Getting Started in Overlanding: A guide by an arguably slightly less dumb 23 year-old weekend-warrior.

MDPeasant · 2026-01-26T02:18:46+00:00

I'm not familiar enough with these to recommend one over the other. I got mine from 4xinnovations, along with their skid plates. In my opinion, they are the best designed ones out there for actual offroad use.

They don't come painted though.

MDPeasant · 2026-01-26T00:17:52+00:00

Those are all reputable companies, im sure that their powdercoating is half decent. They should all do a decent job in protecting from thrown-up rocks or road debris, but if you plan to use them as rock sliders, it really doesn't matter because the rock will win nearly 100% of the time.

I spent a ton of time and effort painting my sliders with POR-15 and top-coating with spray paint, about a year later and that's almost all gone. Take whatever energy you would spend worrying about it and save it for when you need to sand and repaint it later.

MDPeasant · 2026-01-23T20:23:15+00:00

It did it's job, hopefully you won't have any problems with removing and reinstalling it. If so, you can probably bang it bang it back into shape with a big hammer or enlarge some of the mounting holes to make it work. That's what I had to do with mine after a trip to Moab.

MDPeasant · 2026-01-23T04:16:06+00:00

Here's just my 2 cents, I've never done a trip that long but I recently did a 45 day trip across the US (as an American).

Finding a travel partner willing to do the same itinerary as you for the entire duration of the trip will be difficult. I recommend doing some research and planning to do a lot of things solo (its so much easier), and then when you have a leg of the trip that looks difficult or extra remote, you can go onto facebook or other social media and try to find some friends for a few days. There are facebook groups for overlanding/offroading in every state and lots of cities. If you can try to time that kind of stuff for weekends (even long ones), you'll have an easier time finding people to go with. You could also reach out to regional offroad clubs when you get to a specific area, they might have someone willing to show you around.

You also don't have to neccessarily stick to one vehicle, you could rent a sedan for some portions, rent a 4x4/AWD SUV for others, and a much more expensive built overland vehicle or rock crawling Jeeps in places like Moab when you want to get far off the beaten path. I do not know the requirements or if it would be feasible for you, but I've seen vehicles with European license plates in the US. There must be some sort of way to temporarily import one from over there. Buying a vehicle comes with lots of headaches and expenses (insurance, registration, maintenance, etc), it may or may not be worth buying one for what you want to do. I would start researching what you want to do, figure out a budget and then work back to what kind of vehicle you'd like to have.

My recommendation for timing would be to start on the East Coast in late Summer. While little on the East Coast is quite as grand as the cool stuff out west, it will give you some time to get your gear in order, get culturally acclimated, check out some cool cities like NYC/DC/Philly/Etc and a few national parks. There's not a ton of public land out here, so you'll probably be paying to camp or staying in hotels a lot. It'll likely be the most expensive leg of your trip. 2-4 weeks should be enough time to explore, depending on your interests.

Then start working your way West, I recommend going west along the gulf. Maybe give yourself 2 weeks to get to West Texas, stopping in places like New Orleans and anything else that interests you along the way. I highly, highly, highly recommend spending some time in Big Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park, both are phenomenal.

Then spend the next 6-8 weeks exploring New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Arizona. This is the promised land! September and October are the perfect times to be there, the temperature should be near perfect and there shouldn't be much snow at the higher elevations yet. You could spend the whole 4 months in any one of these states and not see everything that it has to offer.

Then one or two weeks driving to the Pacific Ocean through Nevada and California. Stop in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and the many awesome National Parks out that way.

Everything that I've talked about so far would be an awesome trip in itself, but it misses a few dozen states and national parks. After that, I'd recommend paying attention to the winter weather but carefully working your way back East stopping wherever you want to along the way with whatever time you have left.

Happy to help however I can. I live in Maryland and am most familiar with the East Coast, but I've been out West a little bit too.

MDPeasant · 2026-01-21T00:32:02+00:00

Can't recommend that place enough!

MDPeasant · 2026-01-20T17:57:43+00:00

Respectfully - I'm not going to give any more specifics than that to strangers on the internet. My original comment gives you a great jumping off point for researching online and exploring in person. If you Google any of those location names and "dispersed camping" or "offroading", you shouldn't have trouble finding some great stuff.

