overland vehicles

Terranova vs adventure van
EC Terranova

Adventure Van vs Terranova – Which is Right for You?

When shopping for a new overland vehicle, there are many factors to consider and an ever-growing array of available vehicles. Some of the most common vehicles are adventure vans, typically all-wheel drive models either converted to an overland vehicle at a specialty shop, built out DIY style, or purchased as a complete vehicle. Here we look at these vans and consider why a Terranova might be a better fit for those looking for their next overlanding vehicle: 1. Build Quality As you start to look at and compare vehicles, one of the most important questions you can consider is how

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 +
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 +
Blog

Time to Cross Some Borders and Catch a Ferry

Tips for Crossing Borders As we’ve been driving and crossing borders on major highways, some countries have a “rest stop” like areas where you can buy a vignette which seems to be a “pre-paid” toll card.  It doesn’t seem to be mandatory to buy one as you aren’t funneled into this area.  We did buy them but wondered if it really mattered as no one checked them.  We started the race and crossed into Slovenia, another vignette country and almost didn’t buy one.  But we did, this one was a nice sticker (we didn’t notice) while the others were just

Read More +
Blog

Pre-Race Day Scrutineering Activities

Preparing for the Race Thursday was scrutineering, race briefing, GPS collection and for ourselves laundry and reorganizing day.  It is becoming a reality and we’ll be on our way with a 3000 km – 3.5-day mad dash through Europe for the first Morocco stage in Midelt on January 16. Traps for Young Players We’re part of the race category which means we have certain tasks to perform each day based on a GPS waypoint.  We brought a tablet with us to be able to access the maps and waypoints but found it was incompatible.  Therefore we had to get a

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On the road to Ikea
Blog

What’s a Road Trip Without a Stop at Ikea

Road Trip Preparation and Free Camping Before we left Fred’s to hit the road again I got an opportunity to do one of my favorite things…go to a grocery store in another country!  I was not disappointed as we were able to stock up on all those lovely sliced cheeses and cold cuts, beautiful loaves of bread, organic veggies and plenty of beer and wine.  We firmly believe that you should never ‘rough it’ in an EarthCruiser.  I think we’ll be pretty right for those times when things may be a bit sparse in some parts of Africa. Our drive

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Blog

Only 1 More Sleep until EarthCruiser Leaves to Amsterdam

Budapest to Bamako Rally Via Amsterdam Finally! Lance and I leave for Amsterdam on Thursday to pick up Alpha Omega for our trek to Budapest for the Budapest to Bamako Rally!  The weekend was hectic while we minimized packing all our ‘stuff like our new UBCO bike rack, spare parts, guidebooks, paper maps, electronics, etc, etc (I’m not allowed to take many clothes).  We got it down to 4 bags at MAX weights!  Goldy knows something is up and is none too pleased.  A vacation with her friend Ronnie will be restorative. Alpha Omega is waiting for us at Ermelo

Read More +
Meet The EC Crew!

Getting to Know EarthCruiser Member Brent Baker

Meet Brent Baker   How long have you worked at EC? 3 months   What do you like about working at EC?  The people and culture.   What experience do you bring to EC? 13 years of business development experience, but I’m still learning new things every day.   What are your hopes for the industry? That continues to allow more people to experience the wonders of our world and creates advocates who want to protect and preserve these things.   What do you hope to accomplish at EC? To continue and increase our sustainable business where everyone on the

Read More +
Blog

Internship @ EarthCruiser – Gage Charon

EarthCruiser Summer Internship with Gage Charon   Intern: Gage Charon High School: Mountain View High School Year: Senior – Class of 2019     Why did you apply to be an intern at EarthCruiser? To learn more about how things are engineered and made.   What have you learned so far from your internship at EarthCruiser? I have learned that there is much more that is taken into consideration when engineering a product than, “does it fit”. The product must be sturdy, weight conscious and cost effective.   What is your favorite part about interning at EarthCruiser? My favorite part

Read More +
Terranova vs adventure van
EC Terranova

Adventure Van vs Terranova – Which is Right for You?

