Custom 4x4s, factory-made adventure vehicles, modified sleep systems: Overland Expo East displays the cutting edge and creative state of off-road vehicles.
For a second year, from Sept. 29–Oct 1, Overland Expo East was held on the gorgeous Biltmore Estate grounds in Asheville, N.C. The event serves as center stage for the current state of the overland world, with hundreds of exhibitors showing off their rigs.
Variety is the name of the game with Overland Expo East. Browsing the vehicle’s at the show, one can see cars for tackling the roughest of trails, others that offer the coziest sleeping options, and more that revive decades-old options into formidable adventure-seeking vehicles.
Below is a cross-section of the vehicles dotting the event grounds. As you’ll see, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Everyone has their own financial, adventure, and comfort parameters.
The groupings below are general categories that break down the wide variety of vehicles we spotted at Overland Expo East.
Truck Campers
We’ll start off with the big boys of the overland world, generally classified as “truck campers.” For our purposes, this group encompasses everything from a Tacoma pickup with a slide-in camper all the way up to an industrial truck chassis with custom composite living quarters on back.
Yes, they can be even bigger than this!
GXV’s new “Adventure Truck” debuted at the show and is the smallest in its line of monster overland vehicles, starting at $198,000.
LMTV ex-military trucks are just now becoming popular as the basis for large overland builds.
This Maltec 70 Series camper build debuted on North American shores at the show and turned a lot of heads.
Vans
The Van Life truly is the good life. No vehicle lets you optimize interior living space more in relation to its overall size. The flip side is that vans can be extremely hard to work on, as the motor is generally buried in the body of the vehicle.
There are also very few four-wheel-drive van options on the market. Those that are available aren’t generally capable off-road, and/or have a steep price.
MadMax would be proud of this monster van build.
Winnebago went big and launched its “Revel” 4×4 Sprinter at the show. This fully featured RV starts at $130,000.
The Mitsubishi Delica is becoming more popular in the U.S., as really nice examples are now eligible to import under the 25-year rule.
