Expeditions West: (JK) XV-JP Announcement Thread

[24HOURSOFNEVADA]

Wow...That raises the bar. Way to go.

 

[p1michaud]

The Jeep Mod Frenzy begins...

Well done Scott. I can feel in the air, we are on the brink of a new Scotty mod frenzy...eepwall:

Cheers,
P

 

[Gear]

Congrat's on the new JK. :clapsmile I am really looking forward to this build. :lurk: Do you by chance have a base weight of your JK from the factory. This is something that I forgot to get before starting my mod list. Also can you divulge the weight of the XV-JP.

 

[LUISJG]

come on Scott,, tell us what you know about the realease of the CRD'S


:campfire:

 

[Scott Brady]

Well, I do know that the Hemi will be available first... The 3.0 would have been available, but did not quite fit, then the Merc. split with Chrysler and it was tabled.

It will happen. They know the Wrangler needs a diesel.

 

[LUISJG]

man ,, I cant wait to the your white jk romer finished. congratulations.

 

[ujoint]

Awesome, I'm a huge JK fan! Just drive it up to Montana & let AEV do a little "work" under he hood. It's not that far from Denver, right??

I am a little sad that you're not going to Fresno instead.......

 

[Funrover]

This is a great post, The JK's are great WOW

 

[haven]

icon

My original suggestion/guess for Scott's trip vehicle was a Grand Cherokee, which is available with CRD today. AEV has prepared the GC and Commander for several endurance/expedition events. And there are lots of interesting trailer options for the camping gear.

But the JK is an American icon, and has a great following. There must be 20 magazines for jeep fans, and countless web sites. So the pool of prospective customers for products developed for this project is greater if the base vehicle is a JK.

This makes finding sponsorship easier. For example, Earthroamer could sell a "Scott Brady Signature" edition of the XV-JP after the trip!

Chip Haven

 

[IXNAYXJ]

...the tire choice is marginal in that the Krawlers are not a very good...

Those aren't Krawlers, rather BFG KM2s.

-----Matt-----

 

[Redline]

Should I/we take this hijacked thread to another spot?

I'm very curious "why" the Krawlers are such poor mud tires? (I have no reason to doubt your experience with them.)

And since the new BFG KM2 'looks' so similar to Krawlers, are they not going to be as good a mud tire as the current BFM M/T?

Not to get too far off topic --

Spectacular vehicle build, and I wish him and his teammate all the luck in the Outback Challenge. BTDT X2 and would do it again if I had the cash. Two points however:

1) the tire choice is marginal in that the Krawlers are not a very good mud tire (experience shows they are worse than not good), and there will be serious mud to be found, even in the desert area of the Challenge. (Start here, cross that billabong for about 2K, turn left, enter really deep stuff, and you have 10 minutes to complete the course, and oh by the way, we are going to do this one at night).

They are also right on the edge of acceptable size. We looked at the Krawlers for the 2003 race, and BFG was willing to sponsor with a free set, but they didn't fit the box. Tires are limited in the Challenge Class to 37.5 diameter and 13.5 carcass width. The only way to make the 37 Krawlers fit these dimensions is sans air, and while for scrutineering purposes "tyre pressures are free" meaning you can have as much or as little air as you want, they also expect you to have the tires aired as you will for racing, so dead flat don't count. Hoping that the team in this case has something figured out on that score, because the scrutineers don't go by carcass markings, they actually measure the tires with a gauge. Tires are also subject to additional inspection during the event, although I never saw it happen.

2) Gearing notwithstanding, the JK will be way under powered with a 3.8 V-6. Many of the guys in the Challenge are now running stroked V-8's, and in the sand courses, some sound like circle track machines. Speed is not the only answer, of course, but there really is no substitute for displacement when racing in the desert.

Wish I could go along on that one.

Oh, and I would drop one of the spare tires. Either the BFG's will take the punishment or they won't, but an additional 100+ pounds that far back and up won't do much good, and the cargo ability could better be used for food, water and fuel.

 

[toyrunner95]

DAMNIT!!! now i want a jk.... CRAP i need to get out of college, 8 more weeks, 8 more weeks and im done! how much is that conversion? do you think the fuzz would let me live in one down by the river?

 

[Scott Brady]

DAMNIT!!! now i want a jk.... CRAP i need to get out of college, 8 more weeks, 8 more weeks and im done! how much is that conversion? do you think the fuzz would let me live in one down by the river?

The XV-JP conversion is in the 75-90k range depending on options, which is not just the camper, but all of the trail modifications, gearing change, armor, etc.

The base Jeep was almost exactly 30k, and is essentially loaded. The complete EarthRoamer with Jeep and conversion is about $105-120,000. Mine will end up a bit more because of the heavily modified suspension.

 

[nwoods]

I had the opportunity to speak to Alex yesterday about your comments. See below

Not to get too far off topic --

Spectacular vehicle build, and I wish him and his teammate all the luck in the Outback Challenge. BTDT X2 and would do it again if I had the cash. Two points however:

1) the tire choice is marginal in that the Krawlers are not a very good mud tire (experience shows they are worse than not good), and there will be serious mud to be found, even in the desert area of the Challenge..

Bill Burke has been testing these tires for the past two years all across the US in a variety of conditions and stated that he found no issues with them. he's a ex-Camel Trophy guy and knows what mud is, so hopefully this means the KM2 is a better than average mud tire.

They are also right on the edge of acceptable size.... Hoping that the team in this case has something figured out on that score, because the scrutineers don't go by carcass markings, they actually measure the tires with a gauge..

Alex was aware of that, and gave several examples to those of us having the discussion about how different manufacturers overall outer diameter seemed to vary quite a bit from what is stamped on the sidewall. I think this issue is covered.

2) Gearing notwithstanding, the JK will be way under powered with a 3.8 V-6..

I didn't talk to him about this. I'm not sure what they've done or plan to do with the engine.

Oh, and I would drop one of the spare tires.

Yes, what you saw in the photos is the "transport" configuration, not the racing config. Alex stated that many items would be transfered to a local chase truck once they arrived in country.

Back to our featured programming....

 

[jayshapiro]

To CRD or not to CRD

Scott,

Since everyone seems so interested in this element of the build, can you let us know your thinking with not going for the CRD spec vehicle? Was it because of the LHD/RHD?

Good Luck with a great build,
Jay.