When shopping for a new overland vehicle, there are many factors to consider and an ever-growing array of available vehicles. Some of the most common vehicles are adventure vans, typically all-wheel drive models either converted to an overland vehicle at a specialty shop, built out DIY style, or purchased as a complete vehicle. Here we look at these vans and consider why a Terranova might be a better fit for those looking for their next overlanding vehicle: 1. Build Quality As you start to look at and compare vehicles, one of the most important questions you can consider is how

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 +
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 +
Blog

Time to Cross Some Borders and Catch a Ferry

Tips for Crossing Borders As we’ve been driving and crossing borders on major highways, some countries have a “rest stop” like areas where you can buy a vignette which seems to be a “pre-paid” toll card.  It doesn’t seem to be mandatory to buy one as you aren’t funneled into this area.  We did buy them but wondered if it really mattered as no one checked them.  We started the race and crossed into Slovenia, another vignette country and almost didn’t buy one.  But we did, this one was a nice sticker (we didn’t notice) while the others were just

Read More +
Blog

Pre-Race Day Scrutineering Activities

Preparing for the Race Thursday was scrutineering, race briefing, GPS collection and for ourselves laundry and reorganizing day.  It is becoming a reality and we’ll be on our way with a 3000 km – 3.5-day mad dash through Europe for the first Morocco stage in Midelt on January 16. Traps for Young Players We’re part of the race category which means we have certain tasks to perform each day based on a GPS waypoint.  We brought a tablet with us to be able to access the maps and waypoints but found it was incompatible.  Therefore we had to get a

Read More +
On the road to Ikea
Blog

What’s a Road Trip Without a Stop at Ikea

Road Trip Preparation and Free Camping Before we left Fred’s to hit the road again I got an opportunity to do one of my favorite things…go to a grocery store in another country!  I was not disappointed as we were able to stock up on all those lovely sliced cheeses and cold cuts, beautiful loaves of bread, organic veggies and plenty of beer and wine.  We firmly believe that you should never ‘rough it’ in an EarthCruiser.  I think we’ll be pretty right for those times when things may be a bit sparse in some parts of Africa. Our drive

Read More +
Blog

Only 1 More Sleep until EarthCruiser Leaves to Amsterdam

Budapest to Bamako Rally Via Amsterdam Finally! Lance and I leave for Amsterdam on Thursday to pick up Alpha Omega for our trek to Budapest for the Budapest to Bamako Rally!  The weekend was hectic while we minimized packing all our ‘stuff like our new UBCO bike rack, spare parts, guidebooks, paper maps, electronics, etc, etc (I’m not allowed to take many clothes).  We got it down to 4 bags at MAX weights!  Goldy knows something is up and is none too pleased.  A vacation with her friend Ronnie will be restorative. Alpha Omega is waiting for us at Ermelo

Read More +
Meet The EC Crew!

Getting to Know EarthCruiser Member Brent Baker

Meet Brent Baker   How long have you worked at EC? 3 months   What do you like about working at EC?  The people and culture.   What experience do you bring to EC? 13 years of business development experience, but I’m still learning new things every day.   What are your hopes for the industry? That continues to allow more people to experience the wonders of our world and creates advocates who want to protect and preserve these things.   What do you hope to accomplish at EC? To continue and increase our sustainable business where everyone on the

Read More +
Blog

Internship @ EarthCruiser – Gage Charon

EarthCruiser Summer Internship with Gage Charon   Intern: Gage Charon High School: Mountain View High School Year: Senior – Class of 2019     Why did you apply to be an intern at EarthCruiser? To learn more about how things are engineered and made.   What have you learned so far from your internship at EarthCruiser? I have learned that there is much more that is taken into consideration when engineering a product than, “does it fit”. The product must be sturdy, weight conscious and cost effective.   What is your favorite part about interning at EarthCruiser? My favorite part

Read More +