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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 Delivery - learning off-road driving skills
Tips & Tricks

Five New Year’s Resolutions for Overlanders

1. Check Someplace Off Your Bucket List Maybe 2024 can be the year you take that sabbatical, ship your vehicle to South Africa, and complete the African Transit you’ve always dreamed of. But even if it’s not possible, and let’s be honest, it’s not usually an easy feat for anyone, perhaps consider taking a small step towards that journey. While bucket lists are fun and inspiring, the pressure of thinking of a trip as a “once in a lifetime” experience and making them epic in length (and budget) can feel paralyzing. One way to move past this is to book

Read More +
Design

Why Sand Dunes Make the Perfect Classroom

Even if you’re not planning to enter the Dakar Rally or transverse the Sahara any time soon, there is value in getting out in your vehicle in some deep sand. First of all, it’s great fun. It’s a gorgeous and unique environment to explore. Learning how to drive on and navigate through dunes builds skills that translate into safer and better off-road driving that transfers to any low-traction situation. The famous sand ‘seas’ of the world can be found along the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, in places like the Sahara and the Arid Zone of Australia. But dunes are

Read More +
EarthCruiser Community

Owner Stories: Howard & Heidi Snell – Adventures in Remote Living

Howard and Heidi Snell are beloved members of the EarthCruiser family and one of the earliest U.S. owners, securing #3 in the beginning days of EarthCruiser USA. Since then, they’ve moved on to their second EarthCruiser, which they put to good active use in the Western U.S. and Mexico. This past year has slowed their travels a bit, including group trips that they enjoy, but it hasn’t dampened their adventurous spirits which, as you’ll discover as we did, is something that has abounded in their relationship from the beginning. It is inspiring to hear their story and we are so

Read More +
Media

Live For Adventure: EarthCruiser’s New Look For a New Era

What a year! In addition to expanding our popular EarthCruiser FX and EXP lines to include Dual Cab options, introducing the EC Terranova Expedition Camper, and launching an entirely new business unit with CORE vehicles, we’re also evolving the look and feel of the EarthCruiser brand.   If you’re reading this, you’re on our new website, a project months in the making. We’re honored so many people want to learn about our vehicles and the people that bring them to life. We hope this new experience more deeply conveys the heart and heritage of EarthCruiser. The ride-drive-live experience in an

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

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 +
EarthCruiser Community
International Travel
News From The Road
Tips & Tricks
EarthCruiser Delivery - learning off-road driving skills
Tips & Tricks

Five New Year’s Resolutions for Overlanders

1. Check Someplace Off Your Bucket List Maybe 2024 can be the year you take that sabbatical, ship your vehicle to South Africa, and complete the African Transit you’ve always dreamed of. But even if it’s not possible, and let’s be honest, it’s not usually an easy feat for anyone, perhaps consider taking a small step towards that journey. While bucket lists are fun and inspiring, the pressure of thinking of a trip as a “once in a lifetime” experience and making them epic in length (and budget) can feel paralyzing. One way to move past this is to book

Read More +
Design

Why Sand Dunes Make the Perfect Classroom

Even if you’re not planning to enter the Dakar Rally or transverse the Sahara any time soon, there is value in getting out in your vehicle in some deep sand. First of all, it’s great fun. It’s a gorgeous and unique environment to explore. Learning how to drive on and navigate through dunes builds skills that translate into safer and better off-road driving that transfers to any low-traction situation. The famous sand ‘seas’ of the world can be found along the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, in places like the Sahara and the Arid Zone of Australia. But dunes are

Read More +
EarthCruiser Community

Owner Stories: Howard & Heidi Snell – Adventures in Remote Living

Howard and Heidi Snell are beloved members of the EarthCruiser family and one of the earliest U.S. owners, securing #3 in the beginning days of EarthCruiser USA. Since then, they’ve moved on to their second EarthCruiser, which they put to good active use in the Western U.S. and Mexico. This past year has slowed their travels a bit, including group trips that they enjoy, but it hasn’t dampened their adventurous spirits which, as you’ll discover as we did, is something that has abounded in their relationship from the beginning. It is inspiring to hear their story and we are so

Read More +
Media

Live For Adventure: EarthCruiser’s New Look For a New Era

What a year! In addition to expanding our popular EarthCruiser FX and EXP lines to include Dual Cab options, introducing the EC Terranova Expedition Camper, and launching an entirely new business unit with CORE vehicles, we’re also evolving the look and feel of the EarthCruiser brand.   If you’re reading this, you’re on our new website, a project months in the making. We’re honored so many people want to learn about our vehicles and the people that bring them to life. We hope this new experience more deeply conveys the heart and heritage of EarthCruiser. The ride-drive-live experience in an

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

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 +