During Overland Expo 2021, our friends from Blue Ridge Overland Gear filmed a walk-around tour of Lola, our 2019 Jeep Wrangler JL Rubicon. Check out the video tour of the build, and shout-out to our pals at BROG for the great video.
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TrailRax Pak Rax are one of the most innovative and useful additions you can get for a Jeep Wrangler - they afford the opportunity to store cargo and gear on the outside of the rear windows with a modular rack and frame. The opportunities for storage are nearly endless, with options to mount everything from recovery boards to Rotopax water tanks and storage boxes.
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Bringing a US-made vehicle to Europe can be an awesome way to explore and travel, but if you plan to register your vehicle in a foreign country, you need to be prepared to make modifications in order to make the vehicle comply with safety laws in that country. Today we’re documenting what it took to modify our 2019 Jeep JL Wrangler to European spec - specifically to pass the Ministry of Transportation (MOT) inspection process in the United Kingdom. I couldn’t possibly hope to capture every modification needed for every vehicle, so this is really aimed at those of you with Jeep JL Wranglers that are US spec.
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Off-road vehicles take plenty of abuse – our paint has marring and scratches from tree limbs, rocks, and other trail debris; our undercarriage is rusty and scuffed from the unfortunate encounters with rocks; and there’s no part of the Jeep that has avoided a nice crust of mud. For that reason, we invest in body armor, skid plates, and any number of protective accessories to try and limit the damage and costly repairs that accompany off-road driving.
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Almost two years ago, we had our friends at Bull Run 4x4 install the first lift kit on our Jeep Wrangler JL Rubicon. At the time, we were just starting to dabble with the concept of overlanding, and it was limited to a rooftop tent and the odd weekend trip. We hadn’t upgraded to heavy custom drawer systems, a winch, full auxiliary power system, or any of the other goodies yet, so the Jeep was relatively lightweight (or closer to stock weight).
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Jeeps are not known for their acoustics or audio. Even the upgraded Alpine sound system available in a Jeep Wrangler leaves something to be desired. Yet music is such a key component to all of our adventures. We have a “Jeep Cruise” playlist that has been the soundtrack to hundreds of off-road miles. So it’s a shame knowing that the quality of that audio experience has always been a bit…. lacking.
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As you probably have already discovered, there’s not much you cannot buy on amazon.com these days. It is almost a game to see what sort of curveball request you can lookup Amazon and I’ve learned to not be surprised when that oddity can be delivered in 2 days or less.
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Adding a 12V auxiliary battery setup to the Jeep was never a question of “should we” - it was always a question of “where should we?” The problem that comes up is that these batteries can be large and bulky, so placement in your overland rig can be tricky. In this post, we’ll walk you step-by-step through installing a 12V power system into a Jeep Wrangler JL using Kick Ass Products USA’s 170ah AGM slim battery and their DCDC charger with MPPT controller. These instructions also outline how to build a module to hold everything that is compatible with the Goose Gear drawers that many of us regard as a “must have” overland accessory. Feel free to modify and adapt these directions for your own setup, and send us a link or some pictures to your build.
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Debating the best performance driving light is like debating politics. Everyone has an opinion, everyone knows their opinion is the correct one, and no one wants to stop talking long enough to consider something else. Knowing that, I’m not going to try and claim these are the best performance lights on the market, nor am I going to try and compare these lights to other options on the market. Instead, I’ll offer a preview of my experience with these lights, as well as some instructions for installing them into a Jeep JL.
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We recently joined John from Fury Training Concepts and Dean from East Coast Overland Adventures for a weekend expedition to hunt for fall foliage in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwest Virginia. The trip, which was limited to 10 vehicles, as organized and sold through Blue Ridge Overland Gear — if you are interested in doing a trip like this, keep an eye on their website for future offerings.
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This season, we’ve taken our Jeep to the beach, covered it in ocean spray, galloped through more mud holes than I could ever possibly count, ridden in deep sand and slop, and obtained our fair share of “trail marks” from overgrowth on the trail. The side of the Jeep has a number of deep “pinstripes” down the paint, including one hearty claw mark on the hood from a time I pulled over into a tree to clear the trail.
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The western portions of Virginia and West Virginia have lots of great offerings for off-road trails, including some great places to plan a little overland getaway.
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Until now, most of the upgrades have been to support using a rooftop tent, with some “beginner” off-road modifications along the way. But last week, we took it up a few notches by finally installing a lift kit, upgraded drive shaft, larger tires, a steering stabilizer, and beefy rock sliders. If you are new to the concept of a lift kit on your Jeep, then you’re going to want to read on!
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If you have always wanted to take your adventure to the beach, then I highly recommend exploring the Over Sand Vehicle (OSV) beach at Assateague Island National Seashore. The island is maintained by the US National Park Service, and it’s one of the closest places for beach goers in the DC/VA/MD area to drive directly onto the beach.
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I finally broke down and decided that it was time to install an onboard air system for my 2019 Jeep JL Rubicon. I normally air down (deflate) the tires to around 20psi when I’m on the local Virginia trails to improve traction, ride quality, and tire effectiveness; however, refilling the tires back to the 37psi recommended for my current setup was always a chore.
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