had led them to their predicament and their experience is a great reminder of how an adventure can turn into a scary suffer fest in short order.

This young couple who are probably not old enough to buy a beer had a simple enough plan: A vehicle-based trip to see Colorado and snow for the first time. They packed what they thought was appropriate gear for winter camping, and with blind faith in their GPS, they set off to try a reach a lake nestled in a high mountain valley. Unfortunately for them, that lake happened to be miles down a closed road, where the snowpack is currently deeper than a man is tall and on the night this happened, a place where overnight lows would be recorded in negative degrees Fahrenheit.

It’s easy enough to put the pieces together on how this all went down. In the summertime, there is a Forest Service campground at this lake that shows up on Google Maps, so it’s easy to ask your phone to guide you to the campground. Yet in the winter, the FS roads that lead to this campground are groomed for use as Nordic Skiing Trails. Where the FS roads tie into roads that are plowed, the groomers will make big berms of snow with a snowcat to block access.  Yet to someone who has never seen snow, those berms could look fun to try and drive over, and a Nordic trail could look like a snowpacked road to drive on – so why not send it?  Afterall, Google says this is the way.  Given that there hasn’t been any new snow in the past few weeks, the Nordic Trails were rock solid, so once our couple had their vehicle on the trails, driving on them was no challenge at all. 

Down the trail they went. After a few miles, Google told them to take a right turn onto another road that was also groomed as a trail.  After completing this turn they could see their destination – a picturesque mountain lake in the wintertime. In the evening light, it had to look brilliant and I can only imagine their excitement from seeing their destination combined with the thrill of driving on snowpacked trails for the first time.  Yet Google’s next direction would quickly kill their vibe.

Google indicated a left turn off of the Nordic trail into undisturbed snow. Without a second’s pause, our couple followed directions and went full send right off the rock-solid Nordic trail and into deep snow. They made it almost an entire truck length before they ran out of momentum and their truck settled into the snowpack. They were stuck.

The couple caught a HUGE break in that they happened to be stuck somewhere there was cell service. Their first few calls were to local towing companies, none of which could help them out, given where they were stuck. They made more calls – it’s unclear how many, but they did call 911 at some point before they were eventually put in touch with the local Nordic association, who is responsible for grooming and maintaining the trails that the couple had driven on. The couple indicated to the Nordic association that they were planning on camping at the lake, so they were not desperate for a rescue.  Yet, the Nordic association wanted to get these folks out of their hair sooner than later (and repair all of the damage their vehicle did to the skiing trails), so a plan was made for a night recovery.  Late that night, a Nordic association snowcat arrived on scene where a number of sobering things became instantly apparent.

First, the couple was severely lacking on proper cold weather clothing and camping gear.  The female was wearing flannel cotton pajama pants and a cotton camo hoody when we arrived. Far too little insulation for temperatures that would soon be in the negative. She indicated that while waiting for us to arrive that they had setup their tent and camping gear, but were still “way too cold” even in their sleeping bags, so they sheltered in their truck while waiting for help to arrive.

Second, was that their vehicle was not very stuck. Neither of them had a clue about driving in this environment, or vehicle recovery techniques if mobility became an issue. There was no winch, nor any recovery gear onboard. Their tires were still at street pressure. They did not have a shovel, and there had subsequently been no attempt to dig any snow out from around the vehicle or behind the tires. Nothing had been used to add traction to the stuck equation. It’s as if they became stuck and their first move was to give up and call for help.

Third, they were completely blind to the signage, berms, and the other people they passed along the route who all communicated information that what they were doing was ultimately a really bad idea. I get it – if you’ve never seen snow before in your life, a Nordic trail could certainly be construed as a road surface.  I’ll give them that one, but the berms, signs, and skiers all saying NO, STOP, WTF are you doing? Those are much harder to ignore. 

The sad part is that saving stuck vehicles from Nordic Trails is something happens at least a couple of times a season.  For various reasons that all boil down to complete ignorance, people decide to drive their vehicles down Nordic Trails where they all eventually get stuck, and have to be rescued. Every single time this happens, it requires the driver of the vehicle to turn off a paved and plowed state highway, and really commit to get their vehicle over a berm or snowbank and onto a Nordic trail.

In the case of our Louisiana couple, their experience is a great example of how choices can get you into a serious bind in short order. Make no mistake about it – this couple was very lucky in that they got stuck somewhere there was cell coverage and happened to be someplace regularly visited by other folks.  But what if they became stuck somewhere where there wasn’t cell coverage or other people?

There are all sorts of what-if scenarios that we can sand table here. But rather than flesh out a thousand potentials, I’ll leave this one with a few key things that our couple could have done better or at all:

  1. Quit while you are ahead / do not over commit:  This couple went sailing right past all kinds of warning signs that a reasonable person would recognize, instead choosing to place all of their trust in where their GPS was leading them. You need to keep your head up, and constantly assess where you are, and what you’re about to drive down.  If something doesn’t look like a good idea, can you self-rescue or get back out? Are you prepared to shelter in place if you can’t get back out while you’re waiting for help to arrive?

  2. Communications: This couple got so lucky they had cell service where they became stuck. They had no other form of communication, and they didn’t have a ready answer to the question of “what would you have done if you couldn’t call for help?” So have more than one way to communicate. Radio, Satellite Communications Device, a buddy in a second vehicle, have something. Be mindful of where you last had cell service / satellite coverage / access to a repeater too.

  3. Outside help: Did anyone know where this couple was headed, or when to expect them to check in? Don’t become the next Aron Ralston. Make sure someone knows where you’re headed, and when you’ll come up for air. 911 isn’t always able to ride to the rescue at a moments notice, and SAR responses can take hours or days to find you.  Are you prepared to wait for help to arrive?

  4. Proper kit for the adventure: A cotton hoody from Bass Pro is not proper winter attire. Enough said.  Five minutes of internet research could have clued this couple in on the appropriate winter attire and camping kit they should have packed for their adventure.  The weather can change too, so make sure you’re kitted for any change in the weather, and stocked with enough supplies to hang out for an extra day or two.


Exploring the world by vehicle is awesome, but just as our vehicles can take us so many places they too can get us into one hell of a suffer fest if we are ignorant of our planning, preparation, skills, and current situation.