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Just got my first Jeep - lots of things to consider for my needs.

Bren

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Hey, thanks.
I'm really looking forward to picking up the Jeep... already coming to realise its a lot more than just a normal car. The whole community around the Wrangler seems great.

My first trip is being planned for the Scottish Highlands - I'll post about it in this forum and probably take some video of the astrophotography set up.
Sadly there won't be very many other Jeeps to wave at over there, we tend to do that a LOT over here, a constant reminder of that great community.

The highlands were my last trip before COVID. Did something approximate to the NC500 in a Caterham, which is sort of like a Jeep if it was made into a race car and given an even-more-leaky roof?

Good luck with that weather!
 

Joe98

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When we go car camping I take a tent. In Canada and the US, I a aware they like roof-top tents because of bears. To get up at 2:00am for a pee you have to climb down the ladder!

Get a tent for the ground. Ultimately it is a much more comftorable camp site.
 

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First of all, Congratulations on your new Jeep!šŸ‘. I decent set of rubber (something like BFG. KO2ā€™s) will make a huge difference in off road performance. If you are going places with a lot of mud, consider getting a winch. That and a folding shovel will let you self rescue if needed when you back of beyond. Tent? For me Iā€™d go with a ground tent everytime. Climbing up and down onto the roofā€™s not my thing. A decent 12v fridge and a camp stove and you can do pretty well. Remember that stock Jeep is far more capable than most driversšŸ˜Š
 

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I have an ikamper. I still gag a little at the price but it is orders of magnitude nicer than other options Iā€™ve seen. My wife was basically done with camping. We spent many weekends in a tent for years, but comfort has become more important to her as weā€™ve gotten older and she just wasnā€™t willing to deal with traditional camping. Now with a flat, king size memory foam mattress in the mix, sheā€™s willing to head to the woods again. Weā€™ve even had the two of us plus two early teens in it on a rainy winter campā€”a little crowded but it worked (usually the boys can stay in a regular tent!). And it is so so easy up and down. Itā€™s a little hard to recommend unambiguously given the price tag but totally worth it for us.
 

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MyDaughters20JL

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I am new here, having been just browsing for a while - now I have ordered my Jeep I thought I would make a post and ask a couple of general questions.

I have just purchased a 21 plate (UK) Wrangler Overland 4 door and will take delivery at the start of March.
This will be my first Jeep and it was a really tough decision for me to move away from the more common SUV options, like Audi's, BMW's, Volvo's that I have owned before, but decided that ultimately I needed and wanted more offroad capability (even though I live in the UK).

Whilst this will be my daily driver, my main reason for buying was to support my astrophotography/astronomy hobby. I have a home observatory, however, I live in a Bortle 5 area (which means light pollution is high). So, my new Jeep is going to be my astro rig at the weekends(and longer trips or sometimes during the week) as I head off to dark sky sites around the country (and beyond), park up, set up, observe and then take astro pics through the night whilst I sleep.

I also intend to do some offroad driving - but nothing like the hardcore stuff I see some do in the US! We don't have anything like those trails in the UK (at least not that I know of)...that's one of the reasons I figured that an Overland spec would be plenty good enough as opposed to a Rubicon. Who knows, perhaps I will upgrade elements of the Overland overtime to beef up its off-road capability but probably is good enough as is.

Now I am thinking about the kit I need - it's overwhelming for a newbie to Jeeps as I am.

The first thing I need to think about is overnight sleeping - i.e. a tent.
For roof tents, whilst I have watched quite a few reviews of various tents, I am never quite sure these days whether those reviews are biased (marketed). I'd like to ask whether people REALLY see the value in something like an iKamper for 3500 pounds vs a 900 pound Front Runner non-hard top? They both seem easy to set up and pack up and both offer the same space.

Anyway, that is just the start of what I will need... I am really looking forward to picking up the vehicle.
have you got a place to view some of your previous pictures?
 

MyDaughters20JL

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@MauiSteve, this is something I need to look into... CB or HAM radio I think here in the UK.

Here's the car at the dealer being prepared - I agree, It will be stock like this for some time, except maybe tyres (same size, just swapped to AT). Stock tyres are Bridgestone Dueler's 255/70/18R.

jeep.JPG
when upgrading your tires (or tyres), one thing to consider is that along with upgrading to All Terrain tires, bone stock, your vehicle, even with stock wheels can easily handle an upgrade in tire size as well: My daughter has a '21 Sport S with the rubicon size (285/70r17) tires and has absolutely zero rubbing (in all fairness, though, hers is a bit of a mall crawler with the most advanced crawling would be over tire stops in the mall parking lot)

lousy cell phone pic, but you can see the fit of the 285's: only difference is that the stock wheels have a +44 offset, hers are a 0 offset...pushing the tires out 44mm from stock..or in her case, about 1/2" outside her fender flares

IMG_3922.JPG
 
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Joverland

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@MyDaughters20JL Thanks for the pics of the tyres and the info - didn't realise I could go larger without a lift. I'd heard about potential rubbing and want to avoid that. I'd also heard that the mph reading could get skewed and have to be recalibrated for larger tyres.

