Barn Door for JK factory hardtops

[jscherb]

I've found a reasonably-priced source for Deep Cherry Red Pearl paint, so I've ordered a quart to paint the flat fenders. As soon as I get a shipping confirmation on the paint I'll pull the fenders off the Jeep and begin the paint prep process. I've also ordered black oxide finish stainless bolts for attaching the fenders; currently the fenders are attached with bright stainless bolts I'd rather have the hardware blend into the background.

And speaking of things blending into the background, this morning I painted the rear inner fenders matte black. They were body color and really stood out in a side view.

Before:

After:

 

[jscherb]

Mostly I did the fridge/kitchen project because I thought it would be a fun design challenge, and since Dometic supplied the fridge and MORryde supplied the base slide it didn't cost me much to do the project. But now that I've got the fridge/kitchen finished, I've been thinking maybe I ought to actually go camping and use it.

I've got a roof top tent, it was given to me by a company a few years ago when I licensed some designs to them and I've never used it other than putting it on top of my Jeeps and trailers to test how tents would mount on them. This morning I checked it out on the Safari Cab, installed to open off the back so it provides some shelter for the kitchen.

 

[jscherb]

A few more photos...

 

[jscherb]

After a little searching a few weeks ago, I found a sleeping bag that fits perfectly - it's extra long, which I need because I'm 6'6", and it fills the tent completely from side to side.

One thing I want to do is fold the sleeping bag up in the tent so I don't have to have it taking up space in the Jeep when the tent is collapsed for travel. I did a quick test and this didn't work too well because in the process of folding the tent the sleeping bag slid down into a heap onto the floor of the part of the tent that wasn't folding. Donny tells me some RTTs have straps for holding the sleeping bag in place but mine doesn't, so I added one. I pop-riveted some old TJ footman loops to the tent frame...

 

[jscherb]

Stowed for travel.

 

[rubicon91]

Looks great Jeff. I told you that sleeping bag would slide lol. I just got my additional 2 inch mattress pad yesterday for mine. I have to open it up and put it in there. I think I am going to use a fitted sheet to hold it in with the bottom one for the time being and go from there.

 

[StayDirtyMyFriends]

After a little searching a few weeks ago, I found a sleeping bag that fits perfectly - it's extra long, which I need because I'm 6'6", and it fills the tent completely from side to side.
I need to send you an email, I'd like to pick your brain a bit on some things if you don't mind.

One thing I want to do is fold the sleeping bag up in the tent so I don't have to have it taking up space in the Jeep when the tent is collapsed for travel. I did a quick test and this didn't work too well because in the process of folding the tent the sleeping bag slid down into a heap onto the floor of the part of the tent that wasn't folding. Donny tells me some RTTs have straps for holding the sleeping bag in place but mine doesn't, so I added one. I pop-riveted some old TJ footman loops to the tent frame...

My RTT doesn't have straps either. I just fold the bag in half before shutting everything up, nothing slides down in a heap that way either. Strap isn't a bad idea though if you don't want to deal with unfolding the sleeping bag when you open the tent.

 

[jscherb]

Looks great Jeff. I told you that sleeping bag would slide lol. I just got my additional 2 inch mattress pad yesterday for mine. I have to open it up and put it in there. I think I am going to use a fitted sheet to hold it in with the bottom one for the time being and go from there.

My RTT doesn't have straps either. I just fold the bag in half before shutting everything up, nothing slides down in a heap that way either. Strap isn't a bad idea though if you don't want to deal with unfolding the sleeping bag when you open the tent.

The strap works perfectly - the sleeping bag stays in place when I fold the tent and when I open it again it's right where it belongs. I set up the tent in a spare room to make it easier to work on when installing the hardware for the straps, and I folded/opened it a bunch of times to make sure it worked. And the tent folds very nicely with the sleeping bag inside, so mission accomplished - I don't have to store the sleeping bag in the Jeep, I can just leave it in the tent and not have to mess with it being in a heap.

 

[akpostal]

Going back to the kitchen, and fridge setup with a sink. You have a four door which has a lot more storage. A sink on the passenger side for a 2 door to me makes more sense. An insert could even be cut into your StoreGate for a sink, or hung off the fridge/stove slider passenger side, or hook onto a tailgate table.

Again maybe its just me, but I need room for the dog. Most of my gear is out on the rack or trailer.

Not sure Ill ever have a fridge and slider, but I like your design with the exception of the sink location.

