Overland Hadley
on a journey
Hi Mike,
What folding chocks would you recommend? Thanks.
What folding chocks would you recommend? Thanks.
EarthRoamer XV-JP "Northwest Edition"
- Thread starter WhereTheHellIsJames?
- Start date
mhiscox
Expedition Leader
I'm not sure I can say I "recommend" them, never having had others for comparison, but I have a pair of the folding Land Rover wheel chocks and they seem to do the job. All metal, fold nice and small and they, well, chock the wheel just fine.
I'm not sure where I got mine, but they seem to be readily available from Land Rover dealers or the Expedition Exchange:
http://www.expeditionexchange.com/cart/product.php?productid=19279&cat=269&page=1
Overland Hadley
on a journey
Thanks Mike.
(I must say that I am relieved that you did not recommend the $200 pair of ORTT chocks. I am sure they are good kit, but....)
mhiscox
Expedition Leader
Making my butt look thinner . . .
Greetings, long-suffering thread readers,
Those who have plodded through this thread from the early days know that I absolutely hated the heavy, giant swing-away rear rack that came with the XV-JP from EarthRoamer:
While it was cool that it stored ax, shovel, Hi-Lift, spare and two Jerry cans, it also made the rear window and rear door unusable when latched and you had to be outside to latch or unlatch it. It also eliminated any view out the rear, both while driving and while in the camper, but if you opened it while in camp, it was generally in the way. But the biggest issue was simply that in routine use was a time-consuming pain to open and close the rack just to get at the rear of the cabin, even for something as simple as a bag of groceries.
So the rack went away and a good-sized Pelican case was put on the back, mounted with threaded isolation bushings into the stock spare tire carrier's holes. And then, being a lover of the sturdy and huge Trashroo bags (which I've used for carrying all manner of things I wanted to get to in a hurry; it works great for carrying a folded Pico chair, for example), I attached one to the Pelican case.
That worked pretty well, but once I got the Alu-Box mounted on the roof rack, the large (overly large, perhaps) Trasharoo wasn't the best solution anymore. So I took it off the back of the Pelican can and procured one of these from Springtail Solutions:
It's an M-PAC rack that they make to give you a way to hang a bunch of MOLLE pouches and QuickFist-held stuff to a flat surface. They make several sizes for several vehicles (and fire trucks and ambulances), and I got the one designed for the inside of a Jeep TJ tailgate. It's about 21" wide by 12" high, and I attached it to the rear of the Pelican case with rivet nuts, nylon spacers and 1/4 x 20 socket-head screws.
I also got a few RUMPs (rigid universal MOLLE platform) from RJM Tactical and put one of them on the passenger side of the case to hold an additional small pouch. That attached easily with the included posts, screws and washers.
So when it was all said and done, the Trasharoo was gone and I had three pouches to put things into,
and all of the pouches ride nice and tight. It's not the most theft-proof setup, of course, but nothing going into the pouches is all that valuable. Plus, given that the straps were threaded through the Springtail rack before it was attached, there's no way to detach the pouches except by cutting the straps (though that is admittedly pretty easy).
The bigger driver's side pouch holds . . .
. . . a coiled air hose long enough to reach all the tires from the rear air connection, a longer extension cord (generally for shore power), a shorter extension for general use, spouts for the RotoPaxs, the 20-amp-to-15-amp adapter sometimes needed to hook an extension cord to a campground pedestal, the plastic hammer to pound in the awning stakes, and the ARB tire deflation kit.
The smaller pouch on the Springtail rack . . .
. . . is for the bug spray, sunscreen, wipes and towel/rag. These are four things I kept in the mesh pouches on the bottom of the Trasharoo, and I really enjoyed having them easy to get to.
The small pouch on the RUMP . . .
. . . holds a pair of gloves, an ARB tire inflator with gauge, a blow gun and some more air hose-related stuff.
FWIW, all of the pouches seemed to be pretty water resistant once sprayed with waterproofing.
So what we have now is a somewhat more elegant way of expanding the storage on the rear of the truck that gives enough space for the things I want to be able to access quickly. There's a lot of room left in the Alu-Box for things that I don't expect to need on a regular basis; right now the box has . . .
. . . the Hi-Lift off-road base, the ARB base for the scissors jack, and the duffel shown at the top, which holds a collapsible bucket, a coiled water hose with fittings, a winch controller, a tow strap, a Super Siphon, and a stuff sack holding an interesting multipurpose tent footprint/sand blanket/tarp/dropcloth nylon sheet.
And to finish off the list of all of the stuff stored on the exterior of the truck, the big Pelican case holds . . .
