Has overlanding become elitist ?

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Tank

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Are we being elitist asking if we are elitist? The word overlander usually starts a barrage of flaming comments on most of the wheeling sites I’m on. So I say, Hey! It’s one time in my life I’m not a dirtbag. I can call myself a G-dam elitist overlander and if you don’t like it F off.
But.... that’s how I roll.
 

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Are we being elitist asking if we are elitist? The word overlander usually starts a barrage of flaming comments on most of the wheeling sites I’m on. So I say, Hey! It’s one time in my life I’m not a dirtbag. I can call myself a G-dam elitist overlander and if you don’t like it F off.
But.... that’s how I roll.
Well F off. LOL I like how you roll...
 
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Lanlubber In Remembrance

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Are we being elitist asking if we are elitist? The word overlander usually starts a barrage of flaming comments on most of the wheeling sites I’m on. So I say, Hey! It’s one time in my life I’m not a dirtbag. I can call myself a G-dam elitist overlander and if you don’t like it F off.
But.... that’s how I roll.
WOW, who was that intended for out of curiosity ?
 

Anak

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Was waiting for that one....was gonna say that must be straight from the source
Yep.

It's just another level of elite, waiting to be claimed: Truly elite overlanders pack the freshest of milk, with no wasteful plastic packaging of any kind. Instead of a bumper mounted spare tire/Jerry can/Hi-Lift they have a swing out cow carrier.

ETA: The cow should not be regarded as a single purpose accessory. It can serve as a tent heater and as a winch. Though not necessarily as powerful as many modern winches it comes with the benefit of not needing anything to tie off to. It is the ultimate tree saver. Well, provided it doesn't eat the young saplings...

Given time to develop this idea I am sure there can be more benefits to packing along a cow. This may indeed be the next great thing for the truly elite. Start shopping for your Holstein now, before the prices go sky-high.
 
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Just go out, have fun and tread lightly...the rest will work itself out.
 
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mdill

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As a couple who do a lot of solo Overlanding we have built our rig up to be able to deal with whatever gets thrown at us. going on long distance trips or into areas that don't have much info requires us to be prepared. Now throw in our love of high quality gear and its a recipe for spending. We dont have kids, a cabin or any other expensive hobbies. For us Overlanding is our escape and I would way rather spend the money on the gear to make sure we are safe rather than save money and "see what happens"
 
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Tank

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WOW, who was that intended for out of curiosity ?
Actually myself. I don’t think we should try to explain why we are not elitist. Some replies sound elitist in their explanation to define overlanding. I’ve excepted the fact that others outside of our passion will usually label us. I drive, camp, explore, fish, hike, photograph, 4 wheel, and prepare food on a fire. That’s all.

On another note. A few decades ago I lived in Albuquerque and attended UNM. Hope all is well in the land of enchantment!
I miss it a lot.
 

grubworm

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I don’t think we should try to explain why we are not elitist.
True. Just like people calling others "racist" for no reason other than to stir the pot. They can't prove you are and you can't prove youre not, so it just becomes a circular argument that goes way down the rabbit hole with the original point of the argument long forgotten...the only power those words and labels have is the power we give them by feeding into it. And yes, I am guilty of feeding into it myself...sometimes its like a black hole that sucks you in!
 
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Jay61

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I do not think it is the gear you have that defines what you do. Back when I was in my late teens and early 20s (late 1970s and early 1980s) I would have maybe....and I mean maybe, 50 dollars worth of gear for an extended trip and spend days upon days without ever seeing asphalt or another person for that matter. And old Coleman liquid fuel two burner 10 dollar pawn shop special, an old lantern (again pawn shop special) a small Wal-Mart (or K-Mart back then too) special tent and a surplus sleeping bag, a beat up cooler I could beg, borrow or steal from someone with a bag full of what ever topo maps I could scrounge and a compass along with a road atlas and would set off across country for camping and exploring in my two door, run ragged 4x4 pick-up (though I did have an early 70s Bronco, 2 door that was a beast for awhile). Oh I did have a cb radio, but then again so did everyone back then. I did a trip from south Georgia to Alaska and back like this back when the Alcan was still largely dirt and gravel. Keep in mind, the 4x4 crowd was very different back then, not many had them, if they did there was a reason. Then along came "bog ins" and everyone wanted a 4x4. I made my money by fur trapping when I got old enough to drive and I also ran bear and cat hounds, so a 4x4 was a must have down here in the deep south, winters are typically our wet months which means a lot of mud.
I am much older now, I have much more money now, and I am a gear junkie, regardless of what it is I do...from fishing, to hunting to camping...largely because as a younger, struggling adult I could not afford gear like I would see on tv or in magazines (no internet back then). I had fun in the old days....on a shoe string budget, I have fun now a days, with all my gear. Just do it with what you have. Enjoy it with what you have, and do not worry about what others think.
 
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Tank

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Actually myself. I don’t think we should try to explain why we are not elitist. Some replies sound elitist in their explanation to define overlanding. I’ve excepted the fact that others outside of our passion will usually label us. I drive, camp, explore, fish, hike, photograph, 4 wheel, and prepare food on a fire. That’s all.

On another note. A few decades ago I lived in Albuquerque and attended UNM. Hope all is well in the land of enchantment!
I miss it a lot.
I not only excepted it.... I accepted it too. LOL.
 

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"Has overlanding become elitist ?"
Don't know, Don't care, I Do it and I can care less what you think of it, me or anything else for that matter!

I think all those who jump in with this and that opinions on things are just trying to suck life and energy away from you, go do it and forget them, and especially do not listen to them. This applies to everything now a days.....Look at how divided our country has become.

