Overland · Build
Build the Rig Around the Weight, Not the Wish List
Every accessory catalogue starts at the bumper. Every successful build starts at the weighbridge, because payload is the one budget that cannot be extended.
Build it, cross borders, keep going
Overland
Overlanding is a logistics problem with a beautiful view attached. The vehicle has to carry you and your life without breaking its axles, the paperwork has to survive twelve borders, and the money has to last longer than your enthusiasm. Here is how the numbers actually fall.
The most common way a long trip ends early is not a breakdown or a robbery. It is money, followed by a build that was never finished, followed by a vehicle so heavy that everything on it wears out at once.
Read the build piece before you spend on the vehicle, the budget piece before you hand in your notice, and the borders piece before you book anything with a carnet involved.
All stories in Overland
Overland · Build
Build the Rig Around the Weight, Not the Wish List
Every accessory catalogue starts at the bumper. Every successful build starts at the weighbridge, because payload is the one budget that cannot be extended.
Overland · Logistics
Papers, Stamps and Patience
Border crossings are where overland trips are delayed, taxed and occasionally ended. Almost all of it is document work that could have been done at home, calmly, months earlier.
Overland · Money
What a Year on the Road Actually Costs
Not the number in the inspiring blog post. The real one, split into the three lines that decide whether you come home when you planned to or three months early.
Overland · Systems
Water, Power and the Waste Nobody Plans For
The three systems that decide how long you can stay away from a town, sized properly, built simply, and arranged so that any one of them failing costs comfort rather than the trip.
What ended your last long trip?
Questions we get asked
What does a year of overlanding cost?
Two people in a paid-for vehicle in Africa or Latin America manage on 1,200 to 2,000 euro a month, most of it fuel, food and insurance. Europe runs higher, mostly because of campsites and tolls. The variable that dominates everything is how far you drive each month.
Do I need a carnet de passages?
It depends entirely on the countries. Much of Africa, the Middle East, India and parts of Asia require one; the Americas and most of Europe do not. It is a customs bond, not a document you can buy in a week, so it belongs at the very front of the planning, not the end.
Diesel or petrol for a long trip?
Diesel still wins where you travel far from workshops: simpler older engines, better range and fuel available at every truck stop. Modern common rail engines with emissions systems are the exception, because bad fuel and unavailable additives can strand them. Petrol is easier in the Americas and in cities.
Field notes
One letter a month from the track
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