So, why'd you buy the overland vehicle you did?

[MazeVX]

I wanted a car that's so capable of offroading that I only use 50% of its possibilities while doing what I want.
It should be closed, so all pickups out... It must fit in my budget, all Toyotas out... I need a serious engine, Defender out... I want solid axles front and rear.
So I bought a wrangler unlimited

Sent from my F5321 using OB Talk mobile app

 

[Revere]

I went with the Jeep Grand Cherokee (WK) because it had a nice blend of everything I needed! I wanted something that was comfortable on the road, but capable off road with minimum modifications, while not costing over $10k. Ended up with a 2007 Overland trim, which comes stock with lockers F+R, for under $8k! I did a short video about why I chose it with some clips illustrating what I mean!

 

[m0to]

I had owned a Silverado 2500 for 10 years before and was looking at a Tacoma when the new Colorado came out. So, that's my ride.

I've always owned trucks (except for the one time I owned a Grand Cherokee) and my current truck just happened to be the one I had when I got into overlanding. I didn't even know there was a name for it. We would just go adventuring and I had bought a RTT because I was tired of sleeping on the ground. Someone asked me if I overlanded. Turns out, I'm super happy with the truck and what it can do.

 

[Eric Neal]

Needed a small pickup truck for gardening and hauling "stuff". Drove past a shopping center and saw a Ford Ranger with ForSale sign in window. Swung by next day, still there so I stopped and looked it over.

What I liked was "pre-beat up"... so no kicking myself if I scratch or ding it up, price was set at $5K so thought I could get it lower, had 4x4 so that was a plus but brought concerns about fuel mileage and service. Also came with rock sliders, skid plates, 4.0L V6 (same engine as wife's 1999 Eddie Bauer Explorer - which we've put over 280K miles on). Met the dad of the high school young man who owned it - test drove, made offer - drove it home.

Used it as a DD (after giving our college daughter my Honda Accord) for a year, then I retired!

The Ranger has handled chores marvelously. I've always been a camping nut - but usually backpacks w/ wife. With this little truck w started "car camping with benefits" in N. GA/TN/NC and loved how it handled everything. Still love it! Made a few mods to lift 2", new BFG KO2 tires, replaced most engine gaskets, seals, hoses, and all fluids (just giving it the TLC it should have had before I bought it).

What is great (lucky) for me is that any service & maintenance projects I've done on the Explorer are virtually the same as on my "new" Ranger! So not having to deal with "another learning curve" has really been a positive.

Then I discovered OB last year... and, "... the road goes on forever and the party never ends".

 

[Dakota Houligans]

We picked out the Bronco because I already had a short box regular cap F-150 with lockers and gears. I wrecked the F-150. So after some thinking we decided on a bronco so I could use the good parts of the truck to build the Bronco. The plan from the beginning was to use it as a hunting, camping, off-roading, exploring, abuse it and go home type of vehicle. The bronco was nice due to the size for dogs and kids to ride along.

 

[Runnen4fun]

I always had lowered cars before and I enjoyed the way the handled but my back and my knee not so much sitting in stop and go traffic every day with a bad knee in a manual trans just sucks my subaru had 310000 on it and my wife kept bugging me about how I needed something nicer and safer to haul the kids in.

So I told her if I was going to get anything it would be what I really wanted I knew it was a 2016 4 runner so I looked at all the options and comparable vehicles and found that no one else makes anything like it the LC is awesome but I didn’t have $85k I loved the TRD pro but they were charging 10k over Msrp so I had to be realistic the sr5 is great and I get the extra seats it has just enough tech for me nothing over the top more electronics means more stuffs to break all around it was exactly what I needed.

The only negatives I have heard about them is that they don’t have enough tech and they don’t get as good mileage as other vehicles. For me that’s crap if you want good mileage buy a Prius if you want 4wheel drive buy a truck.

Don’t get me wrong the Subaru was the most reliable car I have ever owned I would recommend them to anyone but I wanted more space with two kids and a dog this is great I love the 4runner no going back for me I am a mechanic I have worked on a lot of cars nobody comes close to Toyota’s simple but reliable building. Don’t get me wrong I love all cars I also own an xterra a 79 bronco and a 72 Datsun 510 but for a DD that is off road capable the 4runner is it. That is just me not saying that you won’t have your own opinion just giveing mine.

 

[llewdis]

Back in my college days I had a '84 CJ7 and got into off road camping as a cheap and easy way to see the local scenery and be gone for a couple days at a time. Then came a bunch of things like marriage, kids, work, etc and my priorities changed. Goodbye Jeep, hello family car. I got the bug again a couple of years ago and picked up a '16 Jeep WU but could never seem to work the time to go off road into my schedule. Now, the wife and kids are on board with camping so I ditched the '16 Jeep (sorry guys!) and picked up a '13 TOY LC as the "family" overlanding vehicle. Meanwhile I was still investigating land cruisers and along came an '80 TOY LC BJ42 diesel import from Australia that I couldn't resist. Now I am slowly working to convert it from a working truck to an overland vehicle (just minor changes).