Road Trip Rubicon

[jeepwillikers]

A few months ago I got my hands on a bone stock, low mileage '04 Rubicon that I am outfitting to be a road trip/camping rig. Living in New Jersey, my options for camping in the wilderness are fairly limited, as dispersed camping is illegal, so I needed a rig that can do hours of highway driving in relative comfort yet still be able to throw down off road. The lockable Dana 44s and the NP241 T-case give it more off road prowess that most other stock vehicles so I don't need to mess with the drivetrain much. Eventually I may do a moderate lift and 33s but the 31" tires are good enough for now.

My plan is to maximize cargo space and to make long drives more convenient and comfortable. I am adding a roof rack to hold my tent and some Plano cases, a tailgate cargo rack to hold jerrycans and some odds and ends and a drawer system to keep the back nice and organized. I am also adding a plethora of additional lighting since LEDs are extremely affordable and the stock lighting is marginal at best.

I will be fabricating where I can to keep cost down, so I will definitely try to document those projects as best as I can just in case I can be of help to any one else working on the same thing.

The picture is of my Jeep the week after I got it at a quiet spot in Wharton State Forest where my wife and I spent an afternoon hammocking

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[TurboDiesel67]

Cool rig, I would love a swb rubicon, they aren't very common in the uk. Would you have any recommendations for upgrades, or favourite upgrades to do to a stock jeep


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[buckwilk]

I like your plan and the idea to take us along. Thanks. " dispersed camping is illegal " could you expand?

 

[jeepwillikers]

Thanks, it's funny because I kind of wish it was a long wheelbase unlimited. The SWB is super maneuverable off road but it would be sooo nice to have extra cargo space, smoother ride, higher tow capacity. The LWB TJs with the Rubicon package aren't so common so I had to take what I can get.
As far as upgrades go, adding lighting all around including rock lights underneath is my current endeavor.
Eventually when I get around to the suspension I'll be adding a 3-4" kit with long arms and a tummy tuck skid. I'll get some high clearance flat fenders and stuff some 33s or 35s under it. But that means $$$ that I'm not quite ready to throw at it yet.
Honestly, I like having a moderately built vehicle off road because it makes it much more thrilling and I think with thoughtful and delicate driving, a stock Rubicon is more than capable to get anywhere worth going.


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[jeepwillikers]

I like your plan and the idea to take us along. Thanks. " dispersed camping is illegal " could you expand?

I have done some research on dispersed camping A.K.A boondocking and what I have come to understand is that it isn't legal in the state of New Jersey. We don't have any National forests or BLM land, which are the most common dispersed camping areas. NJ state forests restrict camping to designated areas with limited numbers of campsites and NJ Wildlife Management Areas prohibit camping entirely. The state forests and WMAs make up the majority of wilderness areas that are open to the public and to vehicles. These areas are still phenomenal but camping is heavily restricted.


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[Easyy]

I would suggest a roof top tent. That would lessen the burden on interior space.


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[jeepwillikers]

Just spent the majority of my afternoon/evening fabricating a tailgate cargo rack inspired by the Warrior Products Adventure Rack.

I started with a $40 receiver hitch cargo basket from Harbor Freight (you gotta love those 20% off coupons!) and some 1"x1" square tubing from Lowe's. So far I have about $80 into materials that I bought specifically for this project.
I swapped my tailgate with a spare one off of a TJ tub that has been sitting in the yard from a previous abandoned project, that way I didn't have to drill through the nice clean tailgate that came with my Jeep. Plus the new tailgate is off an early model TJ and the hinges have bump stops built in instead of the stupid plastic covers that fall off if you so much as look at them the wrong way. I'm planning on getting an HD hinge kit and tailgate reinforcement plate but they are pretty pricey. The other option would be to build a swingout tire carrier and rebuild the cargo rack to fit on to it.

