EarthRoamer XV-JP "Northwest Edition"

[Momrocks]

Attachment 116001
Sure is a pretty, and pretty clever, table, though.

Oh my, isn't that elegant!!! Brilliant design.

[mhiscox]

Or this.

A man of few words.

Might that XV-JP be yours? If so, tell us some more, please. It's always nice to have a new Portal member, and besides, it's lonely here, since the only other XV-JP owner I know of is Martin Wright, and he's 7600 miles away in Australia.

And is that A Rokon on the back? And more importantly, may I assume it rides happily back there and there's been no need to weld up a broken frame or bumper?

[mhiscox]

Someone should let Paul know that almost none of his links work at the bottom of his Blog

indeed.

I'll take that responsibility. Thanks, Pat.

[EKBCPA]

A man of few words.

Might that XV-JP be yours? If so, tell us some more, please. It's always nice to have a new Portal member, and besides, it's lonely here, since the only other XV-JP owner I know of is Martin Wright, and he's 7600 miles away in Australia.

And is that A Rokon on the back? And more importantly, may I assume it rides happily back there and there's been no need to weld up a broken frame or bumper?

Yep it's mine. Been a Portal member, just not much of a poster, as you noticed.

Yes it's a Rokon. Rides very nicely on the hitch hauler. No broken frame or bumper...yet. But in reality, it usually rides in the trailer. Only on the hitch hauler when I go somewhere I can't (or don't wont to) take the trailer.

I also have a pair of hiking boots in the jeep as a last resort.



Eric

[Ford Prefect]

I also have a pair of hiking boots in the jeep as a last resort.

HAHA, Last resort! What a crack up!

I have always liked the XV-JP but man they sure seem to value them at the Earthroamer stealership.

[mhiscox]

A couple of things on that ham radio (Yaesu ftm350)... first based on the placement of the head you dont need to run that external GPS puck. Yaesu has a tiny, low profile unit (FGPS1) that screws to the back of the head and works great.

Thanks for the help with the radio. I'll get the parts ordered up for Paul, and then we can test the roof puck against the FGPS1 and see how we do. Even though fiberglass should be largely signal transparent, the Jeep's GPS performance off the antenna in the top center of the dash is pretty sketchy, and I'm worried that the three layers of thick fiberglass over the roof may be degrading the signal.

I wanted to post up to let everyone know that RobRed knows his stuff. I took off the external puck and attached the screw-to-the-back FGPS1 unit (the lump on the top in the photo).

P1010456.jpg


With the FTM350 control head mounted on a RAM mount in the center of the windshield header,

P1010453.jpg

the Yaesu picked up a GPS signal quickly and held onto it well. So now I have a cleaner install with an easier-to-remove control unit and a signal that seems every bit as good. Thanks for the help.

And the other part of this is that I opened up the top center dash panel and pulled out the Mopar GPS receiver--which had pretty much never received anything due to two thicknesses of the overhanging roof panels plus whatever was between them--and nestled it right up against the base of the windshield.

P1010454.jpg

While it's kind of ugly sitting there all naked, moving it to this location made the GPS happy and, for the first time in years, the display no longer reports me driving around the middle of Puget Sound.

[Overland Hadley]

While it's kind of ugly sitting there all naked, .....

Yes, and what will Mr. Jensen say?

[mhiscox]

Yes, and what will Mr. Jensen say?

Umm . . . that's a really good point. It does tend to let down the side, doesn't it?

Paul gave me some afromosia wood scraps I could build a tiny box out of. I wonder about afromosia's radio transmissivity.

[Overland Hadley]

Umm . . . that's a really good point. It does tend to let down the side, doesn't it?

Oh, not really. I was just giving you a hard time.

It is good to see you using it, and continuing to refine it.

[PaulJensen]

Mike got a detail shot and that puts the camera low over that front bar...I bet that it's barely visible when you're behind the wheel...If it's a functional improvement, that's a good thing...

Now whether having the Ham radio controls up high is another thing...I though that the Scanguage, Ham radio contol, factory radio and the tablet computer all at the same level was convenient...