 

[jscherb]

Going back to the kitchen, and fridge setup with a sink. You have a four door which has a lot more storage. A sink on the passenger side for a 2 door to me makes more sense. An insert could even be cut into your StoreGate for a sink, or hung off the fridge/stove slider passenger side, or hook onto a tailgate table.

Again maybe its just me, but I need room for the dog. Most of my gear is out on the rack or trailer.

Not sure Ill ever have a fridge and slider, but I like your design with the exception of the sink location.

Not having a dog, a big dog and a big fridge competing for the same space in the back of the Jeep isn't a problem I've ever thought about. But the fridge slider/table/sink project was made using either commercial parts (the MORryde slide) or fairly easily obtainable or fabricated components (Wal-mart folding tables for the tabletops, for example), so maybe people will use my example as inspiration for building their own kitchen system more suited to their dog's needs.

If I needed to fit a big dog in the back of the Jeep, I'd probably put the fridge on my Overland Rack and do a folding table on the tailgate. If I wanted a sink with that, maybe I'd put it in a cutout in the tailgate table, and the water source could be the Rubican in the photo below. I think that would be a dog-friendly solution, especially if the slider window kit in the photo below was installed to give the dogs fresh air.

 

[Dan Grec]

If I needed to fit a big dog in the back of the Jeep, I'd probably put the fridge on my Overland Rack....

My Dometic fridge is absolutely awesome, but I seriously, seriously wouldn't want to get any rain on it...
Also the kind of dust you will get back there....

-Dan

 

[jscherb]

My Dometic fridge is absolutely awesome, but I seriously, seriously wouldn't want to get any rain on it...
Also the kind of dust you will get back there....

-Dan

Agreed. If I were putting it on a rack outside the Jeep I'd make a cover for it. It would be a waterproof fabric like a coated Cordura polyester and I'd put covered vents in it for the fans, like the ones on my tent circled in the photo below. The vents could have filters in them if necessary. The cover would also be insulated to help keep everything cool. Probably put a drawstring in the bottom hem that could be pulled tight to keep dust out. When you'd use the fridge, you'd pull the cover, or you could do a velcro-closure lid on the cover so it wouldn't have to be removed. A pretty simple sewing project.

I definitely prefer the fridge inside the Jeep, but for people with large dogs competing for space with a fridge, putting it outside should be a reasonable option.

 

[StayDirtyMyFriends]

Going back to the kitchen, and fridge setup with a sink. You have a four door which has a lot more storage. A sink on the passenger side for a 2 door to me makes more sense. An insert could even be cut into your StoreGate for a sink, or hung off the fridge/stove slider passenger side, or hook onto a tailgate table.

Again maybe its just me, but I need room for the dog. Most of my gear is out on the rack or trailer.

Not sure Ill ever have a fridge and slider, but I like your design with the exception of the sink location.

I have 2 weimaraners(considered large breed by AKC) that go everywhere with me, especially on trips. They both fit in the back of my 2 door with a fridge. Here is a pic of one of them with the fridge. It is a whynter 45qt. I also have a trailer that everything else goes into though...

 

[jscherb]

Yesterday I received the last of the MultiPod LED light brackets from manufacturing and it checks out fine, so the entire collection is ready to go into production. The company that will be selling these has brackets on order from manufacturing and LEDs on order from the LED company, so everything should be available very soon. Here's the JK range...

Windshield mount:

A-Pillar mount:

Hood hinge mount, along with 2-pod and 3-pod adapters:

There's a similar set of brackets for the TJ/LJ.

Generic mounts:

An AMPS adapter plate adapts a MultiPod LED to the many AMPS-standard mounts on the market, such as those from RAM (http://www.rammount.com/search?search_type=search&query=amps):

And finally, in addition to all of the brackets above, each MultiPod ships with a generic bracket, shown below. The hole in the foot of the bracket fits a 5/16 or 8mm bolt, so it will fit on many of the bolts on the JK such as those on the windshield hinges.

I can now check the LED project of my list .

 

[jscherb]

Today's Craigslist find - a Garvin 54" x 72" Wilderness Rack for $150. I've been thinking about a larger rack for my Jeeps for a while and this came along for a price that was less than it would cost to buy just the HiLift and shovel mounts that came with it. Checking it out on the JK Safari:

The rack will easily mount directly to the Cherokee roof rails using Surco J100 adapters.

This is the rack basket I currently use, it's worked great for years on the LJ but at times I could use a larger one:

One nice thing about the larger rack is that I could mount the RTT to it and still have about 2' left over in front of the tent for carrying other gear.