An overlanding setup—a vehicle equipped with camping gear and off-road upgrades—is an instant base camp for whatever you do in the backcountry, be it biking, skiing, or hiking. Outdoor enthusiasts are running with the idea, and the marquee event to show off your rig is the semiannual Overland Expo, which takes place in Flagstaff, Arizona, in the spring and Asheville, North Carolina, in the fall. A crew of our editors recently attended the Flagstaff event to check out the latest overlanding gear and the thousands of vehicles that drove in from around the world. Here are 11 of our favorites.
Above: Mike Montanez, a former Air Force pararescueman, modified his 2014 Toyota 4Runner for his new business, Ten8 Rescue, which teaches rescue techniques to the overlanding community. Since such vehicles are often on high-consequence roads, Montanez wants people to be prepared in the event that, say, a car rolls down an embankment. He carries a rope kit in the back and chose parts, like his 4x4Labs front bumper, that can act as an anchor if he needs to repel down to rescue a driver. He also plans to outfit the inside of the 4Runner to accommodate a wilderness stretcher.
