OUR JEEP BUILD 2 YEARS LATER // DID IT STAND UP TO THE USAGE?

Hey guys, about two and a half years ago we did a walk around of this Jeep and we posted the video to YouTube and over a million of you have watched it. So thanks for watching. What we did in that video was talk about some of the features that we had put on my wife's 2012 stock JKU before heading out on a long overland trip, which we call the Epic Family Road Trip. So we thought it would be fun to do a video now, two and a half years later, and talk about each and every one of those modifications and tell you which ones we would keep, which ones we maybe didn't need to have, and which ones stood the test of time. We are going to have a lot of fun doing this video, stay tuned. Welcome back guys, it's Peter VanStrom from the Epic Family Road Trip. Let's take a look at the features on this Jeep. Now I've made a list on my phone here so I don't forget anything. But starting at the front, we've got the AEV four and a half inch dual sport SC suspension. Now that was one of the first things we put on and we're awfully glad we did. That added suspension allows us to carry all the weight that we have on here. Now we have five people, we have a rooftop tent on the back, we carry all our gear. We at one point had five mountain bikes on a hitch rack, so a lot of weight. And that AEV suspension has stood up and allowed us to go off-road and to go long distance. Okay, next on the list is our AEV premium front bumper with winch mount. So these are heavy duty steel bumpers and designed to put up with a lot of abuse. We thankfully haven't bumped into anything so that's good, but it gives us peace of mind to know that we have really good solid bumpers. They're also elevated and give us really good clearance. So that is something we wouldn't do without. One problem I guess or complaint that we would have is that with this tube, and you can buy them tubeless, but with this tube here, to change headlights or to change out the grill, you almost have to remove the whole bumper. So it's a bit of work. It's a couple hours of work. So maybe that's something AEV's looking into, but that would be the only issue we've had with it. Other than that, it's been excellent and very, very solid. Now having the winch, it is a Warn Xeon 10S winch. That thing has been excellent and something we wouldn't go on a big excursion without. If you get stuck somewhere and you're all alone, that winch is what you need to get yourself out. But we've used it to pull obstacles away from the road and to help other people out of tough situations and pull them out of the ditch and so on. While I'm at it, all of these parts that I'm talking about and these modifications, we're going to make a list in the description section below and link to their website so you don't have to take notes. Next, I'm going to talk about the AEV snorkel, which is here off the side. Now that thing is, yeah, we probably wouldn't want to do without it because it's there for two reasons. One, it allows you to go deep into deep water without pulling water into the air intake. But it also is an added layer of protection for your engine, especially in dusty situations. And we've been into all kinds of dust in the desert, down in Baja and all the places around the world. And that extra filter is just going to add another layer of protection for your engine. So that's important for us because we've got a lot of miles on this old 2012 engine and that has really helped out. We're going to take a peek under the hood now and talk about some of the modifications we did there. Now we get the question a lot, you know, did you modify the engine or put in a bigger engine? No, this is the standard 3.6 liter engine that came with the Jeep. We just try to take it easy with it, even though we're towing a lot of weight. Think about the five people, all the gear for five people, the rooftop tent, the five bikes and we were towing a trailer with the rooftop tent last year up and down the mountains. And it did well, but we try to just be, you know, do a lot of maintenance on the engine, keep it happy. But the first modification was to put this dual battery system in here. Now the part is M-O-R-E, mountain off-road equipment, dual battery tray. So there's a special tray that when you move some things around allows you to pop two batteries in here. Now there's not a lot of room under the hood, so that is a necessity. The dual battery is important because the front battery runs all the accessories, the lighting on the roof rack, the fridge in the back and things like that, and it can be charged with the solar connection. We just plug into the side of the Jeep and put out our three panel solar panel on a hot sunny day and it charges it right back up. So that has been great. That leaves the main battery for starting the engine. We used Odyssey Extreme Series batteries and they are excellent. We have replaced them once in the last three years, but never had a problem with those, so highly recommend it. We've got an S-Pod digital SE electronic control system. We've got orange blue C50 amp circuit. That's a nice feature because it allows you to shut off with one switch all of the accessories and just protect your batteries. If the vehicle is going to be sitting still, like when we shipped it overseas, it was in a shipping container for almost a month, it's nice to have that little switch to shut it off. We've got blue C electrical outlets throughout the vehicle. Those are little USB plug-ins and things like that so that we can charge up our devices as we go. And then inside we've got KC Cyclone interior lights just to make it brighter. You're going to be spending a lot of time in your vehicle. You want it to be bright at night so you can work. So that's it. That's really all we did under the hood. The tires that we've been running are these Toyo RT Open Country and they're 35s and we've in the three years I guess we've had to, we've gone through three sets, this being the third. And they've done great for us. They're not so off-road that they wear out on long distances on pavement and so on. So they've been great for us. No complaints. And then we've got these Raceline wheels. Now they've been great as well. We've been in all kinds of conditions and they've stood