I've seen a quite a few threads lately that people either want to do some sort of expedition type trips or are building their vehicles for this purpose. I wanted to start a thread to collect opinions and experiences from people that have done this, and to give folks a place to post questions.
I think one of the things to clear up right away is what this means. In my mind, I think of doing trips that are at least several days and up to several weeks in duration, where you are living out of the vehicle with little or no outside support. Basically no motels, no restaurants, self-sufficient travel.
I have done quite a bit of travel in the US and Canada that fits with the description above. My first bit of advice is to not worry too much about building a go-anywhere vehicle or being so far out there you can’t get home. My experience has been that it is very hard to get all that far from civilization. You have to try very hard to plan a trip that last more than a few days without seeing pavement, and you have to travel pretty far either North or South to really get away from people and facilities. My last truck that was set up for this type of travel had a secondary fuel tank that I installed in the bed, giving me a more than 700 mile range between fill-ups. I honestly never had a NEED for this tank. With the 22RE sipping away at fuel I could always get in and out on the stock tank, and even if I was close to running out of fuel I would have been fine with a small jerry can. You just can’t get all that far from a gas station these days.
The other part I wanted to touch on is the vehicle. In my experience if you want to do very hard “extreme” trails you have to go out and look for them. The exploration trips I’ve done usually involve pre-existing trails at an easy to moderate level. Build the vehicle for reliability, not ability. This means figure out what will break and either fix it, or carry spares and know how to fix it on the trail. A winch costs less than many of the modifications you can do to a vehicle, and will get you out of just about any situation. There is a certain satisfaction in having a capable rig and being able to drive just about everything. For exploration travel I find it preferable to winch through something and get to where I’m headed with time to sit and socialize at the end of the day, rather than push the vehicles limits and spend the night fixing stuff on the trail.
This is ending up long-winded, I’ll add more as I think of it and as people respond. Maybe I’ll see you out there when you’re “out there”.

 

http://www.brian894x4.com

some good writeups of multi-day excursions in the PNW

 

i too am very interested in "expedition" traveling with my 4runner. i love the feeling of being self sufficient for a few days without coming accross roads or civilization. but as you stated above, it is extremely difficult to find good routes for this or areas in general. i live in NM and most of the state is pretty empty of civilization. but it is also very boring and ugly in these "pockets" of no people. it would be cool if anyone could post different palces that they have acheived long runs that are worth doing. www.expeditionswest.com is a great site that has a lot of info on this but it never hurts to have more. so if anyone knows of some good places, near or far, dont hesitate.

 

I've done this a couple times, once in a 4Runner, the other in a fullsize pickup. I agree with everything except that a winch will get you out of almost every situation. Winches are good to have and will get you out of a lot of situations... but I'd guess no more than 50% or so. Breakage, seriously stuck situations, places where you can't get the cable to an anchor, roll-overs, electrical failure for electric winches, engine/hydraulic pump failure for pto/hydraulic winches. Usually you don't want to get stuck. If it looks bad, it probably is. Find another route.

Fuel capacity and the weight you need to carry will all depend on where you plan on going and for how long. It's always a good idea to carry spare gas whenever traveling off pavement. GPS, radio, etc. are also very useful, as well as maps I always carry a gun and ammo as well.

 

My '85 is set up for both expedition use and more hard core rock crawling. I've done 1 and 2 week long trips, many solo, in the truck, as well as multi-day wheeling trips like the Dusy-Ershim trail:

http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CA-168/D...01/index.shtml
http://c-67-170-224-64.hsd1.ca.comca...pana/Dusy2003/

1-2 week trips:
http://c-67-170-224-64.hsd1.ca.comca...NevOre08-2003/
http://c-67-170-224-64.hsd1.ca.comca.../MN_Trip_2004/

Extra gas tank, planning to add a 10-15 gallon water tank, on-board air, welder, shower, etc. Try to add redundancy, like dual batteries, I carry one spare driveshaft that fits both ends, I run the same shocks on all 4 corners, so one spare fits all, etc. More info:
- http://www.4crawler.com/4Runner.shtml

I am still wanting to get up north to do the trip up to the Arctic Sea in Alaska and Canada. Was all planned out about 7 years ago, but things came up and prevented me from going. Then I think the ultimate expedition trip in the Americas would be to drive the entire Pan-American highway from Alaska to Chile (and back!):
- http://www.lonelyplanet.com/theme/ro...anamerican.htm

 

That looks awesome! I would love to do an expedition like that!

That Paris-Dakar rally looks pretty neat too.

 

I think for the type of trips being discussed you are right that the best option is to find the best route. When that doesn't work, or when your judgement turns out to be less than stellar, a winch will many times get you out of trouble. I carry several non-typical devices to use in a pinch as temporary anchors.

We had planned out a trip to go up to Alaska then head east through some pretty remote country in Canada and end up on the East coast in Labrador. Had some unexpected money problems that forced us to wait a year and plans seemed to just fall apart during that year. I've been up in some of the more Northern areas in Alberta and Manitoba, and all over Ontario. Still pretty easy to get away from civilization in those areas.

 

Don't you mean ride? I have a couple of the Lonely Planet bicycle guidebooks. I guess one level of redundancy on a trip like this with a truck would be a bike! My wife and I have dreams of serious expeditions. I was just reading a Cruising World magazine yesterday that was highlighting Chile and Argentina. Both Alaska and the tip of South America are on the top of my travel list!

 

Us too, although we're going by water. That is my big problem now, my current build on the truck needs to be cheap and my plans are pretty short term, seeing as our long term plans involve our boat and very far away places.
Tough to do it all, but nice when all the choices are good.

 

I certainly will be keeping a close eye on this thread. I forsee some very informative, useful information about to be dispensed. I currently am readying myself for a month of living out of my truck, unfortunately it will contain lots of interstate travel but once in the mountains I will try to maintain self sustaining living conditions mainly as a result of needing to save money.

To MnBoy, and 4Crawler and others who have multi-week'd in your yotas:
Question:
My main concern right now with traveling in the winter and living out of my truck, is how am I going to keep my canned foods/water from freezing solid. I will be in extreme cold conditions/nights commonly getting down below freezing. My answer to this is to boil water and pour it into my Nalgene bottle, then place my warmed NalGene into a cooler which should trap the heat of the bottle and in theory keep my canned goods from freezing. Anyhow, I have many other questions but I'll take my time....less than a month before I leave!

 

Very cool thread. The drive to South America would be awesome.

 

The drive from the US down the western coast to Chile, then up the easter coast back is on my list of to-do's....

 

4crawlr...
On your dual battery setup how did you wire it to isolate the batteries from each other so if one fails it won't drain the other? I'm interested in going duals on my truck and am investigating the different ways of setting it up.

My dad and I have a trip to Alaska planned.... just need to work a few more years so I can get vacation time! Grrrr, stupid corporate America.

 

Keeping stuff in a good cooler is the answer. Put in warm stuff when you can to keep the temp up. If you wanted to spend a little money, some of the electric coolers also have a warm feature, would probably be enough to keep things from freezing. I usually carry water in a 5 gallon jug and can move it up into the cab each day to warm it.

 

I think Roger has a write up for his setup on his website. I did mine with a battery combiner:
http://www.yandina.com/c100Info.htm
and a marine on/off switch: http://www.fisheriessupply.com/onlin...rand/Ns/P_Sort.
The combiner charges both batteries without allowing them to discharge to each other, without the voltage drop you get from an isolator. Wiring is very easy. Then I connected the two batteries together with heavy battery cable with the on/off switch. That way if I need to combine them I just flip the switch.

 

You may want to look around on this website; it is more expedition oriented than most.
http://www.4wdtrips.net/forum/default.aspx

 

I'm currently reading a book called Road Fever, by a great outdoor journalist Tim CaHill.
It's a good read so far, about making a record "pan-american?" trip all the way through Patagonia into Ushauai Argentina. Check it out if you get the chance. It is on topic with this thread.

 

Hey rngrchad, You may want to be careful boiling the water, and this may sound totally rediculous, but Im pretty sure hot water freezes faster than cold water....I think I did some chemistry project on that or something one time. Anyway...back to the thread.....

 

I will be placing the warmed water into an insulated cooler to keep the temperature above freezing....

 

One option would be one of those Peltier coolers, if you swap the polarity on the power plug, they turn into a warmer. Will keep the inside temps 30-40F warmer than the ambient temps.