Some trucks arrive as projects. Others arrive as responsibilities. For Boise-based overlander and Long Range America co-founder Khris Korell, his Nissan Patrol MQ SWB was both. An abandoned machine that needed someone willing to tell the rest of its story.
There’s a version of Khris Korell that most people in the overlanding world know. He’s Taankman, the fuel tank guy, the man behind Long Range America, an Idaho-based company that specializes in importing high-capacity auxiliary and replacement fuel tanks for off-road vehicles. It’s a niche within a niche. Khris navigates this with the precision of someone who spent the better part of his career as a physical therapist. Spend some time with him and the throughline becomes clear. Whether rehabilitating patients, selling fuel solutions, or pulling apart a four-decade-old Japanese four-wheel drive, Khris is, at heart, a problem solver. And a restless one at that.
“Quickly after my high school years ended, I joined the United States Navy,” says Khris. “The idea of being part of something big and traveling the globe was just too enticing to me. Since that young age, traveling and exploring have been key components in my ethos feeding my soul.”
It’s the kind of clarity that makes what happened next make perfect sense.
THE TRUCK WITH A STORY
The Patrol entered Khris’s life early in 2023. A GQ SWB from Queensland, Australia, was imported into the United States in 2021. Shortly after it was rolled and left to sit in a state of mechanical and cosmetic ruin. No windshield. A deeply dented roof. Over 200 feet of redundant wiring. Its life had been a difficult one.
“This vehicle had a story,” Khris says, “and someone needed to continue to tell it.”
Khris had long dreamed of taking on a serious restoration project. The Patrol is legendary for its simplicity, its durability, and the quietly devoted following it commands among serious overlanders. The family already had a Jeep Gladiator for group travel, so the GQ would be built for solo expeditions, remote miles and the kind of trips where you’re entirely responsible for your own outcome.
What he thought would be a three-to-six-month restoration took the better part of two years.
“Patience is key. Persistence gets you there. These projects are always bigger and take longer than you think. I work on a theory: do it once, do it right.”
THE HEART OF THE MATTER
Of all the decisions in a restoration of this scale, none consumed more time than the engine. The factory TB42 carburettor motor — all 85 horsepower of it — was never going to cut it for what Khris had in mind. The natural replacement seemed obvious. A TD42T diesel, the turbo engine many Patrol enthusiasts gravitate toward. That engine was never sold in the United States. This made parts and service support an ongoing nightmare.
He landed somewhere unexpected. A Mercedes-Benz OM606, sourced from a W210 E300D. The conversion kit, built by Diesel Pump UK, fitted the Patrol’s manual five-speed transmission. Engine mounts had to be relocated. A job that fell to Oliver at The Cruiser Company. The intake charge pipe and exhaust system were fabricated by Dillon at Toy Sport Performance in Boise. The injection pump was built to spec. Few people in the United States had done this swap. Khris leaned heavily on the Australian community who’d pioneered these builds.
“I didn’t chase big power — which the engine is capable of,” he explains. “Instead I chose reliability and middle ground power. 285 horsepower and 500 foot-pounds of torque.”
The result is a mechanically elegant drivetrain that sits almost defiantly apart from modern complexity. The engine is fully mechanical and needs one wire to start and a vacuum source to shut it off. High-tech gauges monitor its vitals. The philosophy underneath is analog. It is a vehicle you could, in theory, fix at the side of a dirt road with hand tools.
VAMPIRE RED
Then there’s the paint job, or rather the wrap. The Patrol wears a PPF-style wrap in a colour called Vampire Red. It’s a deep, saturated tone that turns heads and resists the kind of wear that would destroy a conventional respray in the field. Khris sanded and corrected the entire body before the wrap went on, meaning if it ever does come off, the truck is already prepared for paint.
“Aidan found this colour and suggested it,” Khris says of his business partner, Aidan Stott. “I couldn’t be happier.”
The visual impact is significant. The MQ’s boxy, utilitarian silhouette is a shape that reads like a product of pure engineering intention. It wears the colour with an earned confidence. This isn’t a truck trying to look tough. It simply is.
THE ALU-CAB SETUP
Rest, Khris will tell you, is not optional on a serious overland trip.
“Like having enough fuel, getting solid rest is a key component of overland travel,” he says. “Poor sleep will break you faster than any vehicle breakdown.”
It’s the kind of insight that comes from both a medical background and hard experience in the field. And it explains why, when it came time to choose a rooftop tent for the Patrol, Khris chose the Alu-Cab Gen 3-R.
“When it comes to getting good rest, Alu-Cab is where it is,” he says. The Gen 3-R fits the Patrol not just aesthetically but functionally — its double-wall canvas construction, proper ventilation system, and near-effortless open-close mechanism address the specific needs of a solo traveler covering serious distances. But what Khris values most is something harder to quantify in a spec sheet.
“It’s quiet. You can push the wind limits of an RTT camping with Alu-Cab products. This tent is silent even in strong winds. What I can’t stand at the end of a long day of adventuring is being kept up all night with fabric flapping in the wind.”
The Gen 3-R on the Patrol is coming up on four years old. It looks and functions, he says, as it did on day one.
“Many would never know my Gen 3-R is coming up on 4 years old and it still looks and functions perfect. Zero issues.”
THE AWNING WARNING
A 270° Shadow Awning is next on the list — the family’s Gladiator already runs a 180° Shadow Awning, and Khris has seen firsthand what a well-deployed awning does for camp livability when the weather turns. The interior is rounded out with a Goose Gear camp kitchen, single drawer system, and a half rear seat delete. It’s a custom configuration built specifically for the Patrol.
For anyone considering a rooftop tent or awning for their build, Khris offers advice shaped by years of watching buyers make the same mistake, and is a firm believer in why you should buy your third tent first.
“There used to be cheap tents on the market that were cheap — cost-wise,” he says. “However, even the cheap tents are now expensive. Save yourself the headaches and pain: buy an Alu-Cab. The tent’s job is to keep me and my family safe from the elements in remote places — then I ask: is it up to the task?”
LONG RANGE AMERICA, AND WHAT COMES NEXT
Long Range America began with two Toyota Land Cruiser enthusiasts — Georg Esterer and Ward Harris — who saw an opportunity to bring quality Australian fuel tank solutions to the American market. Khris met Ward during a knee replacement. He recognized immediately where he could contribute.
“My role would be connecting Long Range America with its customers through sales,” he says. “This was an area most needed.”
Seven years on, both founding partners have moved to other projects. In their place, Khris found Aidan Stott — his current business partner — after a single weekend of camping together. “I knew after a weekend of camping with Aidan and my family that he was the missing piece of Long Range America that we needed to move to the next business level.”
Now the pair are preparing to launch something new. LRA Outfitters is a boutique fitment shop in Boise focused on the real-world upfitting of products they use and trust. Alu-Cab, unsurprisingly, will be on the floor.
“This will be our chance to share experiences with products and our knowledge of real-world application,” Khris says, “to allow newcomers and experienced travelers alike to fuel their own travels.”
The Patrol, meanwhile, just completed its maiden shakedown run. 2,000 miles round-trip to Flagstaff, Arizona. It performed. The A/C did not go back in before the trip; after two thousand miles in the American Southwest, Khris reports it is going back in.
Exploration is the destination. The Patrol is the means. The story, it turns out, had a lot left in it.