P.J., the custom Wrangler Rubicon expedition motorhome

[PaulJensen]

Test Drive - 8

These are mostly in sequence...

(above) Driving out of Ozette after a night in the upper loft bed (holds me just fine), I saw that relic on a side road...

(above) I jostled The Jeep to give altered perspectives...

(above) Nice styling...

(above) Related...???..

(above) Similar kicks...

(above) Could be the bosses rig...

(above) Nah, just passin' thru...

(above) Carbon date this one...

(above) Every picture tells a story...

(above) So, how fast was it...???...

(above) Painfully obvious...

(above) Nice find...

(above) Fresh instant coffee on the step...That step didn't need to come along...

(above) It's gonna get green soon...

(above) Driving out, stopped for the tree...

(above) Bottomless moss...

(above) World class...

(above) Nice line...

(above) Here too...

(above) Everyone should take their rigs out as if this one time is your only time with it...Stop at the place's you know you should and appreciate what's there...

(above) That's one thing that's special about this trip...

(above) Not exactly like that in person...or maybe it is...???...

(above) I mentioned out of sequence...

(above) Ozette River...

(above) The Jeep is such an easy vehicle to get off the road quickly and safely that stopping at whim became the usual...

 

[1leglance]

if you get anywhere near a scale it would be very good to know how much that jeep wgt's
I will bet it is over 6500lbs with all the fiberglass & custom work...and worth every ounce

great trip report style with the captions on the pics

 

[PaulJensen]

Test Drive - 9

(above) I think The Jeep is close to perfect for any activity I can think of...For one person...Two in a pinch...

(above) If you are a fisherperson and need to get to where you want to be, this is it...Snow rider, same thing, Photographer, obviously...

(above) Never had the need for the jack or winch...

(above) The Trasharoo held a fabric folding chair and a tripod...The black box had tools and repair "items"..Also another jack...My advise it to keep it light...Too much stress on the two hinges that are not designed for that door...You'll see...

(above) The Foxwing awning was never deployed by me...I've seen pictures and if I was at one spot for more than three days I'd set it up...The poles and ropes store behind the bench seat...the poles fit in from the passenger door...

(above) The roof rack is mighty, like a bull...Load 'er up...

(above) The twin propane tank will outlast the zombies...

(above) Backtracking to head south, a last look (really) at our friends in Canada...

(above) You do want breakfast...Get the bag lunch to go too...

(above) How original...

(above) Fresh paint...

(above) I'd love to have coffee and a slice of pie in each of these...

(above) Cutting through the B.S. is what they do here...

(above) Wild weekend...

(above) They don't do signs like these much anymore...Just how much higher could they have made that one...???...

(above) Cash crop...

(above) I right turned onto the road to Oil City...I did a couple of 17 mile beach runs from there, years ago...

(above) The Ozette Road was like this...

(above) Hey, what's that...???...

(above) That, is logging as it's done up here...

(above) You get used to it...

(above) How many loads came through here...???...

(above) Spoils...

(above) You do not want to walk around...

(above) Hoh River...

 

[PaulJensen]

Test Drive - 9

(above) Patterns emerge...

(above) Returning to the Hiway of Smoothness......

(above) Oops, I got the graphics dirty......

(above) Maybe no one will notice...

(above) Shades of gray on a sunny day...

(above) The Olympics...

(above) ...on a spectacular day...

(above) Ozette mountain blackberry jam...

(above) Perfection in simplicity...

(above) This drawer works out great for food...It's easy to un-latch the slide bolts and grab stuff and fix food on the door drop-down...

(above) It's all about the composition...I can't seem to get it right...

(above) And hardly a passing car...

(above) Wild county, that is...

(above) Ruby's...First beach on the way south...

(above) Lined up swells...

(above) They all are...

(above) The postcard view...Everyone gets this shot...

(above) Drifters...

(above) One nice thing about cruising at 45 is it's easier to stop and check things out...

(above) Bet you this won't be here in ten years...I got big money...

 

[PaulJensen]

Test Drive - 10

(above) Another one getting destroyed by water...

(above) Fading Glory...

(above) Cliche warning...!!!...Rust never sleeps...

(above) Better days are history...

(above) "Hey grandma, can I use the car tonight?"...

(above) This must be some kind of high school sport here...

(above) The recyclers missed this one...

(above) The wind was blowing the metal panels into each one...Ghost-like vibe...Especially alone...

(above) At one point a money generator...

(above) Ragged glory...

(above) Another one going down...

(above) Define corridor...???...

