My 11th SEMA was just as busy as I’ve ever been or seen the show. There were shoulder-to-shoulder crowds just about everywhere across the vast Las Vegas Convention Center all 4 days of the show.
SEMA attracted 2,400 vendors and had over 1,400 vehicles on display, across 1.2 million square feet of exhibit space, this year. Around 160,000 people from 140 countries attended. It is one of the largest trade shows in the world, and the largest car show. It’s all about the automotive aftermarket, which is a massive industry.
As per usual, I walked nearly every square foot of the show — yes, my legs are tired. I searched high and low to specifically bring you the most interesting and truly new products and adventure vehicles on display.
SEMA 2024 Adventure Vehicle Scene
This year, I found lots of interesting new vehicle builds, but honestly not many new adventure vehicle builds. This is because many adventure vehicles on display I’ve already shown you from other shows — like Overland Expo — many builds were just poorly executed bolt-on monstrosities, and because there seemed to be way less of an overland and off-road adventure vehicle presence in general this year. In particular, the Overland Experience area of the show was extremely small and poorly attended by both vendors and showgoers.
This year, I saw only a few modern Chevy/GMC trucks, a lot fewer Jeeps, a lot fewer 4Runners, a similar large volume of Broncos, a few INEOS examples, an impressive showing of the new Tacoma, and lots of the new Land Cruiser 250s. This was also the year of the Cybertruck and kei trucks, which both were very good at attracting attention.
This year, there was also the introduction of lots more powersports products to the show. There were PWCs, motos, UTVs, and a few accessories. Most of the big vehicle brands in this space were at the show, but only a handful of accessory companies, and most of those were low-cost knockoff brands.
5 Top Vehicles: SEMA 2024 Best in Show
Enough with the event overview. Let’s dive into my picks for the best adventure vehicles of SEMA 2024.
EarthRoamer LTx
EarthRoamer has been making top-spec expedition campers for 26 years now. The next generation of its flagship product is now here, the LTx.
This Ford F-550-based vehicle has an all-new layout. The new layout has a large rear dinette and a pass-through gear tunnel that doubles the rear storage capacity. The entry door to the camper has also been moved way forward and widened.
Of course, the entire electrical system has been fully overhauled and updated. It is now a 24V system, a 18KWh lithium-ion battery bank, larger inverters, and more solar.
Besides the big layout and electrical system changes, the EarthRoamer LTx also gets a new walnut interior option, new roof rack that is mounted with no holes in the roof for better weatherproofing, and even a new bike rack accessory for the rear boxes to make loading and unloading much easier.
While we’re just getting our first look at this new overland machine, current EarthRoamer owners got a preview back in September. Between then and now, 28 of the new LTx models have been sold, so if you put in your order now, you can expect a summer 2026 delivery.
And no, these campers aren’t inexpensive. While pricing starts in the $700,000s, a properly specced one is in the $900,000s.
Proffitt’s Resurrection Cruisers ‘Taco Tuesday’
The ‘Taco Tuesday’ 1959 Toyota Land Cruiser FJ28 pickup restomod by Proffitt’s Resurrection Cruisers was located in the Toyo Tread Pass area at SEMA, where there are always some outrageous and impressive builds. Even among some truly bold vehicles, its Lime Rush Green paint made it stand out from the crowd.
The idea behind this build was to have all the tech, reliability, and comfort found in a modern Tacoma with the style and rugged capability found in a classic Land Cruiser. While much of the build is custom, it utilizes a ton of OEM Toyota parts throughout, mostly from Tacoma.
Under the hood is a supercharged 3.5L Toyota V6 backed by a six-speed manual transmission. The truck rides on solid axles and 37-inch tires. Combine that setup with lockers, a winch, Maxtrax, and a rooftop tent, and this build is ready for off-road and overland adventures.
Go deeper into this very well-executed build in the story I wrote: ‘Taco Tuesday’: Part ’59 Land Cruiser Pickup, Part Supercharged Tacoma, All Toyota.
Trail Tailor Land Cruiser 6×6 ‘Bruce’
While a bit hidden at the show, in the Power Service booth, ‘Bruce,’ the 6×6 Land Cruiser, was worth searching out. This 1983 60-Series Land Cruiser was completely reworked by the team at Trail Taylor to become a diesel-powered 6×6 flat-bed truck. Specifically, it was built to be a tow rig for the company’s other custom off-road Land Cruisers.
Finished just a week before SEMA, ‘Bruce’ has a 24V Cummins heart, is a true 6×6, rolls on 37s, is triple locked, and has a very cool custom flatbed with headache-rack that has integrated exhaust stacks. The interior has a ton of custom touches, like a leather dash, Scheel-Mann touring seats, door cards, and back seats that were matched to the front seat insert material.
This build was featured in the SEMA Battle of the Builders competition, achieving a top 10 in the off-road category. That accolade, and any others it receives, are very worthy, as the caliber of the workmanship and custom parts really make this a standout vehicle.
Toyota 4Runner TRD Surf Concept
What’s not to like about a brand-new 2025 Toyota 4Runner with two doors, a removable top, rad graphics, and some off-road goodies! The TRD Surf Concept has all the vintage ’80s flair with all the latest tech of the next-generation 4Runner.
This build is exactly what it looks like: a new 4Runner with its top chopped off, a rear roll-hoop added, two doors removed, and the TRD accessory parts catalog thrown at it. All of that sounds easy, but after talking to engineers about the build, it was quite a task to make it all come together and present in a fresh from the factory/could possibly go into production way.
Too bad it’s just a concept, as I think there would be more than a few buyers for such a vehicle.
You can dive deeper into this very cool Toyota in my reveal story: Two-Door, Removable Hard-Top 2025 4Runner: Introducing the Toyota TRD Surf Concept.
Kia PV5 WKNDR Concept EV Van 1
The Kia PV5 WKNDR is a very fun electric concept camper van. While it is based on a new electric van platform that is actually going into production, it is very much a concept vehicle.
It did its job well at the SEMA Show 2024, attracting a ton of attention and all kinds of love-it and hate-it comments on the interwebs. The slide-out wall, front bumper winch info screen, and slat wall system attracted the most attention. You can dive into more of its features and specs in my full story on it: Kia Debuts 2 Electric Adventure Vehicle Concepts at SEMA.
A comment I heard a few times about this concept was that it looks like the Turtle van — or Party Wagon — from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ’80s TV show. Now that I heard that, I can’t unsee it.
