Sun Glasses are a must for Overlanding and if you can combine that with your music, how cool that would be.

Bose to the call, it was love at first sight. Never out of fashion black rimmed glasses with dark lenses, with Bose sound mounted in the frame. A must have, even at Bose prices.

Bose has taken the speakers and blue tooth technology and mounted them in the ear pieces of the frames. This makes the side rails a little bulkier to the norm but once on your head almost unnoticeable.

Now what is cool is there is no wire or ear piece for the speaker, Music or your phone calls are transmitted through little speakers in the frame nothing stuck in your ears. This alone was worth a try.

Driving the Tortuga Truck, (31 year old Mercedes 10 ton Truck) is a little different than being chauffeured in a Mercedes Maybach, but when wearing Bose QC20 noise cancelling head phones it is very close to quite. The problem is with the noise cancelling ear buds, you just can’t hear the truck.. There is something good about listening to an old Tortuga. Tortuga can tell you when to shift, when the Tortuga is not happy or even tell you lug nuts are lose. The Hope was that the Altos would find the right balance of listening to the Tortuga and listening to music.

Blue tooth connection to the phone, Spotify playing the weekly selection, just made for me, as I got in the truck. The sound quality is very very good. The amazing thing is that the speakers in the frames are so close to your ear that only you can hear the music standing near someone, yet you can also hear what is going on around you. So far so good this just might be the ticket for Tortuga Road Music.

On the road was a different story. Old 10 ton Tortugas make a lot of noise when rambling down the road. Started with the windows down, no amount of volume in the phone could compensate for the wind noise. Windows up was an improvement, but the improvement so small it was not worth the increase of temperature in the cab because green house heating effect of the big flat windshield. After a day of effort to trying to find a compromise of music volumes while listening to Tortuga Talk the conclusion was No Music.

Ok but these glasses are still cool, they look great and the music is awesome when not overwhelmed by Tortuga Warp Speed (58ish) going down the highway.

Then, It was a hot Texas day after the Trip Around the Rockies. It was time for a little care and tenderness of the Tortuga Truck after the 5500 mile trip. Working in the Toy Box, home of the Tortuga, temperatures were well over 90 degrees with 90 percent humidity. For those that have not experienced a 90/90 day in Texas (with no wind) that is the equivalent temperature that approaches the temperature of the sun.

Not exactly sure, the heat, the sweat, the solar flar, what every it was, a crackling noise in the speaker announced the “day the music died.”

Totally bummed, Only 6 months of minimal use and then this.

A call to Bose customer service, after 15 minutes of tracking down my account, I had a printed UPS sticker to return the sunglasses. That was good. In fact 2 days after I sent them off I had another pair in my mailbox.. That was Great.

Bottom Line, Not sure these are Tortuga Overland ready, but win big on music quality and style point with the Tortuga. I keep them out of the heat and don’t let moisture get within a 10 county area of the glasses, that way when I go to Starbucks I am the coolest Old Tortuga there.