New Expedition Portal Jeeper

[DaveInDenver]

Maybe I need to go to packing school, I can barely get my wife and I and a weekends wroth of gear in the Jeep..

We were getting stuff creep (as I call it). More and more stuff just seemingly coming along that just gets moved from the basement, outside to the garage and into the truck packing and the reverse unpacking each weekend. So I have forced the issue by designating all of our stuff (minus a couple of exceptions) into 3 boxes. One is her stuff, one is mine and the third is the chow box. She can take anything she wants as long as it fits in her box (including sleeping bag, pillow, boots, everything). Same with me. It has helped to reduce the amount of useless junk we take. My exceptions are the table, chairs and camera. Also water is allowed to reside outside the boxes.

 

[computeruser]

Glad to see the subsequent posts in this thread. While I'm on vacation at the moment, I've got my TJ off geting its engine torn down for the second time in seven months (thanks, Chrysler, for that 70k powertrain warranty! I sure hope y'all get it right this time, since I'm at 65k...). I also ordered a new winch (M8000 to replace my REP8000 that started acting up), bought an onboard air setup and an ARB tire plug kit, and added a new snatch block and a couple new tree straps to my recovery gear box.

I've got to agree with the pack light idea. I've been trying a lot harder, on weekend trips and the other 2-6 day trips that we've been taking a lot of this year, to pack as lightly as possible. This weekend we took a Friday-Tuesday trip to visit the inlaws in Nashville and to hike up at Mammoth Cave Nat'l Park, and I tried out our new, much larger luggage setup that my wife and I got for x-mas from her parents. Not surpringly, I took a lot more stuff than I really needed. Painfully simple logic - you will fill the space you have - but a damned hard instinct to overcome.

I LOVE the picture of the single seat, smooth loadfloor design. If I was single or solo-tripping for a protracted period of time, I would definitely do this.

In the meantime, though, I'm thinking about building an elevated, smooth load floor that is high enough to fit my parts/spares box, cooler, tent, and stove beneath. Then the light stuff - clothes, sleeping bags, dogs, etc., can ride on top. Ideally this design can be continued with a removable platform that goes up between the front seats and into the front part of the vehicle as a place for legs and feet to go for in-vehicle sleeping. I'm not sure about this front part, either in terms of practicality or utility, but I think the rear platform would help with my storage needs and, if the front extension works out, provide a passable interior sleeping setup for one person + a dog. And as an added bonus I could fit some of my saws on top of the platform without having to remove the bars, and still have room for a cooler and my cutting gear box beneath.

I've accumulated a few junk angleiron bedframes, so I'll probably start welding something up when I get home from vacation. I have only once seen the $400+ Kilby pre-made version of this idea on eBay (lightly used for $150+shipping, if memory serves) and I'm sure that I can make something that is good enough, even if it isn't quite as polished of a design. Plus, their design had sides which are nice for storage but inherently incompatible with being doubling as an interior sleeping platform. I guess I'll fire up the welder and see what I can come up with.

 

[goodtimes]

I originally had a storage rack that was clamped to my roll cage, similar to Kilby's. In fact, Brad (Kilby) thought it was one of his the first time he saw it. It worked great as long as I was content sleeping on the ground, or in a tent. Once I decided to sleep inside the jeep, I had to scrap the rack, and build the platform (see previous page).

For reference, there is approximately 6.5' between tailgate and dash, plenty of room for 95% of jeep owners (you tall guys are on your own). There is about 16" between the center console and the wheel well...with a gentle curve on the wheel well, it is wide enough for most people (I'm not exactly skinny, and I fit....). I am quite comfortable sleeping in mine, with enough room for a 65 pound mongeral beside me. I do have to empty the gear out though. To accomplish this, I keep everything packed in small action-packer boxes, and the bulky stuff is already out anyway (table, chairs, etc). It takes me less than 5 minutes to pull the boxes out and slide them underneath the jeep, unroll a thermarest and sleeping bag, and I'm set.

Travelling with 2 people is more challenging though, since you can't remove the passenger seat.

When it comes to deciding what gear stays and what goes....I approach it just like I am backpacking. In fact, a good portion of the gear in my jeep is the same gear that resides in my backpack....

 

[grahamfitter]

Travelling with 2 people is more challenging though, since you can't remove the passenger seat.

I'm working on it. I have a cunning plan. (I assume you mean driver seat?)

When it comes to deciding what gear stays and what goes....I approach it just like I am backpacking. In fact, a good portion of the gear in my jeep is the same gear that resides in my backpack....

A good portion of the gear in my jeep is devoted to eating

I'm not much of a chef myself and I could live for weeks out of a jetboil. But when we travel as a family we try to eat as we do at home to keep the quality up and the (eating out) costs down. We take the same cooking stuff for a weekend or a month and, while I'd like to reduce the bulk, I wouldn't abandon any capability.

Cheers,
Graham

 

[goodtimes]

I'm working on it. I have a cunning plan. (I assume you mean driver seat?)

No, I mean the passenger seat. The only seat I leave in my jeep is the driver seat....but I can get away with that since I travel solo + dog. If I were married and tried to do this plus take the wife...I would be divorced.


Hmmmm.....I might be onto something here. "How to get your wife to leave you in one easy step"..... :sport_box