OLD IRON OVERLAND

Joel Elliott’s ’49 International KB2 has a few secrets to tell

Jered Korfhage

You can’t buy this rooftop tent setup at the outdoor store, and you surely cannot find this truck at a dealership lot. Instead, Joel Elliott’s overland recipe includes hearty helpings of DIY and old-school cool, and the main ingredient is a ’49 International KB2. But Joel wasn’t always into the overland lifestyle.

“I grew up on a farm in South Central Pennsylvania,” he told us. “So, you could say I’ve been into off-road driving all my life.” For Joel, that meant driving tractors before automobiles, starting with the Ford 800 used for chugging around his family’s dairy farm. He looks back on memories of riding around the farm in his dad’s blue Dodge and also sliding behind the wheel of an old Ford F-250 when it was time to pick rocks from the fields. Family camping trips to the rivers and forests of the East inspired Joel’s thirst for outdoor exploration, and his upbringing all but guaranteed that 4x4s would become a part of that pursuit.