Dan Grec
Expedition Leader
Asking Price: $145,000 USD or best offer
Mileage: 115,000km (71,500 miles)Location: Nelson, BC, Canada (just over the border from Spokane, WA)
Contact: Dan Grec / The Road Chose Me
Overview
Designed and built specifically to fit inside a standard 20 foot shipping container, this composite Jeep camper was purpose-built for one or two people to explore the world.Ex-NASA engineer Michael Fuchs is the genius behind this project, pouring thousands of hours into designing and hand fabricating virtually every aspect of the composite camper.
We travelled full time in the camper for 12 months while exploring twelve countries on three continents, though now I have to face the fact it doesn't work with our rapidly growing daughter.
It's time to find a home for the vehicle I thought I would never part with.
I really want to see this camper used for what it was built for, so I'm providing an incentive to prospective buyers.
If you buy this Jeep camper, I will pay half your diesel to take it on massive adventures.
Drive it to the Arctic Ocean and I'll give you $2,000 for diesel.
Drive it the length of the Pan-American Highway, and I'll give you $4,000 for diesel.
Yes, I'm 100% serious. Send me photos and a few stories and I'll happily send over the money.
This vehicle is 100% ready to hit the road right now, and I would be extremely happy to drive it to Argentina, or ship it globally again for adventures anywhere on the planet.
The composite camper is 6 feet wide and 7.5 feet long, giving a huge amount of internal living space that is hard to wrap your head around. Three adults can comfortably sit inside.
To give a more concrete example, the beds of two Jeep Gladiators fit inside with plenty of room to spare.
The insulated canvas is made by Supertramp Campers with their enormous windows on each long side of the Jeep.
The roof opens and closes using the bi-fold mechanism from AT Overland and four gas struts to make it easy to raise and lower.
The bed is manually lifted from the lower "sleeping" position to the upper "stowed" position where it is clipped to the underside of the roof.
Standing height with the bed stowed up is about 6'6".
It is 2.3m tall (90 inches) and 5.3m long (17.5 feet). It is extremely easy to drive, and fits if regular parking spaces better than a Gladiator.
We slept inside down to -15C (0F) and were as warm as toast thanks to the diesel heater and insulated pop-top canvas.
I'm sure we could have gone much colder.
The Jeep is 50 state emissions legal (and has all the required stickers) and is a very easy import into the USA. I'm happy to come to the border & help the buyer with that process.
I have the title in hand. I own it free and clear.
The Jeep:
This Wrangler Rubicon is loaded with just about every option possible from factory:
(I'm happy to send over the factory build sheet)
- Cold weather package (heated front leather seats & leather steering wheel, engine block heater)
- Tow package (class II receiver hitch and trailer plug wiring, 240Amp Alternator)
- Aux switches, TPMS, cruise control
- Front trail cam
- LED Lighting package
- 8.4" touch screen
- Passive entry on two front doors
- Sirius XM, 4G, LTE WI-FI HotSpot
- Remote Start
- Universal garage door opener
Specs:
- 2021 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon Unlimited with composite camper habitat
- 3.0 EcoDiesel 240hp / 420 ft. lbs.
- ZF 8HP75 8-speed Automatic
-
Factory 3.73 diff ratios, locking Front and rear differentials, low range transfer case, electronic swaybar disconnect
SUSPENSION, WHEELS & TIRES - AEV 2.5″ DualSport XP Suspension + AEV Heavy Load Springs
- Remote reservoir Bilstein 8100 big bore shocks
- AEV Steering Damper
- 18” Mopar Steel wheels, powder coated black
- Yokohama Geolandar A/T4 Tires - 295/70R18. (35"x11.5") Load Range E. Mountain Snowflake rated. 75% tread life remaining.
