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Owner Stories
International Travel
News From The Road
Tips & Tricks
Owner Stories
International Travel
News From The Road
Tips & Tricks
EarthCruiser Community

Owner Stories: Randy & Carol Dick and Their EC#37

Hi Randy and Carol, thank you for taking time to talk with us and share your story. Let’s start with you telling us a little about yourselves. In 2018 we semi-retired after working many years in business and government, but we still maintain a small family enterprise that keeps us out of trouble.  We have been married almost 40 years; have two adult children and two grandchildren. Carol grew up in the Fargo/Moorhead area of North Dakota/Minnesota and Randy is a born and bred San Diegan. We’re an outdoorsy family (how can you not be in San Diego?) and have

Read More +
Media

Off the Road Again Podcast with Lance Gillies

We are honored to have Lance appear as a guest on the Off The Road Again Podcast, a weekly release of off-road fun from the voices of two four-wheeling enthusiasts, Chris Tracy and Ross Ballot, who love all things off-road. Ross has experience with quads, a Jeep Wrangler YJ, a Chevy Avalanche, and a Canadian 4Runner, the StormTrooper. Chris started out with a Jeep Wrangler TJ, moved on to a Tacoma, a V8 4Runner, and is currently living with #TheLandYacht, a 1994 Toyota Land Cruiser FZJ80. In this episode “Ross & Chris welcome Lance Gillies from EarthCruiser to the show.

Read More +
Blog

Thankful for EarthCruiser Owners: Owner Stories with Glenn & Jeanne Capachin

Our “Thankful for ___” theme has so far covered EarthCruiser Pets, Veterans, and now we’d like to take a moment and express our thankfulness to EarthCruiser owners: far and wide; past, present, and future. You are what makes this crazy adventure worth it. For this month’s EarthCruiser Owner profile we caught up Glenn Capachin, a highly active EarthCruiser owner that’s always off on some trip of another. He’s quick to offer his help, and valuable advice, to fellow EarthCruiser owners, having put his own rig through a lot of paces and bringing a lifetime of experience with big rigs, car

Read More +
Media

EarthCruiser on the Overland Journal Podcast: “Discussing Expedition Campers and Crossing Jungles with Lance Gillies”

If you follow Overlanding then you are very familiar with The Overland Journal. A few months ago we had the pleasure of hosting Scott Brady at HQ. Lance and Michelle, and most the EarthCruiser crew, were able to spend quality time together, from a safe-masked physical distance, of course. While here, Scott and Lance sat down for a highly engaging interview for the Overland Journal Podcast, a production of the Overland Journal Magazine and the expeditionportal.com website, and features the travelers, topics, and news related to the overlanding community and industry.  In the latest episode, “Discussing Expedition Campers and Crossing

Read More +
Blog

Nobody Puts MOD in the Corner

We Begin Our Prototyping with a Retired GZL Shell “It’s time to start building!”, Lance said as we were finalizing the last few SolidWorks files. This jump from concept to proto-type always gets our engineers nervous. Hoping that everything was thought through, calculated out, and will line up is the dream but never the reality. By noon the next day a stack of plywood showed up, and our crew began cutting shapes on our C&C machine. Why plywood? Because it is cheap and easy to take a computer design and see how it feels when it is a tangible structure.

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 +
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

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
EarthCruiser Community

Owner Stories: Randy & Carol Dick and Their EC#37

Hi Randy and Carol, thank you for taking time to talk with us and share your story. Let’s start with you telling us a little about yourselves. In 2018 we semi-retired after working many years in business and government, but we still maintain a small family enterprise that keeps us out of trouble.  We have been married almost 40 years; have two adult children and two grandchildren. Carol grew up in the Fargo/Moorhead area of North Dakota/Minnesota and Randy is a born and bred San Diegan. We’re an outdoorsy family (how can you not be in San Diego?) and have

Read More +
Media

Off the Road Again Podcast with Lance Gillies

We are honored to have Lance appear as a guest on the Off The Road Again Podcast, a weekly release of off-road fun from the voices of two four-wheeling enthusiasts, Chris Tracy and Ross Ballot, who love all things off-road. Ross has experience with quads, a Jeep Wrangler YJ, a Chevy Avalanche, and a Canadian 4Runner, the StormTrooper. Chris started out with a Jeep Wrangler TJ, moved on to a Tacoma, a V8 4Runner, and is currently living with #TheLandYacht, a 1994 Toyota Land Cruiser FZJ80. In this episode “Ross & Chris welcome Lance Gillies from EarthCruiser to the show.

Read More +
Blog

Thankful for EarthCruiser Owners: Owner Stories with Glenn & Jeanne Capachin

Our “Thankful for ___” theme has so far covered EarthCruiser Pets, Veterans, and now we’d like to take a moment and express our thankfulness to EarthCruiser owners: far and wide; past, present, and future. You are what makes this crazy adventure worth it. For this month’s EarthCruiser Owner profile we caught up Glenn Capachin, a highly active EarthCruiser owner that’s always off on some trip of another. He’s quick to offer his help, and valuable advice, to fellow EarthCruiser owners, having put his own rig through a lot of paces and bringing a lifetime of experience with big rigs, car

Read More +
Media

EarthCruiser on the Overland Journal Podcast: “Discussing Expedition Campers and Crossing Jungles with Lance Gillies”

If you follow Overlanding then you are very familiar with The Overland Journal. A few months ago we had the pleasure of hosting Scott Brady at HQ. Lance and Michelle, and most the EarthCruiser crew, were able to spend quality time together, from a safe-masked physical distance, of course. While here, Scott and Lance sat down for a highly engaging interview for the Overland Journal Podcast, a production of the Overland Journal Magazine and the expeditionportal.com website, and features the travelers, topics, and news related to the overlanding community and industry.  In the latest episode, “Discussing Expedition Campers and Crossing

Read More +
Blog

Nobody Puts MOD in the Corner

We Begin Our Prototyping with a Retired GZL Shell “It’s time to start building!”, Lance said as we were finalizing the last few SolidWorks files. This jump from concept to proto-type always gets our engineers nervous. Hoping that everything was thought through, calculated out, and will line up is the dream but never the reality. By noon the next day a stack of plywood showed up, and our crew began cutting shapes on our C&C machine. Why plywood? Because it is cheap and easy to take a computer design and see how it feels when it is a tangible structure.

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 +
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

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 +