Hello Everyone!
I am new here but necessarily new to overloading and camping. Excited to get more involved with the overloading community as my needs change from 2 to 4 wheels. Been riding motorcycles on and off road for over 30 years and have been traveling / adventure riding / camping from motorcycles for the past 7 or 8 years in my free time. I've crossed the US 5 times from coast to coast on a bike and camped along the way, my wife joining me on the last trip.
With thousands of miles off pavement and many nights spent in the woods with bare essentials I am looking forward to the positive changes having a "real" vehicle can make and the opportunity to camp A LOT more comfortably than I can off a motorcycle. I have grown very accustomed to the backpacker style of camping since having no more than 60-100 liters of packing space, sometimes much less on smaller bikes is the normal.
Now to the main reason for my shift to 4 wheels. My wife and I have had a son, he is now almost a year and a half old and loves being outside. I am exited about the coming opportunity to introduce him to the wilderness, camping and off roading. I have always preferred a motorcycle but now I finally have a great reason to switch up the camping trips and adventures to a more family oriented type of trip with a 4x4 vehicle. It'll also allow me to make my wife a lot more comfortable than the tiny tent, itty bitty stove and hikers pouch food we are used to.
We have a 2018 4Runner TRD Pro that my wife has been driving since new. We are about to trade a few vehicles, get my wife a bigger suv and I will take over the 4Runner, sparking the never-ending modifying to suit my "needs" :) I am looking forward to all the info from others, getting to know people as well as sharing anything I can add.
Here's a pic of our 4Runner on a local Fire Road in North Georgia. Still completely stock (but very capable)... for now. It's almost time for tire replacement and Iv'e been studying ways to fit some narrow 33's on the TRD wheels with no additional lift. I've cut fenders, bumpers, and even taken a hammer to body seams on my old '99 tacoma to fit 35's so ain't scared of some minor surgery!
