EarthRoamer XV-JP "Northwest Edition"

[Drewgould]

Congratulations on your new acquisition. Safe travels, and please don't hesitate to get in touch should you have any questions.

Best, Mike

Thanks Mike! I'm sure there will be! We're just working through what stuff works, and whats been chopped and changed previously at the moment, mainly electrics! We did approach ER but didn't have any joy unfortunately. I'm hoping to clean and re-proof the loftop tent over the weekend, and I think I've seen what appears to be a waterproof flysheet in with all the spare parts that came with it.

 

[PaulJensen]

Out near Mt. St. Helens for a little shake down cruise with our newly completed utility trailer renovation...

(above) The trailer tows perfectly behind the Jeep due to the wind shielding size of the rear cabin...

(above) The trailer will make a great Base Camp on future travels...

(above) A typical 5x10 trailer... New wood and epoxy roof, insulated with 1" foam board top, bottom and all sides...

(above) Redwood counter top, hand pump faucet, shore power fridge, 12 volt fan on wall obscured with a cut out from the wood and epoxy wall panel... 12 volt lights and three 14x14 skylights...

(above) Look towards the rear... Drop down cedar tabletop with 12 volt USB sockets in the backsplash... The bench seat expands to a 50" wide bed, supported either by wood 2x4's that go side to side, or are nested over a pair of black and yellow totes... The idea is to have a semi-built in bed, a bench seat and the option of having the totes and cedar platforms (not seen) be used outside under the awning/screen room as either low or high tables or as seating or sleeping platforms, like a cot...

(above) Cedar fence boards with a few coats of Spar Varnish...

(above) The framing snuggles over a pair of totes... Super stable...

(above) Atop the drop down table is a redwood shelf that is super useful as a ledge to put things when the double bed is in place... Up front is the w7 gallon water tank and a place for the propane tank...

(above) A mix of materials for the walls... Carpet where the totes might rub, hammered aluminum above that with tie-down hooks, scrap wood/epoxy wall panel, redwood cabinets with hammered aluminum drop down doors...

 

[PaulJensen]

(above) The nice thing is how utilitarian it can be, and how luxurious it always is...

(above) There's where that fan is... Painted it with rattle can hammered copper Rustoleum...

(above) Next to the side door, above the counter top are a pair of curved plywood shelves...

(above) Set up for lounging... Sorry, no pictures yet of the bed set up for sleeping...

(above) There is an ARB 2500 x 2500 awning... We have the zip in screen room for it too... The same awning is on our Jeep and Sprinter... Really makes the Base Camp option functional... The window is an awning window with a screen and slider... You also get a glimpse of the cedar roof rack... There are four similar cross support along the length of the roof...

(above) Finally, it goes with this pretty well...

 

[PaulJensen]

(above) This is the screen room...

 

[PaulJensen]

Also, seeing your URL makes me laugh. When I was living/ surfing in Central America in the mid 70's thru the early 80's, I had a buddy that made hollow boards as well... Wink, wink, nod, nod.

I think we'd work and play well together...!!!...

 

[mhiscox]

Happy day,

Paul Jensen resurfaces and hasn't lost his touch. Good news for the fan club. ?

That looks great, Paul, and conceptually very clever. (Good upholstery colors, too. ) And another 50 square feet of room can't hurt at all, for either the Jeep or the Sprinter.

Thanks for sharing the pictures. We always wonder how you guys are getting along. Glad to see you still showing your talent on vehicle-dependent expeditioning.

Best to you both. Sue and Evelyn send their regards as well.

Carry on bravely,

Mike

 

[PaulJensen]

Happy day,

Paul Jensen resurfaces and hasn't lost his touch. Good news for the fan club. ?

That looks great, Paul, and conceptually very clever. (Good upholstery colors, too. ) And another 50 square feet of room can't hurt at all, for either the Jeep or the Sprinter.

Thanks for sharing the pictures. We always wonder how you guys are getting along. Glad to see you still showing your talent on vehicle-dependent expeditioning.

Best to you both. Sue and Evelyn send their regards as well.

Carry on bravely,

Mike

We have to get together as soon as it's safe again... Please, please please, borrow the Jeep sometime/anytime...!!!... So good to hear from you... Love to you all from Pam and me...!!!...

 

[mhiscox]

Yes indeed, Paul, it'd be great for any and all of us "veterans" to have some freedom of motion again.

So will certainly plan to get up to see you as soon as practical. Stay safe until then.

(And as you and I muddle through the PNW's Gloomy Season, maybe one of our peers who's struggling through the pain of sitting on beaches in Baja will think kind thoughts of us. )

 

[VanIsle_Greg]

I like the trailer room (in law suite)! Great idea.

