There have been a lot of questions coming through Bronson’s Facebook and our 8yearsglobal instagram page prior to us rebranding as SLOWverlanders. A very common question is “What kind of gear do you carry and what do you need to get started?” I’ll go ahead and cover our vehicle and gear, but the “how do you get started?” That’s a whole different post, so stay tuned for that.
If you’ve been a follower from the beginning, you might remember that we started with an ambulance. After spending so much money getting it “road ready” and doing all the “bullet proofing,” suspension upgrades, solar and 4wd installations, the damn thing kept breaking down every 3,000 miles and would be incredibly costly for repairs. Like a minimum of $1500 USD and a couple of days of hotels since the ambulance was our home. We spent 6 months driving through and breaking down in Mexico and decided to drive all the way back up to the USA and sell it.
Enter…. Dusty the Mudslinger. It took us 3 years to come up with that name. Mudslinger is a 2003 Toyota Landcruiser UZJ100 series (gasoline- yeah, unfortunate, we know.) with upgraded Old Man Emu Extra Heavy Suspension, Mickey Thompson AT tires and re-geared to 4.88 for our weight and type of driving we do south of the border.
Externally we have equipped Mudslinger with the following:
- Slee dual swing rear bumper
- Slee rock sliders
- ARB front bull bar bumper
- Come-up winch (9500lbs)
- HardKorr flood lights.
- 2- 5gallon scepter jerrycans
- One 5 gallon Lifesaver jerrycan for drinking water
- IKamper 4 person rooftop tent with annex
- Shovel
- Hi-Lift Jack
- One set of Recovery boards
- 11Gallon Titan Gas Tank (Not been useful, but with fuel shortages in 2022, maybe?)
Internally we have the following, but are looking at downsizing some things we’ve been traveling with but have turned out to be less than useful.
- Hike Crew Propane Water Heater and the 1L green bottles of propane
- Goal Zero 1400 Battery Bank
- IKamper Annex for the RTT
- Shower tent
- Porta Potty (has never been used, there are bathrooms almost everywhere or there’s bushes)
- Dog food, blanket and toys
- 100W Goal Zero Solar briefcase
- Dometic 65 L Fridge ——- Now we’ve found the 45L Yeti Cooler works better for us
- Plastic folding table
- Dobbinsons 3 Drawer system
- Big Agnes Big 6 Camp chairs (3)
- Big Agnes Down Sleeping bags (3)
- Thermarest Camp pillows (3)
- Big Agnes Q-Core Insulated Sleeping Pads (2)
- Garmin In-Reach Mini GPS and SOS beacon
- Skyroam Solis X (We no longer use it)
- WeBoost Cellular and wifi signal booster
- 3 duffel bags (one each for our clothes and toiletries)
- IKamper Shoe bag with our shoes
- Our computers and phones
- Cast Iron Skillet and dishes
- Cooking utensils and spices
- Sharpening block
- Tools- no power tools, only the ones necessary to fix things on the vehicle.
- Tire patch kit
- Viator air compressor
- Heavy Duty tow straps
- Snorkel gear
- Card Games
- Rechargeable wireless fan for the tent when it’s hot
- Heater buddy heater when it’s cold
- Cook Partner 2 burner propane stove
- 1gallon of propane
- First aid Kit and medications (always gets used and always have to replenish)
- Camera and video gear
- Most importantly, our Klean Kanteen insulated water bottles. We have like, a million. =)
- Travel size wireless battery powered color printer (not really useful) and the office stuff (also not useful anymore)
- A huge container of toys for Kaden (super not useful anymore as he’s grown out of his toys)
- 3 humans and a dog (but probably not for much longer, she’s very old and getting to that period in her life now).
- Oh and extra thick sunshade for the front windshield.
That’s it! So, it might seem like a laundry list of things, but it really isn’t much. It all fits in the back of the vehicle and Kaden and the dog have the whole back seat to lay down and sleep in. The drawers get filled with food and cooking supplies other dried goods, storage containers and likes. So, we’re pretty heavy, at or above GVWR, hence the re-gearing.
