P.J., the custom Wrangler Rubicon expedition motorhome

[mhiscox]

Glad to see you're getting a chance to get out and use the rig Mike!!

Yeah, Pat, it's nice. More 5%-building-it/95%-using-it these days, the opposite of the previous three years. It's admittedly not as exciting now without Paul's morning illustrated joinery lessons, but there's a lot of satisfaction, and relief, from knowing that everything turned out well. I really am pleased that I kept it, and really appreciate the work of the people who made it work right for me.

[PaulJensen]

That description of your day sounds like the way I'd spend that same day...Slow down and enjoy things...I probably go out and ride some waves, but other than that, it's good...

BTW: I'm in Australia for three months...Click here to see the Trip Report...

[mhiscox]

BTW: I'm in Australia for three months...Click here to see the Trip Report...

Do take the time to read through Paul's excellent trip report and great photography if you'd like to get a good idea of life in semi-rural Australia--he's in northern New South Wales not too far in from the coast--without the interminable plane flight.

[mhiscox]

I just read this thread from start to finish for the second (maybe third) time. What beautiful craftsmanship performed on great platform!

Thanks, Jack. The compliment is much appreciated.

A quick technical question... Do you have airbags or have you thought about fitting air bags on the rear axle? I am prepping my Jeep Scrambler for a 3 week solo trip down to Baja and doing a weekend shake-down trip, I found that the handling really suffers with the added weight.

When I got the truck, it had a TeraFlex suspension and Goodyear MTRs, and while both have merits, they combined on the 7,000 pound Jeep to be borderline scary. Just taking a modest highway curve produced a squirrelly feeling that everyone who drove the truck noted and disliked.

Fortunately, that was during the short time that Scott Brady had his XV-JP and I was able to get his recommendation to switch over to the nth Degree (now AEV) suspension using the 3.5 inch lift for the front and the heavier 4.5 inch lift for the rear. Scott earned my undying gratitude for this recommendation, since the change, combined with a move to Goodyear Duratracs, turned the truck into a fine highway driver. No sports car, to be sure, but secure, comfortable and no longer spooky.

It'd be nice if the truck was lighter, but that ship sailed long before I got it; with all the work we've done, it still weighs what it weighed with the old design. And I definitely would have been thinking about airbags if they'd been needed, as I had cockpit-adjustable bags on the rear of my Sprinter camper and was very impressed with the difference they made. But by luck or design, they don't seem to be needed on this rig since the suspension swap.

[AEV Conversions]

Just read through this post, really really nice work. (jeeps and surfboards) This "other" forum has got to be my favorite on the web because of the level of detail guys get into, and your project was awesome to read through.

I was going to build a Jeep camper for myself, but then woke up one night with a huge amount of anxiety about the amount of work, load capacity and overall usefullness so its great to see someone did it.

dh

[PaulJensen]

Ain't no big thing, just slow down and enjoy the process...

[AEV Conversions]

Ain't no big thing, just slow down and enjoy the process...

I just came to the realization that for what I wanted, there was a better choice. I completed "phase 1" which was to buy a new wrangler and convert it to diesel, which was fun and works great, but then during my 4:00 am epiphany I thought screw it, I'll just go buy a Dodge, build the same custom box camper I was planning on for the Jeep and then I can tow the Jeep...and the KTM... Being the "Jeep" guy, that was kind of a hard decision, but it was the right decision for me. Just adding up the weight of the wishlist puts me at GVW on the Dodge. So now I am enjoying the process on the Ram...slowly.

dh

[mhiscox]

Hard to believe that in the last post I made about an XV-JP trip, I was bragging about the spectacular weather. Rains pretty much all the time now.

But since I can't stay home until the rain stops (another 6 months or so), I went out for a quick run to the Tillamook State Forest west of Portland. Plenty muddy and drippy, but everything was fine with the truck, and after I parked it and deployed the roof while I had dinner and a nap, the tent didn't leak a drop in a very substantial downpour.

P1010607.jpg

Not a lot of traffic out there midweek at this time of the year, but I did meet up with three well-built FJ Cruisers who'd been running trails in the same area and used the same trailhead lot I'd parked in to air up before hitting the highway back home. It was interesting to see that two of their three trucks were running Goodyear DuraTracs and that they had the same positive impression I had about their decent muddy trail performance. So out of four trucks, three were on DuraTracs.

P1010604.jpg

I also came to appreciate my truck's big engine-driven compressor with tank. They all had nice 12V compressors, but it still took a good while to air back up from the 20 psi that seems soft enough for the TSF trails. Just another fortunate thing about the truck's systems that pre-dates me.

[mk216v]

Wow Paul, amazing pics, thanks for sharing!!