“I always had this dream of driving a vehicle completely around the world,” says Bill Swails, EarthRoamer founder. “And I asked my self what kind of vehicle would that be and what would it be like? In 1998, I bought a brand-new diesel Ram 2500 and put a pump-up camper in the back of it and start exploring the mountains of Colorado. Eventually, I took that vehicle, in 1999, quit my job and headed for Alaska for the entire summer and that lead to the design of EarthRoamer.” Like most creations, EarthRoamer was born of necessity, to solve a problem. Swails wanted a vehicle to take to the ends of the Earth; compared to the current models in his lineup, his old Diesel Ram camper is incredibly humble.
In a conversation about EarthRoamer, the question “Yea, but how much does it cost?” is an inevitability. The Ford F-550-based XV-LTS runs between $500,000-$600,000 and the F-750-based XV-HD clocks in around $1.5 million. EarthRoamer has the means to build four XV-HDs per year and a total of 26 XV-LTSs. But, before it manifested as a multi-million dollar overlanding cavalry, the concept of ‘EarthRoamer’ consisted of a simple log of Swails’ own experiences. “When I first started it, it was just a travel writing company. I wrote for 4Wheeler Magazine, a diesel Dodge enthusiast magazine, and I was writing about both the modifications and building of what at that time I called it the ‘EarthRoamer Truck’ — my original Dodge — as well as the travels I was taking it on. I did trips to Alaska, down to Baja, all over Canada and the western United States.”
It wasn’t until 2003 Swails built the first production EarthRoamers. By then, he had racked up so many miles on his own adventures that it became easy to conceive of a vehicle that could travel the world: a very capable one. When you look at just how capable a modern EarthRoamer is, the price quickly becomes its least impressive aspect.
Swails starts with Ford F-550 and F-750 commercial duty truck cab chassis, which come with just the cab and nothing over the rear chassis. More commonly, companies buy these behemoth shells and build up the missing half, using them as blank slates to build anything from a delivery truck to a tow truck. In EarthRoamer’s case, they rebuild the truck entirely and substantially modify the rig — its frame gets extended and fitted with the unique mounting system, bumpers are replaced, more extreme lighting is wired in and all new air ride suspension components are installed.
