Hey everybody! My wife (Heather), two huskies (Atlas & Rhea), and I are currently 80 days in to our Western US adventure. We started back in Colorado Springs in our 2015 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon named Col. Mustard. We were both 24 years old and in promising careers when we decided that our path was leading us to a boring normal life with only weekends to enjoy ourselves. So I devised a plan to make financial sense out of quitting our jobs and traveling for many years to come.
Our first step was to build up the jeep, which we bought bone stock with 3k miles from the local Jeep dealer. We did nearly all the work ourselves and made custom equipment to suit our unique needs of hauling 2 dogs and staying off the grid for 2+ weeks at a time. Here is our list of mods:
-AEV 3.5" lift with Bilstein 5160 shocks
-315/75r16 General Grabber AT2 wrapped on simple Pro comp alloys
- smittybilt mid width xrc m.o.d. front bumper with bull bar and 9.5k smittybilt winch with 100ft synthetic line
- smittybilt src gen 2 rear bumper
- gobi rack without front vertical bars to allow our 40" light bar to fit snugly inside
- front runner wolf packs hard mounted to the gobi sunroof panel
- lighting provisions for 2 rear led cubes, and one on each side (all wired through the rear as to allow the tilt rack to function)
- locking shovel/axe mount from Gobi
- Gobi jerry can tie down system with 2 wavian tanks and a US military plastic tank for a total of 15 gallons pushing our range to 600 miles
- repurposed/modified gobi tie down system to strap our 3 North Face large duffles on the rear of the rack
- smittybilt awning (and mounts thanks to Gobi's lack of customer service)
- custom steel cable locking system for Amazon traction mats and front runner wolf packs
- maxbilt led headlights (fantastic high beam pattern)
- rugged ridge snorkel
- rugged ridge hood latches
- 12" Front bumper light bar with amber cover
- hi-lift x-treme jack
- cheap cb setup
- euro tail light guards
- 2 2-gallon water rotopax mounted behind spare tire
- 2 5 gallon Swiss military water bags strapped to the traction mats on roof
- 2 3 gallon Rubbermaid water jugs fit securely in-between the front and rear seats to bring our total to 20 gallons of water
- Ram mount for mounting a 3rd gen iPad on passenger grab handle (running Hema Explorer)
- Garmin bluetooth GPS unit for more accurate location
- custom glove box power supply with 1 12v and 2 USB ports
- T-maxx dual battery system with monitor
- stock main battery and optima yellow top house battery
- m.o.r.e. dual battery tray
- switch-pros bluetooth enabled switch system for all our lights and accessories (absolutely amazing product)
- bestop lock boxes under each front seat
- custom interior ratchet strap system to hold our warm weather coleman instant cabin and air mattress above the rear seat and out of the dog's way (we normally sleep in a North Face Meadowland 6)
- custom rear platform and cushion for the dogs to lay on and to provide more storage underneath
- ruffwear rear seat cover
- hidden shotgun mount
- custom modular cargo area platform (won't go into much detail, I plan on producing and selling these in the future)
- smittybilt arctic fridge/freezer
- yeti cooler for dry food storage
- coleman hot water on demand for showers
- and a mess of bungee chords on the roll bars to secure hiking gear, camp table, camera equipment and more.
- green trasharoo
I may be missing a few things, but that should be the majority. The idea when building this Jeep was not to be tied to our Jeep, but also to be able to spend a few days backpacking away from it without hauling separate gear. Unfortunately a string of injuries from acting too crazy (Atlas and I always seem to get hurt) have prevented any backpacking so far.
When we left our home in Colorado for the last time, we had only planned our first campsite, the whole idea of this trip was to get away from the stresses of schedules and deadlines, and just drive towards what looks interesting. Our path has taken us up through WY, MT, ID, and then down the west coast states to our current resting place in AZ.
We originally planned to end this portion of our journey at the end of November in Tennessee with skydiving, but our jump date has since moved to October 30th. I apologize for waiting so long to post on the forum, but until recently we didn't realize how many people were so interested in hearing about our travels. But don't worry, we won't stop in Tennessee for long, we plan on spending the winter with family there, and then our next adventure (out of the U.S. for sure) will be some time summer of 2017 it looks like.