up, except once we cracked. We had a flat tire. We thought it was a tire. When we put it underwater there was air escaping from here. That's no fun. No, it's not. It's never any fun. You have a spare rim? Oh, you snapped it pretty good. I wonder when we did that. You had to articulate it pretty hard. Hit something like a rock or something like super hard. It's cracked. Okay. Thankfully we have a spare. Yep. The company sent us new ones and all was well. Going forward, we'd probably go with less blingy tires, especially when we go into third world countries. Or if we're going to Africa, we'd probably go with steel or aluminum. Very simple rather than this kind of bling look, but hey, in the meantime, it looks pretty cool. All right. So here's a really cool feature. These are called hinge steps. They're made by a company called Cargomaster Safari. And these have been indispensable. We could not do without these. They just flip down and then you hop up here and it gives you access to everything on the roof rack. Nice and easy. So definitely something we'd go with. I've never had a problem with them. And we'd do it again. Now that I'm up here, I might as well talk about the roof rack. This is a Front Runner Slimline 2 Extreme Roof Rack. And it is a permanent mount. It goes across the entire length of the vehicle. And this thing is solid. We've never had a problem with it. And we like it so much, we're probably going to put one on our new JL very soon. Now it carries the weight of your gear, your tent. You can stand up here. We sleep up here. This thing's been great. We got the Expedition Railing System, which comes around here and just gives you a bit more support. And a few accessories like the axe holder and shower. They make all kinds of really great things that go onto this roof rack. It is so solid because they actually drill through the back hardtop into the roll bars. So it's very, very stable. It's not going anywhere. While I'm up here as well, we've got an alu box. These are solid aluminum, watertight boxes to put things in here that you don't want to get wet. And then we looked for a bag, a truly watertight bag solution for a long time. Went through some monsoons, all of our gear kept getting wet. There's nothing worse than sleeping in a wet sleeping bag with wet pajamas or wet clothes. So finally we found these. They're called Monsoon Bags by Front Runner as well. And these things are truly watertight, waterproof. So that's something I would highly recommend getting. You want to be able to carry it as much as you can on the roof rack, and these allow you to do that in any weather. All right, so let's talk about sleeping quarters. So we've got the rooftop tent, a three-person CVT tent. That thing is excellent. We've got a couple of videos reviewing it if you want to take a look at that in more detail. And then we've got the ARB side awning here, which we reviewed also in our last walk-around video. But both have been excellent for us. When we did the first video, we had a Tapui Rugged Ice tent, and that thing was great as well. But eventually we wore it out. We put that through hard usage for three years. Excellent tent. But one thing to keep in mind, we were shipping from during the rainy season, and the tent got wet, and we couldn't find a place to dry it out. And then we shipped it, and it ships across some really hot weather. And it started getting a little bit of mildew on it, and then we couldn't get the mildew situation under control. And then the final straw was when we were in Baja, if you've seen our videos from Baja, the tide came in high and drove some sand up into the ladder, and we ended up leaving the ladder in Baja, and then just trading in the tent for a CVT. We went with CVT because they're from Oregon, my wife's from Oregon, and they're good people. But no complaints on the Tapui. We broke an arm, if you see that in the last video, one of the aluminum arms, because of heavy, heavy rain. And all we had to do was get another arm, replace it, and back in business. And this thing's great. It's an awning from sun and rain, but it also has a full room, and that room became sleeping quarters for the kids, but also a place to do their school and other work. So these are a must-have for us. All right, let's talk about the back of the vehicle. So we have the premium AEV bumper on the back as well. It is actually a food-grade water tank, which is a really neat feature. And someday we might be stranded in the desert, and that'll come in really handy. But the bumper is an entire system, so along with it comes a fuel caddy here. It's a 10.2 US gallon fuel caddy that we use all the time, so we wouldn't want to do without that. There's a little siphon hose that just allows you to very easily and quickly siphon the fuel out of here, back into your vehicle. Or you can fuel any other thing, like we've used it for generators and so on. But it's also the wheel carrier. It carries a shovel, and you also have a mount for your jack. So this whole system is something that we use a lot, and we think would be one of the items we wouldn't want to do without. So when you swing away the gate, all that goes with it. And now that the back's open, it allows us to talk a little bit about some of the things we added to the back of the Jeep. The first being an AT, or Adventure Trailers, table. And this just swings down from the tailgate, and it's got a slide-out cutting board. And this is our food prep area. Use it every day. Now the only issue we had is we didn't put enough bolts on it, and after going over a lot of rough roads, it started to come loose. So when we got back from New Zealand, we just drilled a few holes and riveted it in there good and strong. Never had a problem since. So we like that. That's a good piece of equipment. We have here a stove and a fridge, and they're on a tray, a slide-out, also made by AT. So that slides out and allows you to cook in this area. This partner stove is great. We've never had any issues with that. These are solid. It comes out so you can clean in and around it. And it connects right here to the propane tank, which is on a mount by AT as well. AT is Adventure Trailers. This mount holds the propane, and that's been through all kinds of weather, and it's stood strong, and there's