I had to cut about 11" out of the middle of the HF cargo basket to match the width of the tailgate and to make sure I don have any clearance issues as the gate swings through its arc. It comes in 2 pieces I order to bolt onto the tow receiver so I measured 5 1/2" from the bolting surface and cut each bar. Once I had two matching halves I began welding it back together. The cargo basket tubing fit relatively well inside the 1" square tubing so I cut a bunch of sleeves to reinforce the area where the two halves were welded together. I don't get around to welding as often as I would like to so it took me a bit to get dialed in. The welds aren't pretty but they should hold up pretty well. I hit it with some rattle can truckbed liner and it is currently drying as I type.

Now the brackets where the uprights meet the tailgate consumed the better part of my evening. I had to weld spacers onto the main brackets to clear the hinges and I had to find spaces to drill through for the mounting bolts, including inside the latch cover for the upper drivers side bolt (yes it's tight). Due to the inconvenient location of the bolts I decide to weld the nuts into the spacers for the brackets and pass the bolts through from the inside.

That's about where I left off for the night. I didn't take any pictures because I left my phone in the house but I will be sure to post some when I pick up where I left off. Hopefully tomorrow I can get the uprights fabricated and maybe even get the basket mounted to it. Then I just have to add some jerry can mounts and prime and bedline the whole thing and that's that.
I have a Smittybilt SRC roof rack that should be arriving on Tuesday so I have to get moving to have the jeep ready for our camping trip next week. I am building a roof rack basket out of EMT tubing that I may or may not weld depending on how I'm feeling when I get around to it. Either way I will do my best to post pics documenting the build process.



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[jeepwillikers]

I installed the SRC rack last night and tonight I was working on the basket to carry all of our stuff.

It's built out of 1" angle iron, 1/2" square tubing and 3/4" EMT conduit for the rails. I'm going to try to finish it tomorrow night. I only have two nights before we leave for Vermont and Maine and I still have soooo much to get done. Not sure if lll get the tailgate cargo carrier finished but I'm going to try!
I will try to document the gear and load up when we are getting ready to leave.


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[jeepwillikers]

I would suggest a roof top tent. That would lessen the burden on interior space.


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I am actually keeping my tent on the roof rack so it doesn't occupy any of my interior space. It is a Kamprite double cot tent and it folds down to 56"x34" so it leaves room on the roof rack for more cargo. A rooftop tent would occupy the entire roof on a Wrangler. Not to mention it was about a quarter of the price of the cheapest rtt. It still sets up pretty quick, sits about 12" off the ground, and leaves room on the roof for other cargo. I'm going camping next week so we will see how it does. I'd love to go to a rtt eventually but this is what I have for now.


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[jeepwillikers]

Everything loaded up!
The roof rack took longer than expected so I didn't get much else done but we made it work. We are on night 3 of our expedition and are currently camping in a nice riverside site in White Mountain National Forest.

Here is the jeep backed in to our site. You can somewhat see the roof rack in the photo. The trail in to our site had some large-ish rocks which is really exciting for a guy for Southern NJ...


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[Phenom3030]

Watching your thread! I like that you’ll be documenting your fabricating. Looking forward to seeing the progress you make.

 

[jeepwillikers]

Just got back from our first true overland trip. We camped in some brilliant spots in Green Mountain NF VT and White Mountain NF NH, as well as a pretty decent paid campground in Acadia National Park. Had some issues with the roof basket mounts but that's no surprise since I didn't have time to test them before we left, and it was nothing that the right amount of paracord couldn't remedy for the time being. The Kamprite double cot tent worked pretty well aside from being somewhat cumbersome getting on and off the roof but I think it was worth gaining the extra roof space as opposed to a RTT. I think I am going to build a small trailer out of a spare jeep tub, that way we can keep it loaded up and roll out at a moments notice if we have a free weekend. Anyway,I'm just going to plaster a bunch of pictures showing of my rig in action.

These are from Jefferson Notch Road in NH. It's a beautiful and surreal drive through the mountains with plenty of pull offs to camp.

