My Willy is going Overlanding

[RKTJeep]

Hey guys, Soooooooooo life right? LOL! I joined here in the hopes of outfitting my 2000 Jeep Cherokee Sport for a great overloading experience. I had my list of mods, plenty of aftermarket support, Plenty of threads to grab ideas off of, Even started a thread here!!! Good to go right? WELP!!!! With getting married and children on the mind of the wife, I made a very difficult decision. I went out and traded all 3 of my Jeeps for a 4 Door Jeep Wrangler Unlimited "Willys" Edition. I traded in my 2001 Jeep Wrangler that was built like a mountain goat (1 ton axles, air lockers, lift, tires, you name it) also had a 2015 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk, and my trophy a 2000 Cherokee garage kept beauty with less then 90K miles. With a possible move and dare I say future "Crumb snatchers" this is probably the most reasonable move on my part(getting old sucks/is awesome at the same time). I test drove 4runners and Tacomas, in the hopes of maybe I'll break the Jeep brand, but after careful thinking and consideration I knew that if I didn't get some kind of Wrangler I would miss it.

So with that being said, this will be my Overlanding/camping rig. The wife is excited because this screams camping to her, which is great because we'll get out a lot this summer! We have a long trip coming up to Nova Scotia, and we need to get this ready! So with all that being said here she is!


When I first bought her:



Obviously being from Maryland and close to Baltimore City I decided to go the Hardtop route....So:


Annnnnnnnnd It's badged:



This will be my vehicle for awhile. Hopefully it lasts!!!

 

[Wabbit]

What made you want to give up the Trailhawk?

 

[Owasco]

Nice choice, I think you will love it. Minc has taken me on many adventures.

 

[RKTJeep]

What made you want to give up the Trailhawk?

So this is how it all really happen, or really the final straw. I had 3 Jeeps. Which means thats 3x the maintenance, 3x gas, 3x Insurance, 3x EVERYTHING. In Maryland we have to pay our registration every 2 years and get emissions done regardless of the age of the vehicle. So I had to pay 2 Registrations ($130 each) and get emissions done to both cherokees in the same month. Thats when I had enough and decided I only need 1 vehicle. Don't get me wrong it was a hard choice but I like to go wheeling every now and again and the wrangler can do that. Not saying my Trailhawk couldn't, I will miss the AC seats and the sweeeeeet radio, and that rear locker was MONEY, but I needed a more capable rig. I needed something that can get me to work and back, being in the FD I don't get the luxury to call out if theres 3ft of snow on the ground, I have to get my butt to work! lol Although the Trailhawk can push thru snow, its just limited in clearance. This also has a lot more aftermarket for any mods or accessories I need. I used to own a 2013 JK 2 Door a few years back (I go thru vehicles like underwear) and liked how it handled and drove, so a 4 door just made a little more sense to me. The Trailhawk had all the bells and whistles and was literally a space shuttle, which was cool, but honestly I'm simple and I don't really need all that stuff...I can't even work my TV in my own home LOL.

 

[RKTJeep]

Nice choice, I think you will love it. Minc has taken me on many adventures.View attachment 60328

NICE!! Where is that?! Wife and I are planning a cross country trip next summer if everything goes well.

 

[Hazelwoodjr]

Very nice [emoji106]


Sent from my iPhone using OB Talk

 

[RootedWanderers]

Very nice.

 

[Owasco]

That is Death Valley, last year. Did cross-country trip spent time in Flagstaff, Sedona, did Broken Arrow trail, as well as wheeled some other areas around Flagstaff. Spent Easter in Death Valley, headed up to Sequoia-Kings canyon then back to New York. I did blow a shock in Death Valley, got it changed under warranty at Porterville Chrysler Jeep in California, they gave me a car to drive for the day while they changed the shock. Other than that trip was flawless, the Jeep did everything easily though coming from the NE driving on rocks and sand is quite different than mud, so it did take a bit of adjustment on my part.

 

[RKTJeep]

Thats good to here! Hopefully I'll get it out soon on some trails/off the road.

