EarthRoamer XV-JP "Northwest Edition"

[Bill@EarthRoamer.com]

One of the biggest parts of the (re)build of this XV-JP had to do with the top. In case you've never seen the inside of an XV-JP with the tent deployed, here's what it looks like (pic from EarthRoamer website):

This setup poses a few different issues. Firstly, have you ever tried to sleep in a tent this bright? Here in the Northwest, the bulk of the camping that we do is in the summer. Daylight can be 5:30am... see where I'm going here? The second issue has to do with dew, and even worse, rain. The tent that came from EarthRoamer is far from watertight- if it's raining outside, it's raining inside. Say you've had enough of getting all wet after 5 minutes of rain in your $100k+ rig- you fold up the top and head to a drier area, or even back home. Meanwhile, your saturated tent drenches everything else in your truck, and some of the components that don't have a waterproof coating start to rust... like your roll cage, which then leaves rust stains on your tent.

We worked very hard to design a build a single-wall tent that was completely waterproof but unfortunately we never were able to build one that was 100% waterproof - especially in an environment as wet as the pacific northwest. We did however come up with a simple solution that is very effective and completely solves the problem…

a rainfly:

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, there's this rope, arm, and winch system to deploy the top/tent. While it is certainly 'techy' and cool, it also puts the bulk of the pressure on the drivers side of the camper box, and after a few months of use stress cracks had appeared all the way across the rear pivot point of the camper box. Not good- the winch was literally pulling apart the truck.

The closing system was designed with a "stop" on the rope so that the winch would only apply force to the primary aluminum support hoop. As designed, no force from the winch was being transmitted to the fiberglass body. My guess is that someone removed the rope stop from Mike's camper which would result in exactly the problem described.

 

[Ford Prefect]

I'm still waiting for the completed interior of the XP-JP... :drool:

 

[jrueppel]

I bit off the current topic, but I was just admiring the photos of the NW JK again and noticed the rear bumper. Was that part of the original Earthroamer installation or something added later? It has a good lean "overland" oriented look to it. (Something I'm finding really rare in most of the JK aftermarket rear bumpers out there.) Could you tell me who the maker was?

Would enjoying seeing what has been done with the interior as well. I've been a big fan of the adaptions made for the NW JK. Cheers.

 

[mhiscox]

I'm still waiting for the completed interior of the XP-JP... :drool:

What?! I forgot to post up the pictures of the beautiful teak and aluminum interior I did for the Jeep?! :Wow1:

Just kidding. No progress whatsoever. Severe decision paralysis about what to do. Trust me, Brian, when there's the merest hint of progress, you'll know about it. I am, of course, plenty embarrassed, but since the truck drives great and holds a lot of camping gear, it's being pretty functional as is.

 

[Ford Prefect]

since the truck drives great and holds a lot of camping gear, it's being pretty functional as is.

So are you sleeping in it then?

Or is this just a nice vehicle to bring your tent along with you?

 

[mhiscox]

Yes, and yes. Both work well.

 

[Harp]

Sleeping

Did you build a loft or sleeping area?

 

[mhiscox]

Did you build a loft or sleeping area?

Well, no "loft" yet, and the sleeping area is currently the flat floor. With the stuff removed from curbside, there's plenty of width. Except . . .

. . . at the moment, the two AGM house batteries, which used to be under the floor and got moved inside to make space for the auxiliary fuel tank, are kind of in the way. It's likely that any plan to sleep lower down will involve a platform that's high enough off the floor to clear the batteries.

 

[bobDog]

Well, no "loft" yet, and the sleeping area is currently the flat floor. With the stuff removed from curbside, there's plenty of width. Except . . .

. . . at the moment, the two AGM house batteries, which used to be under the floor and got moved inside to make space for the auxiliary fuel tank, are kind of in the way. It's likely that any plan to sleep lower down will involve a platform that's high enough off the floor to clear the batteries.

hmmm seems as if you've stalled......keep us informed when you get rocking again.....we're all excited to see the interior solutions.:coffeedrink:

 

[mhiscox]

I bit off the current topic, but I was just admiring the photos of the NW JK again and noticed the rear bumper. Was that part of the original Earthroamer installation or something added later? It has a good lean "overland" oriented look to it. (Something I'm finding really rare in most of the JK aftermarket rear bumpers out there.) Could you tell me who the maker was?

The rear bumper is the same one Earthroamer originally sourced, so I didn't have anything to do with its selection, and there's no manufacturer's name on it that I can see. That said, though, I'm almost positive that the bumper is this one:

http://www.wildernessracks.com/jeep_atsswing.html.

I'm glad you like the look. Perhaps one of the reasons it looks "lean" is that I removed about 150 pounds of the original setup, which looked like this:

I found it a giant pain to have to swing all that stuff out of the way every time I wanted to get into the back. In addition, if you did not go out and release it, there was no way to use the rear window or get out of the rear of the truck. Also, I can now clearly see traffic out of the back window, which was not possible before.

 

[Ford Prefect]

You can check out http://www.raingler.com/jeeperman.htm#Accessories if you like.

These guys were looking like they were going to be huge, and then had some internal issues. They are still making (as far as I know) products however. I always thought that they were the ones making those bumpers for ER. They are also a Colorado Based company you see...

They have front and rear bumpers that looks a LOT like that rear in the photo, and the is fairly slim as well. I believe the page says $119.00 for the front and $299.oo for the rear (at the bottom of the price range) and then of course you can put all sorts of other crap on both to raise the prices up nicely.

 

[Overland Hadley]

Yeah, thanks for the understanding about hacking up the original design. I'm sure the millions of people who've never camped out of an XV-JP wonder what the hell I was thinking, while the dozen people who have used one know exactly why I did it.

.....

 

[jrueppel]

Thanks for the info!

 

[Harp]

Northwest edition

I would love to do the same thing to my flippac but I need to figure out sleeping arrangements. My wife is 6' tall and sleeping in a short bed tacoma won't work. I would like to retain the sleeping area size since all we really use it for is sleeping. some sort of loft but then I have to figure out how to get in it from the inside.

 

[mhiscox]

I would love to do the same thing to my flippac but I need to figure out sleeping arrangements. My wife is 6' tall and sleeping in a short bed tacoma won't work. I would like to retain the sleeping area size since all we really use it for is sleeping. some sort of loft but then I have to figure out how to get in it from the inside.

You've hit the nail on the head. Given the extra space in the "nose cone," the setup I have now has enough room for a queen-sized bed, but once you've deployed the bed, you can't get into it. About all one could do is to make a hinged cutout--base and attached mattress segment--in the forward passenger-side quadrant that the two sleepers climbed up through, and then once you're both up there, drop it back down.

It'd work, but would have to really want two people in the same bed, as the "one-up, one-down" sleeping setup would seem to be a lot easier. (For the XV-JP, that is. With your 5-foot bed, a "down" adult will need to rely on the Pythagorean Theorem to get enough length.)