EarthCruiser Logo
Choose Your Adventure
Start Cruisin'
EarthCruiser Logo

Blog

Owner Stories
International Travel
News From The Road
Tips & Tricks
Owner Stories
International Travel
News From The Road
Tips & Tricks
Blog

We Sent Our Marketing Guru Out for Some Extra Training

The Importance of Off-Road Driving Safety My passion for adventure travel started on two wheels. Once I bought my first bike, my dad and two uncles allowed me to tag along on weekend trips that explored the back roads of Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York. I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into, but thankfully they did and had all the right gear if something was to go wrong. By wrong I don’t mean an accident either, it was normally wrong turns that got us lost with no cell service or a bad road that caused

Read More +
Blog

MOD: One Shell of an Idea

Sharon, the owner of Aroma Coffee Hut down the street from EarthCruiser HQ, is a pretty happy camper these days. Why? Well mostly because of the amount of coffee we are consuming these days to make sure all is prepared for Overland Expo West, but also because she helped plant a seed in our overly caffeinated minds. Since the release of the GZL truck camper back in October 2017, most customers have been overly satisfied with the premium options it comes standard with. There is, however, a growing contingent of interested people who love the GZL concept but don’t need

Read More +
Blog

Living For The Moment

There are a lot of people who have ambitions for adventure travel, but don’t pull the trigger because of timing, money, or inexperience. We’ve seen many people abandon their dreams prematurely, thinking they have to work longer to create this life for themselves. However in this day and age it is easier to chase these dreams earlier in life than before. I’d like the share the story of Scott & Anita of Rockhampton Australia. Two customers of EarthCruiser that took a different approach to chasing a dream of adventure travel. Scott retired early and passed on a 5 year contract

Read More +
Blog

Celebrating 10 Years of Adventure

The month of April marks EarthCruisers 10th year anniversary, and we have some really big plans ahead. But first a little bit recognition of our history. The company was originally founded on April 1, 2008 by Lance Gillies. Growing up in Australia, Lance had an extensive background in off-road driving and building 4×4 vehicles. EarthCruiser was originally designed to meet his specific needs for an overland expedition vehicle that could go anywhere and was comfortable enough for two people to live for extended periods of time. After extensive research and development, the EarthCruiser design was born. The initial successful testing

Read More +
Budapest to Bamako Rally

The Romantic Notion of the Desert

Desert, Desert, and More Desert Mauritania is not usually on anyone’s bucket list.  It is poor, the desert is taking over, it only abolished slavery in 2001 (and still has slaves) and really there is not very much there.  It is, however, hauntingly beautiful, desolate, diverse and in some ways scary.  It was where the Rally and so many others have their desert focused portion—the Paris Dakar spent a lot of time in Mauritania.  Our first real day in Mauritania we started off on a 530 km run from Bou Lanour to Atar along the longest train in the world

Read More +
Budapest to Bamako Rally

Observations about Morocco

Morocco 101 Morocco is a really nice, gentle introduction to Africa. It has been both a Spanish and French colony with both cultures reflected. That means baguettes are available everywhere!  The scenery is amazingly diverse with the desert, mountains and then these verdant valleys with olive ‘orchards’ and vegetables.  There’s beautiful architecture, bustling markets and medinas, fabulous restaurants and nice hotels and spas.  It is a place I would like to spend a lot more time and a lot more time in our EC.

Read More +
Budapest to Bamako Rally

The Start of the Desert

Mines in the Desert From the high Atlas Mountains, we came down to the beach and then into more of a desert area.  Much like Central Oregon, this wasn’t a sand dune desert but a more rocky, gravelly one.  This is where we entered Western Sahara, which is about 800 km of what was once disputed territory between Morocco and Mauritania.  Both sides used to mine it…land mines! So we pretty much had a transit stage from outside of Dahla to our first camp at Bou Lanour in Mauritania. It was suggested we didn’t venture too far from the road,

Read More +
Budapest to Bamako Rally

Up and Down The Atlas Mountains

From Spain to Morocco We did our fast drive through Europe and took the overnight ferry to Morocco where the rally really started.  The ferry came from Spain and into Spain on the Moroccan side. So right away we had to navigate out of Europe and into Morocco whose border wasn’t exactly well signed. I guess this was where the GPS exercise really started.  The roadbook gave a brief outline of the procedure at the Moroccan border but frankly, it was just a cluster with vehicles and people everywhere all trying to get the attention of an official to stamp

Read More +
Budapest to Bamako Rally

Budapest to Bamako and Back – Post Rally

Budapest to Bamako We’re on the plane home now from the Budapest to Bamako rally and we’ve had an amazing time.  It was a long couple of weeks -nearly 20,000 kms there and back. We didn’t have access to wifi, hence the lack of posts.  We did finish the race in Banjul and did really well considering we really didn’t know what we were getting into.  Initially, I thought this was a GPS charity event, which it was but it was also a very serious well-organized play for keeps rally. The teams that came in the top 3 positions had

