Overlanding Mainstay EarthCruiser Calls It Quits
The “featured classified” today on the overlanding community site Expeditionportal.com is a 2021 EarthCruiser FX, a go-anywhere lux RV built on the Mitsubishi Fuso 4×4 platform. With just 9300 miles on the clock, it could be yours for the low-low price of $300,000, which is essentially half the cost of a new one. Such a deal.
Elsewhere on the site, however, there is much ballyhoo about the company behind the beastly truck, EarthCruiser. Based in Bend, Oregon, since opening its doors in 2008, the firm quite suddenly announced last week that it was closing its doors, effective April 25. So, get ’em while you can, I guess?
In a release posted to the company’s website, EarthCruiser stated that “changing market dynamics and economic challenges have made it increasingly difficult to sustain operations going forward.” The high-end overlanding market has indeed changed, as the “Head for the hills!” panic buying that allowed well-heeled work-from-homers to commission exotic builds and then hit the road during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic has mostly disappeared.
Supply-chain issues have taken their toll on the business, as have the changing economics involved in the purchase of machines such as these; the pool of people willing to plunk down 20 percent with long-term (read: 20-year) financing at, say, 7 percent interest, on an overlanding house that depreciates faster than you can air down those 37-inch tires has become a much harder proposition. And, as with nearly every sector, costs are up. Except, in this particular sector, they’re way, way up. In 2018, for example, a base EarthCruiser FX started at $255,000. By 2024, the starting price was $595,000. The Ford F-350–based Terranova model, meanwhile, once around $100,000 now starts at $350,000.
“Our journey over the past years has been extraordinary,” company founder Lance Gillies said in the release. “Although this decision marks the end of an era, we are proud of our legacy and impact on the world of travel, automotive innovation, and overlanding. We hope our vehicles, our customers, and their stories will continue to inspire the adventurous spirit in all of us.”
EarthCruiser is not the only name in this space, of course, with dozens of niche manufacturers doing their best to cater to the existing customer base and adapt to the way it has changed, particularly as used vehicles at big discounts continue to flood the market. It will be interesting to see whether more dominoes fall as this segment continues to contract.
Did it really ever start?
My 2014 Winnebago ERA Sprinter based unit cost about $85K then. It lists for about $240K now. Didn’t know adding solar panels was that expensive!!
If you have driven down RV alley on the Indiana Toll Road lately the RV party is over. Theyre stacked up everywhere. Demand for the next few years looks like it has already been satisfied. Especially for Earthcruiser level rigs. Don’t know where you could really use its capabilities except for out West.
I for one am glad, and hopeful to see the RV / Motorhome industry go away forever! Everyone of us who enjoys driving has had our pleasant afternoons ruined by the selfish morons who hog the twisting mountain roads, slogging along at a good 20 mph below the posted limit and refusing to ever pull over and let reasonable drivers by. On top of that, a motorhome just doesn’t make any sense unless you sell your home and live in it full time. I have seen so many clients of mine blow $300,000 on a coach that costs about $50 a night to park when on the road, it costs them to store it when not being used, they’re insuring it 100% of the time and as you say, it’s depreciating faster than you can throw money at it! What for? So they can “save money” by not paying for a hotel. Yeah, that sure makes a lot of sense. $300,000 at even 5% is $15,000 per year, combined with what you’re not paying for storage, insurance, mechanical upkeep and you can have a heck of a vacation every year without the burden of having to alway plan your stops so you can simply park the behemoth in the first place!
It’s surprising the fad lasted as long as it did.
If the RV and Overlanding industry is slipping that would be another indication that the economy in general is slipping and consumer confidence is down. Sort of like the EV market slipping. If it’s not a necessity more and more people are saying no thank you. Regular people that is.