BRIGHTON, Colo. — The 2026 Overland Expo Mountain West returned to Colorado at The Ranch and the show was loaded with accessories vendors, manufacturers, dealers and every vehicle modifier imaginable.
Most common were small teardrop builders, Subaru, Toyota and Sprinter remodelers who turned the vehicles into campers with pop-top sleeping areas and builders of far-offroad vehicles like Sasquatch, Storyteller Overland and Wanderbox.
Thousands of visitors made their way through the newly refurbished Larimer County Fairgrounds area in 100-degree heat to meet up with their favorite suppliers or even just chat with their fellow campers.
Around 320 vendors were on display.
But of all the booths with names familiar only to the Overland offroad crowd, it was the Transwest RV booth that featured a swarm of customers anxious to see the latest from Winnebago.
Though the traditional builder of Class C motorhomes and Minnie travel trailers has made some headway into the offroad market in recent years with the Class B Revel and Class C EKKO, it went fully into the space this year with the introduction of the ARKA – seemingly a match made in heaven for the Overland enthusiast.
“One of the really cool features of ARKA is the body of the box actually moves independently of the chassis,” said Brian Moritz, sales manager of Transwest’s Frederick, Colo., location. “They did that by mounting the box to four pillow blocks on the chassis frame rails. With a built in inclinometer and the integration with Winnebago’s home grown smart coach platform, Winnebago Connect, you can even see how level you are. Since the box and chassis work the terrain independently, you can more easily level out on rough terrain than a traditional rig.”
Transwest was offering test drives of Revel, Ekko and ARKA on a rough track at the show.
To see the box and chassis with it’s torsion free movement was a unique experience.
“The box and the cab sit independently of each other, with the box mounted on a pillow block system on the frame,” he said. “It’s mounted to the chassis, but this box can move completely independently of the chassis flex. If you get it on an uneven surface, the flex of the chassis takes over to protect the box structure and reduce overall stress on the rig.”
The rear dinette pieces can be removed to create a full height gear garage area if desired.
The rear cushion also can be removed as can the table to convert the entire area into a small garage if desired.
A Winnebago Connect control system handles all functions – climate control, water systems, energy management. There also is a Pet Minder function in the system that will send alerts in situations such as if the coach gets our of the ideal temperature zone.
Above the rear dinette are rows of soft canvas bags on either side that zip up for travel or can latch via magnets for use during camping.
All hard sized cabinetry in the house is aluminum with compression latches with some featuring locks.
A small kitchen area features a refrigerator, microwave, sink and countertop and a removeable induction cook top.
The mid of the rig features a hidden bath that expands to a full sized shower and lavatory. It then hides away to keep wide open sight lines and a massive open living area.
A multi-configuration bed sits atop the cab. It features two 80″ long twin mattresses that can convert to a queen or king bed sleep space.
The coach is powered by a 48-volt electrical system. The unit contains lithium batteries charged by 800 watts of solar, which can be expandable to 1,200 watts and it is prewired for additional batteries.
A 3,600-watt inverter is included to help power outlets and the microwave.
The air conditioner runs on a DC system.
The body of the coach has been weather tested to minus-10 degrees and up to 120 degrees.
The pickup features a crew cab with six seatbelts.
Tires are 41-inch Petlas tires with a Buckstop wheel. A 6.7-litre Cummins engine offers 360 horsepower and a 15,000-pound towing capacity.
ARKA has an MSRP of $331,966.
Other traditional brands on display at the expo included Airstream and Ember RV hosted by Airstream of Colorado and Windish RV, respectively.
Overland Expo veteran exhibitor Jim Beckett of B&B RV of Denver said he was pleased with the turnout and the fact that there were considerably more vendors in attendance than the 2025 edition.
“We’ve been in the Overland market for 20 years, but over the past 10 years it has been more of a business in a real sense,” he said. “It’s a different group because these people don’t typically use campgrounds. They use more solar and get off grid.”
