Project Overlander

[Topgun514]

I use that term loosely being the company I am in but after just seeing this site today I feel I should show a few pictures of my Jeep that I have named the Project Overlander on Jeepforum.

I've posted this in the tech section but I figure I will post over here too. Maybe get some of the expedition guys opinions and techniques and such

Here is my build, It will not be like Erics, BMyohn, or any of the major builds, but I want to show poeple and bounce ideas of everyone about my build as I do it.
Project Overlander will be a Low Lift (~3-4 inches max, 31's Max tire) but be a great overlander. Trails, mild offroading, great on road (95% on road) and great in snow driving. My other goals are camping spots, and best fuel economy for my 1988 XJ 5 speed.

If you have ideas, or questions, or comments please let me know. This is not my first build but my first build where I have fairly exact plans on how I want the finished product to look.

As for what I have already stock
Aluminum rims (wider, lighter)
235/75 BFG AT's
Rear Hitch
Toolbox in the rear (its out for around town with basic tools, but for longer trips I have a tool set)
Perfect Condition Jeep

Just took off the RR Tow hooks for my new bumper. Bolts in so much beefier with steering brace...1.75x.120 dom tubing with quarter inch plates tie ins. Got it local from a welder for cheap. I may get the prerunner skid to attach to it but i may throw fogs where that would be. I really like it so far and i just gotta paint it. Also, cleaned up the music playing devices with speakers and finally have some shots of my lift.-2 inch BB rough country
I also undid my rear sway bar but dont know how to slide the bar out without taking the tires off
Next is drill out that broken shock mount...all my other shocks are on except one.
Fog Lights( maybe )
Roofrack...or waiting, seen as I would not entirely use it often.

My goal is to try to get the most amount of weight out, (trim, take out carpet, anything)
Get as MUCH gas mileage as possible, so there goes the idea of Bored TB
And in the future have her sit at 3 inches of lift.

My ideas are really needed for the part of gas mileage. I do not want a cone filter, bored TB lowers gas mileage, would a free-er flowing muffler help, TB SPACER, snorkel?

Here are the pictures, I am pretty pleased with her. Just need to trim when this snowstorm passes.

what i started with

now

I have 2 Handheld CB's, and this is how i cleaned up my Ipod player

Need to trim

Started a bit of taking out unneeded parts, I have trimmed about 20 pounds off of her, looking to trim about 80 more pounds before summer. The lighter, the easier parleys canyon is (for any SLC/ Park City people understand)

Found out from my mom were doing a camping trip in august to glacier national park. 3 weeks in glacier should test this overlander...need a roofrack. I will be lifting it a bit more and getting new rims. Also, I will be adding a wind fairing to this big rack.

here are some shots... and the guy i got this from has a garage, 3 inch springs, LCA's and ill be doing the back end. Things are coming up quickly, and I will be adding exhaust soon too for extra mpg's

its a surco, 50x60

 

[Topgun514]

Updates, added a wind fairing and a bit of lift while getting those blocks out of there.
4 inch front, 3 inch back (I am waiting for the backs to sag from the AAL and adding another leaf) LCA's all in...she rides like a fat girl now, i love it, here are the pics. I am getting new rims and maybe bigger tires.

Updates,
After a squishy brake problem, my mom decided to throw me money to get them looked at for my 21st b-day. I got in expecting MC or air in the lines and 30 seconds into the job, I get pulled in to show my wheel dangling off with 3-4 inches of side to side travel. My bearings exploded and the mechanic said i had a few more miles before my wheel flew off. New hub bearings later, perfect brakes (the wheel was moving so much it was pushing the brakes apart giving a squishy feeling.

All due tooooo, my old tires, the lug holes were warn and ovaled, and too much backspacing for too long

New rims, canyons. Freshly painted front bumper, Tire on roofrack, and some new speakers (but I dont care) My lift is evening itself out pretty well and the AAL out back is very smooth. I may do some helper springs to get her all even but am working on drilling out my old broken shock bolts that are stuck in there. I have been driving shockless for about 1000 miles
Also, im gonna do a quick alignment in the driveway hopefully today to get rid of a bit of wobble.
Very happy so far, the list for future goes:
Muffler
Intake
Even out lift
Tires
Trim a tiny bit
Be awesome
Constant Maintanance

Updated photos (what poeple actually wanna see)

 

[Topgun514]

Just got back from moab...WOW. Enough said. Nothing in the world could have prepared me for how beautiful and just amazing it was. I only had 2 days of exploring and did not do hardcore trails but did some mild offroading and more exploring. I feel guilty because I did not get to see everything but wow- I am speechless.

I have like, 200 pictures but will only show a few.

Wow
Warning signs leading to Shafer's Trail. This is a dirt road circling the rim of canyonlands. At spots I was less than 1 foot away from the edge of falling off 1200 ft to the canyon floor

This is taken from my drivers side...It got narrower too and had steeper sides in most parts. This is the only part I felt ok with letting both my hands off the wheel and stick

A 3-4 foot bull snake

 

[Topgun514]

Nice jeep on potato salad...MUCH steeper than in pictures. Holy crap, Its hard enough to walk on it

Me on potato Salad...I could only approach it. It is so steep even to approach the rock I saw trucks not even able to make it to the slick rock. I am happy I could plant some tires on it and bounce around on it. Bigger Tires and a roll cage I'll feel better

Didnt get much further than that...its tough stuff


On the Jeep though. Death Wobble got so bad I loosened a tranny bolt I believe and my car stalled out coming downhill from Canyonlands. I got it aligned and I was over an inch off alignment.


