mhiscox
Expedition Leader
What a long, strange trip it's been . . .
In the fall of 2007, I purchased a very lightly used EarthRoamer XV-JP, the third produced, in Philadelphia
and, with the help of my ExPo friends driving some exotic routes,
got it home to Oregon.
During the winter of 07-08, I both drove around and camped in the truck, and by the time spring came, it was clear that EarthRoamer's original design and modifications weren't going to be suitable for my use.
Beginning in the summer of 2008 and ending, oh, any day now, much effort, talent and head scratching was applied to a total reconstruction of the vehicle. We are now at the point that rather little beyond the cabin fiberglass is as it was when it left EarthRoamer. Fortunately, more than three years of work has resulted in a custom vehicle that I think will be very well suited for my purposes.
As the truck has become more-and-more custom and less-and-less an EarthRoamer, it's become inappropriate to mix its future exploits in with the serial production campers from EarthRoamer, GXV and other manufacturers. We're going to leave the delivery and build threads in that forum where they started—and we'll continue the build thread there for another couple of weeks as Paul Jensen finishes up a few loose ends—but our future trips and other exploits will go in this thread.
Those trips will begin in short order. The tentative plan is for Paul to head out next week for a circumnavigation of the Olympic Peninsula, the first trip that the Jeep will have made with an interior in 3.5 years. Then Paul will meet up with me for the Saturday, April 14th, Northwest Sprinterfest in Tualatin, Oregon, where we will show off our Sprinters but also have the first public display of the Jeep.
And, as a last order of business, I decided to name the Jeep “P.J.” I'm not normally into naming vehicles; out of a gross of vehicles I've owned, only a couple had names that stuck. But one minor consideration here is the good odds of having multiple Jeeps, and maybe even multiple Wranglers, in the family. The bigger reason, though, has to do with acknowledging the three talented fabricators—Paul Jensen, James Lombardo and John Bendit—who contributed to making this Wrangler a very special vehicle which I am proud to own. “P.J.J.” sounded a little weird for a name, but “P.J.” sounds OK and I'm certain James and John won't mind sharing a letter.
Thanks to everyone who's supported this vehicle's development with their interest. We look forward to having as much adventure using it as we did building it.
Mike
BUILD THREAD: http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/51254
FETCHING THREAD: http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/19489
In the fall of 2007, I purchased a very lightly used EarthRoamer XV-JP, the third produced, in Philadelphia
and, with the help of my ExPo friends driving some exotic routes,
got it home to Oregon.
During the winter of 07-08, I both drove around and camped in the truck, and by the time spring came, it was clear that EarthRoamer's original design and modifications weren't going to be suitable for my use.
Beginning in the summer of 2008 and ending, oh, any day now, much effort, talent and head scratching was applied to a total reconstruction of the vehicle. We are now at the point that rather little beyond the cabin fiberglass is as it was when it left EarthRoamer. Fortunately, more than three years of work has resulted in a custom vehicle that I think will be very well suited for my purposes.
As the truck has become more-and-more custom and less-and-less an EarthRoamer, it's become inappropriate to mix its future exploits in with the serial production campers from EarthRoamer, GXV and other manufacturers. We're going to leave the delivery and build threads in that forum where they started—and we'll continue the build thread there for another couple of weeks as Paul Jensen finishes up a few loose ends—but our future trips and other exploits will go in this thread.
Those trips will begin in short order. The tentative plan is for Paul to head out next week for a circumnavigation of the Olympic Peninsula, the first trip that the Jeep will have made with an interior in 3.5 years. Then Paul will meet up with me for the Saturday, April 14th, Northwest Sprinterfest in Tualatin, Oregon, where we will show off our Sprinters but also have the first public display of the Jeep.
And, as a last order of business, I decided to name the Jeep “P.J.” I'm not normally into naming vehicles; out of a gross of vehicles I've owned, only a couple had names that stuck. But one minor consideration here is the good odds of having multiple Jeeps, and maybe even multiple Wranglers, in the family. The bigger reason, though, has to do with acknowledging the three talented fabricators—Paul Jensen, James Lombardo and John Bendit—who contributed to making this Wrangler a very special vehicle which I am proud to own. “P.J.J.” sounded a little weird for a name, but “P.J.” sounds OK and I'm certain James and John won't mind sharing a letter.
Thanks to everyone who's supported this vehicle's development with their interest. We look forward to having as much adventure using it as we did building it.
Mike
BUILD THREAD: http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/51254
FETCHING THREAD: http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/19489
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