Innehållsförteckning för Gear Guide 2008 från Overland Journal

Story and photography by Andrew Moore Campsite: MSR Hubba Hubba HP $450 Part of the MSR Fast & Light product line, the Hubba Hubba HP is ready for an around-the-world motorcycle trip. Its three-season-plus, freestanding design is well-ventilated with four screen windows plus a screen roof panel, but a full-coverage fly clips on when the weather turns nasty. The tent should be equally at home during a night on a warm tropical beach or fully battened down in a snowstorm. The three-pound, 11-ounce Hubba Hubba was easy to set up the first time, even without instructions. Floor space is snug for two at 29 square feet, but there is impressive headroom: I’m six feet tall, and I had plenty of room to sit up inside. Dual vestibules add rainproof outside…

“Don't get me started about a fridge . . . I still carry plenty of dry goods (so) that if the cold stuff spoils, I'm not going to die. I just won't have bacon and cold beer.” - David Armbruster, Denver (wildernest.org) A fridge in your vehicle may not save your life, but it certainly makes camp more civilized. Properly equipped, a 12-volt fridge should be able to keep cocktail ice solid in addition to coddling your Martini olives. An impossible task, you say? Not with the lineup of ultimate Engel accessories we review in the following pages. As a side note, someone on the Overland Journal staff, who shall remain nameless, suggested the title, “Pimp My Engel.” Although that thankfully died in committee, in essence that is what we…

In 1969, Toyota introduced a pickup called the Hilux to the U.S. market. Riding on a 100-inch wheelbase, the diminutive truck weighed 2,400 pounds and was equipped with a 1.9-liter, four-cylinder engine that produced 85 horsepower. Scorned by fans of Detroit’s full-size trucks, Toyota’s compact pickups subsequently won fame around the world as economical, utterly reliable, and supremely durable beasts of burden—not, perhaps, as heavy-duty as the company’s Land Cruiser, but just as willing. Fast forward three decades. The Tundra I am driving has a wheelbase nearly four feet longer than that 1969 Hilux, weighs a bit over two times as much, and produces almost exactly four and a half times as much horsepower. Which explains the tire marks I left from a standing start down a deserted stretch of…

“Ain’t you as pretty as a peso?” -Roger Clyne, Smaller and Better Things I kept glancing at the pony-tailed, 19-year-old college girl in the passenger seat, because I was certain she hated every bouncy inch of the seven-mile, slow-going, rocky, dusty, switch-backed trail. She’s never going to go out with me again, I figured. Then she smiled at me and said, “Can I drive?” In fact, she was not only ready to drive, she was also ready to climb a gorgeous single-pitch rhyolite rock tower before the sun went down, just as we’d planned—a onenighter in Devil’s Canyon at the end of this trail, where we’d work some climbing routes in the afternoon, camp, make a warm dinner, and climb a few more spires in the morning. The Z-shaped rock…

Can you feel the breeze on your skin? The sand between your toes? The sun on your face? Do you hear waves gently lapping at the shore of a reef-peppered, aquamarine cove? If you’re camped out with the guys from Equipt Expedition Outfitters you probably can, even if you’re above 7,000 feet in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah. Paul May, owner of Equipt Expedition Outfitters, drives a 1999 UZJ100 Toyota Land Cruiser, modified as a flagship for the products he sells and uses. Obviously, as a dealer Paul has access to all of the latest gear and gadgets, so his well-thought-out additions comprise a rolling showcase that attracts attention wherever he goes. But despite the numerous performance and luxurious appointments, an air of simplicity and relaxation seems to permeate the…

The first time I met Mario Donovan and Martyn Davies from Adventure Trailers, we were sitting in a little pub, just out of reach of the masses attending the SEMA show. After a few pleasantries, Mario cut to the chase and asked, “What are overland trailers in the U.S. lacking?” I quickly responded, “A real suspension and a changing room.” A little grin curled in the corner of Mario’s mouth, and he replied, “We have a trailer concept we would like to show you.” Up to that point, I had owned two trailers and tested several others, including a Venture-Craft Sportsman (no longer produced), which was ahead of its time but, like all the others, had a suspension with 20 percent (or less) of the compression travel available to a…

