Barn Door for JK factory hardtops

[mog]

After leaving Winslow we stopped at Meteor Crater. It's said to be the best preserved meteorite crater in the world and it's huge. They say 20 football fields could be placed at the bottom and if the walls of the crater we turned into stands, they could seat 2 million people. Our cell phones couldn't quite go wide enough to capture the entire crater...

WOW, that was a close call!
A few more yards north and the meteor would have hit the observatory!

 

[jscherb]

WOW, that was a close call!
A few more yards north and the meteor would have hit the observatory!

The observatory might have been built slightly later than 50,000 years ago when the meteorite hit, but we didn't see a date on the building .

 

[jscherb]

Today was setup day at Overland West. MORryde and Overland Outfitters have adjacent spaces, so my JKU is in the middle since it has a lot of products from both installed. I didn't get any time to explore; I should be free enough tomorrow to do that and I'll post photos of things I find interesting.

I did snap a few quick photos of MORryde's new JL Tailgate Reinforcement and HD Tailgate Hinges. It's well integrated with the JL's tailgate and nicely styled.

More tomorrow.

 

[jscherb]

The most interesting thing I've seen so far at Overland West is this new pop-top from Hatchet Overland. It's very nicely engineered and has a number of features I like better than the competition.

When the pop-top opens, it slides forward to create an access space in the back - ingress to the sleeping space is very easy and doesn't interfere with another person in the bed like other pop tops do. It also provides a very tall standing area in the back; I'm 6'6" and had plenty of room to stand.

It installs on a factory JL hardtop, which is another feature I like (no JK version at this point).

Ross has done a very nice job on the design, I'm impressed. Should give the other guys a good run for their money.

More details here: https://www.hatchetoverland.com/

 

[Florida Native]

When the pop-top opens, it slides forward to create an access space in the back - ingress to the sleeping space is very easy and doesn't interfere with another person in the bed like other pop tops do.

Thanks for sharing and that looks really interesting, but I’m still not sure I would be able to get in and out without disturbing another sleeper. With one’s head towards the back of the vehicle, I don’t see how the actual maneuvering to get in and out of bed is really possible without disturbing another.

I would love to see something like this that popped up in the front, so it would be easy to slide in and out of bed while staying on your own side of the bed. I know you’d give up a lot of headroom at the back, but I would take that any day for ease of bed access. YMMV.

-Mike

 

[JDaPP]

ls it a whole top or an add on? If add on, can it be removed or do you have to remove the whole top?

 

[jscherb]

ls it a whole top or an add on? If add on, can it be removed or do you have to remove the whole top?

It's an add-on modification to the factory top. It involves cutting a hole in the factory top, so once the mod is done, it becomes a whole top, the mod can't be removed to return the top to normal use.

 

[jscherb]

The Overland Outfitters and MORryde displays. My JKU is between them; the back (with the MORryde kitchen and tailgate reinforcement) is facing the MORryde space and OO uses the cabin to show their products. It was quite an experience yesterday, wind gusts to 55 mph made keeping the canopies in place a challenge. Today the forecast is for calm.

 

[jscherb]

This Land Cruiser is an '81 and in a prior life served as an Australian emergency response vehicle equipped with a patient cab and storage compartments for fire and overlanding equipment. Now it's in the U.S. and being used as a camper and adventure vehicle.

 

[jscherb]

Found this creative idea at the vendor expo yesterday - think of it as a privy enclosure you wear like a hat...

It packs up into a small carrying bag and includes a seat, waste bags and the "enclosure".

Might be a good product for those whose "activities" would be stifled by a lack of privacy.

 

[jscherb]

This M725 was across the way from the OO space.

 

[jscherb]

This apparently DIY popup was in the display area of the event, but there was no information about it.

It was hard to see through the tinted windows, but it looked to me like there was a hole cut in the roof to allow access from the cabin.

That's all I know about it. Maybe this will be an inspiration for someone wanting to DIY their own camper.

 

[akpostal]

I think you found Warehouse 13!

 

[jscherb]

We arrived back from Overland West last night. It was a very long round trip, but an enjoyable one. As I posted a few days ago, my JKU was between the MORryde and Overland Outfitters displays. Because this was an overlanding/camping event, the Trail Kitchen in the back of the Jeep got a lot of attention. There's still nothing like it on the market at a similar price point with the features it has so a lot of people were interested in it.

Another thing that got a lot of attention was my slide-out solar panel. The solar system performed perfectly - the Jeep sat for 4 days in the hot sun and the panel kept the kitchen battery fully charged and the fridge running and cold the entire time.

A lot of people asked if it was going into production (answer: no), but I told them they could find all the details on the project in this forum if they wanted to build their own. I showed a lot of people how it was wired, how the slide worked, etc.

There are always things on/in my Jeep that I've designed that are either just for my own use or perhaps prototypes of things that may at some point be production. People looking at prototypes in/on the Jeep ask if they can buy them. One such thing is the spare tire bag. I was surprised by how much interest it got given that there are quite a few other spare tire bags on the market. I was told many times that the bags on the market are all ugly (one guy even referred to them as resembling a male body part, I won't use his exact word here but it begins with "tes" and ends with "ticles"). OO heard most of these comments and they now say that they want to put the bag in production.

I made good use of it on the trip as my recycling bin; I can't bring myself to throw all the plastic drink bottles we use on a trip in the trash so I bring them home and put them in my recycling.

Another thing that a lot of people noticed (both at Overland West and at Jeep Beach) and wanted to buy is this main roll bar hoop MOLLE strip I made for myself a few years ago. I never considered sharing the design with OO because I didn't think anyone but me would be interested and because only small pouches could be hung there but apparently a bunch of people think it would be useful. I'll give the design to OO and they can decide if it's worth producing them.

I don't know how many, because I'm not involved in OO sales, but OO told me they sold out of the new Roll Bar Buddies at the show...

 

[DCH109]

I like the spare tire bag, adds a bit of sophistication to the Jeep. Almost like the old luggage on the British car boot rack, from years past (I had the rack my old TR4a) or a vintage trappers backpack. I think that is why people like it so much. It looks classy vs a sack hanging off the back. It is certainly what I like about it.