Gladiator Overland

With a heavy heart, I share this update with all our followers and sponsors. As some of you may have noticed, we’ve been less active on social media recently. Sadly, my father’s health has taken a severe downturn, and he has been diagnosed with the later stages of Parkinson’s disease. In light of this, I’ve had to relocate my family to the Charlotte, NC area to become his full-time caretaker.

To add to the challenges, we were in the midst of preparing our past videos for release and had taken our Gladiator to Asheville Vehicle Outfitters for much-needed service and upgrades. The goal was to enhance both our content and the vehicle’s performance for our trips, especially with the Veteran Overland Project. Unfortunately, Hurricane Helene hit Asheville hard, causing widespread destruction. While we are grateful that the team at AVO and their families are safe, someone took advantage of the chaos and broke into the shop, stealing over $75,000 worth of products and tools.

I just returned from Asheville, where we discovered that several items being installed on our vehicle were among the stolen goods. Unfortunately, the thieves didn’t stop there. They also took all of our camera equipment, one of our drones, our Starlink system, and, most devastatingly, a bag containing all of our portable hard drives, laptop, and months’ worth of footage we had planned to release on Instagram and YouTube.

At this point, it will take some time to fully assess the impact of this loss. We expect to have the vehicle back by next weekend and will then inventory anything we might have missed during the initial inspection. Our biggest challenge now is figuring out how to replace our gear and continue delivering the high-quality content you’ve come to expect.

To our Veterans, we ask for your patience as the Veteran Overland Project is currently on hold while we navigate these difficulties. We are also exploring ways to continue organizing trips for our wounded veterans with the help of volunteers. If you are interested in guiding a group of veterans on day or weekend trips in the Southeast, please contact us at [email protected].

We also encourage our followers to support local businesses like Asheville Vehicle Outfitters and others impacted by the storm. Your support means the world to us. For sponsors or those awaiting product reviews, please feel free to reach out to [email protected]. While we have spoken to a few of you, without our laptop, we are missing a full list of things in the pipeline, and we ask for your understanding as we work through this.

Lastly, if you would like to help the victims of Hurricane Helene, we recommend supporting organizations like Save Our Allies and Team Rubicon, both of which we have seen make a significant impact on disaster relief efforts.

Thank you all for your support and patience during this incredibly difficult time. We will do everything we can to recover and get back to creating and sharing content as soon as possible.