Wabi-sabi Overland

My second camper habitat is now fit checked on Dan Grec’s @theroadchoseme diesel Rubicon. The campers are identical, but Dan’s jeep and Yvonne and my jeep are different trim packages and engine/fuel types, so the two vehicles will look a bit different when finished.

We will be starting the habitat mount process later today.

We also have Dan’s jeep leveled on jack stands right now, and we temporarily mounted my old small wheels/tires on his jeep to lower it a little during the camper assembly, so the stance of Dan’s vehicle looks a little odd right now.

It will be interesting to get the habitat mounted, take the vehicle off of jack stands, and roll the gantry crane out of the way, so we can get a good first look at both vehicles together.

I let myself have a little fun last night with some long exposure jeep camper photography.

Yvonne and I are really excited for all the adventures that we are going to take the first jeep camper on.

After months of crazy hours of working in the shop, the first of the two Jeep campers is all finished on the outside and ready for road tests. I’m really happy with how it turned out, and I think it will be a really great little travel vehicle for Yvonne and me. The inside of the camper is still totally empty, but we will still be able to take it on some test camping trips in the short term.

It is satisfying to finish the camper pretty much exactly on the timeline goal I had set last fall. I will do a few more things to this camper in the near term, but soon I will transition to installing the second camper on our friend’s Jeep. I’ve been so busy the last few months on this first Jeep that I have admittedly been pretty bad about posting assembly details, so I’ll try to post more often as I dig into the second Jeep, as the second camper is nearly identical.

This is an overdue update on this project, but here is a super quick rundown of the current state of the vehicle design and build.  Overall, it is going very well. I have been working on the project 7 days a week for the last 6 months and it is all really taking shape now.

• We relocated back to the large shop space where we built our Unimog in 2017-2019
• I decided to build two identical jeep campers at the same time (one for Yvonne and I and a second one for a friend)
• The base vehicles are recent year jeep JLU wranglers
• The finished vehicle will fit in a standard height sea container for shipping
• The camper is 6 ft wide and 7.5 ft long inside
• I am currently building the pop top roof that will be hinged on the forward edge
• There will be standing height with the top up, and sitting height with the top down
• I did a lot of design and material trades and decided on a composite sandwich panel build with an integrated steel roll bar attachment
• I decided to go with a flat sided camper to maximize internal volume
• I have tried to include some nice detail features like a slide out ladder that stows under the camper floor and a full sized passthrough to the cab of the jeep from the habitat
• Like normal, I did all of the fabrication work myself (including custom composite wall panels)
• I was able to remove 623 lb from the original jeep by cutting the back body off
• Currently the vehicle with the nearly finished camper shell on it is under the original curb weight
• Including almost all of the intended aftermarket upgrades, the first vehicle is currently 1,235 lb under the max GVW rating
• After an intense 6 months of building, I “might” have the first one ready for a trip to Overland Expo West (If you are there, come find me a say hi!)
• A friend has just arrived and is helping a ton with electrical and lots of details before Expo
• The interior will be totally empty by Expo, but the outside of the vehicle will hopefully be pretty much finished
• I’ve been posting all the project updates on my Instagram: @wabi_sabi_overland

This is a travel rig concept that I’ve been working on in the background for the last few years. It would be a vehicle for the 2 of us to travel in for long overland trips. The habitat has a 4′ by 6’2″ bed (convertible to a dinette), a small kitchen, and a composting toilet. I’ve played around with 23 configurations, and I kind of like this one. This is a pop top with standing height.

I’ve checked the weight and center of gravity and it would work on multiple chassis. Shown here it is incorporated into a Jeep Unlimited JKU, but it would also work on a Land Rover (130?), a G-Wagon (G320?), or a Land Cruiser (HDJ80?).

It’s just a concept, but I’d like to get input from you. What do you think?