Ok, time now to shift gears a bit. The plan for the next four days was to connect with my friends from AEV and spend some time in and around the rigs as well as touring some of my favorite backcountry. I should state from the beginning that I am not brand loyal to anything specifically but tend to love a variety of offerings from a variety of companies. I have been a Cruiser guy for a long time and love them, recently have gotten annointed with the Rover scene and love, but there is no arguing just how good the latest Wrangler offerings have come and especially now with the 5 door Rubicon. The only reason I am not running an AEV kitted JK is purely funding. :sombrero: Having four days to ride along in and see these things in action was great. On top of that, the AEV guys are about as good of folks as you will find in the industry and I always have a blast just hanging out with them.
The first night at the AEV compound was a BBQ for the AEV, Mopar, and Jeep staff who all attended. We also had some journalists in attendance, representing Autoweek, Robb Report, Four Wheel Drive, and Scott of course with OJ. It was pretty cool having a bunch of the one-off show Jeeps show up in the driveway...
Pictured here is the Lower Forty, behind it Pork Chop.
I have yet to find anyone who doesn't love the Nukizer in some way shape or form. VM diesel powered and something that really shows the public's interest in a pickup offering from Jeep.
We had a great meal thanks to Dave Harriton's partner in AEV Chet who whipped up some great BBQ, and my other good friend from MI Cammie, who is an amazing chef in her own right who assisted with some offerings. The following morning was the AEV trail ride with AEV staff and customers' rigs on Steel Bender. It was a long day with pretty slow travel since we had 17 rigs on the trail. I rode along with Kent from AEV in his brand spanking new white JK which two days prior had been finished off with the full gamut of AEV kit. For those who haven't ridden in a 2011 Wrangler with the new interior, let me just say.. WOW, what an improvement in fit and finish and vault like ride that made me appreciate just how far the Wrangler platform has come.
Dave Harriton piloting the VM diesel powered two door that was getting so much attention there that week. What a sweet rig.
Who doesn't love the Brute?? This is the rig from the Dangerous Drives episode.
Nemo's JK rocking the Habitat prototype number 2 was in attendance. Great finally getting to meet Mario!
During the lunch break on the trail Mario popped open the Habitat and let us all crawl around in it and check it out. It really is a slick setup, able to sleep four people. WOW. Let's just go ahead and add it onto the list of things I need with my new AEV Jeep (......someday).
Dave Yeagi making everything look simple in the Savegre.
Kent's new rig getting a proper break in on the trail. Not even as much as a squeak or rattle after a long day on the trail.
I knew the technical abilities and performance of the AEV rigs would be impressive but what I dug the most was the balance of performance, comfort, and ride quality they displayed on and offroad. Practically anyone can slap together a pretty capable rig these days for off pavement duties but at the cost of marginal to lousy onroad ride and performance. For overlanding duty I am finding more and more an aversion to onroad comfort and drivability compromises. These rigs handle so well, and are so well engineered and tested that they actually make for comfortable daily drivers or better yet, a rig to travel with. After all, what's the point of an uber capable rig that can tackle any obstacle...... except driving on the interstate? Seems ironic no? Well, hats off to Dave and crew for making the effort for this stuff to work so well for everything.