Overlanding Essentials

[ILLFOZZ]

I've only been a member for a few days and new to the overlanding community and wanted to know your take on the essentials to have while on the trail/camping. Please fill in your opinion and recommendations on one or more of the numbered below and feel free to add numbers and info as you go. Thanks in advance!

1) Food/water:
2) Fuel:
3) Tools:
4) Communications:
5) Survival:
6) First Aid:
7) Spare(s)/Extra parts:
8) Shelter (tent/awning):
9) Rig specific options:
10) Luxury Amenities (If any):

 

[Roam_CO85]

I've only been a member for a few days and new to the overlanding community and wanted to know your take on the essentials to have while on the trail/camping. Please fill in your opinion and recommendations on one or more of the numbered below and feel free to add numbers and info as you go. Thanks in advance!

1) Food/water:
2) Fuel:
3) Tools:
4) Communications:
5) Survival:
6) First Aid:
7) Spare(s)/Extra parts:
8) Shelter (tent/awning):
9) Rig specific options:
10) Luxury Amenities (If any):

You pretty much are on the right track. You have to look at it as what do I need to have fun but yet what do I need if things dont go right. But you have it listed in ways of what you cant live with out first which is really good. Id swap number three and six. You need water fuel food first aid comms for help and survival before anything else. Water and ways of finding it. Food and some food that you can make or eat with out heat. Fire and a gas grill. You cant always rely on a fire or charcoal if your region is under fire restrictions. A good first aid kit. Even if its never used on you. You seem to run into people that need help. And ways of self rescue or recovery or for others

Once you get the things packed you cant live with out in a survival situation than its a rig you can tie anything to it.

 

[tacoclifford]

what really helped me was to just get out and go. Just think about what you might need. Food, water, a place to sleep, a first aid kit, some way to navigate so you don’t get lost. Some way to call for help.(you may not have cell service) My first real trip was just to a campground with some dirt roads around it. That helped narrow down what I needed or wished I had. A couple weeks later I took a 4 day trip but I planned a route so I would have a chance to stop at a store to get things I needed the night before. That 4 day trip really showed me exactly what I needed.

On my first overnight trip I had a lot more food than I needed, a lot more water than I needed. I slept in my Jeep. Traveled some dirt roads and camped at a campground. It was secluded enough that I felt like I was actually out there but populated enough where If something went wrong, I wasn’t too far from help. A store was only about 20 minutes away.

I’m sure everyone else will chime in with survival stuff and making sure your safe. Aside from that, the biggest piece of advice I can give is to be comfortable. Nothing ruins an experience like being hungry because you didn’t bring enough food or freezing at night because you didn’t have warm enough clothes.

 

[Smileyshaun]

beer you forgot beer , that's the most important

 

[Gary Stevens]

Strom proof matches, very important.

 

[Wanderlost]

Congratulations! You've come to the right place for advice on what you'll need for a safe and successful overland experience. After you've been at it a while you'll custom tailor your gear list to suit your own individual needs.

What we'd like to add goes beyond the "stuff" you'll need. The most important thing you can bring with you into the backcountry is resourcefulness and knowledge. We find that most people getting into backcountry travel for the first time concentrate too much on the gear itself and not enough on exactly how to use it and more important; how to repair it.


The most crucial pieces of gear aren't the ones you carry in your hands, but the ones you carry in your head.


You're preparing a meal and your only stove won't light and there's a ground fire restriction where you're at. What do you do?

A wind storm breaks a pole and blows a hole in your tent. How do you fix it good enough to keep out the rain that's predicted for the next 48 hours?

One of your team members goes missing or worse, injured. How and where do you get help? Transport or air-lift?

Your vehicle breaks down. Do you have the mechanical ability to fix it with only duct tape and a piece of barbed wire you find on the ground? What are the week points on your vehicle that may require spare parts to be packed?

Do you know how to use the contents of a first-aid kit? What's needed in an "advanced" first-aid kit?

In many cases overlanding travel will get you into places where it may take an hour or more for emergency personnel to arrive on scene. Are you trained on extended or "wilderness" first-aid?

A Forest Service Officer pulls you over and tells you you're camping in a restricted zone or are driving on a restricted road. What do you do? How could this scene be avoided?