(above) Hey these are out of sequence...Back at Ozette...Looks like morning coffee...To use the stove one of the propane tanks must be turned on and the regulator in the locker needs to be turned to the open tank...I keep the tanks close if I'm not needing it...Next you go in and turn on the valve that controls the shut-off solenoid...it's at 7:00 on the LPG gauge...Now all you have to do is push the burner knob down and light the stove...

(above) While the water's boiling I do a walk about...

(above) Nice time of year to be here, summer is No Vacancy...

(above) This is the site, if you can find...

(above) Nice to see the sun two days in a row...

 

[PaulJensen]

Test Drive - 11

(above) The Jeep is blessed with a fuel capacity of 40 gallons...Reading the two gauges and knowing how and when to switch them are not intuitive...I have dumb luck and didn't run out...

(above) 1/8 sec... The Jeep is the ultimate moving photographic sandbag...

(above) This is as off road as I got, and I was fine with that...

(above) Truck just passed...

(above) Mid afternoon and I'm heading to Westport...

(above) A pretty long one...

(above) Westport RV park camping...

(above) When I deployed the roof (in record time) the natives got restless and stumbled their way over spilling their drinks ...They kept their ciggies lit fine though...Next came the slurred questioning...By now I was late-night-TV-car-salesman smooth with the delivery...This I repeated for at least a half hour...Then the zombies returned to whatever they were doing...I found it funny...

 

[PaulJensen]

Test Drive - 12

(above) I got out of the RV park early...

(above) Getting the roof down this morning was not as easy...The rams work better when warm,...This morning is not warm...

(above) Time to make some coffee...

(above) Then a surf check...

(above) Tide's too low, the sandbanks suck, and the wind put a funk on it...

(above) Onward...

(above) I was on the other side of those two days ago...

(above) Decent beach architecture ...They built them to withstand 100 MPH wind loads...

(above) Everything was empty today... Easter Sunday...

(above) Burly aluminum...

(above) So scary...

(above) This could be interesting...

(above) ...indeed...

(above) Built as cheap as possible...

(above) This isn't exactly an affluent area...

(above) They're not building them like this anymore...

(above) Vacant...

(above) Just do as it says...

(above) The solar panels are for the batteries...

 

[borison]

Great to see the Forks Cafe and Hoh river. Stopped at both on our trip to the Peninsula a few years back. Beautiful area.

 

[PaulJensen]

Test Drive - 13

(above) Different day, same plan...

(above) Somebody really got the graphics right...

(above) Design by lego...

(above) Heading home, another closer visit to one I've driven by a hundred times...

(above) Taking the back roads home...

(above) Seeing more at 25 than at 55...

(above) Red...it's the right color...

(above)...for barns...

(above) Living slower than the rest of us...

(above) Last bridge, I promise...

(above) No, it's the same bridge...

(above) Still a nice home...

(above) The name has changed over the years...The food's the same though...

(above) This ain't Mexico, amigo...

(above) Nobody works on Easter...

(above) Note the cut swath...

(above) A big one...

 

[PaulJensen]

Test Drive - 13 - Final

(above) Different breeds of workhorses...

(above) Going to home in an hour or so...I'm recognizing how fortunate I've been...Grateful...

(above) I like how change comes slow to some regions...

(above) Bet it looked like this when I was a kid...

(above) The sidestreets are the most interesting...

(above) ...especially when you slow down...

(above) I wish somehow we could stop all the clocks...

(above) One last look at The Jeep before home...

(above) What a great trip it's been...

(above) I hope you enjoyed the ride...

Paul

 

[Heifer Boy]

Awesome Paul...just awesome...

 

[JRhetts]

I hope you enjoyed the ride...

Paul

Paul

The ride was lovely, as is the work you added to the all-too-blah original vehicle.

John

 

[Tucson T4R]

(above) One last look at The Jeep before home...Paul

Oh man one trip and you broke it into 16 pieces. :Wow1:




Paul, Outstanding build and craftsmanship followed by a great trip report. Very well done from beginning to end. Now you have to put the 16 pieces back together. :elkgrin:

 

[mhiscox]

Yesterday was a good day for me, as Paul delivered the Wrangler at the Northwest Sprinterfest and then we had a gratifying time showing off his Sprinter, my Sprinter and the Jeep. Lots of very positive comments about the Jeep, and the guys from Upscale Automotive who'd started the project were all very impressed with how things had turned out.







And I took it out this morning for a drive. Looks like we didn't ruin it; it rode really well and the performance, such as it is, seems no worse.

More to come as I get some miles on it.

 

[FJCRUZR]

Many thanks for sharing!