Bald Tires

[MOAK]

I see a lot of signs telling me that the overlanding fad has reached its peak. I know of 2 or 3 people here locally that have dumped a pile of money into a hobby that they never do. They have 50-60k wrapped up in it and have never been anywhere, not even quick weekends up in the woods, not even curb hopping at their favorite mall. Just yesterday I saw a pretty common sight these days, a completely kitted out & modified, almost new, Rubicon with bald tires. Sad. Ya know they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, they can’t even afford to keep rubber. It’s not the cost of gasoline either, it just isn’t that high. Sure, in the past year it has gone up 75 cents to a dollar a gallon, from pre covid price per gallon, but even for my gas guzzler that’s only 20 more dollars per 250 miles. That’s just 400 more dollars for a 5,000 mile round trip. I just think a lot of people got into this hobby because of the “ look at me / cool factor” and now that they’re invested they are finding out they don’t have the money to sustain it. Just random thoughts from an old dude at 6:00 AM while my head is still clear. Eh? LOL let the conversation begin !!

 

[grubworm]

ha! yeah, i can relate. i bought a bowflex years back and have spent less than an hour on it. i get more "satisfaction" from the purchasing of it and feeling good about what it could be rather than the actual work and effort it takes using it. i think many of the rigs you are talking about are basically their version of my bowflex.

this pic shows the same expression you will see on a rubicon owner OR a bowflex owner.
we typically buy things that make us feel a certain way despite the reality of how we really use them...

 

[Boostpowered]

Gas hasn't gone up much but the wait for tires to get shipped overseas sure has gone way up.
Don't let it bother you that these people decide to spend money on what they want just be glad that they aren't clogging up the trails.

My wife and I like to spot vehicles with roof racks too small for the roof ie they bought their universal rack off ebay or Amazon then they immediately overload it with a spare tire shovels, axe, hi lift etc and all the tool mounts are rusted shut so you know they've never used them

There have always been mall crawlers especially in the Jeep world the style is just changing from the bro with the barbed wire tattoo on the upper arm to the pale kids that look sick and cry alot.

 

[ThundahBeagle]

"...just be glad that they aren't clogging up the trails."

This.

I dont go out every weekend. I'm not out there for weeks at a time. My desires come from better hiking and camping. I get out there when I can. I was just going to say, "more room for ME, then, when I get time to go."

It's almost time to swap out for my winter tires. I'll be removing the slightly undersized studded snows and putting some 32" or 33" 3PMS AT's on my 17 inch wagon wheel steelies. And then doing the same on my alloy 18" rims next year.

I like to go out to hike, fish, kayak and camp in the spring, the summer and the autumn. If those folks on bologna skins aren't out there, then I'm good with that.

By the way, this issue doesnt just apply to Overlanding. A couple winters ago, we got a lot of snow. The guy who was supposed the plow the drive and lot of the apartments where my girlfriend lived, he showed up in a Toyota Tundra with bald-ass tires. He struggled to move the snow and he got stuck. I said to him, "well at least put it in 4 wheel drive!" He said "I cant. 4x4 is broken."

I said, if you have bald tires and your 4x is broken, what the hell are you doing trying to plow snow in New England?" I called the contractor up and said the same. Ridiculous.

 

[MOAK]

Gas hasn't gone up much but the wait for tires to get shipped overseas sure has gone way up.
Don't let it bother you that these people decide to spend money on what they want just be glad that they aren't clogging up the trails.

My wife and I like to spot vehicles with roof racks too small for the roof ie they bought their universal rack off ebay or Amazon then they immediately overload it with a spare tire shovels, axe, hi lift etc and all the tool mounts are rusted shut so you know they've never used them

There have always been mall crawlers especially in the Jeep world the style is just changing from the bro with the barbed wire tattoo on the upper arm to the pale kids that look sick and cry alot.

right on, I'm not bothered at all by it. In fact I'm relieved that less and less, over time, people will be out and about. It has always struck me as odd, ever since the popularity of " overlanding " has exploded, that when we are out and about, we never run into very many people at all. We can go for days and encounter only one or two vehicles.

 

[Boostpowered]

right on, I'm not bothered at all by it. In fact I'm relieved that less and less, over time, people will be out and about. It has always struck me as odd, ever since the popularity of " overlanding " has exploded, that when we are out and about, we never run into very many people at all. We can go for days and encounter only one or two vehicles.