Viewing my astro pics? I am currently setting up my Astrobin pages for future work. Nothing I'd really care to share as I've mainly been an observer rather than imager - until recently. Don;t know if this means anything to you or not, but I've been an SCT user for planetary and solar viewing but recently got into imaging having bought a couple of refractors and have caught the wider field Nebula bug :). You can see my observatory rebuild for imaging in this thread: CEM120 EC2 has arrived. - Mounts - Cloudy Nights The two smaller scopes in the pics are the ones that will be with me on my Jeep travels to dark sites - the larger has been my visual scope for years.
 
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Besides my Rubicon, I have a Raptor which I normally carry an iKamper XCover on. It's an outstanding option but it's also massive. Just keep the size of the iKamper products in mind.

With a Jeep, you'll not only need a rack option on the roof, like the Rhino Rack Pioneer platform, but you'll also need some sort of reinforcement for the Jeeps roof. The roof will not hold the weight of the rack, Tent, and you. It won't even hold the weight of many empty RTTs. So you'll need a backbone system of some kind. Rhino Rack sells one. I think Maximus-3 does as well.

50822251331_f3e0e4b92d_b.jpg

50822347037_d780b90f2e_b.jpg
 
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Joverland

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@Sgt Beavis That's a beautiful location and a great looking set up.
There will only be two of us so will definitely be in something smaller.
Yes, i am aware of the weight requirements and the back bone systems - been looking at the rhino-rack backbone and also the Front-Runner extreme. I like the Rhino-Rack platform as it keeps the rack off the line of sight of the freedom panels yet is still wide enough for a 1.4m (ish)wide tent like many of the fold out fabric RTT's and the iKamper Mini.
 

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Joverland

Joverland

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First of all, Congratulations on your new Jeep!šŸ‘. I decent set of rubber (something like BFG. KO2ā€™s) will make a huge difference in off road performance. If you are going places with a lot of mud, consider getting a winch. That and a folding shovel will let you self rescue if needed when you back of beyond. Tent? For me Iā€™d go with a ground tent everytime. Climbing up and down onto the roofā€™s not my thing. A decent 12v fridge and a camp stove and you can do pretty well. Remember that stock Jeep is far more capable than most driversšŸ˜Š
A winch is probably going to be difficult in the UK. I know many have them here, but swapping out to a metal bumper is a risk. It's not strictly legal here for on-road vehicles. It's a bit of a grey area in truth and something I need to look more into at some point as I would eventually like to replace the plastic bumper as long as it does not void the warranty.

Shovel and traction ramps will definitely be in the Jeep, though.
 
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Joverland

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Sadly there won't be very many other Jeeps to wave at over there, we tend to do that a LOT over here, a constant reminder of that great community.

The highlands were my last trip before COVID. Did something approximate to the NC500 in a Caterham, which is sort of like a Jeep if it was made into a race car and given an even-more-leaky roof?

Good luck with that weather!
A Caterham! Nice. Love it.
Yeah - not that many Wranglers here in the UK, but there are still some decent groups it seems.
Jeep run some events too, but you are right, don't often drive past Wranglers. When it does happen, it will make it more unique!
 

Joe98

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You don't need larger tyres nor a lift. The tyres of your particular Jeep are intended for on-road so you might like to switch to a tyre with more tread.

You don't need a steel bumper bar. You don't need a winch as you are not doing extreme off road.

The UK Jeeps like the Australian Jeeps don't get a recovery point at the front (except for the Rubicons which do).

You could get a Turfer jack if you feel you might be in a sticky situation. It is a manual winch.

.
 
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Joverland

Joverland

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You don't need larger tyres nor a lift. The tyres of your particular Jeep are intended for on-road so you might like to switch to a tyre with more tread.

You don't need a steel bumper bar. You don't need a winch as you are not doing extreme off road.

The UK Jeeps like the Australian Jeeps don't get a recovery point at the front (except for the Rubicons which do).

You could get a Turfer jack if you feel you might be in a sticky situation. It is a manual winch.

.
Pretty much - tyres will be the only change and going bigger than the 32's already on the Jeep is not a real priority. I might go wider just for looks, who knows, but not to the point were the RPMs per mile are affected in any significant way. That's something I need to learn more about though before I even got close to doing it - I have no idea about things like offsets.

As of now, the plan is simply better tyres for off-road at the same size as stock.

Got a link to a decent 'turfer jack'? Google throws up building winches.
 
 



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