Overland Journal Summer 2008

Overland Journal and the Law I was home with my Sportsmobile parked in the driveway, when a police officer pulled his squad car to a stop in the middle of the street, turned on his roof flashers, and got out. I was thinking, What did my son do now, when he said, “Do you read Overland Journal?” I said yes, and he said, “Is this one of those vans in the magazine?” So I gave him a tour. Charlie Sikes Sportsmobile Irascible and opinionated Dear Mr. Hanson, I hope you accept post from irascible, opinionated old men who have owned an eclectic array of “overland” outfits. Starters would be a real Land Rover with manual transmission (and Fairey overdrive), full-floating axles (locking hubs on both axles), factory diesel engine. A 1965 Nissan Datsun Patrol which had better…

Here's something you can count on: The spirit of adventure is not going to die because gas hits five bucks per gallon, or ten. It certainly won't die in us. We'll adapt, we'll innovate, we'll economize. You knew this one was coming, didn’t you? Yes, we’ve been hearing all the questions: “What are you guys going to do? Your magazine is about vehicles. Fuel prices are going up. Holiday driving is down. SUVs are doomed. What will happen to Overland Journal?” The answer is easy: We’ll thrive. And that’s not the false bravado of a presidential candidate trailing by 300 delegates. First, overlanding is still, and will be into the foreseeable future, one of the most economical ways to travel. In a vehicle stocked with camping gear and food, you are free from hotel…

One doesn’t expect to run into words such as “hypotrochoid” while doing something as simple as researching leaf-spring suspension for a Series Land Rover. I just wanted to make a decision: stock Land Rover semi-elliptic springs, or aftermarket parabolics? But in an effort to understand more than sales pitches, I did a little surfing beyond manufacturers’ websites. Before I realized what was happening, high school geometry reared its ugly head, and I started running into long words and longer formulas regarding the geometric shapes implicit in the description of each spring type. But rather than tell you, for example, that an ellipse is “a locus of points on a plane such that the sum of the distances to two fixed points is a constant,” I found a couple of more practical…

Jim Young Jim Young grew up in the hills of northwest Connecticut, and spent his childhood backpacking, canoeing, and exploring in vehicles he’d rebuilt himself. His first big road trip was a two-month tour of the country in a 1979 Chevy pickup, when he was only 20. Jim’s affair with old Land Rovers began on a whim 10 years ago when he bought his first without ever driving one. From there it’s been a downhill slide into all things old Land Rover, including the complete rebuild of two hybrids. The James Bay trip was his fifth multi-week/multi-thousand-mile trek, and the second with his new wife, Wendy McFarlane, whom he met on expedition. With the completion of his Mercedes-diesel-powered 109 this summer, debate on next year’s destination is underway. Stephen Bodio Stephen was born…

Mid-size Diesels Coming Diesel prices have arrived at a historic high just in time to help squelch U.S. consumer acceptance of the new clean-burning, ultra-efficient engines we’ll be seeing over the next few years. The prices don’t look as if they will change anytime soon, but consumer perceptions might. Trying to take steps in the right direction, the Big Three are all in a push for clean, mid-sized diesel engines for their 2010 models. Dodge says that their big 6.7-liter is ready to be 50-state legal, but there’s still no word on what their contribution to the mid-sized market will be. Ford has not officially released the details of their design, but leaks from the dealer show in Las Vegas point to a new 4.4-liter diesel closely related to the current 3.6-liter Land Rover…

Born in Lode Lane by Roger Crathorne and Gavin Green “Land Rover insider” hardly begins to describe Roger Crathorne, who was born the year Maurice Wilks conceived the vehicle, and on the same road (Lode Lane) where it was built. Roger went to work for Land Rover at the age of 17 and has been with the company ever since, first in engineering, where he was instrumental in the development of the Range Rover, and then most famously as the head of Land Rover’s demonstration unit. Born in Lode Lane is thus perhaps the ultimate intimate look at Land Rover. Roger’s tales go far beyond the usual journalistic histories, into the inner workings of the company and the personalities of its employees. For a fiercely loyal company man, Roger is candid about many…