Read More +
EarthCruiser Community
International Travel
News From The Road
Tips & Tricks
Blog

We Sent Our Marketing Guru Out for Some Extra Training

The Importance of Off-Road Driving Safety My passion for adventure travel started on two wheels. Once I bought my first bike, my dad and two uncles allowed me to tag along on weekend trips that explored the back roads of Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York. I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into, but thankfully they did and had all the right gear if something was to go wrong. By wrong I don’t mean an accident either, it was normally wrong turns that got us lost with no cell service or a bad road that caused

Read More +
Blog

MOD: One Shell of an Idea

Sharon, the owner of Aroma Coffee Hut down the street from EarthCruiser HQ, is a pretty happy camper these days. Why? Well mostly because of the amount of coffee we are consuming these days to make sure all is prepared for Overland Expo West, but also because she helped plant a seed in our overly caffeinated minds. Since the release of the GZL truck camper back in October 2017, most customers have been overly satisfied with the premium options it comes standard with. There is, however, a growing contingent of interested people who love the GZL concept but don’t need

Read More +
Blog

Living For The Moment

There are a lot of people who have ambitions for adventure travel, but don’t pull the trigger because of timing, money, or inexperience. We’ve seen many people abandon their dreams prematurely, thinking they have to work longer to create this life for themselves. However in this day and age it is easier to chase these dreams earlier in life than before. I’d like the share the story of Scott & Anita of Rockhampton Australia. Two customers of EarthCruiser that took a different approach to chasing a dream of adventure travel. Scott retired early and passed on a 5 year contract

Read More +
Blog

Celebrating 10 Years of Adventure

The month of April marks EarthCruisers 10th year anniversary, and we have some really big plans ahead. But first a little bit recognition of our history. The company was originally founded on April 1, 2008 by Lance Gillies. Growing up in Australia, Lance had an extensive background in off-road driving and building 4×4 vehicles. EarthCruiser was originally designed to meet his specific needs for an overland expedition vehicle that could go anywhere and was comfortable enough for two people to live for extended periods of time. After extensive research and development, the EarthCruiser design was born. The initial successful testing

Read More +
Budapest to Bamako Rally

The Romantic Notion of the Desert

Desert, Desert, and More Desert Mauritania is not usually on anyone’s bucket list.  It is poor, the desert is taking over, it only abolished slavery in 2001 (and still has slaves) and really there is not very much there.  It is, however, hauntingly beautiful, desolate, diverse and in some ways scary.  It was where the Rally and so many others have their desert focused portion—the Paris Dakar spent a lot of time in Mauritania.  Our first real day in Mauritania we started off on a 530 km run from Bou Lanour to Atar along the longest train in the world

Read More +
Budapest to Bamako Rally

Observations about Morocco

Morocco 101 Morocco is a really nice, gentle introduction to Africa. It has been both a Spanish and French colony with both cultures reflected. That means baguettes are available everywhere!  The scenery is amazingly diverse with the desert, mountains and then these verdant valleys with olive ‘orchards’ and vegetables.  There’s beautiful architecture, bustling markets and medinas, fabulous restaurants and nice hotels and spas.  It is a place I would like to spend a lot more time and a lot more time in our EC.

Read More +
Budapest to Bamako Rally

The Start of the Desert

Mines in the Desert From the high Atlas Mountains, we came down to the beach and then into more of a desert area.  Much like Central Oregon, this wasn’t a sand dune desert but a more rocky, gravelly one.  This is where we entered Western Sahara, which is about 800 km of what was once disputed territory between Morocco and Mauritania.  Both sides used to mine it…land mines! So we pretty much had a transit stage from outside of Dahla to our first camp at Bou Lanour in Mauritania. It was suggested we didn’t venture too far from the road,

Read More +
Budapest to Bamako Rally

Up and Down The Atlas Mountains

From Spain to Morocco We did our fast drive through Europe and took the overnight ferry to Morocco where the rally really started.  The ferry came from Spain and into Spain on the Moroccan side. So right away we had to navigate out of Europe and into Morocco whose border wasn’t exactly well signed. I guess this was where the GPS exercise really started.  The roadbook gave a brief outline of the procedure at the Moroccan border but frankly, it was just a cluster with vehicles and people everywhere all trying to get the attention of an official to stamp

Read More +
Budapest to Bamako Rally

Budapest to Bamako and Back – Post Rally

Budapest to Bamako We’re on the plane home now from the Budapest to Bamako rally and we’ve had an amazing time.  It was a long couple of weeks -nearly 20,000 kms there and back. We didn’t have access to wifi, hence the lack of posts.  We did finish the race in Banjul and did really well considering we really didn’t know what we were getting into.  Initially, I thought this was a GPS charity event, which it was but it was also a very serious well-organized play for keeps rally. The teams that came in the top 3 positions had

Read More +