It’s an old cliché, but even on the road you spend between a quarter and a third of your time in bed. Unlike home, however, the odds of having a bad night’s sleep are higher, and the consequences are worse. If you’ve tossed and turned on an uncomfortable mattress, or shivered in an inadequate sleeping bag, your energy for the day ahead is already in deficit spending. So your quality of life in the field is directly affected by the quality of your sleeping arrangements. Let’s start by comparing the two choices in sleeping bag insulation, then look at some products guaranteed to lend adjectives like “blissful” to your night’s sleep. Down Here’s the unvarnished truth: Despite decades of research into the subject, and dozens of products claiming otherwise, no…

On a crisp, clear winter afternoon, my wife and I stand in an oak- and juniper-dotted valley about 80 miles east of Tucson, Arizona. A cool breeze barely sways the tops of the tall grass, and the sun warms our shoulders enough that we have unbuttoned our jackets after the short hike that brought us here. Around us all is quiet, save for the occasional screech of a Mexican jay, or the cascading trill of a canyon wren. Apache Pass is serene on this day after Christmas. But not yet two full human lifetimes ago, the scene here was very different; a stage set of arrogance, defiance, torture, and death. The tragedy that unfolded here in 1861, swirling around two men—one great, one small—would spark one of the last major…

Thwack! You immediately feel the shock of the impact shuddering through the bike and your body. Barely able to stay upright, you pull to the side of the road and avoid a crash. After dismounting and re-orienting yourself, you wonder, “What is this thing impaled in my pile of luggage?” You were harpooned! Yes, that’s a genuine Captain Ahab harpoon sticking out of all that junk you packed. You were mistaken for a whale, a huge rolling mass of blubber. No matter whether it’s whale hunting season or not, it’s still your fault for impersonating a giant beast from the sea. I’ll take a chance and guess that 999 out of 1,000 motorcycle travelers carry too much stuff, and 988 of those carry way too much—blubber riders. We’re riding motorcycles,…

“I bet that when serious heroin addicts go to purchase their heroin, they do not tolerate waiting in line while some dilettante in front of them orders a hazelnut smack-acino with cinnamon sprinkles.” - Dave Barry  In the summer of 2005, I was stirred to consciousness for a solid week by a gentle Peruvian man rapping softly on my tent fly, and using the best English he had. “Good morning! Coca tea? Coffee? Long hike today.” Each morning I’d sit with my wife in the tent sipping from a warm mug, staring at the snowcapped Andes peaks and listening to the shhhhhhhhh-ing of a nearby river. Really, you have to do it sometime. They told us that coca tea is good for helping your body adjust to the elevation; I…

I once had a total stranger strike up an argument with me regarding the relative merits of the Italian-made, all-leather Fabiano boots I was wearing, versus the $39.95 dayhikers he had on. He clearly thought I was stupid to spend what I had on the Fabianos, and said so. When I reminded him mildly that—not even considering ankle support, underfoot protection, side-slope stability, and numerous other performance issues—my boots would outlast five pairs of what he was wearing, he retorted triumphantly (clearly I had stumbled into his trap) that for the price of the Fabianos he could buy five pairs of his boots and simply throw them away when they wore out. Actually, he had stumbled into my trap. I said, “Exactly. And each pair of those things costs the…

“Use the right tool for the job.” That might be the only bit of wisdom I willingly absorbed from my stepfather. He owned a bunch of the right tools for many jobs, from a lovely 16-gauge Parker VH shotgun to an elegant split-cane fly rod, from a genuine Yankee push-action screwdriver to a WWII-era Collins machete. Of course, none of those tools ever got handed down to me, because the old . . . but that’s another story. Why mention such an aphorism in a review of multi-tools? A multi-tool, after all, is by definition a compromise, something to use when for whatever reason you don’t have the right tool for the job. The answer lies in the little-known footnote to that quote: “A compromise tool is a heck of…

If you want to learn about loading and lashing, join the Air Force and fly cargo planes. Pick your way between the pallets, crates, piles of soft kit, Humvees, and ground equipment in the cargo bay of, say, a C-130 Hercules, and note how often you step over chains, tensioners, restraint straps, cargo nets, and wheel chocks. The load is totally and utterly part of the aircraft. It isn’t going to move in turbulence, and it isn’t going to barge through into the cockpit and spill the coffee if the aircraft goes off the runway. And although it won’t be apparent to the casual visitor, it will have been arranged so it keeps the center of gravity of the whole aircraft within strict limits. Once you’re discharged, go out and…