You packed everything but a fork. Can you survive? :)

 

[RedRob]

There’s an old saying I made up ;-)

“If the question is gear, the answer is more.”

This makes sense to me when I say it, but I don’t know if my meaning is actually clear.

If you’re asking what gear will make your (insert activity here, i.e. overlanding, gunfighting, building a deck) better, the answer is more and better gear.

Sometimes the question does need to be about gear, but the starting point is always mental preparedness.

I think one of the hardest things is the balance between being ready for what you need to be ready for while simultaneously not spending energy trying to solve problems you don’t actually have.

The struggle is ongoing. Enjoy it.

 

[Wanderlost]

There’s an old saying I made up ;-)

“If the question is gear, the answer is more.”

This makes sense to me when I say it, but I don’t know if my meaning is actually clear.

If you’re asking what gear will make your (insert activity here, i.e. overlanding, gunfighting, building a deck) better, the answer is more and better gear.

Sometimes the question does need to be about gear, but the starting point is always mental preparedness.

I think one of the hardest things is the balance between being ready for what you need to be ready for while simultaneously not spending energy trying to solve problems you don’t actually have.

The struggle is ongoing. Enjoy it.

So very true!

 

[BlueRidge150]

There’s an old saying I made up ;-)

“If the question is gear, the answer is more.”

This makes sense to me when I say it, but I don’t know if my meaning is actually clear.

If you’re asking what gear will make your (insert activity here, i.e. overlanding, gunfighting, building a deck) better, the answer is more and better gear.

Sometimes the question does need to be about gear, but the starting point is always mental preparedness.

I think one of the hardest things is the balance between being ready for what you need to be ready for while simultaneously not spending energy trying to solve problems you don’t actually have.

The struggle is ongoing. Enjoy it.

You should trademark that, coin it, or whatever it.... Thats pretty daggum good, and very accurate. (As are all the answers above).

So much time is spent researching gear, discussing gear, and less actually getting out there and using it or figuring out what you really need. This isn't a knock on the original poster by any means. I just agree with all the statements above, and have discovered it through personal experience/history. We are about to start bringing our two young kids with us for the first time, and my plan this week is to just simply camp in the backyard a night or two, and figure out do I need to bring a pack and play, or do they end up lying with us anyways...etc.

Also like mentioned above, grab the essentials and maybe a little more, and get out there and discover what else ya may want/need.

Enjoy it the experience, but have fun / be safe while doing it.

 

[Jim SoG]

Weapons, need weapons....Oh and the up-to-date laws for where you are going or you could be overlanding in a county jail.


Jim

 

[Roam_CO85]

Weapons, need weapons....Oh and the up-to-date laws for where you are going or you could be overlanding in a county jail.


Jim

Haha if your from California your squirt and nurf guns..!!

There’s an old saying I made up ;-)

“If the question is gear, the answer is more.”

This makes sense to me when I say it, but I don’t know if my meaning is actually clear.

If you’re asking what gear will make your (insert activity here, i.e. overlanding, gunfighting, building a deck) better, the answer is more and better gear.

Sometimes the question does need to be about gear, but the starting point is always mental preparedness.

I think one of the hardest things is the balance between being ready for what you need to be ready for while simultaneously not spending energy trying to solve problems you don’t actually have.

The struggle is ongoing. Enjoy it.

Your 100% correct. Copy right that and trade mark that stuff! Your best piece of gear is your brain and mindset. Watched a deal the other day that was “ right now we as people have so much into gear that is mostly not needed and your mind set is the best piece of gear we need. Our four fathers came across the west with what they had on their backs and in saddle bags....Ive lived that life for 6 years. Packing mules thousands of miles. Ive grown to like my air bed and a tent more now than I have when I had to count ounces to pounds. When each 150 lb panyard on each side of the horse was it. You can tie alot of stuff on a truck but I dont like clutter and that king sized mattress makes me look like a redneck haha so down sizing and finding a home for things is nice

Starting out with the fundamentals and building off those seemed to work for me.. or alot of people’s likes and dislikes.

 

[Horse Soldier]

You have to think the 3 C's on the west coast when the question of a firearm comes in the conversation, in California Cops and Criminals have the weapons. Ok I will step off my soap box.