For starters, those Land Rovers weren't main stream (at least not in the states) nor were they or those products available to the masses or even the common man. Sure, times have changed and so has our tech, we have better means/speed of manufacturing, mass media effectiveness, better/faster freight/transport, common and readily available lines of credit, and the ability to access niche products from small companies sometimes from the other side of the globe.
I didn't bash those who simply own and use the latest and greatest gear and special whiz-bang gizmos, I have some of those products too. I'm not sure if you were responding to others who might have previously replied in a similar manner as myself, but I never went on about "blazing new trails" lol. My rant was in regards to the massively overpriced, niche trailers and habitats that are in use for staged photo ops by the masses simply for likes on social media. Most of which have racked up massive debt in order to build out their rigs.
Like I already said, the recent craze in "overlanding" is a double edged sword. It has helped to create/expand a new market/industry as well as spark the interest in the great outdoors in a whole new and even untapped generation/demographic. At the same time it's created a group of self-annointed "experts" who dole out their "expertise" while pushing sponsored and even free products while they pretend to be traveling the far reaches of this country and beyond. Some people enjoy that kind of production and I'll agree that using social media "celebs" can be a great marketing tool for these companies, but it doesn't make it any less cheesy or them anymore of an expert.
At the end of the day as long as larger numbers of people are enjoying the outdoors then it's a win-win, because all any of us are really doing is camping and four wheeling, surprise-surprise.
I started off referring to your comment of the $45,000 4runner but also moved on referencing other previous posts. In a day where an f150 can cost north of $80,000 and an f350 can cost north of a $100,000, both without mods!, $45,000 seems quite mellow I would say. No, it’s not needed. A cheap old pickup or Jeep can easily be used. No, the Land Rovers weren’t common in the U.S. back then and really didn’t come into popularity until the late 80’s early 90”s but how common is the $40,000 adventure trailers your referring to? I assume you’re not talking about toy haulers considering the topic is over landing. They may pop up often on the internet because when somebody comes across it they say holly crap and share it with all his friends and they then share it with all their friends making it one of the first things that pop up when you go online. Only the Land Rover wasn’t readily available here. Everything else was most certainly available/ affordable to the common man. Camp stoves and lanterns were on the shelves of every sporting goods store or Sears as well as the tents and were more than affordable. Here’s where I think you fell down the marketing rabbit hole. Just because something isn’t marketed towards or wildly used by a certain demographic doesn’t mean it wasn’t readily available or affordable. Equipment like winches and sand ladders, aka traction devices, were marketed towards people like farmers, loggers, etc. and also had military applications. Think of a military convoy moving across any remote area, “ over landing”. Having military applications meant one thing. Gear on the cheap and turned Army surplus stores into outdoor superstores and many of the surplus stores weren’t like the ones we mostly have today. Many, besides the building, had 5-10 acre outdoor yards with out buildings. Going into one of those stores was like “Jerry cans and mounts, check, nice big tent, check, ammo cans for dry storage, check, cot, check, sleeping bags, check, winch, check, sand ladder, check, “hey Dad let’s get one of these deuce and a halves”, “no”, “ how about this decommissioned howitzer”, “why and no”, and a heavy duty tarp, check.” Now granted, we didn’t have a lot of the stuff when I was a kid, we had a tent ,sleeping bags and camp stove and lantern. My Dad looked at things like winches, etc, and still does to this day, as “ I don’t plan on doing anything stupid enough to need a winch” which is the mentality of most people from his generation and that’s the reason most of these things weren’t marketed towards them. More often than not, those so called niche products aren’t so niche, just clever marketing and more often than not, the same equipment can be had for much less because it’s being marketed to a different demographic .
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