Hey all, Matt from Minnesota here!
Introduction
I figured I'd use this thread to chronicle the modifications and such with my 2018 Ford Raptor. The cliffs notes of how I landed here are that I grew up spending weekends at scout camp and summers in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, so I'm definitely no stranger to camping or 'roughing it'. Fast forward a bit and I'm suddenly a mechanical engineer, working in defense. I found it hard to dedicate myself to something that I wasn't truly interested in, so I leapt at the chance to get involved in a small automotive aftermarket business here and 7yrs later, I resigned from my position running that business to start my own, designing and manufacturing truck parts.
So, overlanding seems to be a natural fusion of my two passions and a great way to get my family out exploring without the potential fun-ruining discomforts of traditional camping. I bought the Raptor in the fall of 2017 as a development vehicle for our business and use it to identify, design, test and market new products. That's just it's day job, though. On nights and weekends, it's my hobby! I'm a tinkerer/inventor/engineer, so you can expect it to be a constant evolution of trial and error instead of a nicely plotted route from start to finish. Looking forward to soaking up as much of your collective knowledge and experience as possible.
Goals
The truck is pretty capable off road as is, although it is certainly a bit of a headache in tight spaces. Truthfully, it wouldn't be my first choice of vehicle for the exclusive purpose of overlanding, but it's a truck that needs to wear many hats - daily driver and development vehicle included!
I'm most interested in making sure that we're carrying the things that we need to be comfortable and prepared in a clean, organized, accessible fashion. The catch is, I don't want to lose the general functionality of the truck during the week, if possible. This is where I could really use help - identifying the things that we will need, based on the travel that we plan to do.
'Before' Pictures
I could go on, but I'll post a few pictures instead of rambling. My next post will share where the truck currently sits. Spoiler alert - it looks damn near the same, hah.
Thanks for looking! I'm going to continue browsing, but if anybody has any specific builds that I should reference, please feel free to share a link.
Cheers, Matt
Introduction
I figured I'd use this thread to chronicle the modifications and such with my 2018 Ford Raptor. The cliffs notes of how I landed here are that I grew up spending weekends at scout camp and summers in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, so I'm definitely no stranger to camping or 'roughing it'. Fast forward a bit and I'm suddenly a mechanical engineer, working in defense. I found it hard to dedicate myself to something that I wasn't truly interested in, so I leapt at the chance to get involved in a small automotive aftermarket business here and 7yrs later, I resigned from my position running that business to start my own, designing and manufacturing truck parts.
So, overlanding seems to be a natural fusion of my two passions and a great way to get my family out exploring without the potential fun-ruining discomforts of traditional camping. I bought the Raptor in the fall of 2017 as a development vehicle for our business and use it to identify, design, test and market new products. That's just it's day job, though. On nights and weekends, it's my hobby! I'm a tinkerer/inventor/engineer, so you can expect it to be a constant evolution of trial and error instead of a nicely plotted route from start to finish. Looking forward to soaking up as much of your collective knowledge and experience as possible.
Goals
The truck is pretty capable off road as is, although it is certainly a bit of a headache in tight spaces. Truthfully, it wouldn't be my first choice of vehicle for the exclusive purpose of overlanding, but it's a truck that needs to wear many hats - daily driver and development vehicle included!
I'm most interested in making sure that we're carrying the things that we need to be comfortable and prepared in a clean, organized, accessible fashion. The catch is, I don't want to lose the general functionality of the truck during the week, if possible. This is where I could really use help - identifying the things that we will need, based on the travel that we plan to do.
'Before' Pictures
I could go on, but I'll post a few pictures instead of rambling. My next post will share where the truck currently sits. Spoiler alert - it looks damn near the same, hah.
Thanks for looking! I'm going to continue browsing, but if anybody has any specific builds that I should reference, please feel free to share a link.
Cheers, Matt
