I've spent more than 15 years living out of the back of a vehicle, and it shows in how I write about gear.I've spent more than 15 years living out of the back of a vehicle, and it shows in how I write about gear. I started in the early 2010s as a backcountry trail guide in the Sierra Nevada, where I learned that the difference between a good trip and a miserable one usually comes down to a few pieces of equipment and how well you know them. That guiding work overlapped with a side career as a self-taught vehicle mechanic. Friends kept asking me to sort out their rigs before group trips, so I taught myself recovery setups, suspension basics, and dual-battery wiring. By the time overlanding took off as a movement, I had already logged hundreds of nights in rooftop tents, ground tents, and truck beds across the American West and Baja. Today I test camping and overland gear for 4wdTalk, focusing on the stuff that earns its place: tents, fridges, recovery kit, and power systems. I write for people who actually use their equipment, not just park it in a driveway.
