A truly great overlanding rig isn’t the sort of thing you buy turnkey off a showroom floor. No, overlanders are the sorts of custom machines made to reflect their owners’ sensibilities and desires, built by hand using trial and error and endlessly revised to take on the tasks their creators need them to do as their lives and responsibilities change.
That said…if you don’t really have time for all that and don’t mind buying a secondhand off-road camper, there’s a Ford Super Duty-based on up for grabs in California right now that just might be the perfect overlander for you.
The overlanding rig you see here is listed for sale on the Expedition Portal classified section, but given the quality of the build, the editorial team at the site took a little time to interview its builder, Scott.
“We started off on this journey with the goal of creating a smaller, more capable, and higher performing EarthRoamer. We’d been in one before and liked many aspects of it, but we felt like it was much too big for true off-grid exploration,” Scott told Expedition Portal. “My wife refuses to camp within five miles of anyone, so we wanted something that was really comfortable but small enough to get to the out-of-the-way spots we love to visit.”
Expedition PortalThe brief was complex: create a super-capable overlander with enough power and consumables to last away from civilization for lengthy periods, while still offering enough space for the 6’6″ Scott, his family, and their two large dogs. To do so, they took a 2015 Ford F-550 chassis and whipped up a pop-top living compartment for the rear that offers nearly seven feet of headroom in popped-up configuration. The front wall even articulates out of the way, enabling those sleeping in the nearly-king-size bed to take in the fresh air.
