Overlanding is a massive, massive hobby in the U.S and around the more sparsely populated areas of the world such as rural Africa and Australia.
Overlanding is basically taking a truck or motorbike and taking it out into the wilderness to explore remote places.
The closest we really have to overlanding in the U.K is greenlaning, which is taking a truck or bike over difficult terrain, but because of the size and population density of the island there are a lot more limits as to where you can go. Some of the trails do look beautiful though and it’s something that I wouldn’t mind getting involved with in the future.
From a mental health stand point – I know that “just go outside” has been a bit of a joke within the mental health community, as certain people do say that that’s what you should do as opposed to taking medication or seeing a therapist (please don’t listen to those people – do what’s best for you! There’s no shame in taking medication or talking to a professional). However, being among nature has been proven to reduce feelings of anxiety, depression and anger. The fresh air in the countryside is also more rich in oxygen which has massive benefits to the body physically.
Going on an adventure for the weekend is something to look forward to as well. Not everyone wants to travel overly far but overlanding and greenlaning gives you a great opportunity to explore the area around you.
In the U.S and other parts of the world they go right out into the wilderness. The trucks are often equipped with tents to stay in overnight.
I like this guy’s idea – keep the tent well away from the bugs!
There are campervan style bodies that you can put onto the back of a pickup truck.
Or you could take an all-terrain caravan with you. A lot of people have caravans in the U.K. I’ve never seen one modified before.
There were a couple of overlanding type vehicles featured at the Monday Night Reveal (which you can read about here: https://motorsportformentalhealth.com/2023/11/07/sema-monday-night-reveal)
One was the Direct Current Engineering Rivian. The trailer carries additional batteries for the vehicle to give it more range.
The other was Project Resurrection’s LS powered Toyota Land Cruiser.
The large manufacturers that attended SEMA all displayed vehicles with overlanding in mind.
You can read my full article about the manufacturers that attended SEMA 2023 here: https://motorsportformentalhealth.com/2023/11/17/sema-2023-manufacturers
Toyota were displaying their new Trailhunter line.
Lexus had a few customer built vehicles.
Nissan had Chris Forsberg’s Nissan Frontier that participated in the NORRA 500.
They also had the ‘Rugged Rogue’
RC rock crawling looks like a lot of fun. These cars were all 1/10 scale, but there are some really nice 1/24 models which would be perfect for tackling courses at home or in the office.
I’ll leave you with a little gallery of some of the other builds that I saw around the show.
Thanks for reading!
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By Richard Francis
