This G-Wagon Overland Build Goes to Moab and Comes Back Dirty

This is not a parking-lot princess. This is a G-Wagon overland build that actually gets used: a 4-inch-lifted 2015 G550 that just drove six hours from our shop to Moab, ran hard trails for a week, and drove itself home. We’re showing it unwashed and unfiltered, exactly how it came back, because that’s the honest test of a real build.

The foundation of a serious G-Wagon overland build

From a hardware standpoint, this 2015 G550 (naturally aspirated) is dialed in for the trail:

• 4-inch lift with 4-inch springs and King shocks.
• Modified control arms, sway-bar drop links, transmission drop brackets and new drive shafts.
• 20-inch Rotiform SCL wheels wrapped in Mickey Thompson Baja Boss AT tires.
• Defender-style wide fender flares to keep mud and rocks off the paint.

Armor, recovery and a JackWagon front bumper

Before the trip, the owner had us fit a JackWagon Overlanding front bumper, one of the few G-Wagon bumpers tough enough to take a hit or jack the whole truck off the ground on a high-lift. We added a 10,000-lb winch with synthetic rope, Baja Designs LP6s, an anodized skid plate, an AFM rear bumper and our own rock sliders (strong enough to support the truck and double as a step to the roof).

Built to live out of: storage, air and a snorkel

What makes this a true G-Wagon overland build is how livable it is:

• A custom Drawer Systems unit with a Dometic cooler, on-board air and inverter outlets, the next generation of the discontinued Front Runner drawer.
• A snorkel that raises the fording depth from the lower vents all the way to the roofline (though if you’re fording that deep, you’ve got bigger problems).
• A WolfBox front-and-rear camera system. The wide-angle front cam lets you spot obstacles without climbing out.
• A Switch-Pros controller for lighting and accessories, plus the wireless COMAND upgrade.

The honest trail report from Moab

Here’s the part most shops won’t show you. After a week of hard wheeling and hundreds of off-road miles, the only failure was a single sway-bar bushing that backed out during heavy articulation, and the hardware was even still in place. We’re pulling it apart, installing all-new bushings, red Loctiting the hardware and putting a wrench on everything else before it goes back to the owner. For that much trail abuse, that’s a remarkably clean result, and the truck was fully highway-drivable the entire way home.

Build a G-Wagon you’ll actually use

This is what a G looks like when it’s built with a purpose and used the way it was meant to be. If you want a G-Wagon overland build ready for Moab and beyond, with the suspension, bumpers, storage, recovery and lighting to back it up, talk to the team at Alliance Motorworks in Loveland, Colorado, home of Nothing But Gs. Start your build here, and send us footage of your own G in action.