Home » This Wild Van Previewed The Modern Overlanding Craze Two Decades Before It Got Popular

This Wild Van Previewed The Modern Overlanding Craze Two Decades Before It Got Popular

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The term “overland” is so sizzling hot in the RV world right now. Everyone from small independent manufacturers to the big guys wants to sell you something that, at minimum, looks like something you’d use to explore the wilderness. In 1998, a Michigan company rolled into the North American International Auto Show with a one-off vehicle it thought previewed the future of 4×4 adventures. The Gear Box was a camper van meets 4×4 and it’s shockingly close to what off-road vehicles go for today.

The Mobility Outfitters Gear Box vehicle can currently be found on display at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, California. That’s where I found it parked near such greats as the Chrysler ME Four-Twelve and the Cadillac Cien. Honestly, all three of these cars should have been produced.

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The Petersen says the Gear Box is in the ‘Modern Concepts’ exhibit, which will be around until July 2025. The part that shocked me about the Gear Box was that it was so incredibly far ahead of its time, almost as if its builders took a time machine to 2024.

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The year 1998 was a big one for the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Volkswagen displayed the hot New Beetle while Chrysler wanted you to get amped up about its Chronos. Ford teased Americans by hauling in the South American market Courier F1 compact pickup truck. Oh, and who could forget about the fantastic Jeep Jeepster?

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One of the great things about Detroit shows in the past is that the show wasn’t just home for the big guys, but also for upstarts. That year, Michigan native Stewart Reed rolled into the show with a one-off vehicle from his company, Mobility Outfitters of Macatawa and later, Holland, Michigan.

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This company appears to be somewhat of a ghost. From what I’ve been able to gather, Mobility Outfitters was a company specializing in the research and development of gear for outdoor vehicular travel with the hope of getting auto manufacturers and suppliers on board. Mobility Outfitters was the brainchild of designer Stewart Reed. In 1963, the Traverse City Record-Eagle reports, he was a high school student and won a design award in a competition sponsored by General Motors. The very next year, that competition scored Reed a scholarship, which he used to jump-start his career in design. Reed is a graduate of the ArtCenter and the institution has written a nice biography:

A 1969 graduate of ArtCenter, Reed has had a distinguished 35-year career in transportation design. Career achievements include a special-mission military vehicle for Lockheed Martin, an innovative SUV-van hybrid concept called the GearBox for Mobility Outfitters, and the spectacular Cunningham C7 luxury GT coupe for Bob Lutz and Briggs S. Cunningham III. He has served as vice president of design for Prince Corporation (now Johnson Controls), where he developed design tools, resources and practices to advance interior vehicle design, and was chief designer of Toyotaʼs Calty Design Research studio. At Chrysler, he developed pre-production new-vehicle categories in the advanced design studio.

Reed has designed and developed more than 30 concept vehicles throughout his career. In 1994, he established Stewart Reed Design and became consultant to the manufacturing industry in automotive and consumer products, with clients including Michelin, Icon Aircraft, Herman Miller, Nissan, Hyundai, Ford and Lockheed Martin. Recently, the Mullin Automotive Museum sought him out for coachwork design of a historically significant Bugatti. Reed maintains activity in design, spanning from GT high-end/performance-luxury to off-road vehicles. He has patents involving lighting, seating, healthcare and automotive innovations.

Reed is a judge at numerous concours—including Amelia Island, Pebble Beach and the Louis Vuitton in Paris—and a design jury member at both the Los Angeles and Detroit International Auto Shows. Also, for the past 10 years, he has been chief juror for the Michelin Challenge Design, an international design competition for students and emerging designers.

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In 1998, Reed decided to show off his design skills and his company’s capabilities to interested parties. The vehicle for this exercise was the Gear Box, a vehicle that combined the practicality of a van with the off-road prowess of a 4×4 SUV. Basically, it was something like a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter camper van before those became popular with overlanders.

Let’s just start with the body, because the wild starts immediately. The body of the Gear Box is made out of reinforced plastic. Attached to the sides of the body are saddlebags that store and pass items through to the interior. The rear end is configurable so that you could keep the Gear Box as a van or convert it into a pickup truck.

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Of course, plastic isn’t the strongest material for off-roading, so the Gear Box is covered in metal bits from the rock sliders to the chunky winch-equipped front bumper. The vehicle is also covered in exoskeleton-like bars that are supposed to provide mounting points for gear.

