Overland Expo West 2024 Best in Show: Top Vehicles
The bling vehicles are usually the star attractions at the annual Overland Expo events. The original event of the now four-a-year series across the country is Overland Expo West, which I’ve been attending every year since 2012.
As usual, I scoured both the vendor area — this year with 415 vendors — and the campgrounds, searching for the truly new and interesting vehicles being shown off. Most of the overland builds on display are old news to me and those who have seen my coverage from past Overland Expos and other automotive events, like SEMA, over the years here on GearJunkie.
But, this year, I uncovered five award-worthy vehicles to receive GearJunkie Overland Expo West 2024 Top Vehicle awards. I also uncovered six-plus other new builds worth checking out.
You can read about my top vehicle picks below, along with links to learn more about them, but you should also check out this video for all the action straight from Overland Expo West 2024.
5 Top New Vehicles: Overland Expo West 2024
And the GearJunkie Overland Expo West 2024 Top Vehicle award winners are …
TAV x Enduro LC200
Take a 200 Series Land Cruiser, chop it in half, add a custom camper, and build out the suspension for serious off-road travel at nearly any speed and you’ll have something really cool. That’s exactly what TAV and Enduro Campers collaborated on and showed off for the first time at Overland Expo West 2024.
This custom machine not only looks cool, but no doubt has the chops for real adventure. If you want a similar build, reach out to TAV, and be ready to part with around $350,000.
If you want all the details on this rig, check out my full story on it:
Truckhouse BCR
The Truckhouse BCR overland camper is just as cool in person as it was in renderings. The carbon camper is perfectly mated to a fully upfitted Ram 3500 by AEV — called a Prospector XL. AEV also helped with the camper design, making its lines flow perfectly with the trucks.
That means you have a full-featured comfortable house on a highly engineered, fully off-road-capable vehicle. Think 40+ inch tires, rock sliders on the camper, winch bumper, skid plates, a full-size spare tire carrier on the back, and the option to go with a two- or four-door truck.
While the BCR on display at Expo didn’t yet have an interior, we’re confident from seeing previous Truckhouse builds that it will be quite impressive. It should also be done very soon and on display at a few more of the Overland Expos around the country this year.
The Truckhouse BCR is 22.5 feet long, 10.8 feet high, and 88 inches wide. It features a 74-gallon fuel capacity, 600W of solar, and offers a 6.5-foot interior standing height. The base price for a fully sorted camper with the vehicle is about $475,000.
For a bit more on the crazy, cool design of the Truckhouse BCR, check out my full reveal story:
Wabi Sabi Overland Jeep Camper
What happens when two aerospace engineers tackle the creation of an overland camper build for themselves? Well, you get an impressively lightweight and very functional machine ready for adventure.
This Jeep Wrangler Sport is running on 32s, steelies, and has no sliders or other off-road bling. Minimalism in the name of functionality and practicality are the name of the game here.
The interior of the camper is also super simple but with all the comfort features you might want on the road less traveled. Think a water system, a memory foam dinette/bed, a pop-top to provide standing room, and niceties like a toaster oven.
Yes, there is even a passthrough from the camper to the Jeep’s cab. On board is 300Ah of lithium batteries, a 525W solar array, and a heater. Also, the wiring and interior systems in the camper are easily accessible through panels that Velcro on and off, ensuring easy maintenance on the road.
Michael and Yvonne Fuchs, of Wabi-Sabi Overland, don’t plan to build any more of these — besides the one they already helped design and build with Dan Grec of The Road Chose Me.
Elevated Overland Sunrader
Padric McCelvey, of Elevated Overland, has been building custom Toyota Sunrader campers for years now. This 1983 Toyota Sunrader is about his 10th build, and this one is for him. He’s not planning on making more for customers anytime soon, but instead planning to travel more and enjoy his creation.
This build has been converted to 4×4 and has a 2000 Tacoma’s 3RZ supercharged engine and a manual transmission. While the interior isn’t yet complete, it will have a full modern setup in the camper, while the cab will retain the ’80s vibes of the classic Toyota pickup.
Nomad Wheels 80 Series
Take one of the most sought-after — ’97 triple locked and factory supercharged — 80 Series Land Cruisers on the market, chop the top off, create a custom interior, and you get one impressive overland machine. Carter Kendall, Nomad Wheels’ Creative Director, built this rig as a show vehicle and his personal overland adventure rig.
The Cruiser features Nomad Sahara Wheels wrapped in 35-inch tires, scheel-mann touring seats, a CampTeq pop-top roof, upgraded bumpers, and a custom interior with gear storage, seating, and a sleep platform.
Overland Expo West 2024 is the vehicle’s first show. It was super dirty at the show as well, as it just rolled in from chasing the NORAA 1000 race down the Baja peninsula followed by 2 weeks of camping and surfing on the way back north.
Best of the Rest
Of course, with something like 30,000 people walking through the gates, 415 vendors, and no doubt 1,000s of vehicles at Overland Expo West 2024, there is no way to sum up the cool vehicles in just five picks. So, here are some other awesome new vehicles that caught my eye at the show.
Rossmonster Baja Plus
I continue to be impressed with the overland camper builds coming out of Rossmonster! At Overland Expo West 2024, they debuted their largest offering yet, the Baja Plus model.
This new camper is 9” wider and 12″ longer than its Baja model, and designed to go on a Ford F550 or Ram 5500 chassis. The camper has an aluminum structure and two-piece composite shell. Its hard-shell pop-top design is quite cool, as is its penthouse option, which adds another bed on the roof.
The truck is fitted with the latest from AEV and has Liquid Springs suspension. Pricing for a fully built vehicle, as seen here, is about $450,000.
RRE Global Grenedier
RRE Global always brings some cool vehicles to Overland Expo. This year it brought a fully built INEOS Grenadier.
The RRE Global Grenadier has a plethora of Black Sheep accessories inside and out — that use all factory mounting points, so no drilling required — Delta Wheels, Reiger Suspension, and a QUQUQ box for the interior. All in, these upgrades add about $35,000 to the about $80,000 SUV.
Unicat Brilliant
Unicat Expedition Vehicles officially displayed for the first time at Overland Expo, bringing its legendary products to the North American market. It is designing a specific camper for this market, which they are calling the Briliant B63.
It is planning to offer a pop-top and hardside version of the camper, which goes on a Ram 5500 or Ford F550 single- and double-cab chassis. Deliveries are expected to start in 2025, and one should be on display at Overland Expo West 2025. Pricing starts at $840,000.
Arctic Trucks
Arctic Trucks is a well-known company when it comes to Arctic travel vehicles, mostly the big balloon tire beasts you see in Iceland, Greenland, and points north. It is now establishing a U.S. operation and planning to offer a number of products to the market, not all of which are based on Arctic travel.
At Overland Expo West 2024, it showed off three builds: a Ford Lightening on 39s, a Lexus GX460 on 37s, and a Ford F550 4×6 with Krug Expedition camper. The ethos of the company is high quality and low center of gravity with massive traction.
I’m excited to see what they come up with next, and hopefully get behind the wheel of a few of these vehicles soon, to let you know more about them.
Storyteller GXV Epic
Take a Kenworth truck chassis, add a custom 4×4 system and a massive expedition camper, and you get the Storyteller GXV Epic. This big expedition camper will be hitting the market soon, with pricing “north of $600K.”
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