no problems with that for us. The fridge also slides out on that same AT tray. Now we did break a clip on it, just basically from heavy usage, daily usage, and it's a fairly easy replacement part. While I'm at it, I'll talk about the fridge. This is made by ARB. It's a 50-quart fridge. We've outgrown it now that we're all, the kids are all adults now. We need two of these or one twice this size. But in terms of being a great fridge, yeah, we love it. It's done a great job for us, and we're going to keep it, just maybe get another one in the other vehicle. It has been through cold weather and warm weather, and it always keeps your food cold, and the frozen stuff is at the bottom. Now we did break the clip, not because it's poor quality. It's great quality, but what we did, I'll just show you real quick. So we slid the fridge back, but there must have been a water bottle or something behind it, and it didn't slide in all the way. We didn't notice. We were in a hurry. We put this down, we slammed the back, and it broke the latch. But that's not a problem with their equipment. That's just, we're just going to go get another part, and that'll be back in business. So the last thing is this shelving system here made by AT as well, Adventure Trailers, and that allows us to divide the space in half, and we can store all kinds of things up here, and then we have a room below. Now I'll do another video later on which talks about what we carry because I think that would be very informative, and we'll go one by one through each item. And then what we installed was some lighting here. These are the KC Cyclone lights. They're very bright. They're LED. They don't take up a lot of power. Everything runs off that second battery, but this gives us a good lit up area when we're cooking food in the kitchen at night. There's also some USB ports here for charging our devices. And then lastly, we've got a fire extinguisher mounted here, which is important in any vehicle, and especially in the kitchen area. So in the back right now, there's not a lot you can see in there because we change that configuration every time we go on a trip. There's going to be a slight difference to how we pack it, but we have a MiMedic bag up there, which is important as well. Check out MiMedic, but they make all kinds of different first aid bags with all the equipment you need just in case you get into trouble, and we don't recommend you leave home without it. An issue that you can have in the JKU is if you're using all three seats in the back a lot is that the middle seat will eventually start to sag. Daniel always sat there and he started to complain of a lot of discomfort on long hauls, and we tried to put pillows and cushions there, but nothing helped. And then we found out there's an aftermarket plate that you can buy and easily install with a few plastic ties. And once we installed that, the problem was solved. In 2020, in season five, we're going to be doing some pretty cool stuff with GooseGear, so stay tuned for that. Maybe a seat delete and a sleeping platform. Some really neat stuff that we have planned, and we'll do another video when that comes about. We've got these what are called Rugged Ridge hood latches. Now, they've been bounced all over the place and have stood up pretty good, although last year one of the bolts came loose. It's just due to rattling, and maybe we should have checked it more often and tightened it up, but a bolt slipped out. We actually replaced it with a tent peg, which did fine for quite a while. Repairs in the field, one of our hood brackets rattled loose, so there's a lot of play, and it would flip off, but it's not the worst. Those roads will rattle anything loose that you've got loose. So, yeah, these have been good. I might go with a little more rugged, a little heavier set of clips next time. All right, so we've got this black aftermarket Angry Birds-style grille on the Jeep, but Carol wants to go back to this, which is the original. In fact, we're going to be installing that on there pretty soon. I'd be interested in knowing what your preference is. Do you like the original, or do you like going with these modified grilles? Let us know in the comments. We also installed an AEV skid plate, which I think is a good thing to have when you're going off-road a lot. Our steering stabilizer wore out on this after a lot of usage, and so last year we had a Falken steering bar and stabilizer put on, and that has been great for us. All right, to take a look at the interior of our vehicle, we really haven't done a lot of modifications. Everything is pretty much stock, the way it was when we bought it, but we do have an S-Pod controller that we mounted there. That allows us to control all the lights. We have 67-design device holders that have been very, very handy and something we could probably not do without. That holds our nav, hold a camera or a phone, iPod, whatever device you have. Other things we carry in there is a CB, which we haven't used that much, but now that we have two vehicles, I think we'll be using it a lot more, communicating between the two vehicles. And then we always carry our Garmin GPS communicator, just in case we get into trouble somewhere. That thing is satellite-based, and we can communicate from anywhere with or without cell service. I hope you enjoyed this walk-around of our Jeep Wrangler Overland vehicle. If you have any questions, make sure you leave some comments below. We'll definitely try to answer them. The links and the product names are down below as well in the description. Make sure you stay tuned to Epic Family Road Trip. We are heading out now in 2020, what we're calling Season 5. Even though it's only our second, we're coming into our third year on YouTube, it's our fifth year traveling together as a family, and this year we're doing something really special. We now have a second Jeep. As you know, the kids have outgrown the back of this one, and they have their licenses, so we're going to be all driving together in two Jeeps and camping and exploring America and the world. We want to take you with us. Thank you for watching our channel, and especially to our patrons for your support. We really always appreciate your support. Hope you guys enjoyed this video. We'll see you down the road.