On the way down, I averaged 20.68 mpg, at nighttime with traffic to draft behind.
With the jeep fully loaded up with close to 300 pounds of gear on the way back (daytime heat and no other cars to draft), my MPG is averaged to be about 24-25 mpg!!!

 

[Topgun514]

Here is the current Progress Report:

Since all of the above has been done...

New Cherry Bomb Exhaust, nice, deep throaty sound and not as loud as I thought it would be
Radiator Flush


Future plans to FINISH (no such thing though) the project:

Paint to another color, yellow, light green, anything but black...so hot.
Even out the Lift
31x10.5's All Terrains
Snorkel
Front sway bar adjustments

That will do it and hopefully be done in about one more year!

 

[Amauri]

Welcome to Expo! :ylsmoke:

 

[JPFreek1]

Coming along nicely. Keep us posted as you build her up. What are your plans with it long-term?

 

[mudbutt]

Which shock bolts are broken? The rear is more common.

Assuming it's the rear, there is an easy fix.

Get a set of JKS bar pin eliminators (BPE's).

Use a hammer and punch to knock the nut out through the topside of the mount plate. They are spot welded in, but are easily knocked out.

Get a nut to match the bolt that comes with the BPE's. Use some masking tape to hold the nut and a washer in a box wrench and slide it up into position above the the shock mount plate.

Bolt up the shock and enjoy......

 

[SWbySWesty]

welcome to Expo. If there was one thing I would do differently.....forget about mpg. The XJ isn't that great to begin with and as you add bumpers, racks, etc, you start getting heavier. The best thing to do is gear the axles for the size tires you have. (IMO)

I get 18-20 mpg at 65mph highway. Besides that, your Jeep and progress looks great!

 

[DrMoab]

Welcome to Ex-po.

I see you are in SLC too. Cool. There are several of us here who have roots with NAXJA and still do a lot of runs with the IC chapter. You should poke your head in there and see whats up. Several of us have been bitten hard by the expedition style of travel and moved away from the harder core stuff, hence the reason we hang out here too.

 

[Topgun514]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I have a bar pin in the mail, my plan is to knock out the old bolts and just but a bolt sticking through the bottom and then put the nut underneath and line it up. Just how my old XJ was and it was fine when replacing shocks because of the access holes and a 15 mm wrench that fits nicely in there! Saves me about 50 bucks for bar pins.

I also now need a new closed style coolant res. because my threads blew off just 2 days ago and because closed style cooling sucks...its gonna cost me a trip to the junkyard, no biggie though.

Future plans are even the lift out, repaint to a sun loving color, 31 inch A/T's snorkel, within the year from now til next july. After, my longer term is 3.55 axles from a newer jeep with an 8.25 rear and non-vac disco front. Add more performance mods, maybe 4.2/4.7 stroke (in the next 10-15 year outlook!!!)

Sooner, within 2 years I would like a good cooler or ARB fridge as well but my camping gear is very good so far, so as for my idea of an ARB simpson II pop up tent, may be overkill. This will be tested in August when I overland Glacier Nat Park...more hiking I bet but driving from SLC to practically canada will be a test too.


As for mpg, I still would like to increase as much as I can with my set up. Regearing and performance will help but I push 24 mpg fully loaded with extra gear at 65 so keeping it around there will be very nice.

 

[The Adam Blaster]

If you do end up going with an RTT I'd suggest going with a more stout roof rack.
I used to have a Surco as well, and found it wasn't that strong.

 

[Topgun514]

I think the RTT is out the window for turning my back area into sleeping quarters. If I take out the plastic molding in the back trunk section I can fit a small fridge/ storage in the area above the wheel well and when I get to a location I can throw most of my crap on the roof and sleep in the trunk or tent.

So no RTT.

Just got a new Coolant bottle and WOW, mine was toast, I thought it was stock to have the threads be litterally pointing upwards and round on the bottle itself.
I bend the bracket a tiny bit too so the bottle comes in contact with the hood a bit less hopefully.




A thought I did get though for the future is a small internal roll cage type thingy and putting rings on it to stretch a hammock in the back seat area. My head would be nearest the trunk with my feet going barely in between the glove compartment.

Or just putting the sleeping pads in the back and sleeping there. No problems there at all :bike_rider:

 

[Amauri]

I wanted to build my own RTT and stuff but I decided to keep it simple and just use a hammock. Easy to set up and I get to sleep outside. I'll get an RTT when I'm old. :coffeedrink:

Edit: Here's a guy that did something similar to what you want:

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=30484

 

[The Adam Blaster]

I'm planning a weekend, well, an overnight trip on the weekend of Labour Day..
I'm going to yank the back seat right out and build an impromptu sleeping platform on one side out of plywood and 2x2 and 2x4 supports to cover the gap in the foot well. This will be on te passenger side with the front seat pushed all the way forward.
I'm going to be storing the spare tire stapped down in the cargo area, so when I'm ready to crash for the night I'll have to toss the tire out on the ground and then lay out my sleeping pad and bag.

If you already have your spare on the outside, you could make the sleeping area more permanent, and store your gear on the other half of the XJ's cargo area. (Sleeping only one person in the rear anyways...)

You can keep it simple like I plan to do and just lay a piece of plywood on the floor and support it in the foot well area.