 

[Wabbit]

Not saying my Trailhawk couldn't, I will miss the AC seats and the sweeeeeet radio, and that rear locker was MONEY, but I needed a more capable rig. I needed something that can get me to work and back, being in the FD I don't get the luxury to call out if theres 3ft of snow on the ground, I have to get my butt to work! lol Although the Trailhawk can push thru snow, its just limited in clearance. This also has a lot more aftermarket for any mods or accessories I need.

I really wish the TH had more aftermarket support, that's the reason why I'm tempted to get rid of my '14. (though the tech in the vehicle is a huge plus) All-in-all hope the new rig treats you well, cant wait to see the progress!

 

[RKTJeep]

Alright guys went on my first little trip with the Willys. We went to Shenandoah National Park for the weekend and had a blast. Lots of Bears, they were roaming around like Squirrels it was insane.
















Next thing on the list is how I'm going to attach a canoe to the top of my Wrangler. The wife and I got a canoe as a wedding present, we had a few too many drinks and thought it would be funny if we put a 15ft 3 person canoe on the wedding registry. The canoe cost a lot of money and we didn't think anyone would get us it. Well, of course the guys at work saw it and chipped in and got us a canoe just for the fact that I have no where to house this thing. So long story short it's sitting at the inlaws house and we want to take it on our adventures. I recommended we get a roof rack for the Wrangler, but my wife pretty much said "NO" the nicest way possible. Not even cross bars on the hardtop. So now I have to configure a way to do this. I ordered a few things that might work. I found a decent windshield light mount that sticks slightly above the roof line I can use as a front mount for the canoe. Doing this I can strap it down up near the front. I then looked in to getting a hitch mounted canoe rack goal post from THULE. It attaches to the hitch and you can adjust the height of it. Problem is, the spare tire sticks out and I need to use this with an extension. No problem right? Works great but now I can't open up my tail gate because of this thing in the way, even with the extension.



No hitch extension, holes don't even line up:




With the extension, it works! Kind of!




My question I guess, is there something that I can attach to the hitch to have the goal post swing down/back? Just far enough I can open the tailgate? I know they make swing away hitches, but those are like $300+. I would obviously have to unstrap the back of the canoe and have it rest on the hardtop when I open up the tailgate. Just looking for ideas, and yes I know "JUST BUY A ROOF RACK" but that idea is out.

 

[RKTJeep]

So I think I found what I'm looking for. I could use this:



So instead of putting it on normally where it flips up, I can put it on where it flips down. Should give enough clearance to fold back the post and open up my tailgate area. If this actually is long enough to extend past the tire, I might just cut off part of the THULE goal post, drill a hole, and use this normally. I'm trying to have it as close as I can to the vehicle as possible.

 

[RKTJeep]

Well I was blessed with some nice weather yesterday and I decided to add on a rear light to my back window above my tailgate. This light is the Brawlee Jeep Wrangler LED rear glass lift gate light bar. Found it on Amazon for about $60. It wires in to your dome light wiring and comes with a remote so you can control the brightness of it. Pretty neat upgrade and it's out of the way.




This light is bright! Should help out for camping.

 

[sabjku]

Well I was blessed with some nice weather yesterday and I decided to add on a rear light to my back window above my tailgate. This light is the Brawlee Jeep Wrangler LED rear glass lift gate light bar. Found it on Amazon for about $60. It wires in to your dome light wiring and comes with a remote so you can control the brightness of it. Pretty neat upgrade and it's out of the way.

View attachment 61758 View attachment 61759


This light is bright! Should help out for camping.

Just added one of these myself last week! It's a great setup!