Inside, Reed seemingly thought of everything. The floor of the Gear Box is made out of molded plastic and contains drain holes so you can get the interior wet and not have a total disaster. From there, the features list reads like every camper van I’ve written about. There’s a hair dryer, radio, TV, VCR, a table, a swivel seat, and other camping essentials.

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Petersen Automotive Museum

For an additional twist, the Gear Box has a roof covered in solar panels that opens up revealing a viewing deck. You could also just remove the roof components to have an open-air van or pickup truck. Under the van’s body is an apparatus to mount a house battery or a generator and the interior also contains structures to mount more gear. There were even enough fold-away bench seats to give the Gear Box a seating capacity of nine people. However, it appeared the vehicle as it sat at the Petersen was missing a lot of this stuff.

In the press release, Reed is quoted as saying that the Gear Box is a “space vehicle for Earth exploration.” As Autoweek reported, the van wasn’t just a concept, either. It was a road-legal, working, and registerable vehicle complete with a 4.3-liter six from GM making 190 HP, a four-speed automatic, and four-wheel-drive. The catch was that it wasn’t going into production. That said, the Gear Box was so loved at the Detroit show that Mobility Outfitters said it would make a second with the V8 from a Corvette.

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It looks like the second Gear Box wasn’t created. Instead, Reed said he was hoping to create a vehicle accessory package that contained some of the elements of the Gear Box. The Traverse City Record-Eagle reported that some elements of the Gear Box also made it over to the Ford Ex concept, an off-road concept vehicle that looked like today’s side-by-sides, but jacked up and pumped up.

Reed was also involved in a revival of the long-dead Cunningham Motor Co. with the design of the Cunningham C7. While the neo-Cunningham did fire off a handful of new cars, the C7 never became a production vehicle.

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As for the Gear Box, it was easily a couple of decades ahead of its time. Sure, people have been using vehicles for long-distance travel since there were vehicles capable enough for the job. However, I agree with the Petersen in that the Gear Box previewed what overlanding is like today.

Update: By that, I don’t just mean driving a 4×4 van because those have been around for a lot longer. I mean the craze of piling a van full of accessories that could easily be left behind like viewing platforms, entertainment systems, and structures to mount even more stuff you bought online. We recently wrote about an Airstream van with giant speakers and underglow. That’s what I’m talking about.

The Gear Box could just as easily been something parked at an Overland Expo this year, just replace the old VCR and TV for a PlayStation 5 and a 4K TV. I know Reed didn’t want to put the Gear Box into production, but I could see something like it now.

If you’re interested in seeing more of Reed’s work, check out his social media accounts. He’s not active on them, but you’ll find some cool stuff.

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(Images: Author, unless otherwise noted.)

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No Kids, Just Bikes
No Kids, Just Bikes
18 days ago

This thing’s hot. Same color as the Advance 4×4 converted e250 I had in Colorado so it gives me the feels. Like everyone that once had a 4×4 van, I really miss that thing.

Cheap Bastard
Cheap Bastard
18 days ago

“Reed is quoted as saying that the Gear Box is a “space vehicle for Earth exploration.” ”

Looks like we have another graduate of the John Z DeLorean school of pharmarketeering.

CTSVmkeLS6
CTSVmkeLS6
18 days ago

Hey Mercedes. The dodge van charger from the 70s – with factory warranty- would like a word with you! I remember seeing some of those in the late 80s and my dad always pointed them out cause he thought they were the cats meow

Knowonelse
Knowonelse
18 days ago

We drove off for our ’84 honeymoon in a ’76 VW ASI camper and spent much of the time camping at forest and service roads. At 19k miles we rolled it, and drove 2k miles home. Bought an ’80 VW Westfalia and spent weekends in the southwest exploring ghost towns on weekends, in the summer too. We went down roads that no way would we have been able to go up. Traveled a lot out in the boondocks. Probably 90% of “overlanding” that people desire to do can be done in a VW bus or the like. The only thing we were missing was solar and onboard power beyond a house battery, but that was a fw decades ago.

Dead Elvis, Inc.
Dead Elvis, Inc.
18 days ago
Reply to  Knowonelse

Was that an ASI pop-top or a high-roof version? I always wondered how much worse those must be in crosswinds, vs the already-terrible standard Buses.

