Overland Vehicle Build - THE MOST Essential Feature

Welcome back to another episode of The Road. Choose me. My name is Dan Greck. In today's episode the

build

of my Gladiator Overland jeep is al

most

finished and I'm actually hitting the road here in Australia, but before I do I need to show you the latest edition and I talk about what I think is the

most

essential

in

build

ing a land

vehicle

and tons of

vehicle

s I see in several tons of vehicles in magazines, even many at the land show, it's pretty clear to me that they haven't remembered it. this particular consideration that I think is

essential

and I think shows the difference between a vehicle that's going to be good for weekend use and a vehicle that's going to be good for a long-term

overland

trip, whether that's up to Alaska or if that's you.

I know the Pan American Highway or all of Australia, like what I'm doing, so there's one

feature

of a vehicle that you must have and before I tell you what it is, I'm curious to hear your opinion, leave a comment. Next right now, tell me what you think is the most essential

feature

: Big tires, supercharger, stove, refrigerator, what do you think is an essential thing a vehicle should have before going on a long-term expedition? It will change the color of your day and mean you will actually enjoy your journey rather than just tolerate it, so leave a comment below, let's look at the most essential things in an

overland

vehicle so there is no doubt.

What I've learned from my expeditions, the most important thing in an overland vehicle is the living space, where you're actually going to live during this trip, and again, if you go away for the weekend, it's not a big deal. You're going away for a week, but if you're going to spend three months going to Alaska and back, believe me, you need a place to get away from the weather, you need a place to get away from the mosquitoes when they're there. horrendous, you need a place to be able to enjoy yourself and having that living space will make the difference between when you get home, you will be exhausted and you will be happy to be home, and you will sit on the couch and take a shower.

Be the best in the world and you'll say to yourself: I'm glad it's over. I don't want to do it again. If you have space to live, you will get home. You will not do it. You'll be exhausted and say: Wow, where's the next trip? I'm going to start planning right now. I can't wait to get back on the road. I truly believe that's how important living space is and every long-term traveler I've ever met their vehicles on the road and their evolution basically boils down to finding more useful living space so they can enjoy more and more time in it. road.

I have never heard a single person say that they changed their vehicle because it has more ground clearance or because the engine has more power or because of any of those types of reasons, number one, the only reason people say is so they can have more or just a different living space so a little background on my travels and my living space when I drove from alaska to argentina I had never heard of overlanding nor did I even know what it was so it's not surprising I hadn't researched it and didn't I knew nothing about what I was getting into and so my setup didn't exactly have room to live.

I had a small two-person tent and there was no room inside the little two-door Wrangler. I don't think I ever sat in the driver's seat for dinner or anything like that. I had 100's of time spent in the elements and can remember many nights rushing as hard as I could to prepare dinner so I could dive into the tent just as the torrential downpour began or even other nights where I would skip dinner to prepare 10 in the rain and just crawling in, obviously that configuration wasn't ideal, there was no living space, that's where I really learned the lesson of how important living space was and that was a big consideration when I designed the Wrangler that I drove all over Africa.

If I was going to travel for years, I wanted to enjoy my trip and have a place where I could be away from the elements, away from the dust, the heat of course, the animals, also getting up off the ground, etc. I designed that Wrangler to have internal living space. The cabinets I put together there. The way I moved the roll bar and the way the pop-up roof worked. I could sit all the way back. I could eat a sandwich I could work on. I could walk around with my laptop and there were probably two or three nights a month when I did exactly that in Africa, either because it was pouring rain or because the mosquitoes were horrendous or, to be honest, simply because I was exhausted and wanted to escape of the world and don't get me wrong, Africans were super friendly and I really enjoyed my time there and the way people treated me, but I have to say that their version of personal space is a little different than our version, so here's what It seemed like when I camped in a village, these people stared like this from the moment I arrived to the moment I left and it was often like this, even when I was camping in the wild, these photos are from the Congo, these people are not I was able to satisfy their curiosity, they just wanted to look at me and that was super friendly and I didn't feel in danger, but it would have been nice, you know, to have a little personal time, even if I just wanted to brush my teeth or I got out my laptop and worked for a while. little or edited some photos.

