Overlanding — travelling long distances by rugged vehicle and sleeping out of your rig — can look intimidating from the outside. There's the vehicle itself, plus sleeping gear, water, fuel, cooking, power, recovery equipment and more to figure out before you ever leave the tarmac. Phoenix-based vehicle designer Nick Scherr, speaking at Overland Expo Mtn West, argues the entry barrier is lower than it seems, and that the community is the real secret weapon.
Overland Expo now draws close to 100,000 enthusiasts a year across five US events, with hundreds of exhibitors showing off rigs, gadgets and skills. Scherr's picks from the show floor lean practical rather than flashy. He rates FLATED's inflatable gear — including rooftop storage that's lighter than a hard-shell box, easy to remove, and deflates flat for garage storage. For sleeping, he fits rooftop tents from Napier on his Nissan Xterra builds because they transfer between vehicles, so the tent isn't married to one 4x4.
His strongest advice concerns tyres, which he calls the single most important component of any off-road setup. Scherr runs Hankook's Dynapro MT2 mud-terrains and puts them to a genuine test at Stony Lonesome OHV Park in Alabama, where he drove through mud deep enough to pour over the doors of his Xterra. For gentler use, the same Dynapro range includes all-terrain options like the AT2 Xtreme and XT that stay comfortable on the daily commute.
Near his Arizona home, Scherr chases snow around Flagstaff, steep climbs at Gold Canyon, and a favourite year-round run down Diamond Creek in the Grand Canyon to the Colorado River. But his top five essentials for beginners cost nothing like a new build: good tyres, water and tanks, spare fuel cans, recovery straps and traction panels — and friends. He never drives alone, both for spotting on tricky manoeuvres and for the moments when things go wrong.
That ethos shows in a story he tells about high-centring a truck in a ditch during a photo shoot: a stranger in a Ford Ranger Raptor spent 45 minutes pulling him out, no questions asked. Brand rivalries — Toyota vs Ford vs Nissan — dissolve fast out on the trail. For anyone curious about taking their first trip beyond the pavement, the message is simple: sort the basics, bring company, and show up at an expo or local club where someone will happily talk you through the rest.