I wish it were like that for us but about every turn on a trail there is a Subaru or rav 4 etc struggling on a washout or something way to big for a trail trying to get through and tearing stuff up. I just keep telling myself it will die off like the " tuner " cars sort of did in the late 90s to early 2000s.
It helps that alot of folks getting into it don't know how to turn a wrench so once it breaks it gets sold or sent to a shop to rip them off.

It all relative though like in rock crawling you don't see a whole lot of rock buggies anymore people don't have the skill to make em but they have the money to buy a side by side and act as though it can do the same thing since the kind of look like a 1/8 scale buggy. Now the they are all over rock crawling areas.

It would be kind of sad though not to have these people since without them buying offroad parts there wouldn't be any innovation of new products plus we wouldn't have them to laugh at and make fun of.

 

[MidOH]

My quarry (only 1.5 hours away) opened up to camping.

So almost all of my overlanding next year will be slab to a quarry to go diving. This might actually open me up to more overlanding in the future, because an RTT makes more sense there than a camper. Which is the only reason I haven't tackled the TAT yet. (I'm RV camping instead of overlanding lately)

 

[The other Sean]

Meh, this has been the same for any and all vehicle "fad" People buy in, not understanding there is upkeep. I can't count how many rigs I've seen with a half rotter or missing winch line on their winch of their rig without a single scratch....

 

[MegaBug]

As an old guy with no hair the title of this topic kinda caught my eye :-)

Seriously though, it's all too common a human trait to think you can ”buy” an experience. As my Grandma used to say ”you get out of something what you are willing to put into it” or ”no pain, no gain” or etc, etc.

Many folks these days want instant gratification without being willing to put in any effort. Oh well their loss and our gain because, like others have said, few of them are actually far out in the boonies where we like to be :-)

 

[old_man]

I've been doing what you call overlanding for over 55 years. My current Jeep is 37 years old and I have had it for almost 25 years. I don't get out as much as I used to because of work but I still try every chance I get. I find I do a lot more overnighters or long day trips these days. I just got done putting my sixth set of 35's on it. It is not my primary daily driver but I drive it any chance I get and since I travel around the country working, I have taken it with me to Utah for a year and now to Arizona.

 

[NMBruce]

when tires get to 4/32" I replace them if I didn't already replace them because of a trip I am doing. My 1 year old 2020 Tacoma had its cheap tires replaced at 19K miles, only 5/32" of tread left. Didn't matter, we where doing the Pony Express across Utah & Nevada, I want some good 10 ply tires. I have seen cheap and expensive 4 ply tires destroyed by a rock going through the tread, not something you want in the middle of no place or on a mountain pass.
One of the nice things about my old tires, if they are still good, they become trailer tires

 

[smritte]

Meh, this has been the same for any and all vehicle "fad" People buy in, not understanding there is upkeep. I can't count how many rigs I've seen with a half rotter or missing winch line on their winch of their rig without a single scratch....

Yep
I was going to count the vehicle fads I've lived through but......naw

 

[Badazzerus]

The worst part of all this. Is the cost. Fad folks drive up cost and limit supplies for the actual ones putting it to use. people buy crap they don’t need just because someone else has it. its the keeping up with jones syndrome.

 

[ThundahBeagle]

Yep
I was going to count the vehicle fads I've lived through but......naw

Like painting the gauges white? Or extreme negative rear wheel camber? Installing nitrous? Or affixing a red "Type R" badge on a base model anything? Slamming a pickup to the ground? Red tow hooks? Replacing the tailgate with a net?

Ugh!

 

[NMBruce]

Like painting the gauges white? Or extreme negative rear wheel camber? Installing nitrous? Or affixing a red "Type R" badge on a base model anything? Slamming a pickup to the ground? Red tow hooks? Replacing the tailgate with a net?

Ugh!

Or how about that big coffee can (don’t know the real name of it) exhaust that add 20hp

 

[Sparksalot]

Or how about that big coffee can (don’t know the real name of it) exhaust that add 20hp

Fart can.

 

[Old Tanker]

Like painting the gauges white? Or extreme negative rear wheel camber? Installing nitrous? Or affixing a red "Type R" badge on a base model anything? Slamming a pickup to the ground? Red tow hooks? Replacing the tailgate with a net?

Ugh!

And wheels larger than the brakes require.

 

[grubworm]

And wheels larger than the brakes require.

i know in texas the rim size is catching up with belt buckle size...

 

[Boostpowered]

i know in texas the rim size is catching up with belt buckle size...

View attachment 214429

Dude texas is the home of the donk cars with 24+" rims on shitty cars since early 90s (do screw era) , I think the buckles need to catch up to the rims

 

[Badazzerus]

Ok I think we’re ready to camp