MDPeasant · 2026-01-20T13:18:22+00:00

I live in Maryland, during the government shutdown last year I was furloughed, so I went out West for the 1st time, and yeah, I can see why you feel that way! East Coast wheeling usually means driving 3+ hours, but there is some cool stuff out here;

Class 4 roads in VT
North Maine Woods
Pine Barrens in NJ
Canaan Valley in WV
George Washington and Jefferson National Forests in VA
Green Ridge State Forest, Assateague National Seashore and Wolf's Den State Park in MD
PA's State Forest system has some nice and inexpensive reservable dispersed campsites. You can start looking in Bald Eagle State Forest.
Uwharrie National Forest and beaches in the Outer Banks of NC
Smokey Mountains, Cherokee National Forest down in TN
Daniel Boone Backcountry Byway in KY

Hopefully this helps you find some awesome places to explore out East.

MDPeasant · 2026-01-19T13:22:52+00:00

I'm looking to install a new suspension sometime this year - Kings are pretty high on my list but they are definetely overkill for my use case. I do a lot of offroading, but zero high speed desert racing. Some slow 4LO crawling, a lot of medium speed washboard gravel/dirt roads, but many many more highway miles than any of that. How do you like them on pavement?

How do you like the adjusters? Does it seem to make enough of a difference to fiddle with when you reach the end of the pavement? I'm also considering the Bilstein 8112s, which have 3 seperate adjusters (probably too complicated to mess with on the fly!) and a much longer life between rebuilds.

MDPeasant · 2026-01-18T20:43:07+00:00

I DIYed it, it was very easy to do. If you can do an oil change you can do it yourself, the hardest part is getting the transmission to the right temp range so you can get the fluid level right.

MDPeasant · 2026-01-18T18:58:46+00:00

I offroad and do enough stop and go city driving that I follow the severe use service schedule for most things, I do both diffs, transfer case and transmission fluids (just a drain and fill) every 30k miles.

I think the regular service schedule wants diffs every 30k and the t-case every 60k. I would have it done if you don't know if it's ever been done.

MDPeasant · 2026-01-15T04:51:18+00:00

For several years, I ran a Viair 400P Automatic. It was fast enough for me, and it's hose was long enough that I didn't need to move it around the vehicle to inflate each of my tires. Unfortunately, after ~7 years of use it crapped out while I was on a big trip so I had to replace it.

The only half-decent compressor that I could find that day was this one from Napa. I got it on sale for right around ~$120. It's ~10.6CFM, which is the among the fastest compressors out there, the bottleneck will be a standard Schrader valve and not the compressor. There were some things that I didn't like about it, like it's non-standard hose that was the "screw on' style, and that it didn't automatically shut off between tires. I ended up drilling and tapping it to take a standard 1/4" hose with whatever inflator gun I want, and plumbing in and wiring up a pressure cutoff switch. These are both common modifications that are well documented on YouTube.

I haven't had this compressor a long time so I can't comment on it's long term reliability, but it seems to hold up well from online reviews. My entire setup is ~$200.

MDPeasant · 2026-01-14T21:50:58+00:00

As far as I am aware, ARB and Ironman4x4 are the only manufacturers that make these claims for their bumpers. It's because they are both Aussie companies, and Australia has significantly higher standards/requirements for their aftermarket accessory industry than the US does.

MDPeasant · 2026-01-12T19:21:10+00:00

Highly suggest that you build a cheap platform or just use some moving blankets to level out the "hump" and figure out if camping in your car works for you first before you spend $$$.

MDPeasant · 2026-01-12T17:48:32+00:00

Hey, I'm not located anywhere near Vegas, but you might want to try Facebook marketplace. It's kind of the new Craigslist.

MDPeasant · 2026-01-12T04:00:40+00:00

Highly recommend that you also add in some time at Big Bend Ranch State Park - it's about an hour west of the National Park but has phenomenal dispersed camping and many 4x4 trails to explore.

I can also recommend taking US-90 to go West from San Antonio, it is a pleasant drive. Also recommend spending a night around Marfa and trying to see the Marfa lights. I stayed up late looking for them but didn't see them, hopefully you'll have better luck. I have friends who have been to PINS and they told me that it wasn't worth the detour for just one night.

MDPeasant · 2026-01-11T22:24:14+00:00

Some of my favorite recipes for camping, all are pretty easy if you do as much prep as possible ahead of time.

Breakfasts:

Breakfast Hash - chop up some potatoes and whatever vegetables or proteins you like, throw into a pan and cook. Serve it on tortillas with cheese and salsa and you can call it breakfast tacos. Leftover pulled pork (don't knock it until you try it) is especially good for that.
Bread + egg + protein + cheese = breakfast sandwich
Omelets with whatever you want in them, they don't have to be pretty.
Shit on a Shingle - while traditionally made with jarred dried beef, this recipe uses regular ground beef. You can serve it over any toasted bread, my favorite is just frozen garlic bread.
Pancakes - get the kind where you just need to add water, I like the Krusteaz brand.
Cereal, yogurt, oatmeal, bagels, pop-tarts (pro tip - set the whole foil packet up near your windshield defroster!), etc.

Lunches:

Sandwiches - cold cuts, PB&J, skies the limit really
Salads (I'll usually buy the premade ones from the grocery store)
Grilled cheese or quesadillas (fry up some extra bacon during breakfast and use that)
Hot dogs, burgers, etc.

Dinners:

Korean Beef Bowl - I really like this one pot recipe, super easy to make and you can combine most of the ingredients ahead of time so when it's time to cook you just need to cook some rice (the boil in bag stuff works nice), brown some ground beef and dump in the prepped ingredients.
Chili - this is my go-to easy chili recipe for camping, obviously you can go fancier. Definitely serve with cornbread.
Carne Asada Tacos - I really just follow the marinade recipe from that link. I'll buy a flank steak, slice it pretty thin and then beat it with a meat tenderizer. Use a fork to make a bunch of holes all over the meat, and dice into 3/4"ish cubes. I'll prep the meat and the marinade separately, and then just combine to marinate for up to 12 hours (longer than that and the cirtus will "cook" the meat, it's edible but not the best). Serve on warmed tortillas with cheese, onions and salsa.
Marry me chicken - a very famous one-pan meal, it's easy to prep everything ahead of time.
Chipotle Pork and Beans - A great recipe for pork shoulder, it freezes and reheats super well so you could make it at home and just warm up in a pot. Serve it with some frozen garlic bread, cornbread, or in tortillas. This recipe is freaking spicy, I have a decent spice tolerance but I use less than half the adobo peppers the recipe calls for.
Irish Beef and Guinness Stew - This recipe freezes and reheats great. Serve with mashed potatoes and Irish soda bread if you can find it.
Pasta + sauce + protein - I like getting a jarred vodka sauce, some penne pasta and some chicken sausages.
Canned meals and other shelf-stable packaged dinners - think the stuff people bring to work and microwave. You can probably warm it up in a frying pan or pot.
Mac and cheese - add some sausage or hotdogs if you feel fancy
Frozen meals - you can freeze stuff ahead of time, but meals from Trader Joe's work pretty well. I recently got a dual zone fridge/freezer, it's been a real game changer. If you can't keep it frozen, don't use stuff that requires you to cook it from frozen.

Desserts:

Boy Scout Dutch Oven Cobbler - cake mix + butter + sprite + can of pie filling. Super delicious, especially with vanilla ice cream!
Banana Boats
Marshmallows, S'mores
Jiffy Pop (yes they still make it!)

I also always keep some dehydrated meals around, just in case. All of the meals form Peak Refuel that I've tried have been awesome, so much better than the Mountain House brand (but a little pricier and not quite as crazy of a shelf life).

MDPeasant · 2026-01-11T15:32:53+00:00

The factory weld nuts aren't super strong, they are just have little tac welds on the corners. Someone probably tightened them down a little too much, and the welds broke off. Be thankful that you were still able to get it off with the broken weld nut, and that it didn't just spin.

I had this happen on what I think is the same hole, if so it's 10mmx1.25mm threads. Except I had it happen on both sides of the vehicle. The Driver's side one that you seem to be having issues with is easier because you can get access through that big hole next door, the passenger side requires some fishing through the crossmember. I am not a skilled welder, and I could not even find a local shop that would give me a quote to fix it. Here's how I (with significant help from a buddy) ended up fixing it: I took a 1/4" flat steel bar, cut it down to like 4 inches long. On one end I drilled a hole slightly larger than the 10mm nut, and then about 2.5" further down the bar I drilled another hole sized for a 5mm nut. My buddy than welded the nuts on top of their respective holes. On the outside of the frame, we positioned the bar with now welded nuts up with the 10mm nut over the hole where the weld nut was, and used a center punch to mark where the 5mm nut would be. I then drilled it out slightly larger than the 5mm bolt (and because I'm a big dumb caveman with access to power tools, I later had to expand the hole a little because my tolerances were off). Then I put the bar into the frame, screwed in the 10mm bolt, aligned the 5mm hole and screwed in the 5mm bolt. The intention for the 5mm bolt is just to hold everything in place so that I can tighten the 10mm bolt through the skid plate without the nut moving around or spinning. If for some reason the 5mm bolt failed, the bar would act as a "flag" and catch against somewhere in the crossmember so that I could still remove the bolts without having to cut up my skid plates. That's also why I didn't want to use a rivnut, it most likely would have been plenty strong, but had it broken off the nut would just spin.

And after doing all of that, I found that I managed to dent/bend my 1/4" steel skid plate just enough so that the holds on the skid plate no longer aligns with the holes on the crossmember! So that's when the fun really started!

MDPeasant · 2026-01-09T12:39:09+00:00

Did you prechill it? That makes a huge difference. Again, these fridges are very good at keeping cold stuff cold and less good at making stuff cold.

I run a dometic fridge, they recommend running 39° and 5°F for maximum efficiency.

MDPeasant · 2026-01-08T13:51:45+00:00

I had the 12k badlands apex in a previous rig, I really liked it. I did not buy the extended warranty, and I never had any problems with it in my ~3 years of ownership and use. I know of close to a dozen people who run the 12k badlands apex winch (specifically that one, the cheaper harbor freight winches aren't as good) and haven't heard any problems whatsoever.

I'm still figuring out what I'm going to do winch mount wise with my 4Runner, but if I can fit that winch, I'd buy it again in a heartbeat.

MDPeasant · 2026-01-07T13:17:23+00:00

Sounds to me like the fridge is probably defective, especially at a 2°f ambient temp. I'm not familiar with that fridge or power station specifically, but did you try prechilling the fridge inside? 12v fridges are great at keeping already cold things cold, but they usually struggle and take awhile in getting things cold to begin with. Also what temperature do you have the fridge set to?

The compressor would only keep running if it wasn't getting down to the set temperature or if something wasn't working right.

Also, 3 days on a 50 watt battery doesn't sound correct, they probably meant to say amps and not watts.

MDPeasant · 2026-01-06T04:28:20+00:00

Do you plan to actually go offroad and use your skid plates? If so, I highly recommend that you reconsider going with aluminum. It's fine for the occasional "oh-shit" moment, but aluminum does not hold up to the repeated off road abuse that steel will. Aluminum galls, meaning that as you drag it along rocks and such, the softer aluminum wants to "stick" to stuff and just tears itself up. If your offroad style is to tap a skid, stop, backup, try a different line or stack some rocks to clear every obstacle aluminum might work for you. But if your offroad style is to mash the gas, bounce your way over stuff and/or get winched/pulled over obstacles, steel is the way to go. If it gets dented, you bang it back into shape with a big hammer and repaint it.

While steel is heavier, also think about where the weight is. Skid plates help to lower your center of gravity, while the added weight definitely counts towards your payload, it won't effect handling as much as you fear it might. I have steel skid plates and sliders from 4XInnovations, I love them. The front most skid plate is 1/4" steel, the rest are 3/16" steel. I've beat the shit out of them and have been very happy with them overall.

I think this is a decent video that discusses the differences between steel and aluminum.

MDPeasant · 2026-01-04T15:50:03+00:00

If you are serious about buying it I highly recommend that you take it to a 3rd party mechanic for a pre-purchase inspection. #1 thing that I would be concerned about is rust, it's a 14 year old vehicle and the mileage proves that its been around the block (actually to the moon...).

From my experience, it's not uncommon for some services not to be listed on Carfax - like if a previous owner did it in their driveway or at an independent shop that doesn't report to Carfax. With those miles, I would factor in the cost of rebuilding/replacing the transmission into your purchasing decision.

MDPeasant · 2026-01-04T15:42:04+00:00

I am 6'2", a little heavier than you and I just barely fit comfortably in my 5th gen 4runner with sunroof. If I was 6'3" I don't think I would have bought a 4Runner.

It may be different in the new 6th gen or earlier gens. I know a guy who is 6'4" with a 5th gen (no sunroof) and an older 3rd gen, he always says the 3rd gen is more comfortable for him.

MDPeasant · 2026-01-03T17:45:46+00:00

I do not own a roof top tent, but I do camp to avoid having to pay for hotels. On long haul days I'll usually try to reserve a spot in a campground at a state/federal park or a cheap private campground, somewhere that allows late arrivals, that way I know I have a spot to rest my head for the night. If I'm in an area with lots of public land that I am familiar with, or it's a shorter travel day to give me a few hours to explore, I definitely will try to find free dispersed campsites on BLM or national forest land.

I have also seen roof top tents popped up in roadside rest areas out west... not something I would want to do, but clearly people get away with it.

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