Archetype
The Long Hauler
You are not on a trip. You live out there.
Months rather than weeks, at a pace that lets you stop for three days when a place is good. The vehicle is a home first and a machine second, and the budget matters more than the specification.
You measure success in how long you can stay away, which makes you the most careful planner of all six types. Your risk is a vehicle so complete that it is heavy, and a route so long that the middle of it becomes routine.
Strengths
- Patience, and a realistic sense of pace
- Genuine self-sufficiency in power, water and food
- Comfortable with paperwork, borders and logistics
Watch for
- Weight, which creeps in over every month of preparation
- Money, which is the most common reason a long trip ends early
- Building for every eventuality instead of the likely ones
Kit
- A power system you can diagnose yourself
- Two water tanks, filtration and a hose you keep clean
- A repair kit for the failures your vehicle is known for
- Vehicle
- A simple, well-supported four wheel drive or van with a low, light interior conversion, big water and a serviceable engine.
- First trip
- Three months around one continent rather than nine months across three. Depth is what you are actually after.
