After driving two door Jeeps for two years or so, I’m finally in a four door Jeep Rubicon. Most of the dealers were sold out of the Rubicon four door model. After making some calls, I found that Videon had one in Nacho color. Not crazy about the idea of being taunted with Nacho jokes. I tried to buy it, but the sales person wasn’t available.
A few more calls, and I found that Jeff D’Ambrosio had one in Snazzberry. WTF is Snazzberry? I went there to look it it. The color made my heart stop. It really is that awesome. 🙂 It had some features I never saw before, like Off-Road Plus mode. That function lets you enable off road features at higher speed. Like locking the rear diff, keeping traction control on, while doing 60 in the desert.
Another unexpected, yet very welcome, feature is Selectable Tire Fill-Alerts (STFA), which should come in very handy when airing up to the desired pressure using my ARB Dual Air Compressor. 🙂
I’m hitting the road on Monday, and there’s so much left to do. I need to remove the rear seats, but I guess that can wait until I get back, since I don’t have a platform for the cargo area. I’d rather be prepared in case I find one during the trip. I’m traveling all over the US, so the likelyhood is slightly greater than zero that I’ll find and install a platform before I get back.
I need to order a winch and mounting plate, so I can have it installed when I’m in Moab. Rustie’s Off Road Products Rusty’s Winch Mount for steel Rubicon for a front bumper. I messaged them through Facebook, hoping to pick it up when I go through Alabama.
4 Wheel Parts (Carlisle, PA) has a few WARN VR EVO 10 winches in stock, will see if I can pay for it today and swing by to pick it up on my way out on Saturday. I love patronizing local shops. A winch should be rated 1.5x your GVWR, so 5800 x 1.5 = 8700 (10000 is the safest bet).
I’m sticking to steel, even though I learned a lesson on a recent Off Road Consulting Crawl Daddy guided ride. I got stuck, and my steel winch cable was not wrapped properly. That made things tougher than necessary…so I got a well deserved lambasting on YouTube.
I don’t think I’ll have time to get the dual storage drawers installed, since, like I mentioned, I won’t have a platform soon enough. That’s OK, since I have a couple Expedition 134 storage boxes, and several Forerunner Cub Pack boxes. That should be enough to store most of my stuff. I’ll need to hit Home Depo or Lowes to get some heavy duty canvas tool bags, to store my recovery tools, and other heavy stuff.
I’m excited, didn’t think things would come together like this.
Overlander at large 