 

[PaulJensen]

Hello again everyone...

As you can see below, there will be a change of ownership with Earthroamer XV-JP #003...

I reached out to Mike Hiscox for advice...


Feb 3, 2021 - 12:15 PM
Hi Mike…

Greetings from Vancouver BC...

Pam and I are looking to move north of Bellingham to be closer to our daughter and her family...No hurry to make the move but we have realtors both in Bellingham and in Lacey for when the time comes...

Before then, we are evaluating what we keep and what we don't...

That leads me to the Jeep... I think it's time to let it go...

Pam loves her Subaru, and the Sprinter covers my needs... We are looking to replace the Jeep sometime soon with a Class C motorhome... Something for extended trips in both time and distance... Just starting the process of figuring out what to get...???...

Getting back to the Jeep... Do you want it back...???... Do you know anyone who might be interested in acquiring it...???... I'm pretty clueless on the best way to find it a new home... Craigslist...???... Expedition Portal...???... I haven't sold a vehicle in a really long time...

Your thoughts...???...

Paul


Feb 3, 2021 - 1:44 PM
Hey, Paulie,

Ultra-great to hear from you.

… as for your direct question, BEYOND A DOUBT I'd like the Earthroamer back, thanks for askin'. That'd be a super way to wrap up my overlanding career. That Jeep--after you were done with it--was the slickest of the dozen campers I ever owned, and I think it'd be a cosmic way to wrap up my career. No one else could be a better home for it and--as one can tell from the fact that we're near the eighth anniversary of owning the "transitory" Sprinter--no one appreciates your skills more.

So, again, huge thanks for letting me know about the Jeep, and let me know how we can make it work out.

Best to you all,

Mike


Feb 3, 2021 - 7:06 PM
Hey again Mike...

I AM SUPER STOKED YOU WANT THE XV-JP BACK...!!!... I agree with the completion circle of it all...!!!...

Now the awkward part... We were hoping to use the Jeep either sold outright, or as a trade in towards our future C-class RV...

I'm sure that you, more than anyone, are aware of the investment of time and materials it took to get the Jeep back to where it is now...

I'm curious to hear your thoughts on what would be fair to both of us, all things considered...???..

Paul


Wed, Feb 3, 8:24 PM
Evening, Paul,

It's not really awkward to discuss how it might work to buy the Jeep from you, and I understood we were going to need some analysis of this unique situation. Mostly, it comes down to the fact that in spite of my enthusiasm, I'll be the first to admit that I'm likely not your best option. Indeed, I knew that when I sent off my "Oh, goody" email, knowing full well that selling to me likely wouldn't be in your best interest.

I agree with you 100% that you deserve reimbursement for your clever work on the renovation/rebuild and the problem isn't paying for that. I looked the records up in Quicken to find, counting the post-project bonus, that the labor and materials reimbursements for your Round 1 work ran me a tiny bit under $XX. So as a wild guess, let's say a combination of inflation, more materials, and a couple of expensive bits you bought, would make the equivalent number for Round 2 something like $XX, though maybe you know an actual number that would be higher or lower. Regardless, getting it back by paying "do-over costs" in that range would be well worth it.

That said, though, anyone except me would value the underlying '07 chassis and its mods at something nearing $XX, whereas I wouldn't want to be buying it (nor any of the parts I bought originally that you were able to reuse) to get it back after gifting it. Plus, for the right buyer, the end product is definitely greater than the sum of its parts, whereas knowing all about both of the builds, I end up more analytical.

Additionally, we are apparently in the middle of a zany "seller's market" period for anything overland related. We live in a word of Tacoma/FWC rigs costing $100K and used 4x4 Sprinter conversions going for $140K. Prices are pretty insane for things people want, with ten times as many "Want to Buy" threads on the Expedition Portal as when we were active there. I'm sad to see our former quiet hobby awash in pandemic-inspired campers and a related vehicle shortage, but it is what it is. It may be that once the pandemic passes, they'll be a horde of lightly-used vehicles dumped onto the market, but at the moment, Four Wheel Camper has a 54-week lead time for their mediocre pop-up campers and some other boutiquey builders are worse, and prices generally seem very high.

So given all the transactions going on now, it'd be nice if they could give some clue as to the current value of our XV-JP. Unfortunately, the newer Wranglers with 50% more power and nicer interiors are quite reasonably preferred, so not many 07-10 models have been listed lately, And there is, of course, no chance of apples-to-apples comparisons for build-outs. There have been some mid-last-decade well-modded Rubicons with the Ursa Minor enclosures going for high thirties/low forties, and they're a little bit relevant, I suppose. Not everything appeals, though . . . even with the bandwagon, the guy in Boulder with the Hemi-converted XV-JP told me he didn't get any interest to speak of at $XX.

