Member Introductions *NEW MEMBERS INTRODUCE YOURSELF*

[Shahn]

Hey there,

Troy from Edmonton, AB, Canada, joined tonight (Nov 28, 2021).

Rig: '21 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon with Sky-One Touch
Trailer: Semi-custom off-road teardrop.

New to owning an overland rig and trailer, but first had experience with some of the lifestyle while beach camping in a 70 series on Fraser Island, Australia in 2004.

Why I joined:

It was August of 2020, the first summer of the pandemic that my wife and I were ground camping at Tunnel Mountain in Banff. Beside us was David and his DIY teardrop. After coming back from the restroom one day on our trip, my wife was at David's site looking at the teardrop. I meandered over to say hi and take a look. Like many, I had seen teardrops on the road, but never really got up close to one. David was sharing his story how he bought this DIY trailer off someone a year or so before, and spent as much time in it as possible. The ability to sleep off the ground, have shelter and a nice little kitchen setup with a roof appeared to be appealing to me. Was this something I have longed for but didn’t know about it?

I started to think about what life could be like if we had a trailer and a new tow vehicle. At the time we had three vehicles, all great, but nothing tow worthy. During this time, the new Bronco was all the rage. By the end of the weekend, I put down deposits for not one, but two new Bronco's. My first vehicle as an '88 Bronco II, so getting the new full-sized Bronco was quite appealing. Fast forward to today, we have a '21 Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon, and that story is for another time.

So now that a tow vehicle is on order, I went to my wife to say that I think my journey with the Audi, fast cars, race tracks and exotic cars was coming to a temporary end. As an Owner of a commercial interior architectural design firm, stress is always there. I knew I needed a change. And the sale of the Audi would be the means to get there. To me, the outdoors has always been a relief. At this time, I didn't really know what "overlanding" was. I knew it as adventuring by vehicle, didn't know there was a term for it. Yes, years earlier I had seen Expedition Overland on YouTube and watched a few videos, but that was it. So this was a all new to me and us.

So now that the seed was planed, I started to research trailer manufacturers. Locally there was Off Grid Trailers and Mission Overland. A few others as well, but being a designer and someone who wanted value, spending $40-60,000 cdn on the trailer didn't seem right. After more research, I found Northern Teardrop Trailer in Salmo, BC. Then I saw in person a trailer they built for a local Jeep/off-road shop on a custom chassis built by that shop. This got me thinking about doing the same.

By September 2020, my wife and I were near Salmo, BC and stopped in to see Dale at Northern Teardrop Trailer. He showed us his shop and shared his past construction experience as well as how they build their trailers. As someone who has been involved in large scale commercial construction projects, I was keen on Dale's attention to detail and how every year he makes tweaks to make the trailers better. They only build 20-22 trailers a year. As such, I knew that this thing would have a lot of quality controls in place which appealed to me. A couple of months later, with the Audi now sold, I sent in our deposit on November 18, 2020 knowing full well that we would be the last pick-up for 2021.

Over the course of 50 weeks, we worked with Dale on various details and tweaks. We also worked with Travis Kruger of Innovative Welding in Edmonton, AB on the chassis design/fabrication (he has done chassis for Off-Grid Trailer and Mission Overland). Taking queues of other trailers I liked, the chassis was designed and fabricated (see previous posts).

By April, 2020, we delivered the completed chassis to Northern Teardrop Trailer and there it would sit until it was done.

Fast forward to last month. I took a 3 day, 1800km round trip to get the trailer. Salmo, BC is about 900km SW from Edmonton. The most direct route from Edmonton, is via the Kootenay Pass which is part of the Crowsnest Highway. The Kootenay Pass is one of the highest highway-served passes in Canada that is open year-round, although it is frequently closed in bad weather for avalanche control and clearing of debris. As we were entering the winter season, there was a bit of concern of road conditions. A bit more of that to come.

The plan was:
- Day 1: Drive from Edmonton to Creston, with an overnight in Creston.
- Day 2: Drive from Creston to Northern Teardrop Trailer, get the trailer, and start to drive to Edmonton. Roads being a factor, maybe drive all the way back or find a hotel on the route.

Looking back, I have always had an adventurous spirit. It has gone dormant from time to time, but when it awakens from its sleep, it comes out bigger than ever. I'm not sure what the future holds. Do I continue to work and travel? Do I look at a new career that allows me more adventure time and the ability to disconnect a bit more? Do I find new life in my career as a designer? No idea. But what I do know is that this trailer is going to be a life changer, and just maybe it can help me encounter things I could never have imagined and help shape my life even more. As life continues, I'm sure to be on here more and more as well as reading other stories and exploring and being adventurous at every step of the journey.

Greetings Troy and welcome to Overland Bound!

 

[Shahn]

Location: Colorado (mostly, I travel full time)

Rig: 2012 Toyota 4Runner Trail

Experience: Always learning!I’m on the trails,in the mountains, every day that I’m not required to be in the office. I’ve been living out of my 4Runner for a bit over a year, had a year out of an FJ Cruiser prior.

I’m happy to be member #41079 and look forward to trading stories and adventures!

My IG contact info is @nomadic_t4r

Greetings Jayson and welcome to Overland Bound!

 

[Shahn]

Hey All. I’m Sam from Houston. I have a 2005 LR3. I’m incredibly new to overlanding. I have always wanted to do it, but found excuses why I couldn’t. If I’ve learned anything over the last couple of years it’s that there is no time like the present, so I finally decided to go for it. Looking forward to getting to know the local group, and having some fun.

Best,

SM

Greetings Sam and welcome to Overland Bound!

 

[Shahn]

Hello Fellow Adventurers. My name is Boyd. Just getting started doing some overland adventures with my two Jeep Grand Cherokees. My son drives my 2004 WJ as his primary so I am hoping he wants to explore the wilderness with me. Looking forward to learning from all the experience here and hopefully helping out when I can! Thank You for having me!
Location: Fort Wayne, Indiana
Current Vehicle: 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited
Other Vehicle: 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee Special Edition
Overland Experience: Novice-like
Why Overlanding?: I do a lot of dual sport and off road motorcycle riding. I have found myself wanting to share my love of outdoors with other people that do not ride bikes. Also I have relearned the love of camping so I hope to get out and camp in some remote areas.

Greetings Boyd and welcome to Overland Bound!

 

[Shahn]

Hello! I'm a novice to overlanding but have been trail riding for a number of years. My rig is a 2007 Jeep JKUR still in the process of building. I share a cabin in Bear Gulch just outside of Twin Bridges Montana with other family members. I have not been up in a number of years but looking to put toghether a trip with the cabin being the end point. I'm sure there are lots of phenominal routes to do along the way. I'm sure I'll reach out for pointers and tips along the process.

Greetings Trevor and welcome to Overland Bound!

 

[Camguti]

Hello Everyone! I’ve been following Overland Bound for years, but recently decided to give OBO a shot. Looking forward to being part of the community!
- Cam

 

[200LC]

Hi to everyone,
Thanks so much Roots66
New to the community been watching OB videos for a couple yrs now, decided it's time to get involved. We are interested in the different places people have been looking forward to checking out the maps. We usually take 2-3 day trips last couple yrs, looking forward to putting longer trips in the schedule. We joined this community for all of the resources it has to offer. Our current rigs

2008 200 Series Land Cruiser
2012 FJ Cruiser
2018 Ram 2500 cummins

Pics Included Below

I have a question we joined the membership but I don't see anything stated as member with our avatar??

Hello Dan, welcome to the OB family.