. . . the Honda eu1000i generator, the Foxwing awning stakes and ropes; one or two additional bags, each of which contains a Foxwing awning extension and the stakes and ropes for it; a mesh travel bag full of cords, bungees, ties, clips and other attching-type stuff; yet another extension cord; a little green bag (behing the cord) that has a small silicon nylon tarp I can clip to the rear of the roof rack and support using two Foxwing poles (for times when the Foxwing is too grandiose or the wind is too high for it); and a GSI microtable that's proven over the years to be a handy thing to have, especially given it's the perfect height to sit right next to a Pico chair. (BTW, the yellowish thing that looks like a piece of thick foam is a piece of thick foam glued to the inside of the Pelican's lid to clamp the generator in place.)
Note that not all of this stuff needs to go on all of the trips, though in practice the only things I bother removing are the generator and any of the Foxwing stuff I won't use. The rest of it doesn't weigh much, plus I figure the surest way to need it on a trip would be to leave it home.
Greetings, long-suffering thread readers,
Those who have plodded through this thread from the early days know that I absolutely hated the heavy, giant swing-away rear rack that came with the XV-JP from EarthRoamer:
While it was cool that it stored ax, shovel, Hi-Lift, spare and two Jerry cans, it also made the rear window and rear door unusable when latched and you had to be outside to latch or unlatch it. It also eliminated any view out the rear, both while driving and while in the camper, but if you opened it while in camp, it was generally in the way. But the biggest issue was simply that in routine use was a time-consuming pain to open and close the rack just to get at the rear of the cabin, even for something as simple as a bag of groceries.
So the rack went away and a good-sized Pelican case was put on the back, mounted with threaded isolation bushings into the stock spare tire carrier's holes. And then, being a lover of the sturdy and huge Trashroo bags (which I've used for carrying all manner of things I wanted to get to in a hurry; it works great for carrying a folded Pico chair, for example), I attached one to the Pelican case.
That worked pretty well, but once I got the Alu-Box mounted on the roof rack, the large (overly large, perhaps) Trasharoo wasn't the best solution anymore. So I took it off the back of the Pelican can and procured one of these from Springtail Solutions:
It's an M-PAC rack that they make to give you a way to hang a bunch of MOLLE pouches and QuickFist-held stuff to a flat surface. They make several sizes for several vehicles (and fire trucks and ambulances), and I got the one designed for the inside of a Jeep TJ tailgate. It's about 21" wide by 12" high, and I attached it to the rear of the Pelican case with rivet nuts, nylon spacers and 1/4 x 20 socket-head screws.
I also got a few RUMPs (rigid universal MOLLE platform) from RJM Tactical and put one of them on the passenger side of the case to hold an additional small pouch. That attached easily with the included posts, screws and washers.
So when it was all said and done, the Trasharoo was gone and I had three pouches to put things into,
and all of the pouches ride nice and tight. It's not the most theft-proof setup, of course, but nothing going into the pouches is all that valuable. Plus, given that the straps were threaded through the Springtail rack before it was attached, there's no way to detach the pouches except by cutting the straps (though that is admittedly pretty easy).
The bigger driver's side pouch holds . . .
. . . a coiled air hose long enough to reach all the tires from the rear air connection, a longer extension cord (generally for shore power), a shorter extension for general use, spouts for the RotoPaxs, the 20-amp-to-15-amp adapter sometimes needed to hook an extension cord to a campground pedestal, the plastic hammer to pound in the awning stakes, and the ARB tire deflation kit.
The smaller pouch on the Springtail rack . . .
. . . is for the bug spray, sunscreen, wipes and towel/rag. These are four things I kept in the mesh pouches on the bottom of the Trasharoo, and I really enjoyed having them easy to get to.
The small pouch on the RUMP . . .
. . . holds a pair of gloves, an ARB tire inflator with gauge, a blow gun and some more air hose-related stuff.
FWIW, all of the pouches seemed to be pretty water resistant once sprayed with waterproofing.
So what we have now is a somewhat more elegant way of expanding the storage on the rear of the truck that gives enough space for the things I want to be able to access quickly. There's a lot of room left in the Alu-Box for things that I don't expect to need on a regular basis; right now the box has . . .
. . . the Hi-Lift off-road base, the ARB base for the scissors jack, and the duffel shown at the top, which holds a collapsible bucket, a coiled water hose with fittings, a winch controller, a tow strap, a Super Siphon, and a stuff sack holding an interesting multipurpose tent footprint/sand blanket/tarp/dropcloth nylon sheet.
And to finish off the list of all of the stuff stored on the exterior of the truck, the big Pelican case holds . . .
