Barn Door for JK factory hardtops

[jscherb]

Speaking of small towns, Elkhart, Indiana is much the same way - there's a complete ecosystem of small manufacturing companies there supporting the RV industry and most of them are more than willing to try new things. Like the cargo windows I'm working on with an Elkhart RV window company - I had a call with them yesterday about the special requirements I'd like to incorporate in the windows for the Jeep and they were very willing to do special things.

Or MORryde, they're about a $100 million company but the people I work with there behave like small town people - always willing to do something special.

Speaking of MORryde, you've seen lots of photos of my Trail Kitchen in this thread over the past two years. I designed it with an integrated drawer on a dual extension slide under the fridge intended for the use of a small single-burner stove, which is what I use on the trail. MORryde did a great implementation of the design; this photo is from the SEMA show in November:

Some people asked for support for a larger two-burner stove on its own slide-out, and MORryde was happy to accomodate that - they has just released a version with a large stove tray instead of the drawer:

They tell me it'll retail for about $100 less than the original kitchen design with the drawer. It accepts many of the original Trail Kitchen options such as the side Molle/Rotopax panel and the clip-on side table.

 

[TripLeader]

When is there going to be a "JSCHERB Edition" Wrangler from the factory?

I think you could get it to sell. It would come with any grill you want, camp kitchen, tons of molle panels, and the exo-gate spare tire carrier.

 

[jscherb]

When is there going to be a "JSCHERB Edition" Wrangler from the factory?

I think you could get it to sell. It would come with any grill you want, camp kitchen, tons of molle panels, and the exo-gate spare tire carrier.

I'm sure there would be zero interest in a Jeep with my name on it. I doubt even members of my close family would want one. I certainly wouldn't want one.

 

[MattJ]

I'm sure there would be zero interest in a Jeep with my name on it.

I'd take one! As long as everything comes fully-installed. But Jeff, you need to pick an animal to go with the JSCHERB badge and logo. AEV has the bison, so what animal would a JSCHERB be?

 

[jscherb]

I'd take one! As long as everything comes fully-installed. But Jeff, you need to pick an animal to go with the JSCHERB badge and logo. AEV has the bison, so what animal would a JSCHERB be?

Does it have to be an animal? How about we put a Safari Cab with Barn Door on each one and use my Safari palm tree logo?

 

[MattJ]

I like it - but maybe work an American flag into it somewhere? You've done that with some of your designs and it really fits well with the Jeep theme. I often think of my Jeep treks as "American safaris" because the Jeep is capable of taking me on some amazing adventures that don't require an international plane ticket!

 

[jscherb]

I like it - but maybe work an American flag into it somewhere? You've done that with some of your designs and it really fits well with the Jeep theme. I often think of my Jeep treks as "American safaris" because the Jeep is capable of taking me on some amazing adventures that don't require an international plane ticket!

A Patriot Spare Cover with every Jeep?

 

[oldnslow]

If it included the Safari Top and Barn Door, I'd sure want one!

 

[jscherb]

Before anyone starts saving up, there are no plans for a "Safari Edition" Jeep to be produced. Certainly it wouldn't be produced by me, I don't sell anything and have no plans to. I'd be happy to talk with any credible company that might be interested in the whole idea (or the components) but I have no plans to try to find such a company.

BTW recently I was having a conversation with a credible company that expressed interest in manufacturing and marketing the barn door but they've gone silent so I guess they either changed their mind or weren't all that interested in the first place.

 

[jscherb]

I read a lot of complaints on various forums about low heat in the JK and there are all kinds of theories posted by helpful people about what the problem is and how to fix it. I've had a few cooling system anomalies over the past few months, one symptom of which has been low heat.

When these problems started a couple of months ago I connected my Scangauge so I could accurately monitor the engine temperature. On days below freezing, I found that the engine temp was from 175-185 and occasionally getting warmer. Pulling a heavy load up hills the temperature would climb fast to 235 or so.

All through these tests the factory temperature gauge in the dash never moved more than one needle width left or right of center, so if I were relying on that gauge I would never know that the temperature isn't staying in the normal range.

My conclusion was that the thermostat must be sticking - sticking a bit open so that the engine could never get all the way up to temp, and sticking enough so that it wouldn't fully open which would lead to the higher temps under load.

This morning I had the thermostat changed. Engine temps now running right around 203, which is the rated temp of the thermostat. Haven't pulled a load up a hill yet but I expect temps will be lower doing that now. The the heat is unbearable at its highest setting.

Tested the old thermostat:

It actually tested reasonably well, started opening about 202 and fully open by 208, started closing at about 200 and fully closed by 190. When the thermostat was first taken out of the Jeep, we removed the cartridge from the housing and this probably dislodged whatever was causing it to stick because the stove test would seem to indicate that it's ok but the road test over the past few months and now road test with the new thermostat definitely shows there was a problem and it is now fixed with the new thermostat installed.

Moral of the story: If you're having a low heat problem, or other cooling system anomalies, don't trust your factory dash temperature gauge. A 50-degree swing on mine was no more than a needle-width each side of the center.

 

[jscherb]

Being at the dealer getting the thermostat changed and since I don't have a JLU, I had an oppotunity to test-fit new JLU Saddlebag samples I received in the mail yesterday...

Just for comparison... the larger JKU/JK2 Saddlebag fits nicely in the JL 2dr (with a different zipper mount though), it's a lot larger than the JLU Saddlebag because there's more room in the JKU than the JLU (this photo taken in a JL 2 not on the local dealer lot because the local dealer doesn't have any 2drs on the lot).

I also verified the fit of the headrest Molle and seat back zipper mount in another friend's JL 2dr.

 

[jscherb]

Thanks for the nice words Jim. It's a small town thing - people in small towns seem to do things more personally than in a big city or major metro area. I've got a nice "network" of people here that are more than willing to help - Jeff who owns a metal fab shop and lets me use his big bending brake, press shear, press brake and other major tools when I have a project too big for my home tools, Jamie the painter at the body shop who always has time to give me advice, Russ and crew at Elmira Auto Paint that always have time to educate me (once Russ and the owner came over to my house when I was having a paint problem), and of course Buster, Mike and Brent at the Jeep dealership; Buster especially who understands how I use the Jeeps and how I need the Jeeps not to let me down 20 miles from the nearest road - Buster cares for my Jeeps as if he's caring for me and he's always got time to brainstorm and advise on mechanical issues. There are things that aren't so good about small town America as well - this town used to have the American LaFrance fire truck company, a Remington Rand plant (Norden bombsights in WWII), an early Willys engine plant and the American Bridge Company, just to name a few - all gone. But on balance I'd much rather be in an out-of-the-way small town than somewhere bigger.

Another small town example. Yesterday I was part of a meeting at Quadratec with Overland Outfitters, I can't say too much about the meeting but one thing the QT people said is that they need more products for Gladiators. I have some Gladiator-specific ideas, so early this morning before the showroom was officially open I went to the local Jeep dealer to do some measurements on the Gladiator in the showroom. While I was doing this the Service Manager walked through the showroom and asked what I was doing, so I told him. I also told him the Jeep on the floor didn't have some options I needed to measure and I said I would see how the other Gladiators on the lot were equipped to see if I could do the final measurements on one on the lot. He walked away and came back 5 minutes later and said - I found one on the lot equipped the way you need for your measurements, so I pulled it up to the front door for you. Really puts the word "service" back in Service Manager.

 

[jscherb]

In 2018 I ran into Rick Pewe at Easter Jeep Safari, Rick is/was the editor of JP magazine. I ran into him in a parking lot and he liked my LJ-8 so he asked if they could do a feature on it. Of course I said yes and he arranged for Traci Clark to do the photography and story. I met Traci at Fins n Things and we did the first half of the trail, taking photos along the way. Unfortunately the story never ran, probably it was stuck somewhere in the queue as the magazine began winding down. Oh well.

With the impending demise of JP, Traci is involved in a new online magazine called GONE-GPN (https://gone-gpn.com/). There's just a placeholder site at that URL right now, but knowing Traci a little bit and following her articles over the years, I'm sure this is going to be a "must-read" online magazine. Check it out!

 

[jscherb]

Yet another small town dealer story... I was at the Jeep dealer this morning getting the last of my 3 Jeeps state inspection (all 3 are due in January) and while I was there I was in the showroom test-fitting the prototype product I did this week for the Gladiator. I was talking to one of the sales guys and asked him if he thought they'd be getting any 2-door JLs on the lot soon because I needed to so some measurements on that model (got to measure for JL2 slider and cargo windows). He said he would check their other dealerships (they own a few others in the region) and if there was one on any of the lots they could bring it to Elmira for me to use for measuring. I told him I didn't want to impose on them that much and that I could wait until one showed up in Elmira.

I know there are a lot of stories in the forums about problems with the "stealerships", but my experience here is absolutely first rate. That goes for both the folks in the front of the shop (sales) and the folks in the back (service managers, mechanics and parts people).

Ferrario Jeep in Elmira - highly recommended!

 

[jscherb]

I sewed another seat-back bag style - the seat-back Backpack bag I designed last year did so well in the Quadratec holiday catalog that it seemed like an additional style would be a good idea, so I'll offer this one to Overland Outfitters as well. This one is a little smaller than the original Backpack and is intended more for trail or camping gear. Would be great for recovery gear. Not sure if they'll pick this one up or not but I wanted to sew it anyway because it seems useful to me. Took this photo in a Gladiator in the dealer showroom yesterday (it's not the Gladiator-specific design I mentioned the other day, this one fits in the Gladiator, JL and JK). Even if they don't want to pick it up I'll definitely use it this one...