Overland Journal Summer 2010

Educational Tool I just wanted to send a note to thank you for your wonderful magazine. I am a high-school teacher in the Raleigh area, and I use Overland Journal in both my geography and yearbook classes. My students enjoy reading it in their free time, and when we are discussing an area of the world you have covered, the magazine really brings it to life for them. As the yearbook advisor I encourage my students to look through the issues for picture ideas and various ways to pose different shots. In both classes Overland Journal has been a blessing to me as a teacher. Catherine B. Raleigh, NC Article Request I wanted to let you know that I really enjoyed your “On the Trail of Red Cloud” article. A simple journey like that is…

Ann Lockley After too many years in a safe, well-paying, but soulless job that only ever allowed enough free time to play at being a writer, it was time for a change. In 2006, Ann quit her job, bought an old Range Rover, and took to the road, embracing life as a full-time freelance writer and photographer. Prior to shifting career gears, Ann had spent the majority of her life sailing the waters of B.C. and the Pacific Northwest, backpacking local trails, and exploring the many back roads of British Columbia. The writer’s creed “write what you know” is true for Ann: She writes about sailing, adventure travel, wildlife conservation, environmental responsibility, and her favourite four-legged friends—dogs. Sam Watson Born in the hills of northern England, Sam first travelled the Sahara aged seven—and it…

“No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.” That aphorism, actually a truncated paraphrase from the great Prussian military strategist Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, seems like a harsh admonishment to apply to trip preparation for an overland excursion. It’s supposed to be fun, right? However, I’m sure everyone reading this has known people (you might even be one of them) who readied for trips as though the course of world history might shift if they didn’t load the vehicle down with everything from spare wiper blades to backup alternators to complete boxed clutch assemblies. The tool kit—frequently ferried in a giant Pelican case—comprises the normal screwdrivers, wrenches and sockets, etc., but is likely to include a dial indicator, a digital torque wrench, an infrared thermometer, and several other implements with multiple…

By the time you read this, it will have been a year since we picked up our long-term Wrangler. Those of you who remember my introduction in the Summer 2009 issue will recall the strategy we decided to use with the JK: Rather than seeing how many accessories and modifications we could bolt, weld, screw or glue on it in 12 months, we decided to see how it would perform as an overland vehicle more or less straight out of the box. This might seem like an odd approach when a significant majority of our subscribers tell us in our surveys that they drive modified vehicles, and most have wish lists at least a dozen items long. But it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking you need just one more…

Still no joy for small-diesel fans I won’t bother listing the specifications for the latest crop of domestic diesel trucks, which are nothing like the proposed 4-liter engines we reported on over a year ago. Instead, the only offerings are even bigger than their predecessors, well over 6 liters and with ocean-liner torque curves. Yet the line-up is being touted as the greenest, most efficient ever. Imagine what could have been done with the 4-liter options. The stubborn big-platform focus still leaves the market wide open for Mahindra, but where are they? The little truck that could has been delayed more times than I care to count, and the U.S. distributor is reportedly suing over the delay. On the other end of the spectrum, Fiat has announced that they do indeed plan to…

Hema Navigator 5” $869 The Hema Navigator 5” (HN5) is the first comprehensive portable navigation system that incorporates both street and backcountry nav applications. In an effort to eliminate the need to use a laptop for advanced navigation software, Hema developed this five-inch touch-screen GPS device to run three different nav applications on Windows CE. Street nav is handled by Route 66, which utilizes the latest NAVTEQ street maps and points of interest. OziExplorer handles the 4WD nav, and allows you to load in Hema digital maps or any other georeferenced map you may have. Topo navigation can be done in the Memory Map application. With a micro SD card slot, the user should be able to load many gigabytes of maps, routes and waypoints. The unit also comes ready for…