Love for the outdoors

[M Rose]

Welcome to Overland Bound Mike (@Slimpartywagon)! It sounds like you have had a great deal of experience putting together your adventure vehicles. It would be great if you could post up a thread describing what you learned and did differently each time. @Jedi.

First off, Jedi is referring to my 4 1/2 builds I have completed. First was a 1960 Willies Wagon, Then came my 79 Ford E150 conversion van, after that was a 1989 Ford 2wd Dually quad cab, next up was a 2000 Dodge Ram 2500 gasser, tallied by finally my current build a 1989 Ford Full-size Bronco. I also had an 1989 Jeep Cherokee XJ Laredo, 1989 Ford F-150 extended cab, and a 1985 Bronco II.

So each vehicle was chosen and built to fill a certain need in my life. So we will start with the Wagon and Bronco II. I had a 2 wheel drive mini truck that just couldn’t make it up in the mountains of North East Oregon, and barely made it on the paved roads once winter hit. I bought the wagon to comfortably take myself and friends canoeing at the local lakes during the summer, and to bring home the elk in the fall. The Jeep did great in the summer but was too big for my favorite mount roads once the snow hit, so I got the Bronco II for snow runs.

After I joined the Army I quickly realized that I needed something that would carry me comfortably to my fishing holes in Colorado back home to my hunting spots, and up to the top of Cheyenne Mountain. I chose the van because A) it was cheap, and B) because it had lots of room. I had plans of making a full out 4wd camper van out of it but got as far as getting it converted to 4wd before my ex wife ran it out of oil.
Then I PCSed (moved) to El Paso Texas where I needed a dune explorer so I bought the Ford Dually and I was given an old cab over camper. I spent many weekends exploring the desert on both sides of the border in that old rig.
I moved again this time up to the hill country of central Texas and needed another fishing rig so built out a 2wd F-150 with a bed topper.
After 4 years there I was told I was moving to Upstate NY where the Alaskan National Guard goes for their cold weather training, so I traded in the Fords and got my XJ to be my dd. Once getting to New York I quickly realized I need a camping/fishing rig yet once again, so the build began from scratch.
After deploying 2 times I was medically discharged. I sold the XJ and bought a 1995 Dodge Ram 1500 to haul my stuff back to Colorado with. But on the day of departure I got a call that my mom was dieing back in Oregon. So since I was all packed up and ready to hit the road I came all the way back here. Once back in Oregon I picked up a few ATVs and decided I needed a truck better suited for hauling them so I got my Dodge Ram 2500. It slowly turned from a lifted show truck with mild towing in mind to a dedicated trail and camping rig. I pulled several different camp trailers with it before I made it completely self contained.
Then this winter the tired motor in my old Ram finally gave up the ghost and she decided that camping, hunting, and fishing weren’t in her vocabulary any more so I started looking for a new rig to dd as well as become my new “Adventure Machine”. I found a Full-size Bronco with a straight body needing lots of work for cheap so the sucker I am bought it.

So what did I learn... first every rig I had was bought first as a DD and second for overlanding. Drive it stock until you have a firm understanding what your needs are. Like I’m not going to make the Bronco self contained like my Ram, I’m probably going to build a camp box for my flat deck trailer instead. Make it module so you can change it easily if your tastes change. And lastly don’t take a free camper.