Expedition

[rusty_tlc]

Not the Ford kind.
Lots of stuff here from the crawler types, what about expedition rigs? Anybody working a vehicle that they can travel the Trans American Highway with? How about just from The Needles to the Oregon border on dirt?

Since I really can't afford a Sportsmobile I'm thinking about adding a few things to my GMC to make it a better camping/tow rig. after I pay off the credit card from the cruiser build.

I'd like to put one of those RV retractable awnings on it. Maybe set it up to mount on either side. And a Norcold chest freezer would be a good thing.

A warn 9000 on the reciever hitch mount is a must. This adds a front receiver to the plan.

 

[86xjfor8]

My wife and I do stuff like that with 6 kids I wont do hard core since they love to go with us but we have made runs from lemmon valley to gerloch all on dirt and from cold springs to frenchmans but dont know of to many other places that you can do that I would love to find other trails to run on with more distance

 

[EricsXJ]

My friend Lee has 2001 XJ that he built as an expedition vehicle. He takes it to very remote areas of Nevada and Utah looking for rock art (petroglyphs), Indian habitation sites and all that. (In case you are wondering, they are very respectful and leave any artifacts they find as they were found, which is one reason if you ask him, he's not likely to divuldge exact locations of where he has discovered stuff).

He also drove down to central Mexico last year taking the side streets and going through the small villages on his way to Monte Alban, one of the ancient pyramid sites in Mexico.

He's leaving later this year to the Yucatan Peninsula to visit more Mayan ruins.

The XJ makes a perfect expedition vehicle - can be setup to handle any degree of off-road difficulty, plus lots of cargo space, spare parts are easy to find (relatively) and it still gets decent gas mileage (15 to 17 mpg isn't uncommon even for built rigs)

 

[EricsXJ]

Also I had a friend several years ago that drove across Alaska in his built Surburban. That thing was huge. Big yellow thing, you may have seen it driving around town in the early to mid-90's. He no longer lives local so I'm not sure what happened to it, or him, since he moved.

 

[Zebaru]

My XJ was orignally intended to function as an Expedition vehicle. Started with a modest lift (OME), some basic all terrain tires (235/75-15), and a big ol' roofrack. I ran all over the backroads of the area, including a weekend long trip from Fernley up to the Oregon border via High Rock Canyon, then over to Denio and back home. Pretty much the entire trip was on gravel roads. The OME suspension loves the gravel roads, and I found myself running along at 55+ alot. The rig never was set up as a self contained unit, I just threw all the camping stuff in the back and up on top. I had plans to either make a bed area inside, or a rooftop tent, but that never really happened.

Now my rig is a little more rock friendly, but is still more at home blasting down a dirt road than it is crossing the 'con. If I ever get off my lazy butt and make a dedicated rock crawler, the XJ will go back to an expedition rig, and I may finally get it built out as originally planned.

Travis

 

[rusty_tlc]

Gotta love IFS on washboard!
I suppose XJ's are nice if you can't have a FJ60 or 80.

I was looking at the roof top tents, Hanniable etc. Not to sure about climbing on top, my kidneys require at least one trip a night. When I did High Rock in the GMC this spring I slept in the back on an air matteress. In the past I've had problems with condensation inside the steel Caravan shell.

I guess the tent that rigs off the back would solve that. Anybody have any first hand experience with them?