We are currently on day 80 and have tons of content from our gopro, drone, and dslr, but we haven't had as much time to post as we hoped. We are going to be staying with a few friends and family along the way to Tennessee and utilizing their WiFi to try and catch up, but for now, enjoy the photos and writing up until our entry to California on our website www.wanderwithus.co and also feel free to follow our Facebook and Instagram for more recent updates:
www.facebook.com/wanderwithus1
www.instagram.com/h_shaffer_
Our next step is to head up to the Grand Canyon North rim once we get our registration stickers in the mail! Let me know if you have any recommendations around that and the southern Utah area
Our first step was to build up the jeep, which we bought bone stock with 3k miles from the local Jeep dealer. We did nearly all the work ourselves and made custom equipment to suit our unique needs of hauling 2 dogs and staying off the grid for 2+ weeks at a time. Here is our list of mods:
-AEV 3.5" lift with Bilstein 5160 shocks
-315/75r16 General Grabber AT2 wrapped on simple Pro comp alloys
- smittybilt mid width xrc m.o.d. front bumper with bull bar and 9.5k smittybilt winch with 100ft synthetic line
- smittybilt src gen 2 rear bumper
- gobi rack without front vertical bars to allow our 40" light bar to fit snugly inside
- front runner wolf packs hard mounted to the gobi sunroof panel
- lighting provisions for 2 rear led cubes, and one on each side (all wired through the rear as to allow the tilt rack to function)
- locking shovel/axe mount from Gobi
- Gobi jerry can tie down system with 2 wavian tanks and a US military plastic tank for a total of 15 gallons pushing our range to 600 miles
- repurposed/modified gobi tie down system to strap our 3 North Face large duffles on the rear of the rack
- smittybilt awning (and mounts thanks to Gobi's lack of customer service)
- custom steel cable locking system for Amazon traction mats and front runner wolf packs
- maxbilt led headlights (fantastic high beam pattern)
- rugged ridge snorkel
- rugged ridge hood latches
- 12" Front bumper light bar with amber cover
- hi-lift x-treme jack
- cheap cb setup
- euro tail light guards
- 2 2-gallon water rotopax mounted behind spare tire
- 2 5 gallon Swiss military water bags strapped to the traction mats on roof
- 2 3 gallon Rubbermaid water jugs fit securely in-between the front and rear seats to bring our total to 20 gallons of water
- Ram mount for mounting a 3rd gen iPad on passenger grab handle (running Hema Explorer)
- Garmin bluetooth GPS unit for more accurate location
- custom glove box power supply with 1 12v and 2 USB ports
- T-maxx dual battery system with monitor
- stock main battery and optima yellow top house battery
- m.o.r.e. dual battery tray
- switch-pros bluetooth enabled switch system for all our lights and accessories (absolutely amazing product)
- bestop lock boxes under each front seat
- custom interior ratchet strap system to hold our warm weather coleman instant cabin and air mattress above the rear seat and out of the dog's way (we normally sleep in a North Face Meadowland 6)
- custom rear platform and cushion for the dogs to lay on and to provide more storage underneath
- ruffwear rear seat cover
- hidden shotgun mount
- custom modular cargo area platform (won't go into much detail, I plan on producing and selling these in the future)
- smittybilt arctic fridge/freezer
- yeti cooler for dry food storage
- coleman hot water on demand for showers
- and a mess of bungee chords on the roll bars to secure hiking gear, camp table, camera equipment and more.
- green trasharoo
I may be missing a few things, but that should be the majority. The idea when building this Jeep was not to be tied to our Jeep, but also to be able to spend a few days backpacking away from it without hauling separate gear. Unfortunately a string of injuries from acting too crazy (Atlas and I always seem to get hurt) have prevented any backpacking so far.
When we left our home in Colorado for the last time, we had only planned our first campsite, the whole idea of this trip was to get away from the stresses of schedules and deadlines, and just drive towards what looks interesting. Our path has taken us up through WY, MT, ID, and then down the west coast states to our current resting place in AZ.
We originally planned to end this portion of our journey at the end of November in Tennessee with skydiving, but our jump date has since moved to October 30th. I apologize for waiting so long to post on the forum, but until recently we didn't realize how many people were so interested in hearing about our travels. But don't worry, we won't stop in Tennessee for long, we plan on spending the winter with family there, and then our next adventure (out of the U.S. for sure) will be some time summer of 2017 it looks like.
We are currently on day 80 and have tons of content from our gopro, drone, and dslr, but we haven't had as much time to post as we hoped. We are going to be staying with a few friends and family along the way to Tennessee and utilizing their WiFi to try and catch up, but for now, enjoy the photos and writing up until our entry to California on our website www.wanderwithus.co and also feel free to follow our Facebook and Instagram for more recent updates:
www.facebook.com/wanderwithus1
www.instagram.com/h_shaffer_
Our next step is to head up to the Grand Canyon North rim once we get our registration stickers in the mail! Let me know if you have any recommendations around that and the southern Utah area