These are from the Dorset Marble Quarry in VT. It's a really awesome abandoned underground marble quarry that is accessible only by 4x4 and the trail loops around under the mountain. Being from southern NJ, this was my first time to do any real rock crawling and it was a blast! The stock Rubicon loaded with a few hundred pounds of gear managed to traverse some pretty sizable rocks with minimal scraping and without needing to use the lockers. That 4:1 low range sure was in it's element. Also, my wife's spotting is pretty good so I can't give all the credit to the jeep.

And here are a few parking lot mall crawler shots that I took to try and capture the roof rack setup the best I could. While the higher COG was noticeable we still managed to log about 1700 highway miles and a pretty decent amount of off road miles and the effect on handling was much less than I expected. Mostly the added weight made selecting the correct gear on uphill climbs more important.

And here is a pic of my wife and I with our travel companion: Sterling, our 6 month old Aussie Cattledog/Shepherd mix. Anyone else adventuring with dogs?

Also, I marked two new campsites on iOverlander for those that use it. The northeast is pretty sparse on the app so I'm making a point to mark out where I camp to try and change that.


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[jeepwillikers]

I got a flat in one of my tires so I picked up a used set to hold me over until I can move up to a set of 33s. My spare is still the original Goodyear Wrangler MT/R (245/75R16). The others were Firestone 265/75R16 with balding street tread. A local tire shop had a set of Goodyear MT/Rs with Kevlar in the same size as my spare and the only wanted $160 for the set installed so how could I say no? They only have about 50% tread left but they don't need to last too long.



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[jeepwillikers]

It's been a while since I posted anything, and since I have begun planning the next adventure I figured an update is in order. We are heading to Utah in the late spring and now that the worst of the winter is hopefully past the projects and preparations are commencing. The biggest plan is to build an adventure trailer although I haven't finalized my decision on which route I am going to take.
Option 1: buy a military trailer add a cargo rack and call it a day. The benefits being less work and fabrication; the drawback is finding one in the NJ/PA/DE area at a reasonable price that isn't a heap of rust.
Option 2: Buy a Harbor Freight/Northern Tool 40"x48" mini utility trailer, attach the back half of the TJ tub that is sitting in my yard, close off the front with some sort of cargo box and add a cargo rack. Pros: I think it will ultimately be a bit cheaper and will better serve our needs. It aesthetically will match the jeep as well. Cons: Way more fabrication required and I'm not sure I will have time to get it done.

The trailer will be used to haul kitchen supplies and heavier items that are awkward to store on top of the jeep (porta-potty, tent, etc.). We also want to get a packable inflatable raft/boat so we can explore bodies of water if we want to.
As far as the jeep itself, everything is working pretty well so aside from some basic maintenance I probably won't do too much. I did install some LED headlights that I bought off of Amazon and I can't believe how much of an improvement they are over the stock sealed beam headlamps.
If time and money allow, I may purchase and install a RTT for the trailer and a Rhino-rack Pioneer Platform on the jeep.

Once I decide on the route i am going to take for the trailer I will write a post describing the plan in detail.


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[jeepwillikers]

So I have scratched the trailer build for now. I have a Tepui Ayer Sky RTT on the way from REI that I am going to put on the roof for the Utah trip. Going to simplify the gear we are bringing and try to keep the jeep light and nimble.


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[jeepwillikers]

Mounted the RTT yesterday. Pretty impressed with the quality of Tepui. I think it will definitely simplify basecamp setup.



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[jeepwillikers]

Finally got some good weather to go camping. We hit the NJ Pine Barrens for the weekend with our friend. Everything worked pretty well, although I definitely want to build a slide out kitchen to minimize set up and break down time.

And a picture of the camp dog just because...

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[jeepwillikers]

Started a new drawer system to reduce weight and economize the cargo capacity of the jeep. I upgraded to a 52qt cooler and built a kitchen slide out for the camp stove. I should be able to fit a Plano case and a few Ammo boxes of gear inside now.

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[jeepwillikers]

I finally got my LEDs mounted and wired up. I still have two LED pods and a 20” LED bar that I can mount somewhere, I just haven’t decided where yet.

And the cargo area is coming along nicely... really working on minimizing the amount of gear.


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