Wondering Where Overlanding Is Headed in Today's Market

The overlanding landscape is shifting beneath our feet. After years of explosive growth, vehicle-based adventure travel appears to be evolving into something different - but what exactly? 

I've noticed Instagram becoming the primary platform for overlanders, with polished photos replacing in-depth travel videos. Meanwhile, trailer builds gain popularity as traditional vehicle-based overlanding seems to recede. Most concerning is seeing countless pristine builds with all the latest gear showing no signs of actual use. Real equipment tells stories through its patina and witness marks - something missing from many showcase builds now appearing for sale at inflated prices.

This transformation raises important questions for content creators like myself. Should I focus on beginner concepts for newcomers or continue with advanced topics? Are people still building their own rigs or mainly purchasing ready-made setups? The brands continue marketing aggressively, but underneath that buzz, something fundamental has changed about how people engage with this lifestyle.

What are you observing in today's overlanding world? Are you still watching regular content or primarily consuming quick visual snippets? Has your own approach to overlanding shifted? I genuinely want your perspective because this community has always been about sharing experiences. Text the podcast, comment below, or message me directly - let me know what topics matter to you and what trends you're seeing from where you stand.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and Vehicle Repair Saga
• 3:14 Observing Changes in the Overlanding Space
• 6:27 Missing Daily Vlogs and Content Shift
• 9:04 Show Builds vs. Used Equipment
• 12:09 Future of Overlanding and Closing Thoughts

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the World of Warcraft, episode 1 the Warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to an afternoon edition of Outskirts Overland. If you guys would, I'd appreciate it, if you'd go rate the podcast or leave a review. It helps me out. I really would appreciate it. Um, so, hopping into it, you know what today is, I don't know what today is.

Speaker 1: 0:52

Today's the day where I had to take my truck back in to get the alignment done, because yesterday they told me my inner tie rod end was needed replaced and I was like no, I just did tie rods, like I know, it doesn't need replaced. And so then I went and looked at it. What had happened is they used vice grips to try and adjust the inner tie rod and chewed it to all high. Heck chewed up. I got a picture of it's the for this, but man, it looks like shredded sheetment, like it's still strong, it's rounded off, real bad. So I was like no, no, no, no, no, no, I'm not replacing the inner tie rod end. That is relatively you know in what's in good condition. I was like you guys just shoot it all up. I was so I took them. So this morning I took them a pipe wrench. I was like and again, you shouldn't need to use a pipe wrench on something that's supposed to be 15 millimeter, but pipe wrenches are made to grab stuff that's rounded. So I took them a pipe wrench and said here you go half ball. And they got it aligned today, but due to me trying to be there like first thing, 730 in the morning, this was not at all on my mind. I was like I just got to get this done so I can get to work, because I waited all day for him to tell me that I needed a tie rod, that it didn't need and I don't try to be a know-it-all, guys, but just because you can't adjust it, because you used vice grips on it and chewed it up, doesn't mean the part's bad. The function of the part is to be able to adjust. You can make that happen, but the seals aren't bad, the joints aren't bad, like you know what I mean. Nothing about it was bad. Threads are all good, everything's fine. They got it aligned to like 15 minutes and I just took it in to get my, I get alignment about every, you know, depending on when I need it, but about every year, you know nothing.

Speaker 1: 2:50

I'm not crazy. Sometimes I do it every six months, it just depends on what I've been doing with the truck, you know. But it was a big, huge like it was like an ordeal that it didn't need to be. That's all there is to say about it, really. So, anyways, and I drove the truck two days I didn't really particularly want to be driving truck, but that's also either here or there.

Speaker 1: 3:19

So, yeah, then, as far as overlanding is going, I'm seeing just there's a lot going on. The space is changing. I say it like I mean, I know I do daily and I say it all the time the space is changing. Space is changing. It is changing. Though I'm seeing far more people on Instagram taking pictures of travels, instagram taking pictures of travels. Then I'm seeing videos about travels and I'm still seeing that that I'll call it that cross between overlanding and a bunch of other outdoor activities.

Speaker 1: 3:51

But if you're somebody that likes hiking and biking and kayaking and overlanding, and you know if you like it all together, now's a good time for you. Um, I don't have a lot of interest. I put pretty much all my inch my energy into just this. Not that that's good, bad or indifferent. It's just the way that. It's just what I do. I'm not, uh, I'm a kind of a one-trick pony here. I don't I put a lot into this and I don't have that much, uh, you know, butter to spread around, financial butter, so I've got to. You know, I got to stick to a hobby and I like this one, so I have stuck to it. I mean nothing, nothing crazy going on. I mean nothing new to you guys.

Speaker 1: 4:50

So, that being said, it started to get me thinking what, what does this? As we go from a time where this was kind of a novel thing and not really known to a huge, enormous spike in 2020? I don't know how to project where we're going, to know how to help you guys out the best, because are we? Do we got a lot of new people that are just watching all the backlogged stuff? Do we have people wanting new and updated information? Do I need to just go back to beginner things, you know, to try and consolidate some of that for you guys? Are we in the place where everybody's buying stuff because it's available? Are we still building stuff?

