Gear

Here’s the gear I’m currently using with a few notes about some of it.

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Camera gear

  • Nikon D7200 My primary camera it’s a DX format digital camera.
  • Panasonic Lumix LX10 My pocket camera for when I want a camera on me but don’t feel like hauling a DSLR around. Also using it for video and vlogging.
  • Nikon FE2 35mm film camera
  • Bronica EC-TL vintage medium format 120 film camera
  • Manfrotto Befree travel tripod with ball head
  • Manfrotto MT294A3 tripod with pan and tilt head
  • Move Shoot Move rotator. I use this mostly for taking time-lapse clips. I’ve attempted a couple of times to use it for taking long exposure star photos but I haven’t quite perfected that yet.
Sawtooth Mountains Idaho time-lapse using the Move Shoot Move Rotator to pan the camera.

Outdoor gear

  •  Mountain Summit Gear Northwood Series II 1 person tent. (discontinued)
  • Komperdell Peakmaster Powerlock Foam trekking poles. (discontinued)
  • Big Agnes Two Track self-inflating sleeping pad. (discontinued)
  • Granite Gear Dagger Pack day bag. (discontinued)
  • Black Diamond Spot 325 Headlamp (discontinued)

Tech stuff

SUV Life

  • Ecoflow River Pro portable power supply
  • BougeRV 30 quart refrigerator This has been a great addition to the rig. No more worrying about or dealing with ice. It can be set to use as either a fridge or a freezer. I keep mine as a fridge set at 39° Fahrenheit. On cooler days the Ecoflow will power it for multiple days from a single charge. Even on hot days parked in the sun where I couldn’t put the solar panels out it still maintained temperature for close to 24 hours before I had to recharge the battery. I have a full review of both the Ecoflow River Pro and the fridge planned.   Apply the code “SD14” to get 14%OFF sitewide for all products.
  • 2002 Toyota 4Runner 4WD SR5
  • OBDLink MX+* OBD-II scanner
  • Portable air compressor I recommend spending a little bit to get a good one. The cheap 15-20 dollar ones are too slow and usually die after just a couple of uses.
  • 4 Ton bottle jack the stock jack that comes with 4runners is crap plus it’s nice to have 2 jacks just in case.
  • Torque wrench A good thing to have for backcountry tire changes if nothing else but if you’re serious about maintaining your rig you probably already have one. It’s recommended that you set a click-style torque wrench to its lowest setting while not in use to keep tension off its inner springs. That’s something I just recently learned. Maybe it says that in the instructions. The print in the manual for mine was too small to read.
  • Battery tester For checking your main vehicle battery. On multiple occasions, I’ve had weird electrical issues that testing with this unit confirmed the battery wasn’t putting out the minimum voltage needed for the car or truck’s computer system.
  • Portable jump starter A must have for everyone. One of the most useful things you can keep in your vehicle. Mine save me again today (Oct. 15, 2022) when I didn’t notice that I bumped the light switch for my lightbar (I keep a cover on the light when driving around town) and it turned on and drained my battery. The brand I have isn’t available anymore but I’ve bought the Noco model before for a Christmas present and it’s one of the mostly highly rated brands so I have no problem recommending it.
  • LED 20 inch light bar and light pods
  • Light bar mounting bracket I didn’t want to hack or drill into my bumper or grill so I bought this license plate mounting bracket to mount the front light bar to. It was tricky to mount and at one point it nearly vibrated off but that was my fault for only using 1 bolt on each side instead of two. They were so hard to get on I got frustrated and just left it at 2 total. When it nearly fell off a couple thousand miles down the road I remounted it properly. It’s been holding strong since then.
  • Light pod mounting kit I used a set of these to mount my rear light pods to my roof rack. Easy and quick mount.
  • Roof rack If you’re on a budget one of these or even a cheaper one from eBay will work fine. If you can afford it though I would recommend getting a name brand like Yakima, Thule or a custom built one. I bought a cheap eBay one and though it’s held up so far to about 10,000 miles of driving it has bent some and there’s some internal rust. I expect to have to replace it in another year or so.
  • Storage totes for the roof rack. A standard roof top cargo carrier was way out of my budget when putting my rig together. I bought two storage totes to bolt to the roof rack. This model from Walmart and a slightly larger waterproof one from Lowes. It’s worked out so far. In the waterproof one I keep my cold weather gear, oil change pan, a few tools, my tent and a couple other things I don’t need to use often. In the other one is my jack stands, extra oil and other fluids, grease gun and other things I’m not worried about if some water gets in.
  • 30 liter dry bag I use it for a trash bag. Line it with a regular kitchen trash bag and roll it up when ready to move. Easily holds a weeks worth of trash before I have to find a dumpster to empty it into and a whole lot cheaper than those purpose built bags.