(Words and photos: Bryan McTaggart) A hard core BangShifter can spot Michigan manufacturer plates a mile away. The plate is a dead giveaway for a manufacturer’s mule vehicle, the one they test every which way possible. So when we saw a tricked-out white Jeep Wrangler fueling up a mile from the Arizona Embry-Riddle campus with those plates, we had to investigate. There was no one around. The Jeep was just sitting at the pump, so we decided to strike quick as a lot of testers don’t like the general population spying on their junk. After crawling underneath the front end and noticing the sway bar disconnect setup, the driver came out.

Jeremy Edgar works at Overland Journal, a magazine that specializes in expeditionary-style travel, (screw roads altogether, the more rough and out-of-the-way, the better, TOTALLY HARDCORE). They test outdoor gear, cool GPS setups, even electric dirt bikes. The real eye-opener, though is that Mopar Underground has them testing several cool Jeeps like the V6-powered one I saw. Besides it, they have the only Jeep J8 currently in the States (a VM Motori 2.8 diesel-powered one-ton version of the Wrangler Rubicon meant for the Egyptian and Israeli militaries) , a 2-door Rubicon modified by ARB, and a four-door, 5.7 Hemi-powered Rubicon. But it’s not just Jeeps that get tested. When we got to visit there was a Sportsmobile E-350 4×4 van, a Volkswagen Westfalia Syncro van, a modified Super Duty and a modified Jeep Comanche. If off-roading and camping are up your alley, the stuff they play with is your heaven.

In some of the pictures you’ll notice the built in camping systems. With the exception of the Sportsmobile van, most of the work you’re seeing is from Adventure Trailers and AEV Vehicles. The Jeeps sport a top that requires only a couple inches taller than the stock hardtop roofline, yet it opens up to a sleeper tent with  just a hand crank and brace poles. We watched them open the Hemi JK up, total setup time took just under five minutes. All the Jeeps sport a refrigerator system, the J8 and Hemi sport a stove and a hot-water shower system, all have flat floors for sleeping inside the vehicle, and the rear bumpers double as water tanks (notice the fill cap under the license plate). According to Adventure Trailers, the roof cap/tent setup is only about $6000, so if you went full bells-and-whistles, you could probably drop a total of $50K on a Jeep and have most everything you want in an RV and still take it rockcrawling.

One vehicle of note is the Mitsubishi L300 van in the pics. Pablo Rey and Anna Callau have been driving this 95% stock van around the world since 2000, and they were at Overland Journal putting slightly larger tires on the Mitsu, preparing for a trip to Canada, Alaska and Siberia. They live in the van, and have seen pretty much every continent except maybe Antartica. They take photos and keep their website going, updating often from the road. How many times would you just like to take off and live on your own terms?

We want to thank Jeremy and Scott from Overland Journal and Clint and Mario from Adventure Trailers, Pablo and Anna, as well as everyone who answered our questions and tolerated me poking around their shops and vehicles

LINKS: Overland Journal.com