 

[roots66]

Hi there, my name is Storm and I wanted to stop by and thank you all for adding me to the group. I'm new to the El Dorado Hills area moving in from Colorado. My wife grew up here and with twins, we needed to be closer to family. I love wheeling my 2018 Jeep Wk Trailhawk. It has some tasteful and functional upgrades to make it as capable as possible. I grew up going to the desert in SoCal riding dirtbikes and various other outdoor activities. My setup is very simple currently although with family more creature comforts are on the way like a Shift Pod. Looking forward to linking up with more folks that like to get out, and get lost. - Stay hungry and stay humble

Location: El Dorado Hills, CA
Rig: 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trailhawk
Experience: I

Hello Storm, welcome to the OB family.

 

[roots66]

Hi, here is Walker. Can’t wait to get out and explore!

Location: Painesville, Ohio
Rig: 2019 Ford Ranger xlt sport
Novice to overlanding.

Hello Walker, welcome to the OB family.

 

[roots66]

Hello fellow Overbound Members!
I’m excited to be a new member of the community!
I’m located in San Diego, CA.
My rig is a 05 Toyota Tundra which I call Picante. I’m the original owner and spent the last year turning her into a proper overland vehicle. I gave her a fresh coat of paint, upgraded her suspension with Bilstien shocks, put on new wheels, and built out the camper. I just got back from taking her on her maiden voyage since the makeover. We traveled through the back country of Northern and Central Arizona.
I’m no stranger to overlanding, although we called it off-roading back in the day. Me and my buddies spent a lot of time traveling in Baja California looking for secluded surf spots.
If you are traveling the back country of the American West and happen to spot a deep red 1st gen Tundra driven by a guy wearing a western style hat… feel free to come over and say hello.

Hello Phil, welcome to the OB family.

 

[roots66]

I’m excited to be new to the community! Our family has been off-roading for a few years, but have recently gotten into overlanding with our 1967 m416 military trailer. I can’t wait to get involved!

Hello Jason, welcome to the OB family.

 

[roots66]

Hello, my name is Morgan, and I’m new here. Haha

I drive a 16’ Chevy Colorado. Just started mods on it. I built the roof rack and am in the process of building a rooftop tent. Needless to say at this point, I like building stuff.

Hello Morgan (@Sixpack ), welcome to Overland Bound. I am your Southwest Region Member Rep for Texas. Glad to see another Collie owner.

There is a San Antonio Meet Up here: San Antonio Monthly Meetup - Eisenhauer Park

If you are in the area, Houston area has this new Meet Up they just started: Recurring Bryan College Station Meet-up

Also, the one we attend is in Round Rock: Recurring - North Central Texas Meet & Greet

Local information and involvement opportunities can be found here: Southwest Region (AZ/NM/TX/OK)

Looking to meet fellow members? Check out the Meet-Up event page: Overland Bound Meetups

Events in the SW region can be found here: Overland Bound Events SW Region

Want to know what members are planning? You can find out here: Overland Trip Planning

If you have any questions, please just let me know.

 

[roots66]

Hey all, hope all is well and turkey day is going awesome. I finally sat down, down loaded the app and trying to figure it all out.
Rig: 2012 Chevy Silverado
Location: Camarillo CA.
History: Grew up in Wyoming hunting and fishing. 21 yr Airforce Doghandler Vet. Haven't be out exploring CA since moving out here 2 yrs ago.
Anyway. Thanks for the invite and the opportunity to get out of the house...

Hello Jim, welcome to the OB family and thank you for your service.

 

[roots66]

Hello all.
Happy Thanksgiving,I hope everyone has a wonderful day with family!
Just a quick introduction,my name is Dave and I am from Edmond,OK.
My name wife and I like to travel and explore in our 2018 JK Rubicon Recon.
We have been involved in the offroad community for a few years and have had many great trips around the midwest.
In years past I have been primarily into trail riding and rock crawling in my 1991 YJ Wrangler that I have built and upgraded over the years.
Nowadays though we are looking to do more long travel exploration and adventuring so to compliment our Rubicon I am currently building and adventure trailer that we can take along on our journeys.
I am excited to have discovered this community and I look forward to meeting like minded adventurous people!

