The Grey

[BlueGerbil]

Currie Antirock, Fox 2.0 shocks, coils from german K&S company, Currie steering

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[BlueGerbil]

September 2011: Germany, Austria, Italy - the first day of our annual trip to the franco-italian alps, somewhere between Milano and Torino: BOOM goes the engine. Road assistance was called...

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[BlueGerbil]

I spent the rest of the trip riding shotgun in a friends TJ or in a rental Seat on tarmac (with a lovely young lady, but that´s another story) - then the rig sat for 3 months until the end of the year. A friend called me and had a nice 4.0 engine with only about 40.000 miles on it. Couldn´t let this go, so I bought it.

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This is how the rig sat for the last months - now the new engine is going in and some work will be done...

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[BlueGerbil]

I sold the 26x 10W LED bar to a friend and got me a 78x 5W LED bar from Vision-X again - sure, the german reseller is a good friend of mine. Now we´re talking about 38.000 Lumen, should be plenty of light to find the local mall!

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[AFSOC]

Jan, good to hear you got a replacement engine. Your XJs and exploits are legendary.

 

[88Xj]

We need output pics:drool:

 

[BlueGerbil]

While a friend of mine will be doing the engine swap (hopefully this week) near Frankfurt I live and work about 150 miles away - but nevertheless I got some stuff on the way.

A silver-coloured 2m aluminium roof rack made my Frontrunner and outfitted with 8 instead of 6 feet is being modified so the new LED lamp can be mounted in the front and 4 Vision-X Solstice Prime LEDs will be sitting rear, right and left to illuminate the camp in the evening. It´s an updated copy of the last setup with a Hannibal roof rack and the old square style Solstice LEDs, which were sold today. So was the Hannibal camping table which fits into the old roof rack, the new rack will get a similar setup.
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Since I sold my ARB front bumper as well and my winch won´t be doing any good sitting around in the trunk I had to order a new front bumper. Oh well, a new rear bumper did sneak into the shopping cart as well. And so did a set of their new Ultimate Sliders and a Gas Tank Skidplate - I´m talking about JCR Offroad. Eric there could give me a nice discount so it didn´t hurt so much

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[FlexdXJ]

I'm 5 hours away from JCR and shipping cost me a bit but you will NOT be disappointed in their products. Been beating on my rails for over 3 years and the bumpers for a solid 2 years with out issue. I even have their Transfer case skid and quarter panel guards. Cant say enough about those guys!

 

[BlueGerbil]

Since I´m going to sell my Tentrax trailer (I´ll be travelling alone in the future) I need a place to put my slightly drunken head in the evening. And since the 4x4 shop I´m working for is starting to sell Maggiolina roof top tents I ordered myself one of their finer products, a 130cm wide Maggiolina Carbon Fibre - which is made of - can you guess it? Yeah, that´s why it´s about 8-12kg lighter than the normal version made of fibreglass. Since the whole rig should be on display on the upcoming offroad fair in Bad Kissingen in June for the 4x4 shop I got a very good quote on it, otherwise that wouldn´t have been possible since the MSRP is like 4800$ in the US of A.

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[BlueGerbil]

While I wasn´t looking, a set of J.W.Speaker 8900 LED headlamps (ECE approved, so street legal over here) found their way into my XJ. Well, they didn´t find their way all by themself - read: no plug&play installation. My buddy which is doing the install had like 2-2.5 of work to make it fit - the rear bucket has to be modified. Beamshots will follow...

 

[BlueGerbil]

For the Abenteuer Allrad fair in Bad Kissingen the rig has been somewhat finished. Bumpers are on, roofrack w/ lights is on, roof top tent is on, drawer system is installed.

The fair was hard work, like every year. There were little above 50000 visitors and on sunday evening, when the event ended, I felt like I´ve talked to every single one of these visitors ^

Oh, and btw. - the rig got a new name. No more rodent-reference, but "The Grey" - inspired by the movie with Liam Neeson. The entry monologue fits my momentary situation of life very good - and, well, the color of the rig matches it as well

Now the rig is back in the workshop - double battery setup, seats, cabling, ECE certified LED driving lights, winch lights, more cabling, iPad/Stereo/CB/Navigation etc.

These and heaps more of photos were taken by a charming young lady which just starts her on-the-side business as a photographer. She´ll be doing the upcoming night shots of the finished rig as well - as soon as it´s finished :sombrero:

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[AFSOC]

Looking good Jan!

 

[jeepdreamer]

charming AND cute!?! Your a lucky man! Wish I would have known about the show/event... I may have been able to make that one. And now I actually have one working XJ, one being operated on, and the Scrambler that just sulks in the parking lot being grumpy with me.

 

[BlueGerbil]

So perhaps you can join us next year? The fair will be held from 30th of May to 2nd of June in Bad Kissingen again.
Find some information in englisch language at http://cms-5.de/blog.abenteuerallrad.de/besucher/for-foreign-visitors/english/

Some new parts arrived - a dual USB socket, a remote relais for switching the winch on and off and a distributor for power and ground (up to 12 circuits) - all made by the fine folks at Blue Sea Systems.
And the first red Solstice 1100 LED light made it to Germany as well - it´ll serve as a brake light. Technically not legal for on-road-use (because it´s not ECE certified) but I´ll make sure it´ll be only used when not on paved road where this legal limitations apply :ylsmoke:

 

[jeepdreamer]

Do you guys carry that winch remote and duel USB plug in your shop? Could you PM me the cost? I've been tinkering on my XJs a little but also looking into costs to have one shipped back to the states...Scary. At least one of them will be going up for sale around the beginning of the year, Both if I can't afford to ship it home.