My Custom JL Rubicon Overland Camper Build - Refuge II Camper

[Dan Grec]

Hi Everyone,

After driving the length of the Pan-American Highway in a TJ, right around Africa in a JKUR and around Australia in a JT Gladiator, I'm embarking on my next major build and expedition.
For where I want to go in the world I've decided that interior living space is the number one priority, but of course I don't want to be limited as to where I can go (no vans for me).

An incredible Aerospace Engineer named Michael Fuchs (Instagram here: https://instagram.com/wabi_sabi_overland/ ) reached out about a project he was cooking up, and one thing lead to another and we've been working together on this for quite a while.

The plan is to cut a JL Wrangler off directly behind the front doors and then graft on a composite living box that provides enormously more living space.
The box here has interior dimensions of 6 feet wide by 7.5 feet long... which means you could put two Gladiator beds in there turned sideways side by side and still have a foot strip down the side to spare.

The first step was to cut my new-to-me 2021 EcoDiesel Rubicon JL in half, which was not easy to do!





and now we have permanently mounted the camper box onto the Jeep




I will post more updates here as the build continues. In the mean time fire away with any questions you have!

-Dan

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[Dan Grec]

For anyone that's curious, I also filmed all of the reasons this is being built on a Wrangler rather than a Gladiator - there's many technical reasons and one major philosophical reason for the choice.



-Dan

 

[blatod]

Hi Dan,

Been watching your channel for years. Great content, and I am anxious to see your next adventure. But I love the build episodes too.

 

[stingrey]

Hi Dan,
I have been a subscriber since I bought my first Jeep wrangler in 2018. Now I also have a JT.
It's fun to watch your adventures. I enjoy listening to you explain your reasoning and why you do things the way you do.
It's nice to see someone put thought into things and not just do what everyone else is doing.
The new rig looks like it will be awesome. It should provide you a comfortable, and warm when needed, living space. Something you need here in Canada. Michael has sure created a winner.
Cheers.

 

[Whisperingjim]

It's going to exciting to see it all come together.

 

[rchandler341]

I have really enjoyed your travels and documentation. Did you contemplate using a JTRD removing the bed, and cutting the cab as you did with the wrangler? You would have gained much more livable space and could keep the weight forward.
I will continue to watch your build. Fascinating work!

 

[John in the Woods]

You are a monster, my friend; in all the best ways. Thanks for the in-depth explainer about Gladiator v. Wrangler, and for the wild build videos. I'll be following along once again. My eyes are on building an offroad camper down the line, so I'll be watching for any cabin ideas I can steal.

 

[l88m22vette]

I watched this last night and its an awesome project, the attention to detail and approaches to materials and bonding really shows that neither of you are screwing around. I can't wait to see more, and I'm over here looking for a cheap surplus trailer for the same purpose ?

 

[PJZ]

Really impressive and agree with everyone's comments. Even more impressive is we know you will use this jeep to the full extent! Happy to see its a diesel as well

 

[Chilli]

Well Done

 

[Mules]

I'm drooling waiting for the interior build video...

Well done.

 

[Dan Grec]

Thanks for the kind words everyone!

In this week's video we bond in the rear floor and add a ladder for quick access before I spend a ton of time wiring up all the rear lights and connecting them with factory plugs to the original Jeep harnesses.
At the end we take it for a test drive to make sure we didn't fry any computers when welding, and to make sure I got all my wiring correct!
This has been an enormous project and I still have hundreds of hours of footage on all the parts we fabricated and worked on to get it where it is today.

Fire away with any questions you have and I'll be sure to answer them on YouTube or cover them in future videos.



-Dan

 

[Dan Grec]

I have really enjoyed your travels and documentation. Did you contemplate using a JTRD removing the bed, and cutting the cab as you did with the wrangler? You would have gained much more livable space and could keep the weight forward.
I will continue to watch your build. Fascinating work!

Absolutely, we spent a ton of time thinking about the pros and cons of the Gladiator for this build.

Checkout the video above where I directly compare them.. it turns out the Gladiator is not the perfect solution...

-Dan

 

[chorky]

Thanks for the kind words everyone!

In this week's video we bond in the rear floor and add a ladder for quick access before I spend a ton of time wiring up all the rear lights and connecting them with factory plugs to the original Jeep harnesses.
At the end we take it for a test drive to make sure we didn't fry any computers when welding, and to make sure I got all my wiring correct!
This has been an enormous project and I still have hundreds of hours of footage on all the parts we fabricated and worked on to get it where it is today.

Fire away with any questions you have and I'll be sure to answer them on YouTube or cover them in future videos.



-Dan

Looking pretty good. I had a feeling that was the route you were gonna go, it's going to be a sweet setup. Although I must have missed where you talked about why you did not want to do that with a Gladiator - what was the reasoning there? Theres certainly pro's and con's to JT/LJ but I would like to know your reasoning on that. I am kinda surprised the floor just bonds to the frame and there is no bolts at all...Maybe that is a standard method for composite material? Any ideas how much the 'box' weighs? Would you be willing to give insight on the cost of such a thing?

 

[Dan Grec]

Looking pretty good. I had a feeling that was the route you were gonna go, it's going to be a sweet setup. Although I must have missed where you talked about why you did not want to do that with a Gladiator - what was the reasoning there? Theres certainly pro's and con's to JT/LJ but I would like to know your reasoning on that. I am kinda surprised the floor just bonds to the frame and there is no bolts at all...Maybe that is a standard method for composite material? Any ideas how much the 'box' weighs? Would you be willing to give insight on the cost of such a thing?

Absolutely.

The reasoning for "Why not a Gladiator" is involved, and I made a whole video about it here:



Yes, just using glue and no bolts is very common for composites, it's the standard way and is much stronger and lighter.

What we bolted on weighs less than what we took off.. so the Jeep currently weighs less than when it rolled out of the factory stock. We have a good amount of payload to play with.

The cost is actually not very high in materials, but the labor is HUGE. If we even paid ourselves $50/hour it's not really workable. If it goes into production there will be changes made to make it mass producible.

-Dan

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