Just Downsized to a Renegade (build and trips)

[crossed-up]

With another Euro trip to the Alps planned in August and various issues needing to attention on the WK, I decided to down size to a Renegade Trailhawk a few weeks ago so I could spend more time travelling and less time working on the WK. Double the fuel economy was also attractive given that most of my planned trips involve 1000's of road miles to get to and from the trails.

The swap required the ‘quart into a pint pot’ project of transferring my drawer/kitchen system to the smaller vehicle. My brother has an almost identical Trailhawk so I was already familiar with some of the potential space limtitations, but figured I could come up with a workable solution, and in the end I pretty much managed to fit all WK kit in, even the waffle boards will go in with a bit of cutting.

Obviously the Renegade’s luggage space is smaller than the WK but its’s actually a lot deeper, albeit it has to house the spare wheel. After taking various measurements I figured my drawer and fridge slide build would actually fit with a bit of timing and fettling. In the end I opted to remove the floor board (quite thichk and surprisingly heavy.), and turn the spare upside-down to create a useful and accessible storage space below the draw, but I would need to make up some sort of mounting arrangement to support the drawer. I opted to make a perimeter frame of 10mm tube fastened to the rear cargo hook mounts to support the rear of the drawer, and pick up on the rear seat mount at the front. Following the mounting of the drawer I replaced the rear shelf (again surprisingly heavy) with a full width and deeper 9mm ply version as a further storage platform for some folding plastic crates. The dimensions also worked out to allow a plastic crate to fit below too if required.
Once this was all installed I realised there was a reasonable sized unused space above the fridge, so I decided to fit another drawer here.

Here are some pics of the build:

Checking the fit of stripped drawer from the WK. It just required the back edge trimming back to allow for the seat back angle.

Made a bracket to pickup on the seat mount.

Made up a lightweight frame to pick up on the cargo mounts

The fame on the RH side extends forward to support the fridge slide mount (salvaged from the WK)

Starting to take shape

Building the new shelf - 9mm ply with weight saving cutouts

Building up the drawer above the fridge.

More fitting and fettling.

Shelf support

I made a removable floor to provide another compartment to the side of the drawer

All re-carpeted and packed in!

Out on test.

More later...

 

[Morgan Weafer]

This is brilliant. How do you have your fridge powered?

 

[crossed-up]

Thanks Morgan. The fridge is currently spliced into the rear power outlet. But I will probably run a stouter wire direct from the battery through a fuse and switch to avoid a voltage drop over the length of the factory loom.

 

[crossed-up]

Some pics from a brief trip out last Sunday.

 

[G0to60]

This is great! I'll need to share this with a friend of mine who is building up his Renegade. I don't think he had anything like this in mind but it may get his imagination going. Nice work.

 

[Whaler]

Really slick work! The mounting frame is ingenious. I'd love to see a close-up photo of the flip-out work surface over the stove. I'll be curious if it impedes access to the fridge and if that ends up being a nuisance over time. Really well done, cheers.

 

[crossed-up]

Thanks Whaler. The details of the work surface were on my WK build thread. The configuration word fine on the WK but on the BU I compromised it slightly by having the drawer above the fridge, but this just pulls out if I want to set up for access to the cooker fridge when set up for a cook out. I decided a deeper drawer was more useful than better access.

.....
Planning out the table. Size was constrained mostly by the width of the drawer.

Glueing up the basic tray - 5mm ply with 12mm ply surround for stiffness.

Chopping out the hinge rebate.

Bending up a support.

Support holds the table flat to give a useful table when not using the stove.

I decided on top-mounted an aluminium support that locks into a bracket.

I forgot to allow clearance for the stove when making the central hinge support so had to cut this down in situ and tidy it up as best i could

Then end result seems rigid enough but I may make up an aluminium brace across the from face of the stove to tie the front end of the drawer sides together. I also need to remake the support bracket with an extra tab to hold the support when it is folded in transit.

 

[crossed-up]

Small update, forgot to add the passenger footwell extinguisher mount. I had to fab up a new one as the one from the WK wouldn't fit. The long bolt was just to hold it whilst painting, it actually fits to the front seat mounts.

 

[crossed-up]

Another quick update. My new tyres arrived last week so the Renegade is now sitting on Yokohama Geolander AT G015's, in the original factory size of 215/60 17. These have proved to be far more robust than the puncture-prone OEM Good Year 4Seasons on my brothers Trailhawk.

 

[SSF556]

Is accessing the spare tire an ordeal?

 

[crossed-up]

Is accessing the spare tire an ordeal?

Its actually not too bad given the general inconvenience that goes with changing a flat anyway. You basically slide the main drawer out and undo four M6 bolts and a couple of screws to get the draw box out - I might change these to thumbwheels. As you know, on the WK you don't have the issue of disturbing all the gear and luggage, but you have to grovel about underneath (inevitably in the wet and mud) instead. So I'm not too bothered about the compromise for something that should hopefully be a rare occurrence, especially now that I've ditched the Good Years.

 

[crossed-up]

It’s about 4 weeks until my trip to the Alps, which actually means two fee weekends (plus any time I get in the evenings) to get the last few jobs finished off, as I’m busy with an event for one of them, and have other non-Jeep related prep to do also.

Now that the tyres are sorted the only two jobs I really wanted to button up was fitting the CB and running a better supply to the fridge. First I tackled the aerial mount and decided to mount it on the roof rail similarly to how it was on the WK. This involved removing the rail (only 4 allen bolts) and fitting some outserts to mount a bracket a nice stout bracket. I made this from 6mm aluminium from an old sump guard, cut and bent to shape.

After mounting it I ran the coax down the tailgate seal and into the rear light cavity, then from here behind the luggage compartment trim panel, don the sill and across to the trans tunnel under the front passenger seat (there’s a nice joint in the carpet here to tuck it under. I considered locating the CB in the cubby box like I did on the WK, but decided that it would be better on the side of the console, which is conveniently where the coax can emerge.

A bit of heat helped to prevent the cracking whilst bending.

Finished bracket with aerial base fitted.

Roof rail removed for drilling.

Inserts fitted and spacer fitted to provide clearance for the ribs on the underside of the rail.

Bracket screwed in place.

Rail back in place.

Routing the coax through the real light avoided having to drill the bodywork.

 

[crossed-up]

I decided to run a new supply in directly from the battery for the CB and the fridge. After a lot of poking around and trim removal a figured a way to get a new cable from the battery through the bulkhead using the large factory loom gland. There is actually a good bit of space behind the console trim, so I ran the supply to here and made up a bracket to mount a small 4 way fuse block. From here its a short run to the CB, which I still need to make a bracket, and a can follow the route of the coax to take the supply to the fridge.

Panel removed to access loom gland. I had to use a bit of welding wire to pull the new cable through.

Used one of the plastic rivet holes to run the new supply through.

Cover panel back in place and new supply run directly to positive battery terminal.

New supply follows factory loom to location behind console footwell panel (the glovebox assembly had to come out for this.)

Used a bit of scrap ali. to make a bracket to mount the fuse box.

Bracket mounts to a convenient factory bolt.

I just need to fab up the CB mount which can pick up on another factory bolt lower down, then finish of the wiring.

 

[billiebob]

So disappointing,
this is what I was thinking.

awesome job tho

 

[G0to60]

So disappointing,
this is what I was thinking.

Way to rain on his thread. So what if it's not an old Renegade. He's still doing some great work on his new one.

To the OP, nice work on fitting all of that stuff into such a small space. Good job.