 

[RKTJeep]

So it's been raining....a lot. Maryland is getting pounded by these storms and I haven't had any dry days to get on to my next upgrades. The wife was getting irritable with all the boxes everywhere so I had to act soon. But today, between the rain storms I installed my front Windshield Light Bar Mount made by Body Armor. So when I owned my old TJ I had a Body Armor front Bumper and Sliders so this isn't my first time with this company. Basically I knew that my package will show up beat to Hell and possibly missing some parts (usually hardware/instructions). Thats OK with me because they stand by their products and I personally know they are tuff and won't rust away after a few snow storms here in the salt belt of America. This mount came with in a week and the only thing missing was the foam backing that goes between the mount and the Jeep body. This isn't a big deal to me, I have this stuff laying around at home so I could of used some of mine. I called them up anyway and said it was missing and they no questions asked sent me new foam backs! Great customer service as usual, and I think it turned out good! This will act as a front mount bar for my Canoe, and MAYBE some lights.....Maybe. As you can tell it sits just above the roof, which is what I wanted. I think this will work perfect!

 

[RKTJeep]

Alrighty, I'm back! The wife and I drove a lot over the last few months. Mostly to Canada. Went to Nova Scotia, it was a lot of fun, and got to explore different Islands. Put the Jeep on a Ferry boat or two....or three...







I had a Rotopax Jerry can mount on the back of the Jeep, which unfortunately isn't on there anymore due to getting my back of my jeep sideswiped by a mail truck....Ugh. I need to bend it back in place, but for now and probably this winter it will remain off. It worked SO WELL though, couldn't tell it was on the back of the jeep.





Here is a Pic of the mount, and a Few more nice photos:














That was pretty much my summer. This past October the Wife and I went to Niagra Falls. Was pretty cool, didn't get any pictures of the rig though lol.

 

[RKTJeep]

OK! Now the REAL reason I hopped back on my account! PLEASE DONT GET MAD! SOOOOOOOOOOO My local shop had a "Garage Sale" Which basically means, when they buy Jeeps they need to take off most of the aftermarket stuff on them because it's not State Legal, like stubby bumpers for example. Also they take off those parts because its easier to sell a stockfish Jeep then one thats totally customized. I went to this Garage Sale first day, early morning when they opened up. I was looking for a Roof Rack, maybe some lights or something. Well, I saw a Poison Spyder Bumper with a mounted Warn Winch sitting in the corner. I honestly don't really like Poison Spyder bumpers, at least for the overloading aspect, so I asked the guy how much for the Winch. He told me "Uhhhhhh like $60?" This is a USED Warn Zeon 10 winch BTW. I told him "I'll go get my tools and get this off the bumper." Well I couldn't get the winch off the bumper, called a friend to see if he could help and he told me "Bro just ask how much for the bumper too" So I did. I paid under $120 for a Warn Zeon Winch and Poison Spyder Bumper! I figured if the winch didn't work, I could always send it to Warn and have then fix it, and still make out. I ordered a Remote for the winch, and the dang thing WORKED!!!! So I got the bumper bed lined, because why not? Anyways I'm excited! I just installed it today with help from a friend. I lost roughly an inch of clearance due to the winch and bumper being so heavy, but I'm still running the stock suspension so hopefully some sort of lift in my future:









I installed a Flip up license plate mount on top of the Fairlead, Gotta stay State Compliant.....Also my wife told me if I might get a cover for the winch on my Birthday, and come springtime I'll paint up the chipped paint on the winch, just too cold right now. I'm keeping the steel cable for now, I know a lot of people are going to the synthetic but something about the steel cable I just love:

 

[JCWages]

You basically stole that bumper and winch! Congrats. :)

 

[RKTJeep]

You basically stole that bumper and winch! Congrats. :)

Thanks! Yea, guys at work said the same thing. I still can't believe it. I had a M8000 Warn winch on my TJ, and I wish to this day I should have taken it off before I sold it. But this makes up for that! Hopefully around spring time I'll repaint the winch, the paint seems to be chipping off a little bit but I'm hopeful it can last another Maryland Salty Winter.

 

[Firemom]

Thanks! Yea, guys at work said the same thing. I still can't believe it. I had a M8000 Warn winch on my TJ, and I wish to this day I should have taken it off before I sold it. But this makes up for that! Hopefully around spring time I'll repaint the winch, the paint seems to be chipping off a little bit but I'm hopeful it can last another Maryland Salty Winter.

Wow!! What a find and looks good on you rig