I couldn't really do that with all those people staring at me, so it turned out that my inner space in Africa was really good for a reason I didn't even contemplate. just having privacy and getting away from people, so I didn't have living space and I had internal living space and a lot of people have been wondering what am I doing with this thing, you know, the canopy in the back, I can't live there , if I can. I don't sleep like that, I can't stand behind, so from day one what I decided to do if I'm going to travel around Australia is I want to have an outdoor space, so what I mean is a place. where I can get away from the rain I can get away from the wind I can get away from the intense sun but in reality I am outside I am not inside the vehicle because without a doubt my wrangler was very small and special for two the people who lived there basically did not work and now that I am in Australia doesn't worry me at all about safety, obviously the climate is more favorable, I don't have to worry about lions, I don't have to worry about malaria.

So even if I get bitten by mosquitoes it's not the worst thing in the world, so all of that is to say I want to be outside, I want to be sitting in my camp chair looking at wherever I am, the beach, the mountains, I just do it. beautiful. Australian bush listening to the birds as they are right now, so how do I live in an outdoor space? Well what I have decided to do is have a bat wing awning here from rhino rack that I have mounted to the roof rack. So the idea is that this is a huge awning that provides a lot of living space and let's take a look.

I'll set it up right now so you can see exactly what it looks like and I'll show you what I mean. about the living space so there you have it you can see how huge the living space is that I have now the whole side of the jeep is covered if I want to take things out of the safe if I want to set up the loot under here if it's raining jugs, even just my camp chairs, this is my entire living room and it's huge. I can walk around the side and back, have access to everything in the back of the gladiator, and of course, even slide out of my kitchen when I finally get here. and I'll also have a fully covered kitchen space, so get out of the sun like it is now, get out of the rain.

I think this is really cool and I'm really looking forward to having such a large amount of living space. I think it will be a big step up from anything I've had in the past and of course there's something else you can add to the rhino shelf bat wing canopy that makes it even better and of course that level for Go up are the wall sections. So you can see, I closed off these sections of wall, nailed them down and now I have a huge amount of living space that is much larger than the jeep footprint, and for me, if the rain comes in from the side, if I'm going to stay in somewhere for a couple of nights.

I'm going to set it up exactly like this. Put the loot down here. Now I have a dry area to sleep. Put my camp chairs here. I will have the kitchen outside so I can cook. I could be editing photos, I could be reading a book even though it's pouring rain or it's really hot and sunny or whatever, so having this amount of living space I think is going to make me very happy and make this trip really nice and think more about it. I have a real house on wheels and then I feel comfortable with myself and then I enjoy it instead of struggling and after a week or three I'm fine, now I have to go home and take a shower because of course when you're in long term road, there's no such thing as going home and taking a shower because you don't have a home and you're probably on the wrong continent anyway, so when you're designing your land vehicle think carefully about the space you're going to spend. hang out when the weather is really bad, when the mosquitoes are really bad, or when you just want some personal space and want to be able to escape the world for a night or a night. afternoon and then face the world again the next day because the living space you design will impact your trip more than anything else, I guarantee you, so this is the Rhino Bat Wing Canopy.

I'm very excited about it, I think it will be like that. a great level compared to my previous vehicles and I will definitely give you updates as I go and let you know how it works, so if you have enjoyed the video, press the thumbs up, subscribe to the channel, many more adventures. videos coming from Australia where I'm going to hit the road and explore the whole country and a big thank you to all my followers on Patreon who make this possible and help me hit the road and as a thank you, they get a lot. of behind-the-scenes content and additional perks, so if you're interested, head over to Patreon, there's a link in the description and you can see what those perks and rewards are, so until next time, thank you so much for watching, have fun and maybe .

I will meet you on the road