So who knows what the one-off, totally unparalleled Jensen Jeep camper might fetch. I'd like to be more help, and I'm supposed to know something of what overland trucks are worth, but between the goofy market and the fact that no one has anything to compare it to, determining an asking price that would attract people but not leave money on the table seems impossible to do logically. You'll probably just have to decide what seems "right" to you, some number that you'd feel good if it sold at that price.

No question, though, that in spite of the cool story, easy transaction and general happiness it would produce, it's probably impossible to come up with a fully equitable arrangement between us. It's not economically-sound for you to sell the rig to me for just the cost of the post-Red Cannon work, and it's not fair to me to pay again for the things I already paid for. I'd be eager to get it back for something like $XX, but I can't claim it makes sense to sell it to me for that when someone else might well pay $XX or more for it.

I'm going to guess this is pretty much how the situation looks to you, too. Let me know your thoughts, and no worries if you share my conclusion that you're probably better off to try to sell it into the general market. Especially given the need to get a head start on paying for your new rig, I certainly couldn't recommend a plan that would leave you $XX or so short of where you could be.

Mike


Feb. 4, 2021 - 9:28 AM
Good morning Mike...

Totally agree with everything you said...

I talked it over with Pam and we could not be more pleased for you to have it again...!!!...

We agree with the $XX you offered...

It will come back with all of the equipment installed in and on it as it sits now, along with any recovery gear I have, and any non-installed equipment I still have (water heater, toilet, etc.)

We will be here in Vancouver until the end of the month, maybe a bit sooner... Once we get back we can figure out how best to get it to you...

Paul


Feb 4, 2021 - 11:24 AM
Morning, Paul,

What a great piece of news. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We've always been glad that you and Pam have had such good adventures in the Jeep and it's exciting that we're next in line. This development makes me feel like the Red Cannon disaster is much less traumatic now . . . it can be treated sort of like hiring you to do a mid-life renovation that took you a few years and then you took a number of shakedown cruises to optimize it. And now it comes back better than ever.

Sue is also fantastically excited. We are going to treat this as our 50th Anniversary present to each other and use it for some impressive TBD anniversary trip.

Being the dead of winter, it's no hardship waiting until the end of the month, at which point we can arrange things on your schedule. We can drive up in my Ford pickup and use it to bring all the unattached bits back home. I'll be delighted to take everything remotely relevant off your hands and sort through it later, and I'm sure a couple of the extras will find their way back into/onto the truck. Small tweaks aside, though, we're looking forward to the setup being more workable for two people and more secure than it was in the previous configuration. I really enjoyed watching your work on the revision and thought it was typically Jensen-clever and turned out very special.

You and I both have a lot of time, energy and memories tied up in that little Jeep and I think it's very cool that you've made it so it can "stay in the family."

Enjoy your time in Vancouver and let me know when you have a plan for how you'd like to do the transfer.

And thanks again to both you and Pam.

Warm regards,

Mike


Feb. 4, 2021 - 12:11 PM

Perfect…!!!...

Paul


Feb.4, 2021 - 12:51PM

YEP!

Mike

 

[java]

Full circle! That's great. It's such a nice little build.

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

 

[Herbie]

After all the drama in the mid-life part of this Jeep, it's so nice to see everyone being reasonable and kind about value at the end.

Even without the hard numbers, I can tell this was an honest dialog about the value of materials and an artist's time.

 

[mhiscox]

I didn't exactly expect to have the e-mails published and my personal views on the current state of the overland vehicle market made public. At least there are fewer typos than I usual find in my e-mails. Apologies if I've offended anyone and come across sounding like I'm an old curmudgeon living in the overlanding past. (Oh, wait; I am an old curmudgeon living in the overlanding past. )

The crux of the correspondence is spot on, though . . . I was able to get the formerly-derelict XV-JP back from Paul in turnkey condition and we'll see where things go in the future. In any of its configurations over the last 14 years, this XV-JP has always been a decidedly different approach to a four-wheeling overlander, and I'm happy to be the person Paul could pass it on to who'll be most copacetic with its strengths and idiosyncrasies.

Far and away one of the best things about #003 staying in the ExPo family is the wisdom and support of the vast number of fellow inmates who have spent time on this thread. Even just this afternoon, getting to hear from Herbie and Java was cool and I look forward to keeping this thread alive going forward. Thanks to everyone who was around to provide support during the Red Cannon debacle, and thanks in advance to everyone who retains an interest going forward.

 

[mk216v]

This. Is. Rad.

 

[VanIsle_Greg]

Pretty stoked to see this end up where it started. Glad it all worked out in the end.

Still a fun project and some good times camping!