Hopefully Lost... 2015 JKUR beginner build with mostly used parts

[dox]

I am a novice in the off-road world. Especially on four wheels. On motorcycles, I occasionally found myself in over my head but overall I kept my adventures fun... but manageable. My skill level and temperament off-road need significant improvement and I also need to practice self-reliant recovery. Having said all that, while I don't intend to do any serious rock crawling or intentionally get myself (or a pre-teen child in the back seat) into a sticky situation, I need to be able to cover decently challenging terrain and be prepared for whatever scenario I may land in.

Also, I have a big problem: Weight.

With a full fridge in the back, loaded with gear and tools which I've been working to pair down to the essentials, ten gallons of fuel and five or more gallons of water... this thing is heavy. The OEM Rubicon suspension on 3" spacers is overloaded and hitting the bump stops off road has become a routine occurrence that I'm not fond of.

Mulling over the options, I wasn't sure I really needed the high capacity 4.5" AEV lift... but what I have wasn't cutting it. And then a solution presented itself:

A young couple in northern Ohio ordered this for their JKU, but decided not to install it after finding out a baby was on the way. After a bit of talk and negotiating, I arrived just south of Cleveland and purchased a brand-new-in-boxes AEV 3.5" Dual Sport SC complete kit for $1100. I believe MSRP is around 1800 for this kit. The sellers seemed very genuine and the transaction went about as well as any could have. All eight boxes are there, and a checklist of items seems to show everything was included as it would have shipped directly to me.

Awaiting installation:

Working with a local shop to have this installed very soon. While I think I could install this with a little help from my friends, the combination of tools and expertise and a good garage to perform the work just isn't in the cards right now. Biting the bullet and having it installed and professionally aligned with a nice shakedown trip in the works to test it locally and then a little further away with some varied terrain in the WV mountains.

 

[dox]

Solar, on board power and charging systems have been a big focus of reading and research lately. A DIY system seemed the only way to do it well while still saving some money. My Jeep needed a new battery recently, and I settled on a NAPA (East Penn Rebranded) AGM for my starting battery. My jeep and fridge seem happy again. When this came about, I strongly considered a dual battery system... weighing the pros and cons of cost, flexibility, portability, use in other scenarios. While looking around, what I think may be a very flexible build-as-I-go plan presented itself. It's probably not the best approach, but it should suit my needs well for some flexibility and portability that I need for things other than overland travel.

Amazon ran a deal on the Jackery 240 placing it well below the $1 per watt-hour standard for fair pricing, so I picked one up with the plan to mount a solar panel on the roof to charge it at some point.

It doesn't have a built-in MPPT solar charge controller it seems, which is probably the one big drawback of their units. I bought it with the idea that, unlike the bigger / heavier 500 watt-hour model, this one should be pretty portable for space savings and easily brought into the RTT for charging devices overnight and running a fan. I can charge it with DC and add solar down the road.

Down the road came a little faster than I expected, because a Jackery Solarsaga 60W (previous model) came open really nearby on Facebook Marketplace. The ad claims that it was in a pallet auction and was "new". It's only a fifteen minute drive, so I took a chance.

Plugged an iphone into the USB port at the seller's house, it charged the phone from 51% to 65% in about ten minutes. Seems to be working. We settled on a price of $70. While the older model, it seems to work OK and the Andersen Power Pole cord to connect it to my soon-to-arrive Jackery 240 was still wrapped with twist ties and the whole thing looked brand new.

A little testing at home showed 21.75 volts without being in direct sunlight. It was just under 24 volts when I sat it on the ground, angled towards the afternoon sun.

I have a little cabin in the woods, so these items will work well for that use, as well as in emergencies around the house. I rent and don't lose power often, so my need for a big generator has diminished significantly over the years. I'm going to sell my big Generac as well, and maybe purchase / build another solar-generator type system with a little more capacity at some point.

As long as I can run the fridge for about 7-10 hours overnight, which by my math the Jackery 240 should. With the addition of the solar panel, it gives me a lot of flexibility and can be used in other situations.

In time, a pair of HQST panels and a Victron 75 bluetooth/app-enabled MPPT solar controller may make their way onto the jeep for a solid, inexpensive and simple solution to add hard-mounted solar capability to my rig / starting battery and fridge without breaking the bank. This should keep the battery topped off and fridge going without too much issue if the Jackery is in use at camp / cabin and I'll keep the ARB fridge voltage cutoff set to high to be sure to preserve my starting battery.

 

[dox]

Flooding posts today while I have time, but here are a few pics of the Jeep in action yesterday. Deep in the woods and creekbeds of WV with no bypasses and no way out, I was defnitely in over my head on this trail...Especially without anyone there to pull me out should I have gotten stuck. 3-4 hours of one way trail, about half the time in rocky streams that West Virginia calls a "county road".

While intense, it was amazing fun and my confidence in the Jeep's capabilities is high. The confidence in my own ability to drive properly off-road, however, is still very questionable. This thing will surely go places my mind will hold me back from venturing, but it's good to know that I'm ready for whatever comes.