X-plorenow Vehicles
Vehicles are a big part of the X-plorenow team as we have a big interest in off-roading, overlanding, and vehicle-dependent travel.
"Libby"
Libby (also pictured above) is a completely stock 2005 Jeep Liberty and is a big part of our team.
 
The Jeep Liberty is an extremely capable truck and I would recommend her to anyone. You would be extremely surprised to see where we have been able to take her, and return safely. We have put thousands of miles on and off-road in this vehicle exploring interesting corners of the United States. We have driven her hard and she hasn't had almost any mechanical issues until recently, and she now has over 105,000 miles on her.
Mind you we do not recommend extreme solo exploring in a completely stock vehicle. On our last adventure in the Pike's Peak National Forest we had a significant mechanical issue that rendered the four wheel drive unusable. It took some rather good driving and quite a bit of luck to get home safely.
Whether you only plan to do one vehicle modification, or if you plan to do extensive modifications, the first one I would recommend is a winch. In the wise words of Bill Burke "A winch will help you to get unstuck, all of the other stuff will only help to get you stuck".
The key message here though is that you don't need an expensive or heavily modified vehicle to thoroughly enjoy the outdoors. If you have a four wheel drive vehicle, and specifically a four wheel drive vehicle that has a high and low setting and has decent clearance, you can go a great deal of places. The most important thing is to know your driving capabilities and the capabilities of your vehicle. Many of the off road trail books on the market focus mostly on trails for stock, or close to stock vehicles.
"X-plore I"
We are in the process of selecting a vehicle to serve as the platform for our next Expedition Vehicle, to be named X-plore I. It will most likely be a used Land Rover Discovery.
I have done extensive research on a variety of makes and models and keep coming back to the Land Rover as the perfect vehicle platform for the Xplorenow team. This is for multiple reasons:
- Size and Capacity: The Discovery provides the perfect combination of size and capacity. We plan to spend extensive time in this vehicle. While explroing we will spend the majority of our time in and around the vehicle, sleeping mostly in a roof top tent. The Discovery provides a great deal of internal and external storage capability. But it is also not a monster vehicle size wise. We love to explore small and tight places and need a vehicle that will allow us to continue to do so.
- Offroad Capability: The Land Rover is one of the most popular offroad and overland platforms, and for good reason. Land Rovers are one of the most capable offroad vehicles directly out of the factory.
- Comfort: While tough and capable, the Discovery is also very comfortable and stylish.
- Modification Support: The vehicle lends itself nicely to modification. There are a variety of key modifications that can be done (front bumper and winch, roof rack, roof top tent, locking differentials, suspension systems etc.), and the market supports it with a great deal of available after market products as well.
- Price: Land Rovers are extremely expensive brand new, but for some reason they depreciate extremely rapidly. You can get a an early to mid 2000 Discovery with mid mileage for $10,000 and under. And a well maintained Land Rover can run for close to 200,000 miles.
The Land Rover Defender is often considered to have even greater offroad capabilities than the Discovery. But it doesn't fit our needs for two reasons. First it is basically a two seater which wouldn't support our team, and second they are almost considered collectables and actually often appreciate in value.
Please keep in mind that these are our criteria, and yours may be very different. You must determine your own criteria and do your homework from there. Remember that you have to take others personal preferences at face value, as they are often biased and not neutral opinions.
We plan to purchase a used Land Rover for under $5000, hopefully as far under as possible. Not only does that save money for use on future expeditions and conservation efforts but we want to show that any family can explore within a reasonable budget.
We have multiple modifications planned, but as discussed above the first modification will most likely be an ARB Bull Bar and winch. We plan to do the majority of the modifications ourselves and will post our progress on Xplorenow.com allowing you to follow along.
Vehicle Update!
As of 12/10/2009 X-plorenow has a new main Exploration vehicle. X-plore I is now a 2002 Jeep Wrangler (TJ) Sahara. As stated above my initial preference was for a used Land Rover Discovery. That was the main focus of my search. During the search I stumbled on the Jeep and it was love at first site. I have nothing against Jeeps, this is actually my third. The reason they didn't make my top list is that they actually normally hold their value quite well and are hard to find cheap. They also are somewhat space challanged for both cargo and passengers, this will be something that we will need to deal with.
But Jeep's are extremely capable off-road vehicles. Jeeps and Land Rovers are probably the top off-road vehicles out there. Our Jeep has 90,000 miles on it but it is clean and in great shape and was obviously well taken care of. I also feel that we got a great value. We paid $10,000 but this also included a Pro-Comp lift, front and rear bumpers, High-lift jack, and 33" tires already included.
   
We have made several vehicle modifications already and have several more planned. Check out the X-plorenow Vehicle Blog for continued updates.
|
