Recent content by socal66

I made a series of mounting plates for the rack out of 3/16" stock with a mounting hole at the end of each plate. I modified my tent (FSR High Country) to add a pair of extruded aluminum rails of the same type towards the outer portion of the frame that aligned with the mounting holes of these...

From what I understand aside from the favorable weather during the winter months and an area which caters to and makes seasonal RV stays easy and inexpensive to do is that it attracts people who aren’t into silence and solitude. There seems whole micro communities of people that converge there...

The Gobi desert in Mongolia.

The show was a little smaller than last year’s with more open space in the fairground area. Many vendors seemed to have a smaller footprint than last year showing and bringing less items. Less vendors selling accessories and new concepts. More trailer and van vendors.

The plates that you are showing on your Volvo are on the thin side 3mm or 1/8 of an inch it appears. I use full underbody aluminum plates that are 1/4 inch thick (over 6mm) and I have routinely scraped across boulders with them and while there are some scrapes there is no tearing or breakage...

I think that Norway is one of the few countries in Europe where you can wild camp and get off pavement to a certain extent. We can do that a lot more freely here in the American southwest however even here there are rules and laws which may restrict camping or trail access in certain areas...

Doing that route in 60 days is possible just not probable (or at the very least enjoyable). I came back from an overland rally from Budapest through Freetown, Sierra Leone last month and I would have to say that the one most important thing to bring when traveling in West Africa even more so...

I use cots in my T4 and the Exped in my rooftop tent. That said I just got back from an overseas trip where I slept in a T4 for many nights using this: Sleeping Pad It was of good quality and surprisingly very comfortable given then cost just also get one of those USB powered inflators as the...

I am sitting now on my camp chair in a nice out of the way camp spot adjacent to a beach in Morocco that I found in iOverlander. The thing that it does well is to provide camp spots, notes on good places to eat and mechanic shops, etc and depending on which area of the world you’re currently...

Looks like this replaces a tax that was part of each fuel purchase so there may be minimal cost difference in the end. The toll fee is less than 6 cents (US) per km travelled. I think the main driver for this switch is there are more EVs on the road there and as that number increases that...

The 3 does seem to be a lot easier to use and message to/from without a phone than the prior versions. That said a Starlink mini with the base $5 monthly fee is both cheaper for the unit and ongoing monthly costs than the Garmin while also being a lot more capable. My mobile provider T-Mobile...

I did look into that and it was always in my plan before I found the cost to be around $3K which is actually a little more than what it is costs to send a vehicle in a container to Europe. When I finally take the trip it will be when I can commit to a lengthier timeframe and at some point I’ll...

Alaska is on my pending list as well. It is quite the time commitment though. It takes a week of full day driving every day to just get there and then at the end there will be another week to get back. Once you are there the state is twice as large as Texas so lots of miles in between...

Alaska?

We rented a vehicle for a couple of weeks in Mongolia with the most basic of camp and kitchen kits to tour the countryside. The simplicity introduced by having just a few items made it easy to setup and take down camp each day and was actually a refreshing change of pace from the fully geared...