EarthRoamer XV-JP "Northwest Edition"

[Every Miles A Memory]

Mike, I swear we're sharing minds sometimes.

The past few weeks have been spent searching, designing and rethinking what my next tow vehicle should be. I like to browse the blogs and search through this forum to get ideas and copy little pieces of this vehicle or that trailer......Current mood has been a service body on the back of the truck to tow a trailer that could be left as basecamp, but still use the truck as the adventure vehicle.

And, as always seems to happen, I find EXACTLY what I want, but they're made in Australia and after contacting the company, they say although they've never shipped to the States, they could if I was to set-up the shipping and handling. They make each unit to order and can pretty much do anything and everything we see on all these build threads combined in one unit. Pretty slick if you ask me with the RTT built right into the top of the cab enclosure. I have to fill out the build form on their site, then they price it out and get back to me. I'll let you know what it comes to when I hear back from them = http://www.mfiservicebodies.com.au/service-bodies/recreational/

I like your trailer!!

 

[mhiscox]

Mike, I swear we're sharing minds sometimes.

Yeah, I know. Oh, dear.

I like your trailer!!

I like it, too--the made-in-Ohio base unit is particularly nice--but I need to do something to the form factor.

For those who have no idea what we're talking about, rather than continue to hijack my own build thread (yet again), I direct you here:
http://www.expeditionportal.com/for...-to-Build-a-Hard-Sided-Do-It-All-ADV-Trailer?

 

[sarconcepts]

Now, you know mike, I totally agree with your choice to use your same trusty jeep for this new incarnation.. ..
with that said, just imagine the interior space you would have had using this one!


The owner added 30" to its width, it's actually wider than a Hummer!
http://www.fourwheeler.com/project-vehicles/27704-1978-jeep-cj7/

 

[mhiscox]

With that said, just imagine the interior space you would have had using this one! The owner added 30" to its width, it's actually wider than a Hummer!

I always count on Steve, master designer and fabricator that he is, to come up with top-notch ideas for my projects. I'll be calling Red Cannon this very morning to see what Dion thinks.

Not. :sombrero:

 

[GR8ADV]

Mike did you put a gag order on Dion...

 

[mhiscox]

Mike did you put a gag order on Dion...

Yeah, it's all very secret stuff. Very revolutionary. :Wow1:

Not really. Dion's just spends all his time working and virtually no time attending to the ExPo fan base. Given that he's both getting the company off the ground and rushing to get to the Jeep ready for OvEx East in a month, it totally makes sense.

The other thing keeping things quiet is that the work has been pretty boring. Pretty much all laying fiberglass and sanding fiberglass. Not the sort of work that makes interesting reporting. That's pretty just finished, though.

All in all, it's going fine. I talk to Dion periodically and I actually expect to have more to report soon.

 

[fog cutter]

.... Dion's just spends all his time working and virtually no time attending to the ExPo fan base.....

wha ... ???

say it ain't so ...

 

[smlobx]

Been following this thread for the past couple of months and really hope to see the fruits of your labors at Expo East!

 

[mhiscox]

I've been talking to Dion and things are going along acceptably. The body is nearing its turn in the paint booth, but isn't done yet. Cabinets are being built. Dion's arranging someone to take a crack at fixing the continuity of the existing graphic where the hatch (big hole at the right of the photo) for the Thetford cassette was removed and the hole filled back in. The tank area shown (where the blue plastic is)

got divided into two parts; we'll have about 25 gallons of fresh water and 10 of grey water.

I did arrange for new wheels and tires. Nothing at all wrong with either the black Mopar Grand Cherokee winter wheels or the 285/70R17 Goodyear Duratracs.



I always liked the no-worries nature of the steelies and the Duratracs did very well, being much easier to live with on pavement than might have been guessed from the tread pattern. I'll be keeping those wheel sets together, along with the lightweight rim with skinny spare tire that had lived on the roof rack. But given that the truck has 5.13 gears, it should be OK on 35s and so we bought some of the relatively-new B.F. Goodrich All-Terrain KO2s in the 35x12.5R17 size:

Once you buy a set of big, expensive tires, you're pretty much stuck with them, so it's been a relief to read the positive reviews that are showing up now for this tire. I especially appreciate that the highway manners of the revised tire are supposed to be very good, even better than the already-pretty-good KOs.

Even if I'd wanted to peel off the Duratracs and put the KO2s onto the steelies, that wouldn't work well because the 35s need a wider rim section. So after looking through about a million alternatives--the majority too blingy for my tastes--we decided on getting the Salta wheels sold by AEV. Some on the Portal already have these, like Zigsrig's Jeep:

and there are some more inmates' photos in a thread at http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/139592. The Saltas come in silver, black and onyx (dark grey), and we picked the onyx.