Hello Dave, welcome to the OB family.

 

[roots66]

Michael from the California San Joaquin valley. 2008 Jeep JK Unlimited on 37's that we've rock crawled in California and Moab. Time to dial it back and do some easier trails and just enjoy the scenery.

Hello Michael, welcome to the OB family.

 

[roots66]

Hi! I'm Candice, recently relocated in Colorado (my native state) after being in California for 20+ years. I'm a rookie at overlanding and looking to learn about possible vehicle mods for my 2019 RAV4 Limited, and/or if mods are even necessary. I look forward to participating in a community where I can meet like minded people while enjoying the outdoors, each other or our vehicles. I used to camp with my dad a lot as a kid but have not gone camping much as an adult, so I'm hoping to get that spark for the joy of camping again. I think facing mother nature builds character and confidence. If you have any recommendations in Colorado for newbies like me in vehicles like mine, please do let me know! I'm looking forward to scenic drives, camping, hiking and learning about my vehicle and driving off-road skills!

Hello Candice, welcome to the OB family.

 

[roots66]

Hello!

My name is Reed, I'm from East Texas but in college right now at Dallas Baptist University. I drive a 2001 Jeep Wrangler T. I am pretty new to overlanding but not the outdoor lifestyle. I have loved camping and being outdoors all my life and have made great memories camping, backpacking, canoeing, climbing, etc. and now want to experience a new way to enjoy the outdoors through overlanding. I have been on a couple small trips already and loved it so I'm excited to learn and possibly hit some trails with some of y'all!
View attachment 216922

Hello Reed (@burdetter16 ), welcome to Overland Bound. I am your Southwest Region Member Rep for Texas. Sounds like you are all set for adventure.

There are a couple DFW area meetups you can check out here: DFW OB meet and greet & DFW - Meet & Greet

Local information and involvement opportunities can be found here: Southwest Region (AZ/NM/TX/OK)

Looking to meet fellow members? Check out the Meet-Up event page: Overland Bound Meetups

Events in the SW region can be found here: Overland Bound Events SW Region

Want to know what members are planning? You can find out here: Overland Trip Planning

If you have any questions, please just let me know.

 

[roots66]

Location: San Diego, CA
Current Vehicle: 1993 Isuzu Trooper LS
Other Vehicle: 1990 Jeep Comanche
Overland Experience: Novice-like
Why Overlanding?: with a background in 4x4 exploring (no camping), backpacking, car-camping and such, it just seemed natural to upgrade the Trooper we'd used to haul Boy Scouts all over the Eastern Sierra and Berdoo, making it into a rig for my son, out dog and me. We're into it for the travel, for the remote fishing lakes, the backroads...

Hello Erik, welcome to the OB family.

 

[roots66]

Hi Everyone,
My name is Charlie I retired from the Navy in 1999 as a Chief Quartermaster (QMC). I retired from the Xerox Corporation in 2019. My Ham call sign is KD9AMZ. I live in South East Wisconsin and drive a 2013 Jeep Wrangler Sport. I am a Novice Overlander. Looking forward to traveling off the beaten path.

Hello Charlie, welcome to the OB family and thank you for your service.

 

[roots66]

Hey there,

Troy from Edmonton, AB, Canada, joined tonight (Nov 28, 2021).

Rig: '21 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon with Sky-One Touch
Trailer: Semi-custom off-road teardrop.

New to owning an overland rig and trailer, but first had experience with some of the lifestyle while beach camping in a 70 series on Fraser Island, Australia in 2004.

Why I joined:

It was August of 2020, the first summer of the pandemic that my wife and I were ground camping at Tunnel Mountain in Banff. Beside us was David and his DIY teardrop. After coming back from the restroom one day on our trip, my wife was at David's site looking at the teardrop. I meandered over to say hi and take a look. Like many, I had seen teardrops on the road, but never really got up close to one. David was sharing his story how he bought this DIY trailer off someone a year or so before, and spent as much time in it as possible. The ability to sleep off the ground, have shelter and a nice little kitchen setup with a roof appeared to be appealing to me. Was this something I have longed for but didn’t know about it?

