Overlanding Minitrucks

Who loves overlanding minitrucks? I sure do. There's something about "making do", "getting by" in the wilderness when overlanding minitrucks.

I've always been outdoorsy. I've always loved camping and exploring. I've loved minitrucks, specifically Suzuki Vitara, Escudo, Sidekick, Tracker (Suzuki V.E.S.T.) minitrucks since I bought my first one (Chevrolet Tracker) new in 1989. I've always had the 4x4 model, but never really pushed them to their limit. They're just really fun to drive, and they can go anywhere. I've four wheeled through deep snow, sand, shallow mud, up long steep inclines, blazed new trails through jungle, navigated over some rough terrain, crossed medium shallow waterways, and camped a lot. I do the regular usage and mild to medium off road stuff, not the rock crawling, mud bogging, full sending, tractor pulling, submarining stunts that wreck parts. 

Packing for Overlanding Minitrucks

My favorite thing to do is #getsidetracked with a tent, and I've been on some hairy trails and some very long excursions in my Geo Trackers. Two door models have always been my thang, and it's fun to see what can be packed in them, and how to make it all accessible on the trails. I have always rolled with the back seat folded up to form a barricade between driver and potentially avalanching storage. Compartmentalizing with plastic storage containers works for me: a kitchen one, a clothing one, a garage one, a trunk one. Closing things in like that keeps the dust and dirt off, and separating things like that makes it easy to pull out the "category" of items I need without rummaging through my entire storage area. 

My Rig

All of my overlanding minitrucks trips through the 90's and lately have been on all terrain tires or even regular street tires. I have just prepped Blue Bomb for offroad camping by installing mud tires (29's without a lift), wrapping the roof to keep the sun from fading my antique road warrior, deleting the tailgate spare tire carrier, adding a roof top basket and fastening the oversized spare up there, deleting the rear bench seat to increase storage capacity, adding MOLLE over the rear windows (Blue Bomb is a tin top), and attaching a jerry can where the spare used to be. 

Phase 1: Muddies

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CmCe67OjrFH/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

Phase 2: Roof Wrap

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cn2iBxojrR5/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link 

Phase 3: Rooftop Basket

Phase 4: Rear Seat and Spare Tire Carrier

Phase 5: Oversized Spare Relocation

Phase 6: Jerry Can

Phase 7: MOLLE

Overlanding Minitrucks Recommendation

Experiment on some one night, and weekend excursions. Bring the basics and find out what else you need while you're in the thick of it, then you can adapt as needed. Don't try to add all of the accessories that you like the looks of. Don't buy or try to bring everything that you think you might need; necessities only. You don't need that kitchen sink! You don't want to look like that mall crawler Jeep that never gets dirty, do you? 

Be practical; overlanding minitrucks requires conservation, packing skills and ingenuity. You'll end up making do with smaller things that are repurposed, instead of large space consuming things people have in RV's or houses. 

There's so much to enjoy, y'all. Get out there and explore!

Recommended2 recommendationsPublished in Camping Trips, This Minitruck Social Network