Interesting vid and great conversation starter. Since you've asked for our opinions on your opinions, here's my take.
I care a lot about function and looks, though what I care about in looks is more about balance, symmetry, and flow than it is about what gear I have visible. Function, well, I care about function in that things work well and last a long time. I tend to get gear that will probably outlast me.
- SKOTTLE: Bought one four years ago to see for
myself what all the hype was about; saw immediately it wasn't for me and wouldn't play nice at all with my packing system, and sold it for as much as I paid before ever using it.
- HIGH LIFT: I have one and am keeping it, as they can be useful tools around home and on the road if you know what you're doing. I've used one since I was a teen working tobacco and dairy farms on everything from hay wagons to fencing. I think most folks are wise to
not get one, though, unless already well-experienced with one. Buying one to mostly display and show you
have one is the wrong reason.
- MAXTRAX: I regularly carry a couple different traction aids, including maxtrax, and can certainly vouch that the composite they use is far more worth extra pesos than that of many of their imitators and competitors. I also love my folding Traction-Jacks, though it appears they may no longer be in production. Between the two styles, often in combo, I have been able to extricate myself,
by myself, every time I've needed to use them over the years, from sandy beaches around the Gulf, to midwestern mud, to Chihuahuan Desert river flats.
Sunk into a buried firepit. Deeper than it looks, the working shelf to the right of the orange maxtrax is a full shovel height or more from grade, where I piled the sand.
The combo of the tread and stoutness of the maxtrax, along with the fact the the Traction Jacks fold in the middle, allowed a steeper ramp and quicker climb out and eliminated the need for a tow.
- ROOTOP TENT: I have a rooftop tent, and as I've written in another of your threads about RTT's, I love my hardshell popup for its ease of use and the fact that it withstands big weather and a wider array of environments
much more easily than any ground tent I've used other that my Oztent, which cost me more than my RTT. I've used a lot of tents in over sixty years of camping, and my hardshell is by far the most comfortable sleep I've had in any weather of any tent I've ever used, including my Oztent. I wouldn't have or keep a soft-sided fold out roof top tent if it was given to me.
I was much like you before I tried it. Then found I was wrong about setup and tear down, being weatherproof, overall ease of use or climbing the ladder (pee jugs are your friend at night, for both genders), or that it would change my CoG more than I wanted. I wouldn't put one on top of my van, and am not a fan of one on any already tall vehicle, though on my trailer with a raise-able rack, it works perfectly for me.
Ground Tent Sites: I have to disagree with you about always finding a spot. I've camped a ton of places where the ground is unsuitable for a ground tent, either because it is too full of roots, sharp cacti thorns, or is so out of level as to be impossible to sleep without rolling downhill.
I can always level up one side of my trailer though, even on the roughest of ground, and have a quickly-deployed, ready-to-use, comfortable and level bed ready to jump into. I've pulled into sites with friends using ground tents and been up in bed before they found a level, or large enough, spot on which to pitch their tent, much less had it up. It's also easier and more legal to use in many road side rests where I might stop for the night where you can't put a tent on the ground but can slide a pop out on an RV or pop up a tent on a vehicle. THAT can be a life saver on trips through places like west Texas.
Loaded, leveled up, and ready to set up.
My rooftop tent is now the premium sleeping space in my camps. Company always gets the RTT and I sleep in the van or a hammock, if any trees are around.
- AWNINGS: I have a BAA and love it. That means Big-Assed-Awning, larger than most. It's actually a Bundutec from So Africa, and is considered a 360 in that it wraps both ends and one full side of my trailer, providing an immense amount of space underneath, especially with sidewalls up.
I've used tarps and rigged canopies for decades, both free-standing and attached to vehicles, as well as store-bought tarp setups like the
Slumberjack Roadhouse Tarp stretched off the back of my vehicle like you show. In the end, I will opt for my trailer awning every time. In fact, I have another (270 in style) to put on my van when away from the trailer because they are far easier and far more stout and reflective of heat than any tarp setup I've ever used.
My awning is so much quicker and easier to deploy and pack back up than it is to rig a tarp or canopy; provides an immense amount of shade and cover from inclement weather, and best of all is easily expandable to an enclosed structure that is easy to heat or in which to stay out of wind and rain; important to me when working on projects, whether photographic or journalistic. As for wind, I've always packed up my tarp setups in any wind bad enough to warrant packing up my awning.
I often complement my BAA with
FPG Thermashield field blankets, which have an inner Reflectec® layer that has to be used to understand how amazingly effective it is. They pack small, and pack a wallop of comfort and safety.
My awning setup is certainly not for every 'overlander" or camper's style of travel, though I use it as much for quick stops and single overnights as I do for extended stay basecamps.
- OVERLAND BLING: I'm not into buying things to display on the outside of my vehicle to prove I am an "overlander," or for the cool kid factor. In fact, you don't see any gear hanging on my vehicle in my images. I am not a fan of overtly displaying gear for the sake of letting others know I have it, so I must be cool, too. Same with fuel containers, shovels, traction boards, type of wheels, and so much more.
Ostentatious display and conspicuous consumption are not my style. I'm not even a fan of branding my vehicle and trailer with my name, stickers, brands, etc. With as many environments as I travel through; urban, rural, borderlands and back country, I'd much rather be more anonymous in appearance.
In fact, I don't even drive what most folks, especially newbies over the last several years, would consider an 'overland' rig. Though I get out there more, and spend more time adventuring all over North America both way back country and not, and engaging with those I meet far more than most others on this continent. To the tune of an avg 300-325 nights a year pre-pandemic.
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So, I agree with some of your opinions, not with others, and think that some of your opinions have been formed without actually trying what you're talking about. Though you have allowed with some things that "maybe someday..."
In the end, what matters is to know and understand that there is no one right way to 'overland' or adventure. What works for you may not work for another, and what you eschew for one reason or another, even if just perceived, may work fabulously for someone else.
The real trick is, in my experience, to actually try the things before deciding for or against one bit of kit or another. Form your own opinions based on hands-on experience, not hearsay, projection, or that you think would be easy or hard. What looks hard or cumbersome is often in fact the best, easiest, and most comfortable solution.
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