I started to think about what life could be like if we had a trailer and a new tow vehicle. At the time we had three vehicles, all great, but nothing tow worthy. During this time, the new Bronco was all the rage. By the end of the weekend, I put down deposits for not one, but two new Bronco's. My first vehicle as an '88 Bronco II, so getting the new full-sized Bronco was quite appealing. Fast forward to today, we have a '21 Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon, and that story is for another time.

So now that a tow vehicle is on order, I went to my wife to say that I think my journey with the Audi, fast cars, race tracks and exotic cars was coming to a temporary end. As an Owner of a commercial interior architectural design firm, stress is always there. I knew I needed a change. And the sale of the Audi would be the means to get there. To me, the outdoors has always been a relief. At this time, I didn't really know what "overlanding" was. I knew it as adventuring by vehicle, didn't know there was a term for it. Yes, years earlier I had seen Expedition Overland on YouTube and watched a few videos, but that was it. So this was a all new to me and us.

So now that the seed was planed, I started to research trailer manufacturers. Locally there was Off Grid Trailers and Mission Overland. A few others as well, but being a designer and someone who wanted value, spending $40-60,000 cdn on the trailer didn't seem right. After more research, I found Northern Teardrop Trailer in Salmo, BC. Then I saw in person a trailer they built for a local Jeep/off-road shop on a custom chassis built by that shop. This got me thinking about doing the same.

By September 2020, my wife and I were near Salmo, BC and stopped in to see Dale at Northern Teardrop Trailer. He showed us his shop and shared his past construction experience as well as how they build their trailers. As someone who has been involved in large scale commercial construction projects, I was keen on Dale's attention to detail and how every year he makes tweaks to make the trailers better. They only build 20-22 trailers a year. As such, I knew that this thing would have a lot of quality controls in place which appealed to me. A couple of months later, with the Audi now sold, I sent in our deposit on November 18, 2020 knowing full well that we would be the last pick-up for 2021.

Over the course of 50 weeks, we worked with Dale on various details and tweaks. We also worked with Travis Kruger of Innovative Welding in Edmonton, AB on the chassis design/fabrication (he has done chassis for Off-Grid Trailer and Mission Overland). Taking queues of other trailers I liked, the chassis was designed and fabricated (see previous posts).

By April, 2020, we delivered the completed chassis to Northern Teardrop Trailer and there it would sit until it was done.

Fast forward to last month. I took a 3 day, 1800km round trip to get the trailer. Salmo, BC is about 900km SW from Edmonton. The most direct route from Edmonton, is via the Kootenay Pass which is part of the Crowsnest Highway. The Kootenay Pass is one of the highest highway-served passes in Canada that is open year-round, although it is frequently closed in bad weather for avalanche control and clearing of debris. As we were entering the winter season, there was a bit of concern of road conditions. A bit more of that to come.

The plan was:
- Day 1: Drive from Edmonton to Creston, with an overnight in Creston.
- Day 2: Drive from Creston to Northern Teardrop Trailer, get the trailer, and start to drive to Edmonton. Roads being a factor, maybe drive all the way back or find a hotel on the route.

Looking back, I have always had an adventurous spirit. It has gone dormant from time to time, but when it awakens from its sleep, it comes out bigger than ever. I'm not sure what the future holds. Do I continue to work and travel? Do I look at a new career that allows me more adventure time and the ability to disconnect a bit more? Do I find new life in my career as a designer? No idea. But what I do know is that this trailer is going to be a life changer, and just maybe it can help me encounter things I could never have imagined and help shape my life even more. As life continues, I'm sure to be on here more and more as well as reading other stories and exploring and being adventurous at every step of the journey.

Hello Troy, welcome to the OB family.