. . . the Honda eu1000i generator, the Foxwing awning stakes and ropes; one or two additional bags, each of which contains a Foxwing awning extension and the stakes and ropes for it; a mesh travel bag full of cords, bungees, ties, clips and other attching-type stuff; yet another extension cord; a little green bag (behing the cord) that has a small silicon nylon tarp I can clip to the rear of the roof rack and support using two Foxwing poles (for times when the Foxwing is too grandiose or the wind is too high for it); and a GSI microtable that's proven over the years to be a handy thing to have, especially given it's the perfect height to sit right next to a Pico chair. (BTW, the yellowish thing that looks like a piece of thick foam is a piece of thick foam glued to the inside of the Pelican's lid to clamp the generator in place.)
Note that not all of this stuff needs to go on all of the trips, though in practice the only things I bother removing are the generator and any of the Foxwing stuff I won't use. The rest of it doesn't weigh much, plus I figure the surest way to need it on a trip would be to leave it home.
Ford Prefect
Expedition Leader
mhiscox
Expedition Leader
I added it to the VAST collection of leftover camper parts accumulated during the past decade. I am not far from being able to open a store, or at least have a sizable garage sale.
Ford Prefect
Expedition Leader
Perhaps we can get you a booth at the next Expo!
Every Miles A Memory
Expedition Leader
Mike, a garage sale at your place would be the equivalent to a trip to the red light district in Amsterdam after a couple of brownies
Mike, a garage sale at your place would be the equivalent to a trip to the red light district in Amsterdam after a couple of brownies
I stop by Mikes place to "Window shop" as often as possible...
mhiscox
Expedition Leader
And to visit the XV-JP I tried as hard as I could to sell him last year. :sombrero:
mhiscox
Expedition Leader
Well, that's a fair question. Let's see if I can explain. But also remember that the generator comes and goes, and more often than not doesn't make the trip. But when it does, here's why . . .
First, I don't really have lots of batteries. (My Foretravel, with three 8Ds and three Group 31s . . . now that's a lot of batteries.
) I've got two 105 amp-hour AGMs, which means that I get to use about 100 amp-hours out of them before recharging. And, sadly, except in the near-instantaneous Oregon summer, the solar isn't going to amount to much, plus the truck is stored inside, plus many of my campsites are heavily treed. So while it's cool I have the solar panels, I wouldn't have gone to the expense and effort to install them myself, as they don't really help much in my particular situation.Figure roughly an amp-hour per hour average for the fridge, an amp-hour per hour for the heater when it's running, and an amp-hour an hour for lighting and everything else when used. With no makeup power, I could possibly run out of battery power in maybe three days.
So it all boils down to which engine to run to charge the batteries. I picked the little generator, while others would run the Jeep. Part of my choice is to avoid idling the truck for long periods of time, which may or may not be anything to worry about (it was a big no-no on my Sprinter diesel camper and my worries have carried over). Another part of the choice is that I perceive the generator, located away from the truck at the end of the extension cord, to be less intrusive than than the idling Wrangler. And a third thing is that the lightweight generator is really handy if you want power away from the truck, say to run a power tool or to jump start someone (the eu1000i has both 120 and 12 volt outputs.) And the generator also gets used at home.
And while it's admittedly not apples to apples, an idling Jeep goes through half-a-gallon to a gallon of gas per hour as it idles, whereas the Honda can run ten or so hours on a gallon of fuel.
All of that said, I would probably be going the idle-the-Jeep route myself if I hadn't had both the generator and a good place to store it. And because I almost always drive the Jeep somewhere before the batteries die, the issue of where to get makeup power from isn't a common problem. But because it's so easy to take the little generator in and out, there's no downside to having it around to take along on selected trips.
Overland Hadley
on a journey
Fair enough- I forgot about the PNW factor; no sun.
So how many XV-JP's were built?
And how can I find one? Preferably for less than $125k? http://www.earthroamer.com/consignment/xv-jp-011/
Greedy, I am.
So how many XV-JP's were built?
And how can I find one? Preferably for less than $125k? http://www.earthroamer.com/consignment/xv-jp-011/
Greedy, I am.
mhiscox
Expedition Leader
I've gotta believe, based on the one at EarthRoamer being #11, and that it's a 2011 truck, that the total is eleven.
I would suspect that some of the early ones would be not much more than half that, assuming the Jeep wasn't too optioned up to begin with. But with only eleven, and the people who own them not being part of the (or, at least, this) overland community, we might not even know if one were to be for sale. Probably best to ask eBay and Oodle for an "XV-JP" and see if anything every comes up.
FWIW, though . . . you're on my list for if/when I need to sell mine. :sombrero: