by Matt Konkle
Managing Editor
LAS VEGAS — Sure, there are plenty of new products hovering inside each Las Vegas Convention Center hall at this year’s 56th annual Specialty Equipment Market Association show. And while many love to see what is coming into production over the next several months, many more love the show’s vehicles. And overlanding. And vehicles that overland.
So for day two adventures at SEMA, we made our way over to the far side Diamond parking lot just steps away from West Hall to see how this year’s Overlanding Experience was faring.
This time of year in Las Vegas, the weather can be somewhat unpredictable, not so much with rain, but with temperature. Well, the show caught a nice break this week as daytime temperatures soared well into the mid-70s, so there wasn’t any shivering to be found throughout the experience and there were plenty around inspecting the vehicles Wednesday morning.
"The Overland Experience spells lots of opportunity for aftermarket companies looking to diversify and grow their offerings," said SEMA Trade Show Director Andy Tompkins. "More than just a display, this area acts as both an educational tool and a promotion zone for the burgeoning overlanding market. It's a chance to delve deep into the lifestyle and gear associated with this adventure-driven niche."
Now, the Overlanding Experience started out a few years ago in a tent setup outside South Hall, and it was populated mostly by exhibitors displaying specific products geared towards that category. There were a few purpose-built vehicles that year, but most were from exhibitors themselves with a smattering of actual overlanding rides.
Following Covid, and with the West Hall opening, SEMA moved the Overlanding Experience inside the new hall — spacing it out a bit more and inviting way more actual overlanders, adding more educational programs and featuring speaker panels. Exhibitors took more of a background role, but were still present around the area’s edges.
Last year, SEMA amplified that focus with even more vehicles and educational content.
But as overlanding is geared for outside adventures in the brush, SEMA this year made the move to place this experience smack in the middle of that Diamond lot where it would be one of the first things people noticed as they entered show grounds from that direction.
Plenty of geared vehicles lined the area and displayed all kinds of gear like air up/down tools, portable showers, sinks and kitchens, solar panels, heaters, lighting, fridge freezers, trailers, along with plenty of racks, bike carriers, storage systems, vehicle protection (bumpers, side bars, tire carriers) and probably a lot more that we didn’t even notice. But everything geared toward creating a purpose-built vehicle ready to conquer the outdoors.
While we could have stayed there all morning, we stopped specifically to see our friends at Oracle Lighting who brought along an enormous 1998 Steward & Stevenson M1079 Light Medium Tactical Vehicle that they have fitted to display a ton of their product offerings.
The vehicle shows off Oracle’s 7-inch Oculus Bi-LED Headlights, 9-inch multifunction LED spotlights on a roof rack, 5-inch LED light bar, LED plow headlights, has a Caterpillar 6.6-liter turbo-diesel engine, 46-inch all-terrain tires, so it can get anywhere Oracle wants to go. Plus it has a 1,000-watt solar power system, 12-foot power awning and traction boards — just in case. Oh, and it is fully hardened against an EMP attack, you know, just in case.
Speaking of that interior, Oracle installed two leather-wrapped bench seats, LED lights, a Bluetooth sound system and custom-built cabinets.
So, yeah, it may be all about the adventure of getting somewhere, but when you do in the vehicle, you are all set for everything.
"Most people think of Humvees or the big 5-ton 6x6s when it comes to military vehicles," said ORACLE Lighting Founder Justin Hartenstien. "The LMTV flies under the radar a bit, but it is definitely a vehicle worth looking at for an overland build. Its workhorse nature makes it rugged, and we can build it exactly how we want."
Following an overlanding morning, we knew we wanted to visit one of the SEMA Off-Road category mainstays — RealTruck. These guys always throw up an enormous exhibitor area and you may better know them from some of their brands like Rugged Ridge, Omix, Go Rhino, Lund, Husky, or Superlift.
We first wanted to see their new modular ‘Explore’ hardtop which has five removable pieces that make installation, as well as removal, far more simple than finding someone to help you pull off that current JL hardtop. We’ll have more on this one in a future article, but those who know they want a hardtop in the future should take note.
RealTruck also brought along three excellent vehicles and prominently displayed them inside its exhibitors area.
While we admired them all, the smartly red-colored 1962 FC-170 caught our eye first because, well, we have a certain admiration for that forward control series.
Owned by Roy Wallace, and styled as a race support vehicle, this guy has plenty of storage space, a rear bed, rooftop tent and tons of accessories like a Go Rhino rack, Rugged Ridge AmFib snorkel, 7-inch headlights, Traction Recovery Kit, HD Rear Bumper and Off-Road Jack Mount, Rampage Trail Can and AMP Research BedSteps.
Just a few steps away from the FC-170 stood RealTruck’s Matchbox build. Basically, the brand took a tiny Matchbox Gladiator design and poured water on it, ‘chia-style’, to create a fully-drivable overland machine.
Okay, well, they didn’t do that, but designers did create something to highlight an enthusiasts’ Matchbox hobby, and found a way to include a bunch of brand product as well. Superlift provided the suspension, while Rugged Ridge carried the load with bumpers, flares, inner liners, winch, lights and roof rack.
The last one isn’t something you see every day. Well, at SEMA there are a few around, but daily driving not so much. It’s a 2022 Jeep 392 with six doors. Need a ride to prom, or some other special occasion you want to attend with friends, this is your ticket.
Besides the powerful engine and size, RealTruck saw fit to decorate with plenty of Rugged Ridge products, as well as a Superlift suspension, Mickey Thompson tires and N-Fab steps.
Again, we’ll have more about these vehicles, as well as that Explore modular hardtop coming soon on our YouTube channel and here at Torque.
Finally, we stopped off at the Unofficial Use Only exhibitor booth to catch up with our good friend Greg Henderson — builder of the Quadratec YJL and JTe, along with plenty of other fabricated vehicles over the years.
Henderson normally attends the show as a resource to talk about those builds, but this year he decided to make a footprint and create a booth space. So we handed him the keys to the JTe and he also filled the booth space with another amazing vehicle — Murdicon 2.0.
This thing is capable of well north of 1,000 horsepower thanks to a 6.4-liter Hemi that Henderson mated with a Magnuson Supercharger. He also sent the vehicle to Arrington Performance to have the 392 fitted with a complete forged rotating assembly to handle a bunch of that added boost — making the vehicle capable of handling all those horses. Finally, Henderson slapped on 39-inch BFGoodrich KM3 tires, Teraflex wheels, Fox shocks, as well as suspension parts from AEV, Rock Krawler, Teraflex and Steer Smarts to enhance Murdicon 2.0 wherever it travels.
We definitely will have more on this powerful Wrangler coming soon.
As far as the JTe making its second run at SEMA. It returns to the show after a busy, busy year throughout the country helping support our 50-for-50 Trail Initiative.
Since last year, it has participated in 34 trail cleanups that generated over 6,000 volunteer hours, removed more than 100,000 pounds of trash and improved nearly 850 trail miles.
With a handful of states to go, our 50-for-50 project looks to finish up in mid-March, right around Easter Jeep Safari time.
Finally, we finished our day two in the Quake LED area, where Rubicondo has created some pedestrian traffic issues throughout the show.
This JK on a JK build is actually driveable — we saw the footage — and was created to honor one of owner Kelly Flynn’s employees who passed away earlier this year.
His engineers from FreakShowBuilds threw in plenty of lighting product all over the vehicles, installed a rooftop tent as a ‘penthouse’ of sorts, and installed two of our Stealth winches — just in case a recovery issue included some extra height.
Of course, this build is over the top, but it wouldn’t be a SEMA show without a Quake design.
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