A Southern Idaho Roadtrip with Suboverland

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to take a Suboverland 4×4 adventure vehicle on a weekend roadtrip excursion to Thousand Springs State Park in Southern Idaho!

Suboverland was started by my friend from high school, Grady, who got the idea of converting older Suburbans into camper vehicles while living on the road with his family in an RV. With the hype of sprinter vans, #vanlife, and digital nomads during the age of COVID, the popularity of Suboverland has been extreme! I can see why.

I had seen Suboverland all over Instagram and Youtube, so when I got the chance to take one of their SUV’s over the weekend, I was anxious to see what all the hype was about! I’d stayed in tents, Airstream type trailers, motorhomes, and RVs, but had never stayed in a converted Suburban.

I really didn’t know what to expect but was thrilled to find out.

A Southern Idaho Roadtrip with Suboverland

What is a Suboverland vehicle?

Suboverland’s are 4×4 Suburbans that have been converted into adventure vehicles. They are affordable and capable builds for anyone looking for weekend adventures or planning to live on the road! Check out this video to see how they got started.

Our Experience

To pick up our Suboverland, we drove 2 hours south of Boise to Twin Falls, Idaho on our way to Thousand Springs State Park for the weekend. See more details on what to do in the area here.

We were super impressed by the look of the Suboverland when we got it! I’ll get into the features I loved the most below, but I could tell a lot of thought had gone into creating the designs for these vehicles. They are a lot more spacious than I was expecting for two people! We were able to put the middle seat down and used that area for our bags and storage leaving the rest of the Suboverland roomy and tidy! I was also excited to not have to sleep in a tent on the ground because these rigs have an actual mattress…WOO!!

Once we got to our campsite, we backed up our Suboverland to the river and got to wake up to a beautiful sunrise over the water! There are also curtains in the SUV for times when you want to have more privacy in the vehicle.

Trying out a Suboverland made me strongly consider purchasing one for road trips and camping excursions in the future because we had so much fun!

SUBOVERLAND FEATURES

Some of the first features I noticed when we got the Suboverland were the pull out drawers, mattress, refrigerator, and the solar panels on the roof. I could really tell this was built by people who knew what they were doing and had traveled before. Here are some of my favorite features!

Mattress, Shelving, Drawers & Fan

Below is a photo of the drawers! They actually pulled out so you could store items under the bed and they each came with a wooden plank you could put over both drawers to treat them as a table for cooking. We were easily able to put our stove over the drawer to cook our meals. It was so handy! Plus, Jack and I are both pretty tall, so at night, if you pushed the drawers through to the other side of the bed, you could make the bed longer! This ended up being the perfect size for us. I also always overpack on trips, but in the Suboverland there was ample room for my things! We stored most of our belongings where the passenger seats went down and on the shelving next to the beds.

After settling into our campsite, we were excited to go to bed because we knew we’d be on a mattress and not on the hard ground! We wanted to try it out so badly just to see how much comfier it would be than a tent. Let’s just say we slept WAYYY better than we do in a tent and were pleasantly surprised to see there was a fan on the roof that allowed for airflow the entire night. This was essential for us because we needed to keep the doors shut due to bugs.

Solar & Electricity

Another feature we were extremely excited about was the solar panel on the roof. This made it so we always had electricity—no hookups needed! There was also a light switch in the car and lights all over the ceiling of the vehicle so we could see at night—no lantern needed!  Also, there were electrical outlets to plugin larger items like laptops or hairdryers. Plus USB plugs were right by the bedside so we could charge our cameras and phones all night and have them ready for the morning.

Fridge

We loved the refrigerator/cooler located between the driver and passenger seat. This kept all of our food and drinks cold the entire time and was nice to have to store our drinks! We brought our own cooler but didn’t need it once we saw the cooler in the rig. 

Shower

We loved the shower feature! It got warm with the sun and was a much better shower than the campground had. In the campground, I was only able to rinse off after our trip to Blue Heart Springs, but if you were in more backcountry with privacy this shower would be a game-changer!

Can I buy or rent one?

As of now, Suboverland vehicles are only available for purchase. However, the Suboverland team wants to get a rental program going, so check out their website for updates. To purchase a Suboverland, all you have to do is go to their site and check out the design that suits your needs in the price point you’re looking for. You can also bring your own 4×4 vehicle to them to be converted.

Once you’ve picked out your vehicle, give Suboverland a call, email or text and they will talk it out with you and discuss specifics and timeline. Then it’s build time! They will let you know the completion date and you’ll be off on your adventure.

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