Lola - 2003 Jeep Grand Cherokee

Jeepinaaron

Adventurer
Tepui Baja XL RTT

Well this happened:

IMG_0018.jpg

I have looked at RTT's for a long time now and finally decided to pull the trigger. I went with Tepui after reading a lot of good reviews about their tents, and was excited to see the new Baja line of tents. I needed a large tent for my family of 4, but also wanted to keep the tent as light as possible. The Baja XL sleeps 4 while only being 124lbs empty. While I think sleeping 4 full sized adults in this tent may be a stretch, it will do fine with my family of two small children. My immediate impression with the tent is pretty good. I ordered through Rack Outfitters with FREE SHIPPING and had the tent delivered to a location where I could pick it up, total price $1500 with the light weight fabric option. The tent was back ordered initially, but ended up showing up before expected. It is pretty awkward to move around but I can put it on the roof with the help of a friend. My end goal with the tent is to mount it on a trailer, and sell my current Fleetwood Neon.

I haven't been on a trip with it yet, but I did spend the night out in the driveway with my daughter. She said she was queen of the world from up there, which made me pretty happy with my purchase.

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GCWJ

New member
This is sooooo close to what I want to do with my 99!

I have a lot of work to do before that happens. I'm in the north so it's from the north too...which brings its share of reddish brown gremlins that I swear weren't there when I got it only two years ago.

Keep up the posts...I wanna see where this goes!
 
Going to close the deal on a 2004 Overland in the next week and a half or so and this thread will be a template for some of my future mods. Love the overall look and practical additions, Jeepinaaron. Some questions:

- My son has an XJ and he dearly wants a rear tire carrier such as the one you've added. Great looking stuff. But I read on some XJ forums that they can have an adverse effect on visibility. Has that proven to be a problem?

- That hidden winch is the cat's ***. How much custom work did it require, end to end?

- What do the OME heavy duty coils do to the Jeep's ride? I know OME offers a milder option, but I tow a flats skiff all over the place and I'm concerned about sagging and wear and tear. Would the heavier duty coils (and spacers) be the wiser approach?

And Lola, eh? Clearly she can hold her own in the looks department and offroad, but can she merengue and do the cha-cha? :sombrero:
 

Jeepinaaron

Adventurer
Going to close the deal on a 2004 Overland in the next week and a half or so and this thread will be a template for some of my future mods. Love the overall look and practical additions, Jeepinaaron. Some questions:

- My son has an XJ and he dearly wants a rear tire carrier such as the one you've added. Great looking stuff. But I read on some XJ forums that they can have an adverse effect on visibility. Has that proven to be a problem?

- That hidden winch is the cat's ***. How much custom work did it require, end to end?

- What do the OME heavy duty coils do to the Jeep's ride? I know OME offers a milder option, but I tow a flats skiff all over the place and I'm concerned about sagging and wear and tear. Would the heavier duty coils (and spacers) be the wiser approach?

And Lola, eh? Clearly she can hold her own in the looks department and offroad, but can she merengue and do the cha-cha? :sombrero:

The bumper and hidden winch are manufactured by HK Off-road. It requires cutting out the front cross member, massaging some of the front metal under the headlights, and drilling some holes. Not too hard. The bumper is well made, I highly recommend the company. Their website details the installation.

Yes the rear bumper/tire carrier effects rear visibility, but I can still see through the wheel to back up and see in traffic.

I feel the OME heavy springs improved my ride over stock, my only complaint came after installing the freaking heavy rear bumper I needed to add some spacers. I modified some TJ spacers to fit the WJ.

I love my WJ, I have been borrowing my parents LJ Rubicon over the past few weeks just to buzz around with the top down. The ride and cockpit room of the WJ is a vast improvement over the old Wranglers that I came from. Great overland platform for sure.
 

jclaudii

New member
Nice rig man. I wish I could find a pet divider like that and adapt it to fit. I guess I need to scouring CL to see what I can find.
 

TanCam

New member
Great looking rig! I have an 03 Overland that is very similar except I went with a 4" long arm lift. I was wondering what rack you went with for the RTT and what rear spacers for the TJ you modified in order to get the lift back. I am going to be purchasing a RTT fairly soon and I was looking at the frontrunner model. Definitely pricey!!!
 

Jeepinaaron

Adventurer
I have the Frontrunner load bars, not the full rack. I think I paid less than $500 for the load bar set up, including the tracks which mount to the roof. Frontrunner sells some WJ tracks which are bent and predrilled to fit the WJ. I drilled some additional holes in my WJ and added two more rivnuts per side. I have taken the RTT off the Jeep since those pictures, its just heavy dude, even the Baja lightweight one. If I didn't need such a large tent for my family, and could get by with a smaller one it might not be a big deal. Also the tent would pop the roof rack track in the areas between the rivnuts when going down dirt roads. I got this annoying pop pop pop going down the road. My M416 trailer is in the works right now for the RTT.

Also any TJ spacer will work, you just have to increase the inner diameter. The TJ bumpstop is narrower than the WJ. I think mine is a Teraflex 1", and a dremel tool did a nice job of opening it up.
 

lacofdfireman

Adventurer
Any chance you can take a pic of your front limiting straps. Also what kind they are and where you bought them, cost and ease of install. That’s one of the things I hated most about my WJ. I couldn’t keep my front springs from popping out when flexed and what a PITA to try and put them back in on the trail. Thanks.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

Jeepinaaron

Adventurer
Any chance you can take a pic of your front limiting straps. Also what kind they are and where you bought them, cost and ease of install. That’s one of the things I hated most about my WJ. I couldn’t keep my front springs from popping out when flexed and what a PITA to try and put them back in on the trail. Thanks.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
I’ve been away for work and can’t snap any pictures for you right now. The brand of strap was “speed strap”, I believe I bought the 11” long ones from Amazon. The installation was a breeze as I used the sway bar bolts and a bolt above that, I think one of the engine mount bolts. Takes 20 minutes to install, max.
 

Jeepinaaron

Adventurer
The hidden winch mount is for sale. Located in Macon, GA.

$100.
 

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indiedog

Adventurer
Hey mate. Shame your thread got shagged by Photo Bucket, much good stuff in it. I was trying to find the info on your roof rack fabrication. If you've got anything on that I'd appreciate it. Thanks.
 

Jeepinaaron

Adventurer
Hey mate. Shame your thread got shagged by Photo Bucket, much good stuff in it. I was trying to find the info on your roof rack fabrication. If you've got anything on that I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

Sorry it took me 7 months to reply, I don't get on here much any more. The rack is from front runner.
 

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