- AEV EX Front Bumper + Skid Plate
- Warn Zeon 10-S Winch, Factor 55 Ultra Hook
- Lightforce 20 inch amber lightbar
- AEV Rear bumper
- AEV snorkel with dust pre-filter
- Maxtrax MKII Recovery boards
POWER: - 200Ah Renogy Lithium battery (2 x 100Ah super-slim batteries)
- 600W Renogy Flexible lightweight solar panels (3 X 200W panels)
- 50Amp Renogy DC-DC/MPPT Solar charge controller
- 3000W Renogy Pure Sine Wave Inverter
- Renogy Core ONE smart monitor
CAMPER HABITAT: - One inch foam & honeycomb core composite panels on Internal powder coated steel frame
- Goose Gear Venture Series full custom interior
- Insulated canvas by Supertramp Campers
- Espar 2kW Diesel Heater
- Arctic Tern insulated windows, side hatches & door
- Expedition Upfitter 12v water boiler with 2 gal (8L) tank
- 10 gal (40L) fresh water tank
- Guzzle H2O 0.5 micron carbon filter & UV Lamp
- Dometic dual induction cooktop
- 50L Dometic 12v fridge/freezer
- Outdoor hot/cold shower
- RoamRest 2” High Density seat cushions & Bed Mattress
- Stowable upstairs bed is 60" wide and 67" long (almost queen sized)
ACCESSORIES: - Digital Rear View Mirror with front camera & dash cam recording
- Lightforce Venom LED Driving Lights
- Lightforce ROK LED 40W Reverse light
- Rhino-Rack Pioneer Platform roof rack with side rails
- Rhino-Rack spare tire hold down and locking anti-theft cable (Spare tire has never been on the ground)
- ARB single Air Compressor, 813 Fabrication under seat mount
- Front fender flare extensions (Mopar) and mud flaps
- Hazard 4 moulded storage headliners
- OffRoam GPS / GoPro mounts X 2
- Extended towing mirrors
- Desert Does It Seat Jackers on the driver's seat for better seating comfort
History
When I bought the Jeep in early 2023 the complete engine long block, turbo and all accessories had just been replaced under warranty at 62,697km (38,958 miles).
The service manager who completed the work said it was a bottom end bearing failure, likely caused by using the incorrect engine oil, or too long of an oil change interval.
I bought the completely stock Jeep with the express intention of turning it into the camper you see today.
The High Pressure Fuel Pump recall was completed at 80,930km (50,287miles). It did not fail before being replaced. The Jeep currently has no outstanding recalls.
Oil changes have been completed every 6,000 miles or less with Pennzoil Platinum Euro 5W-40.
HotShots Everyday Diesel Treatment has been used in every tank of diesel (1 oz. per tank)
The Jeep has been flawless for me for the 60,000kms of my ownership through twelve countries on three continents.
The underside was sprayed with rust inhibitor from new , and each year after for the first three years.
The Jeep is currently running a "Stage 1 Economy" tune/delete from EcoDiesel Owners of Canada (EOC). This is purely a software tune of the Powertrain Control Module (PCM).
This delete turns off the Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR), removes the need for DEF and adds 20 horsepower and 30 ft. lbs. of torque.
This tune was applied to a cloned factory PCM, and it's a ten minute job to swap back to the factory un-modified PCM which will be supplied.
EcoDiesel owners have reported it will pass CA emissions testing with the tune as it is now, though I can swap the factory PCM back in to return it to 100% factory configuration if desired.
Zero physical changes were made to any part of the Jeep (engine, turbo, exhaust, etc.) for this tune/delete.
During our twelve month expedition the Jeep returned an average of 24.2MPG across all terrain and driving conditions.
The EcoDiesel is by far the best Jeep engine I've ever driven. With so much torque and the excellent ZF 8 speed auto it effortlessly moves the camper.
The frame, wheelbase and driveline of this vehicle were not altered in any way.
There are two complete sets of keys.
Quirks
- The Jeep was equipped from the factory with blind spot monitoring, but I have disabled it in the computer because the rear factory tail lights with the radar sensors have been removed.
- The factory rear parking sensors function perfectly, but they "see" the camper and think there is something back there when reversing. Angling them down slightly with some kind of small shim would likely fix this. I have turned them off in the computer with JScan, it's a two minute job to turn them back on if desired.
- The Jeep is factory-equipped with a front trail camera, though I did not install the AEV relocation kit for it, so it currently just shows a view of the front bumper hoop. The relocation kit can easily be installed if desired (not supplied).
- The Remote start does not currently function. I believe I have to plug in "loopback plugs" into the rear door connectors so it thinks the original rear doors are still there. I've never bothered with it.
Happy to provide more details, photos or videos on any part of this vehicle build.
The build was also extensively documented in this YouTube playlist if you want to see specifics:
-Dan