Is there anything better than a beautiful spot, a nice fire after dinner with the one you love and a cold drink, reflecting on the days adventures? at that point do you really care what anybody else thinks? NOPE!

Jim

I hope you all really like my post

LOL
 

DanW

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Let me start off by saying, being on disability I may be biased, but still no need to rip me a new one. I watch many, many overlanding videos from all kinds of overlanding Youtube channels, and I have yet to see one, except "iamjake" that doesn't have $10,000 or close to it (usually more) worth of gear on their rigs. Now I'm not talking about people that live in their rigs full time, but rather those that go for a few days at a time or less. Now I know it's very difficult to not pay a premium to get out there. I mean even good tires can be $1,000 or more a set. Just seems to me that overlanding has gone the same way SUV's, Harleys, trucks, and other things have gone. They got popular by people with pretty good size budgets, then parts costs skyrocket because a lot of people can afford it, and the little guys like me get left out. Now I can and do go out there as far as I can for now but I'll bet my gear costs less than $300. You work hard I know, I don't begrudge you that, you earned it GREAT. Just sucks to not see people more like me out there too.
If there was any idea that overlanding was becoming an elitist pasttime, don't worry. When I became interested and got involved, it took a nosedive and hit rock bottom. :grinning:
 

Lanlubber In Remembrance

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Thanks to everyone that responded, I got my answer. I'll be closing the thread soon. Yes overlanding in a lot of ways has gone elitist but a lot, if not most who responded here have not. Guess I'll try to stay optimistic. Thanks again you all are awesome !!
You cant beat optimism, without it, is a dark world we don't want to visit. My son is bipolar, he has no optimistic look at anything in his life. Even with med's he cant function like you or me. When I get down on something I look at him and thank GOD I am not in his shoes. The thing is, he is a near genius if not a genius. If he can work he never stops and the quality of his work is far superior to mine. He just cant tolerate other people in a job situation where maybe someone tells him to do something and he knows they don't know what they are talking about. He is not tolerant of ignorance and cant hold a job because of it. Anyway, don't give up the ship because you come across a few snob and know it all's. I have run across that only twice since I have joined the OB forums. I have made a lot I friends here that I would never have met without OB. I hope to trail or off road with at least the ones who are close enough to me so that I wont have to trail alone at my age. Hopefully some of them need a grandpa image around the camp fires to shoot the bull and play with the kids while they get some chores done. Good luck, happy trailing !
Lanlubber
 
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Lanlubber In Remembrance

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If there was any idea that overlanding was becoming an elitist pasttime, don't worry. When I became interested and got involved, it took a nosedive and hit rock bottom. :grinning:
What does it mean to hit rock bottom for you. Does it mean you lost interest or that you spent your last dime on a rig but couldn't go any further. I just need clarification. I don't want to hit the bottom of anything. LOL
Lanlubber
 

Lanlubber In Remembrance

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I totally get that feeling. I do think it can be done on a very tight budget, though, because that's exactly how I'm doing it. I bought my 1999 Honda CR-V for $1800 Canuck bucks off of Craigslist. I bought a set of tires for it for around 500 or so, which cash came from the sale of my old mini van. Since then I've added a ton of stuff, and it was pretty much all on a shoe string budget.

CB Radio - $40 from Craigslist, complete with magnet mount antenna. Installed by cutting up some old extension cord I had lying around and a couple of bucks for connectors.
Painted the wheels and trim semi-gloss black with about 4 cans of $7 tremclad from Walmart
Found a matching 5th tire for my spare for $25 from the wrecker
Skid plate was fabbed by my brother in law for the cost of a 12 pack of beer.
Ammo can center console was I think about $25 plus a couple bucks for some bolts.
Upgraded my CB antenna to a 4 foot fibreglass, about 18 bucks online, complete with mount, and I made the attachment bracket from scraps I had lying around.
Jerry can was $30, carrier was about the same, plus 20 bucks for the tubing and bolts to mount it.
My roof rack is by far my most expensive mod so far, but it's a low profile rack akin to something like a Rhino rack, and I'd say it's far stronger than the factory rack, and at $250 or so, it was less than half what a Rhino would cost.

Almost all my camping gear is either super cheap, or super old, and it all does the job. Craigslist and FB marketplace is your friend when cash is tight.

I've already taken my rig on some pretty crazy drives, and I figure it should be able to take me just about anywhere I ever want to go. It can be done!
I roam the storage sales, swap meets, habitat for humanity store, and yard sales. There are so many people who put no value on what they have and so many good pieces can be found at very little cost.. It's also fun and gets me out of the house ! Buying used isn't being cheap it's being prudent which many off roaders, or hobbyist of all kind are not very good at doing. When I was into racing the one thing I had to keep telling myself was, don't take food off the table for my hobby. With six kids I was a penny pincher out of necessity and it never kept me out of the winners circle, just made me work a little harder. I watched a video not long ago where a guy had an old station wagon he gutted out. He roamed the alleys in the parts of towns that had alleys. He picked up what most people call junk, but at the end of the day he was scrapping out that junk for as much as $500. He made enough to buy himself an old dump truck. How was that for ingenuity ?
Lanlubber
 

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"Has overlanding become elitist ?"
Don't know, Don't care, I Do it and I can care less what you think of it, me or anything else for that matter!

I think all those who jump in with this and that opinions on things are just trying to suck life and energy away from you, go do it and forget them, and especially do not listen to them. This applies to everything now a days.....Look at how divided our country has become.

Is there anything better than a beautiful spot, a nice fire after dinner with the one you love and a cold drink, reflecting on the days adventures? at that point do you really care what anybody else thinks? NOPE!

Jim

I hope you all really like my post

LOL
Nailed it!