EarthRoamer XV-JP "Northwest Edition"

[DionK]

Hello off road enthusiasts!

After their long trip the extra help is here and they are motivated! So far we have had a productive and exciting week, here is our progress thus far.


The top is off for some fresh air and now the transformation can begin!


In order to create a larger sleeping area we cut the nose off of the shell and extended the body by 8 inches.
We hope to make a sleeping area large enough to fit a queen sized mattress (60"x80") in the nose of the camper
shell. On a Final note we made sure that the extended nose will not obstruct the drivers view thru the windshield.


Here we are preparing the two haves of the shell to be reunited via the 8 inch extension to the shell. This was
a tedious process to ensure the shell would sit true to the vehicle. However the extra room in the sleeping compartment
will make roughing it as cozy as the guest house!


This picture was after we laid our initial layers of fiberglass over our foam core, we still have a bit of work to do before we
are done. Ideas are materializing and fiberglass is in the air!

 

[mk216v]

Very cool Dion, thanks for sharing! More room up there will be fantastic.
While you're filling, make sure to talk Mike into filling the 4 Jurassic Park aux light holes; a Rigid LED light bar will be welcomed by the electrical system vs the current(no pun intended) HID's.

 

[DionK]

Very cool Dion, thanks for sharing! More room up there will be fantastic.
While you're filling, make sure to talk Mike into filling the 4 Jurassic Park aux light holes; a Rigid LED light bar will be welcomed by the electrical system vs the current(no pun intended) HID's.

Mike has no choice in the matter that is what will be going in there, yet he has agreed with my decision.

 

[mk216v]

Mike has no choice in the matter that is what will be going in there, yet he has agreed with my decision.

I'm glad to see it was an amicable decision.

 

[mhiscox]

I'm glad to see it was an amicable decision.

Dion's messin' with you, Jer. There's a clause in the contract that says he only gets to make changes after getting my approval. Though who wouldn't approve of a spiffy new LED light bar.

We haven't, however, come to grips with the best use of those two pairs of round holes molded into the nose cone that held the HID lights. I'm personally thinking that something along the lines of the missile launchers Q kept putting into 007's Aston Martins and BMWs might be clever, or maybe very small portholes so you could get fresh air and a view for any purse dog you cared to transport up there. Dion, however, may just want to glass over them.

 

[mk216v]

Dion's messin' with you, Jer. There's a clause in the contract that says he only gets to make changes after getting my approval. Though who wouldn't approve of a spiffy new LED light bar.

We haven't, however, come to grips with the best use of those two pairs of round holes molded into the nose cone that held the HID lights. I'm personally thinking that something along the lines of the missile launchers Q kept putting into 007's Aston Martins and BMWs might be clever, or maybe very small portholes so you could get fresh air and a view for any purse dog you cared to transport up there. Dion, however, may just want to glass over them.

Both good ideas Mike. Although I think the best use of them would be for a set of these, as you'd be all the rage;

 

[sarconcepts]

Mike
It was great visiting with you all this weekend.
The portal is lucky to have such a gentleman amid all of us dirt eating rogues, with that said, I don't think we can come up & visit ever again, as Bethany hasn't stopped blabbing about buying a motorcycle with a sidecar for two days now.
thanks a lot!

 

[mk216v]

Mike
It was great visiting with you all this weekend.
The portal is lucky to have such a gentleman amid all of us dirt eating rogues, with that said, I don't think we can come up & visit ever again, as Bethany hasn't stopped blabbing about buying a motorcycle with a sidecar for two days now.
thanks a lot!
View attachment 299866

LOL Steve, looks like it's time for a trailer for the Bullet for one of these;

 

[mhiscox]

It was great visiting with you all this weekend. The portal is lucky to have such a gentleman amid all of us dirt eating rogues . . .

Thanks for the kind words, Steve. Always a pleasure to see the Bullet, which Sue and Evelyn were very taken with . . . so I'm pretty sure they'd be eager to see me work some sort of trade that would get Bethany in the hack.