Speaker 1: 5:27

It's just such a weird time where, like, there's just not an influx of Influx, there's not a library of new overlanding content for me to you know, go kind of get it, get a feel for the, to get a feel for the industry. Right now I think trailers are becoming really, really big, but I think that that is in itself another sub, you know subcategory, of the hobby itself, just because you know you've got your people that are more into wheeling than just the travel and that's just trailers. Don't do that. I haven't talked about it. I mean, I'm beating a dead horse here. I talk about it all the time, but also I'm not seeing much off-road content right now. So I'm wondering what's going on with vehicular off-road content? I don't have my algorithm does not feed me anything about side-by-sides, but just my drive to work feeds me a lot, like I see side-by-sides regularly here in mid-Missouri. So I don't, I just am at a loss for, like what this is even all becoming. Am I about to just be this outlier in general, because I don't know what's realistically what's going on? And it's tough for me because now I am an influencer and I have a bunch of content out and I'm going what do I talk about here. So it's just tough. It's just tough to kind of I'm wading the waters and trying to get a feel for what's going on.

Speaker 1: 7:05

All the brands are marketing like nothing, slowed down. I mean, if you were to go on and you know, instagram maybe is the place for overlanders. Now, if you were to go on Instagram, you wouldn't know, you wouldn't know anything changed. I mean, instagram is so full of people that are producing content, pictures you know real shorts and maybe that's what it's turning into, but there's a lot of that like come tour my van with me, come do a day in the life with me. Like over the course of like 30 seconds or a minute, chopped up, you know, into shorts and reels and cool photos. And like even me, I got a drone, that thing does 4k, it's got a gimbal. Like I can take cool video and pictures. Like like there's just I can and it's not at all a big deal. Like it's it's more accessible and easier than ever. So like to produce that content's really easy versus a video that takes you know what do they say an hour or two hours, a minute, you know. So it's tough and there's some people that are still producing content, but I don't I wouldn't say at a slower rate, but the people that were producing a lot of content, weekly content, two times a week content.

Speaker 1: 8:14

I haven't seen a daily vlog from anybody in forever, which is exactly why I started doing it, because, as somebody that's bored, you know like in general, I value something to just to just somebody just rattle and I'll hear what they got to say. You know, the daily vlogs used to be something that was extremely popular on YouTube and you know, or podcasts or whatever Like people want to, people want to get to know you and see what's going on in your life. People want an inside look. So I started doing it simply because I was like just nobody else is doing it and if they were, I'd I'd follow them If it was as good, like if it was of the same quality of mine is which, by saying that, I mean low quality, by saying that like it's not great quality. So it's not a whole bunch of production value here, but it's just something to. It's just something to do. You know, like I enjoy doing it. It's not hard for me to do. You guys seem to enjoy it. It's not really a big, like the big, huge hoopla for me. So, yeah, but the space is, the space is making such a shift right now that we're in the middle of that. I don't know, I mean, nothing's changing for me, you know so, but I want to help you guys Like the whole point of doing this at all is to help, you know, to help fill in gaps with all my experience to, to in short, that's a way I could put it.

Speaker 1: 9:41

In short, I want to fill in gaps on experiences that I've had that are problems that you may have, that you don't need to have because I already did have. If that makes sense, use my experience to prevent you from making mistakes I already made, having mishaps that I already had, doing things that you know weren't worth it. But right now I don't know if my experience even is necessarily applicable, because it's headed in such a different direction from long road trips to like trailers and more. You know, not such rural backcountry spots. You know that's got potentially hookups, but like off-grid trailers is not something I know anything about. So I'm not gonna sit here and go oh man, this is the, this is the this and this is that you know. So I that's getting popular and I could learn about it, but I'm not passionate about it the same. And go oh man, this is the this and this is the that you know. So that's getting popular and I could learn about it, but I'm not passionate about it the same.

Speaker 1: 10:40

And I see vehicle-based becoming less and less popular. I see overland-built vehicles being really popular, but not overland-used ones. People are building vehicles to show off things and lights and lifts and wheels and tires and racks and tents, but like again, I will stress that you can really tell very, very easily if the stuff gets used, like if it always looks new, like this stuff weathers it, patinas, like there's nothing about a piece of overland equipment that I have that you wouldn't be, that that doesn't have witness marks from using it, like even if you're careful, even if you're this, even if you're that it still shows the signs of being used. And I see a lot of companies and and good on them, like, good on them, you know, business, vehicle tax write-off, potentially, whatever advertisement, marketing, budget, whatever they're doing. But they're building rigs and I see rigs for sale. Like you go and bring a trailer right now I'm on a face bring a trailer, has Overland rigs for sale. They're all way overpriced mods do not make your car worth more money, even though you spend it. That's. It's kind of like that's on you, bro, but bring a trailer's, got overland vehicles and different stuff, same as uh, I'm on overland classifieds on facebook overland vehicles and vans, you know like where they sell them. Built stuff like that. They're for sale like there's even some that people did use a lot for the last three to five years and they're selling them now.

Speaker 1: 12:14

So maybe it's not the time to be in overlanding, you know, maybe it's. Maybe we're transitioning out of it. I mean, it's been around for freaking ever, so but it worries me. I've gotten kind of spoiled with having all this equipment readily available from companies and everything, and now I don't want them to go away, you know, but I don't know how to support them either and to keep them around. So it's just unique in that. So that's where I'm at. That's where I'm at. That's what I got going on.

Speaker 1: 12:53

I wanted to get you guys something out today so that you guys had something. You know like I didn't want to leave you hanging and this morning just didn't facilitate it, but on my way home it does Hit me up in the comments, hit me with a message Text the podcast. Let me know a topic you guys want to cover. Let me know what you guys think about the Overland space right now. Like what are you seeing? I'm not the only person with an opinion here. Like what are you guys seeing? What's that look like from your perspective? Are you guys still just watching old content? Like are you guys seeing anything new? Are you seeing any new trends that I'm