As you might easily guess, they'll be much excitement and a flurry of activity when the main cabin gets back from painting. I'll let you know when there's more to report.

 

[mk216v]

Fantastic wheel choice!

 

[GR8ADV]

Hey mike. Can you have Dion post some pictures of his yard or maybe his workshop. Anything will be fine.

 

[mhiscox]

Hey mike. Can you have Dion post some pictures of his yard or maybe his workshop. Anything will be fine.

Yeah, I know. Kind of weird. Apparently not a lot to show you. But the Jeep's gonna be massively awesome when it's done, just you wait. (I think.)

I expect some news relatively soon. Of course, I usually do. In the interim, thanks for your patience.

 

[DionK]

Hello, everyone.

Just wanted to post a quick update. Unfortunately, the Jeep will not be finished for Overland Expo East. The body shop will not be finished in time as the owner (and person working on it) broke his hip and is out of commission for 8 months. I'm currently trying to find another bodyshop to take over and finish the work. We are still planning on being at the SEMA convention in November.

My wife has been taking some pictures of the shop and the Jeep. We've hired a very smart lady named Alex that will be working with my wife, Jen. They will be documenting the build process, and the process of us starting our business. Most updates will be on our business website once it's up and running, but we will do our best to start posting more here, as well.

 

[GR8ADV]

I think this was the latest picture posted. I must be honest Mike, I was hoping for more. YMMV
.

 

[mhiscox]

Moving to Plan B, which is better

I think this was the latest picture posted. I must be honest Mike, I was hoping for more.

Apparently many people get grumpier and more critical as they get old. (Personally, I wouldn't know.)

Pictures?! You want pictures, Ken? Fine. Have some pictures:

Oops. Wrong forum. How about these?







Whaddaya think? Pretty nice Jeep, eh? It's a brand new 2015 Rubicon Unlimited with lots of farkles. Maybe a little over-AEV'd, but still nice.

Well, it's mine. I bought it on Saturday. Here's what happened. Take notes in case there's a quiz.

The silver XV-JP as we've known and loved it for the past eight years is built on a 2007 chassis. It has worked reliably, and with the various modifications described in the previous 900 or so posts, has turned into a highly capable camper. The idea of the Red Cannon work started this summer was to implement a better cabin layout and roof design, but all the things about the chassis and attached parts were good and weren't going to be messed with.

That said, who wouldn't like a truck that was eight years newer and had 40% more horsepower? And a better transmission? And nicer interior? Et cetera? In fact, there was a thread here several weeks back comparing the old 3.8 liter model with the newer 3.6 liter, and the all the love seemed to go to the new model. Though almost everyone with a 3.8 said it was just fine and a cool truck, there didn't seem to be any way to argue it was better than the new one.

Anyway, as you read just above, when the body shop guy in charge of painting the cabin to match the 2007 chassis had his motorcycle accident, it meant that Red Cannon wouldn't get the painted cabin returned in time to get the camper put together in time for trailering to the proposed unveiling at this week's Overland Expo East. In fact, it means that the next (and only other) deadline is the SEMA show in Las Vegas in early November and that, in essence, missing the deadline for OvEx East added five weeks to the project timeline. And when that became clear, my joyously optimistic nature (yeah, right) kicked in and I remembered the "when life hands you lemons, make lemonade" aphorism and started investigating whether the enforced delay created enough extra time to put the Red Cannon cabin onto a new chassis.

Talks with Dion suggested that the cabin would go on pretty quickly, but there wasn't lots of extra time to swap the 07's significant list of goodies over to a 2015 chassis. This lead to the idea of getting a Rubicon that already had good bumpers, winch, skid plates, big tires, tire carrier and so on, which pretty much meant finding one that AEV had modified. I undertook an Autotrader search to find all the new AEV Rubicons on dealers' lots across the country and, with Dion's advise and consent, ended up with the Tank-colored (dark green, to most of us) unit pictured above as the best available for our purposes. Pretty much everything on the new truck is useful in some way--excepting the AEV-logoed instrument panel and headrests and a lot of badges--and the only chassis thing Red Cannon will need to take off the 2007 is the heavier duty (4.5 inch lift) suspension to replace the 3.5 inch setup in the rear.

The transport guy picks up the Jeep in Idaho on Friday and it'll be in the Red Cannon Iowa shop shortly thereafter.

So there's some news for you. The revised cabin is at the alternate body shop now and will be painted to match the 2015 instead of the 2007. Dion gets to take a shiny new truck to SEMA instead of the '07, and after SEMA, I'll have a more powerful and refined chassis to go with the more spiffy new cabin layout. Happy days for all.