JK/JL Jeep Camper Concept

[wild1]

This is a travel rig concept that I've been working on in the background for the last few years. We are considering building it to fill the place of our trusty old Unimog that we built in 2017-2019. This would be a vehicle for my wife and I to travel in for moderate length overland trips (destinations TBD).

We’ve had and used a lot of travel/camping setups over the years (LMTV, Unimog, Pinzgauer, Jeeps, RTTs, trailers, VW, car camping, backpacking…), and lately I’ve been feeling like “less is more”, but we do want to be comfortable, so we made a list of must have features, and this little rig pretty much does it for us. It’s a nice little camper.

The habitat has a large passthrough to the cab. There is a 4' by 6'2" bed side-to-side in the front of the habitat (behind the passthrough) that is convertible to a dinette/office. We’ve been happy with that bed size before in some of our other rigs. There is a small kitchen (with stove, fridge, and sink) across the back wall and a composting toilet in a small bathroom opposite the habitat door. It would have a diesel heater and water filtration. This is a pop top with standing height, and you can sleep with the top down if the weather is bad or when camping in the city when a little more camping discretion is needed. It fits nicely in a sea container to be shipped overseas if desired.

Shown here it is incorporated into a 4-door Jeep Unlimited JKU with the back of the body removed. Professionally, I’m a vehicle design engineer, certified welder, composite fabricator, and machinist, so building this rig would be within my normal experience range. There are certainly benefits to other chassis, but for the price, a Jeep JK or JL as a base vehicle is pretty appealing. We’ve owned several JKs, and we have liked them pretty well (there is one sitting in our driveway right now). They are reasonably priced, there are lots of parts and accessories available, and it would be nice to have cruise control, airbags, and air-conditioning.

I have designed the habitat to be a light-weight composite sandwich shell with several molded fiberglass parts. I have very carefully set up a weight and center of gravity spreadsheet, and this setup (including all of our normal travel gear and cargo) would work with the gross weight of a JK or JL Jeep with margin (it would also work fine on a Land Rover Discovery, a G-Wagon, or a Land Cruiser). I have seriously considered a diesel G-Wagon option as an alternative to the Jeep, and it’s mechanically appealing, but the price is significantly different. I’ve also considered the JT Renegade, but we want a 2-door vehicle, the JT is actually longer than I want, and I don’t want to deal with the displacement between the cab and habitat from twist of the longer JT frame.

It's just a concept, but I'd like to get input from you. What do you think?

I’m not sure what the timing of this project will be, but I’ll document the build in detail on our Wabi-Sabi Overland blog and Instagram.

Michael

P.s. I realize it is functionally similar to the AEV Outpost II, and I’ve chatted with Dave at AEV about my concept.
View attachment 695848

View attachment 695850

This is exactly the vehicle I would envision if I could wave a magic wand and transform my JLUR. I just knocked out a thousand miles in two days traveling from Montana to the Eastern Sierra to my sons cabin. We are heading down to Death Valley to do a back country auto tour and then on to Arizona. Your design would be the perfect blend of comfort and capability for these kind of trips. As a point of comparison we are running fully loaded including a top box and two kayaks. Handling even in heavy winds was fine, power was more then adequate and mileage was 15 to 16 with the constant headwinds. Really looking forward to following your build.

 

[billiebob]

This looks really interesting, but I can’t help thinking it would be better on a full-sized chassis (thinking regular cab short bed full-sized pickup with bed removed).

-Mike

that would only make it bigger, not better

 

[LostInTheWorld]

I like it. Having driven Jeep’s and many other 4xs since 1977. I remember Toyota’s first camper thing. Can’t remember the name but I was impressed that would have been the mid 70s ? Some one help me out here. I have put 175k on my 08 jku. And 50’k on my 18 jlur. And now over 50 k on my 2020 gladiator. That would make a very nice base to work from. IMHO from a practical point of view. I would. Get rid of the bed and back doors start there with the habitat. And end the habitat just a few inches past the rear wheels. I think that you would get the added weight capacity much shorter length yet longer wheelbase. That would give a better ride better weight capability and more living area. You could then run 37bfgs with a mild lift 3 inches metal cloak Which is what I am running it is a very nice ride Those are just some thoughts

When I started this layout a few years ago, I thought the gladiator would be the best choice, but when I started getting into the design details, a regular JKU worked just as well for the habitat that we were planning (about ~94" long), but the JKU would be a lower starting price. As we want a two door vehicle, both options require some surgery to remove the back seat area. I do agree that the layout that you described would have an increased gross weight allowable, and that would be nice.

 

[LostInTheWorld]

This looks really interesting, but I can’t help thinking it would be better on a full-sized chassis (thinking regular cab short bed full-sized pickup with bed removed).

-Mike

Long ago, I did consider this. When you look at some of our other general overlanding preferences (4x4, solid front axle, manual transmission....), there aren't' many regular cab short bed full-sized pickup options. It also makes our sea container shipping requirement difficult without making the habitat so short, that it makes it hard to sleep in the habitat with the top down. Basically, pickups are too big. There are pros and cons to every option, but I think it would be prohibitively hard to get a pickup to meet all of our requirements.

 

[LostInTheWorld]

I am in the process of building something quite similar as well.

I started with a 2 door JK, but then stretched the wheelbase to 125".
This will allow me to put the rear access door behind the passenger front door, which I think makes the interior layout a little more efficient. ( though of course this is just an opinion) I notice that the MDX conversions (based on land rover 130 trucks) use a fold down rear door, and that is also an interesting choice.
Weight is the real killer. Aluminum and composite with well placed structural strength and trying not to stress the chassis is high on my list as it seems on yours.

