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I mentioned that a Lithium battery company contacted me and asked if I would be interested in testing one of their batteries. Given the recent decline in quality of the Walmart lead-acid batteries I have been using...

Something I've wanted to try for a long time is leather-wrapping, I've think I've wanted to try this since I had a leather-wrapped Laredo grab bar in my '83 Scrambler years ago. I finally tried it over the holiday weekend. I started with a plain CJ grab bar: I made the wrap from a piece...

Final version, I put a PALS/MOLLE grid on the back rather than having the pouch sewed to the band. In these photos the pouch on the back attaches with MOLLE straps and it matches the pockets on the OO door pockets. Also added a few small MOLLE things on the side. And trying it out with a...

Montana Willy Worthy, the author of The Jeep Bible along with Granville King, lives in Montana and has written three excellent books on Montana trails. They're available here: https://www.montana4x4trails.com/. I have all three books and while I have driven the LJ across Montana, I haven't...

Nevada There are two books by Peter Massey et. al. that cover Nevada trails, Southern Region and Western Region. One book I just found online and ordered is Nevada Ghost Town Trails by Mickey Broman. The description on Amazon: I've ordered this one also (used a free book credit on...

Arizona Peter Massey et. al. have done four books covering Utah: Northeast Region, West Region, South Region and Central Region. Funtreks offers A Guide to Arizona Backroads & 4-Wheel Drive Trails.

Utah Peter Massey et. al. have also done four books covering Utah: Southwest Region, Moab Region, Northern Utah and Central Utah. Two of the ones I have are older editions, there are newer editions that include additional trails. Funtreks offers A Guide to Moab, UT Backroads & 4-Wheel Drive...

California There seem to be more books on California trails than any other state. Peter Massey et. al. have done no fewer than 7 - North Coast Region, Desert Region, Central Mountain Region, Northern Sierra Region, High Sierra Region, South Coast Region, and the larger Backcountry Adventures...

Colorado I've done more exploring in Colorado than any other state and I've got a pretty good collection for the state. This first photo shows trail guidebooks written by Peter Massey et. al., and those by Charles Wells from Funtreks. The large book at the top left is an early edition that...

Over the past dozen years or so I've done literally thousands of miles off-road, mostly in Colorado, Utah, Arizona and California. We make at least one and usually two trips out west each year to explore off-road because there's not much interesting off-road exploration possible in upstate NY...

After sewing the new prototype headrest storage I showed it to OO and it sounds like they may be making them. They are interested in both the updated pocket and a First Aid version. The black pocket in the photo above is a real pocket with a leather OO emblem digitally added and the First...

The first fiberglass design I did for the JK was the barn door, I actually did that before I owned my JKU. All I had was a factory hardtop at the time and I made the barn door compatible with the factory hardtop. When I got the JKU a little later I then designed and built the Safari Cab for...

This Defender was featured in the latest issue of Land Rover Life: I completely agree with the caption on that photo, I like the open air but don't want the sun on my head. Here's why that photo caught my attention, this is my LJ: The article mentions that the Land Rover's sides are...

I made a new version with PALS/MOLLE on the sides and a nicer pocket that matches the OO door pockets. This photo is in my LJ: A closer look at the new prototype in the JKU: An updated pocket, this photo in the JKU: A First Aid pouch, this is one I sewed for the first prototype but...

For a long time I've used marine deep cycle batteries from Walmart as the kitchen/auxiliary batteries in my JKU and LJ and they've performed very well. They had a 3-year warranty and generally lasted very close to 3 years in kitchen service. On October 17 of last year, the auxiliary battery in...

Testing the lithium battery a company is sending me requires that I know how much current it takes when charging. My current lead-acid auxiliary battery takes about 40 amps when charging from the point where it can no longer run the refrigerator so my charging system is set up to provide up to...

A while back I posted instructions for making an overhead cargo net: https://forum.expeditionportal.com/threads/how-would-you-outfit-this-custom-lj.46300/page-62#post-2973659 The example in the instructions is for an LJ but the same technique could be used to make a version for any other Jeep...

I've pretty much finished up testing the new Auxbeam headlights and writing a review. The lights aren't on the web site yet so I asked them when they planned the release and they told me January. After testing these I've decided that maybe I will post a review here after all; even though the...

One of my "background" projects is a 4-way hose setup for airing up/down all 4 tires at the same time, , here's an update. The week before SEMA, a friend who works at a weatherstrip/hose company sent me some sample hose to try; I tried it and it worked fine (much better than the original thin...

I posted recently that a lithium battery company contacted me asking if I'd be interested in testing one of their 100amp-hour lithium batteries. Since I've spent a lot of time designing the dual battery electrical systems in my Jeeps to optimize them for overland use, I'm very interested in...