And by the way, while Jeremy acts the aficionado by posting up that cool sidecarcross photo, I think the ExPo world should know that he recently turned down a totally bonafide, all-expenses-paid gig to be the monkey on my race rig.

 

[mk216v]

Thanks for the kind words, Steve. Always a pleasure to see the Bullet, which Sue and Evelyn were very taken with . . . so I'm pretty sure they'd be eager to see me work some sort of trade that would get Bethany in the hack.

And by the way, while Jeremy acts the aficionado by posting up that cool sidecarcross photo, I think the ExPo world should know that he recently turned down a totally bonafide, all-expenses-paid gig to be the monkey on my race rig.

Haha, monkey is right. You didn't bribe me with enough bananas to be hanging off such a rig at ludicrous speeds.

Dion, let's see some more pictures of what you're up to today on the cabin.

 

[mhiscox]

And now that we've covered sidecarcross . . .

I had a really good conversation with Dion last evening and got an update on how things are progressing with my Jeep camper . . .

Pretty much all fiberglass, all the time. The past couple of weeks have been spent getting the top made and the body prepped so that they can go to the paint shop. The body is off of the truck chassis and has had some modifications made to it, including accounting for the different window arrangement and the need for a new design to the "lip" at the top/body interface. And a number of "breaches" in the body left over from the two previous layouts have been sealed up.

And there's been a fair amount--pun intended, obscure though it is--of filling and sanding to get the body smooth and ready for the paint. Not surprisingly, given that it's the least expensive alternative, the body and top will be repainted the factory Jeep silver of the chassis, though regardless of the cost, that's the color I'd have wanted. I've appreciated the silver color over the years, not sucking up heat too much but also really a good color for not showing dirt, dust and scratches.



Anyway, things are still on track for having the truck shown off in Asheville at Overland Expo East, October 1-4. Much as the prep work to paint your bathroom takes way longer than the actual painting, all this fiberglass and body prep work apparently takes way longer than any of the other jobs. Once the body is back from the paint shop, Dion and the crew expect the systems and interior tasks to get ticked off at a good rate.

And speaking of Dion and his staff . . . when we started this redo of the Jeep, it pretty much was an arrangement between me and Dion, so I was hiring a single clever guy with a lot of relevant skills. But Dion's a pretty good entrepreneur, and since our initial contact, he's gotten his building finished and occupied, hired craftspeople, and got much other business conducted as his company, Red Cannon Expedition.



The point of which is that during the rest of this build, I'll be referring to Red Cannon much more than Dion, in much the same way as I'd talk about EarthRoamer instead of my friend Bill Swails. While both enterprises are inseparable from their founders, there's now a company, rather than "a guy," doing the Jeep build. Congratulations on your progress, Dion.

 

[Every Miles A Memory]

Cant wait to see how this thing progresses along!! Love your builds Mike!!

 

[mhiscox]

Cant wait to see how this thing progresses along!! Love your builds Mike!!

Thanks, Pat. I was thinking back to the comment you made last month about all the makeovers . . . You're right; it's pretty weird that this little Jeep will end up having had three completely different configurations. Oh, well, every boy needs a hobby.

 

[fog cutter]

butt hurt aside, the original product looked more show than practical.

dare i ask about the swiss army trailer?

 

[mhiscox]

Dare I ask about the swiss army trailer?

Geez, good memory.

I'm saving money, time and energy to tackle the lifting roof. In its current non-lifting roof configuration, far too many people think they should be able to buy a waffle cone from it. :-(

If/when the lifting roof goes on, I'll move the side walls to the outside edges of the side pods. They're on the inside now because of a misguided idea I had about them folding down to seal the trailer bed, which they don't really do anyway. With the walls on the outside, there'd be more interior room and the thing will look better.

There's also a school of thought (highly promoted by the household co-resident) that predicts that it wouldn't get enough use to warrant any additional expense and effort and that just making use of, or selling, the service body as a service body, either on the trailer or put onto a long-bed pickup, wouldn't be the worst of ideas.

We'll see. For the moment, it's helping keep the concrete pad in the back yard from blowing away. Thanks for asking . . . I guess. :sombrero: