AngryRedBird

There seem to be some discrepancy as to what makes an overland jeep wrangler an overland jeep wrangler.. So in your words or images.. best describe what you feel makes an overland jeep wrangler an overland.. Options?.. Lifts?.. Let's make it official..

PG-JKU

If it flies, it's airborne. If it floats and has a propeller, it's over water. Anything else is Overland. Differences are just how successful you are in travelling varied terrain and comfort level of living out there. No official designations or specifications are needed, in my opinion.

Mark Doiron

Let's get to the bottom line first: The way a person uses their Jeep (or whatever vehicle they choose) determines whether it's an overland vehicle or not. And overland use requires at least some effort to travel a fair amount of distance on some combination of paved and unpaved roads, as well as the occasional weather hampered or technical stretch. And there needs to be at least some living out of the vehicle--camping, as it were--in remote areas without other support (IOW, no KOAs, etc). That's the use part of it, and it doesn't matter what your build is if you use it that way.

But form follows function, and if you use your Jeep (or 4Runner or Xterra or Land Cruiser or whatever) the way I described above, then you'll find mods being driven in that general direction. Gas mileage is more important than crawling over over-sized boulders, which suggests over-sized tires and over-built axles are not needed. A stinger is an unnecessary hindrance on tight, forest trails. Having a way to prepare decent meals from tasty ingredients takes on added importance once you tire of dehydrated meals. Being able to carry a fair amount of gear is useful--especially if your choice for camping is a roof top tent. You may or may not opt for a trailer. During your build the words, "Well, I don't need XXX because we don't have that kind of terrain where I live ..." never enter your vocabulary because where you live does not define where you travel. The world is your adventure, and you want to be prepared for it. Wow, that sounds like I'm getting a little too full of myself, LOL.

AngryRedBird

Mark, I sort of figured you'd be the first one to reply to this.. but you were the second.. none the less.. I just see other Jeep owners calling their jeep's overlands, yet I do not see the classic overland styling which your jeep clear has and represents the true overland spirit..
I can't say that we are heading in this route with our wrangler.. only time will tell. We have more important issues to attend to at the moment.

Vladimer

I do always chuckle to myself when I see folks post in the expedition thread or on the exp forum when they slap a set of driving lights on the front of their Jeep and it is exp. ready

In my opinion, you should be able to live out of the vehicle over a long period of time. I don't mean you put a sleeping back in it and problem solved, I mean the vehicle should of relatively self sustainable and support you for the length of your journey.

TRAUMAhead

Stereotypical image to me is a roof rack with tent or off road trailer + tent, auxiliary lights, snorkel, full width bumper with bull bar, being self sufficient recovery and repair wise, and livability out of the vehicle.

A Rock Crawler can be an overlander but I wouldn't want to rock crawl in an Overlander. I'm a backpacker before a Jeeper so all my livability fits into a 45L backpack.

Common overlander style:

Mark Doiron

Sounds like you compromise on the food, whereas I compromise on the sleeping accommodations. My tent, sleeping pad and sleeping bag could easily fit a small backpack, though I've found a crag bag (for climbing gear) more suitable both because the fabric is stronger, and because it has a flat bottom so it doesn't roll around on the shelf I store it on (When I used my backpack, it kept falling behind the fridge when I pulled the fridge out on its rack). I'd rather eat well, which demands proper cooking gear, a fridge, etc. I suppose I could opt for a RTT, but I've just gotten very comfortable after many years of sleeping on the ground. I find that the stiffness wears off after an hour or so, LOL!

AngryRedBird

I would prefer that an overland type vehicle be that of a diesel engine.. Than I'm at odds with the on the ground or on the roof approach, both have positives while both have negatives.. As for the food.. There are hunters and there are gatherers.. I'm the gatherer in the family.. So that makes Red the tomboy hunter, navigator, riding shotgun.. I wouldn't have it any other way.

GJeep

I’d say that an ‘Overland Jeep’ is basically a Jeep which is modded and equipped for “all-around” offroading, with the additions needed to make it suitable for longer travels in terms of distance and time, on and off road.

I’d still regard it as an overland Jeep, if fitted for longer travels in a specific geographical region, such as dirt roads, snow and frozen lakes in Finland, or a large desert.

‘Overland Jeep’ and ‘Extreme obstacle crossing’ contradict each other, as the added weight and the typically higher center of gravity will reduce the overland Jeeps’ capabilities on extreme obstacles.
The ‘all-round offroading’ nature of the overlander, too, leaves out the more extreme.

TRAUMAhead

Food wise it just depends if you want to carry the extra weight. Usually consists of Pasta Sides, spam, salami, tortillas, jerky, etc. Although when we hike in Death Valley several locations still have wood burning stoves intact so we have had sausages, bacon, eggs, etc.

Nice MSR Motha Hubba, been thinking of picking one up for car camping. I had the one man version for a while, good tent and a cinch to setup. Weighed about 3lbs though so switched to something lighter since I was on the ultralight craze of having a 10lb base weight at the time.