Good luck, I will be watching your progress.
If money were no object, I would have built mine on a shortened Diesel Gladiator, but I expect to be able to build mine completely for less than an unmodified Gladiator costs, and since I am on a budget, I decided to modify the vehicle I already owned.

Hey, I just noticed your build and was checking it out. You have a cool plan. I look forward to watching your progress.

It seems that we are both thinking the same things about a light weight structure that plays nice with the jeep frame. I'm planning on a lot of composite parts.

Your plan of having the rear access door behind the passenger front door will be a nice layout. I have several door placement layouts that I'm comparing now. I have one with a fold-down rear door like you mentioned. The interior layout is a little better that way, but I'm always a little leery of having the door on the back where everything seems to always end up muddy and dusty. When we were traveling in the arctic in our Unimog, I was sometimes glad that our habitat door was forward on the side as the back was covered in mud for like three months straight. I am tempted by the back door layout for this jeep, though. I think the floorplan ends up a bit more efficient.

Looking at photos of our arctic travels just now, maybe door placement isn't as critical as I remember. The whole truck was pretty muddy most of the time, so maybe it is better to base the door decision on the most comfortable interior layout.

 

[LostInTheWorld]

This is exactly the vehicle I would envision if I could wave a magic wand and transform my JLUR. I just knocked out a thousand miles in two days traveling from Montana to the Eastern Sierra to my sons cabin. We are heading down to Death Valley to do a back country auto tour and then on to Arizona. Your design would be the perfect blend of comfort and capability for these kind of trips. As a point of comparison we are running fully loaded including a top box and two kayaks. Handling even in heavy winds was fine, power was more then adequate and mileage was 15 to 16 with the constant headwinds. Really looking forward to following your build.

Thanks! I think this will be a great little travel vehicle for two people. It's really just like you described: a blend of comfort and capability. I'm excited to start detailing it out.

 

[LostInTheWorld]

that would only make it bigger, not better

I tend to agree. This rig is really about being small and simple.

 

[Florida Native]

that would only make it bigger, not better

My thinking was that it would only be marginally bigger at the end of the day, but you’d have more payload capacity. I can’t see how the Jeep chassis won’t be overloaded when finished and loaded for camping, but I am the first to admit that this isn’t my wheelhouse.

Still subscribed, as it will be a very cool build.

-Mike

 

[LostInTheWorld]

My thinking was that it would only be marginally bigger at the end of the day, but you’d have more payload capacity. I can’t see how the Jeep chassis won’t be overloaded when finished and loaded for camping, but I am the first to admit that this isn’t my wheelhouse.

Still subscribed, as it will be a very cool build.

-Mike

You are totally right that a pickup option would likely yield more payload capacity. That being said, we have had a lot of different rigs over the years, and this one would be about keeping things simple and agile. I've done a lot of weight estimating on this layout based on the gear that we normal take with us, and it looks like there is good weight margin.

 

[billiebob]

Bigger always let you take more but do you really need more than this ??

 

[shays4me]

Bigger always let you take more but do you really need more than this ??

View attachment 697215

Well yeah, I need to watch TV after dark! LOL

 

[billiebob]

Well yeah, I need to watch TV after dark! LOL

I think they partake in other activities after dark.

 

[LostInTheWorld]

This is an overdue update on this project, but here is a quick rundown of the current state of the vehicle design and build. Overall, it is going very well. I have been working on the project 7 days a week for the last 6 months and it is all really taking shape now.

• We relocated back to the large shop space where we built our Unimog in 2017-2019
• I decided to build two identical jeep campers at the same time (one for Yvonne and I and a second one for a friend)
• The base vehicles are recent year jeep JLU wranglers
• The finished vehicle will fit in a standard height sea container for shipping
• The camper is 6 ft wide and 7.5 ft long inside
• I am currently building the pop top roof that will be hinged on the forward edge
• There will be standing height with the top up, and sitting height with the top down
• I did a lot of design and material trades and decided on a composite sandwich panel build with an integrated steel roll bar attachment
• I decided to go with a flat sided camper to maximize internal volume
• I have tried to include some nice detail features like a slide out ladder that stows under the camper floor and a full sized passthrough to the cab of the jeep from the habitat
• Like normal, I did all of the fabrication work myself (including custom composite wall panels)
• I was able to remove 623 lb from the original jeep by cutting the back body off
• Currently the vehicle with the nearly finished camper shell on it is under the original curb weight
• Including almost all of the intended aftermarket upgrades, the first vehicle is currently 1,235 lb under the max GVW rating
• After an intense 6 months of building, I “might” have the first one ready for a trip to Overland Expo West (If you are there, come find me a say hi!)
• A friend has just arrived and is helping a ton with electrical and lots of details before Expo
• The interior will be totally empty by Expo, but the outside of the vehicle will hopefully be pretty much finished
• I’ve been posting all the project updates on my Instagram: @wabi_sabi_overland

 

[shays4me]

I’m impressed. The Jeep looks good and the numbers look even better so far. Great job keeping it under gvwr!

 

[LostInTheWorld]

I’m impressed. The Jeep looks good and the numbers look even better so far. Great job keeping it under gvwr!

Thanks. I'm pretty happy with how they are turning out. Naturally, I wish they were even lighter, but it's a bit of a balance between weight and durability.