Knowonelse
Knowonelse
18 days ago

Pop top. Wasn’t that bad in crosswinds compared to my previous bus, a ’64 Deluxe.

Dead Elvis, Inc.
Dead Elvis, Inc.
18 days ago
Reply to  Knowonelse

I drove a friend’s ’74 Westy across the US & even with the poptop, it was more composed than my ’71 standard. I don’t know what the weight difference was, but I can’t imagine it was just that.

Beachbumberry
Beachbumberry
18 days ago

I’m curious what the platform was. Gmt400? Blazer? Astro?

ADDvanced
ADDvanced
18 days ago
Reply to  Beachbumberry

Blazer is my guess. Astro is technically unibody, so probably not.

Beachbumberry
Beachbumberry
18 days ago
Reply to  ADDvanced

That was my suspicion. I suppose they could use the front subframe but that would still be a bit more complex than necessary.

Slow Joe Crow
Slow Joe Crow
18 days ago

If one off rigs count Classic Land Rover had a two part article around 2020 about a couple who decided to return to the UK from a job in South Africa by driving. They built a camper body on a forward control Land Rover and drove the length of Africa

Bjorn A. Payne Diaz
Bjorn A. Payne Diaz
18 days ago
ADDvanced
ADDvanced
18 days ago

Like a sprinter, but better in every way

1978fiatspyderfan
1978fiatspyderfan
19 days ago

This guy seems great for two reasons. First working designs well ahead of their time. Second he realized a small company with no manufacturing experience or contact will not succeed. His failure was based on the fact the big boys didn’t have the fore thought to realize the future success of 4 wheeling. Much like only Lee Iacocco recognized the appeal of the Mustang and mini van and had the ability to take advantage of it.

Jonee Eisen
Jonee Eisen
19 days ago

Stewart Reed also designed everyone’s favorite butterfly-door-equipped Japanese Bubble Era car, the Toyota Sera. The Gear Box was definitely way ahead of its time. And, I think it partially inspired the Honda Element, actually. Stewart also loaned it to the government at one point for study as a possible armed forces-related vehicle.

WaCkO
WaCkO
19 days ago

Can you guys do something to speed up the site, cause man the ads are making this as slow as your mail jeep.
I feel like I’m back on a 14.4 modem here loading your site.

1978fiatspyderfan
1978fiatspyderfan
19 days ago

I have no issues

OverlandingSprinter
OverlandingSprinter
19 days ago

Cool concept. The modularity amazes me. This looks like the Bishop would have designed this. (Maybe they did?)

As far as van-based overlanders go, I would argue Sportsmobile was ahead of its time in ~1960 with its B-class RVs. The earliest 4×4 Sportsmobile I’ve seen is a 1970-ish Econoline that offered some off-roading capability.

Kleinlowe
Kleinlowe
19 days ago

That gear BO X logo is peak turn of the millennium. *chefs kiss*

Last edited 19 days ago by Kleinlowe
ADDvanced
ADDvanced
18 days ago
Reply to  Kleinlowe

Yeah, made me think of 90s PC game company logos

1978fiatspyderfan
1978fiatspyderfan
19 days ago

How good were solar panels of this age? Not sure how drawers that could accept product from the outside without exiting works on a outdoor rig. Does the cocaine bear put food in and the trapped tourists send their cocaine out. Would the cocaine bear accept pot as a substitute drug? So many questions.

Livernois
Livernois
18 days ago

I’m curious what those panels did, and what kind of battery they charged too. I have a wild guess they ran an entertainment system. If you’re trying to get people interested in your concept, a solar powered CD player with decent speakers was probably the flashiest way to do it.

ADDvanced
ADDvanced
18 days ago
Reply to  Livernois

Likely charged a house battery, that the accessories ran off from. That way you’re never dead in the water because your starter battery is isolated.

Jakob K's Garage
Jakob K's Garage
19 days ago

Very cool, I thought about asking you to explore the more simple end of camper life, instead of multi tonne million dollar busses like the Brabus, but thought no, and then here we are. Thanks!
Looks a bit like my dream camper, or what’s in my head about it, while it’s slowly taking form:
https://www.instagram.com/p/C8SYDi6iYtK/?igsh=MTd6a2pubDlpdWV3cw==

Last edited 19 days ago by Jakob K's Garage
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