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.
Read MoreLet me preface this whole thing by saying I’m not an expert — there are people who professionally ship vehicles to Europe regularly and are probably better positioned to assist with specific questions about your shipping. But there is also a dire lack of information on this topic on the internet, so I’m trying to fill that void by providing my experience on shipping my 2019 Jeep Wrangler JL overland build to the United Kingdom.
Read MoreOff-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.
Read MoreIf you have ever gone camping with us, you know that we’re really big on food. Specifically, we’re big on eating well at camp. Not that eating well means we have to eat glutenous, high-calorie meals — eating well refers to our desire to make our camp kitchen an extension of our at home kitchen.
Read MoreWe love to travel - after all, that’s one of the things that we enjoy most about overlanding! A chance to explore new places, meet new people, gather new experiences, and expand our horizons. A few months ago we were approached with an opportunity to temporarily move to the United Kingdom, and we jumped at the chance. Few travel experiences can relate to the broadening that comes with actually living in a foreign country.
Read MoreAlmost 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).
Read MoreJeeps 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.
Read MoreAs 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.
Read MoreAdding 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.
Read MoreWe recently added some Goose Gear drawers to our Jeep Wrangler JL overland build, and immediately found need to organizer the organization. The drawers that come from Goose Gear are nice and spacious, but that can be a double edged sword. On the one hand, it means we can cram a lot of goodies in there. But at the same time, it can quickly turn into a mess of junk without good organization inside those drawers. Here are some hacks and DIY tips we’ve used to get our setup clean and tidy.
Read MoreAnyone who has ever gone car camping learns how much gear is needed to make a trip survivable. And if you want to go from survivable to enjoyable…well that takes more gear. Overlanders, who often traverse rough terrain with additional gear considerations quickly understands every nook and cranny that can be used to pack rat equipment.
Read MoreWhen I needed a heavy-duty and self-installed roof rack for my 2019 Jeep JL Wrangler, I turned to a Detroit-based company called Maximus-3. The product I got from them turned out to be fantastic, and I’ve been a fan of theirs ever since.
Read MoreDebating 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.
Read MoreWe 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.
Read MoreThis 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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