Newlifeoverlands build.

[Newlife]

Well it’s been a month and day since bringing Alpine home and I’ve really fallen in love.

Backstory is I’ve been a Toyota guy for the last several years. Always been happy with them but always wondered about jeeps. In September of 20 I sold my 2010 Tacoma (owned since new and had it built exactly how I liked it. )

However situations changed and I was in the position to buy a new vehicle so my wife and I went on the hunt. The first stop was a jeep dealership. No gladiators to be had but they had plenty of JL’s I drove one and was pretty satisfied but I was unsure. Then I got the price from the dealership and was definitely sure not what I wanted. 69k for a rubicon with the options I was looking for. I left and we went to another dealership and just didn’t like the pushiness of the sales people. We ended up back at Toyota and I drove home in a brand new 2020 4Runner ORP. I really liked that rig but I wasn’t in love with. Just some premiums that you would think come standard on a 2020 model. Either way I built it just like the Tacoma and had it ready for anything that came it’s way. We took it out west twice and did a ton of “overlanding” Camping etc. But that want for the jeep was still strong.

With the crazy market right now I for sure knew a jeep was out of the question but I got a wild hair up my butt and decided to look.

I found a few I liked and the price was actually much less than it had been at the other two dealerships I had went to. And mentioning market. I was able to strip the 4R back to mostly stock minus snorkel, wheels and tires and the bumpers. And still sell it for quite a bit more than I paid for it after adding 26k miles. The plus side is my wife owns a 21 4Runner so all the add ons we able to be utilized on her truck so she is ready for anything as well.

Enter Alpine our new 2021 JTR we picked up December 22, 2021.

I was fortunate to find three within the area that closely met my criteria. One thing I didn’t get was leather which I may add in the future. But the one I had found with leather didn’t have the 8.4 or the remote start. I also didn’t get the led headlights again option that had them was missing other features I really wanted. We had it less than 200 miles and took it straight to the hills to see what I had. And man we’re we impressed. The offroad comfort was just so much different (better) on the jtr than it was with the 4R with a fully built suspension.

so I will use this as build in progress to keep track of our adventures and build as it progresses.

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[Newlife]

The first on the list was window tint one of my employees is fortunately married (marriage in progress) to a local tint shop owner and that was my Christmas present from her. (Talk about short notice lol)

we decided that since We do a lot of traveling we wanted something that kept prying eyes out. So we went with 5% tint all the way around and 50% on the windshield. This will probably prove a costly mistake later but so far no issues. However I will say people don’t wave if they can’t see you lol.

Shortly afterwards the boxes really started coming in. About 7 boxes from rebel offroad showed up shortly after Christmas

Next up was wheels and tires which completely changed the look of the gladiator.

you’ll also notice there’s modified rock rails. I’m 90% confident that happened the night I got the gladiator. A friend welded them together for me. You’ll also see the arcus front bumper and winch but more on that later.

After the wheels and tires were on FedEx showed up with a nice few packages from AEV for our suspension and a few components I’m not sure if I have any good pics of that but I quickly got to work on adding the suspension before the snow came in. Which would prove to be very daunting for such an easy install. I will say jeep if you ever see this why in the world would you make the torque value 190 ft/lbs for the links.

 

[Free2roam]

Nice setup!!

 

[Newlife]

Once the exterior was finished I quickly started on the interior mods. I tried a few different mounts and finally fell in love with the 67 designs mount. I am currently taking a break from installing a flush mount USB port in the top of the dash to power phone and go pro without worrying about cables ran all over. (Sorry in advance no current pictures of interior mods yet but will get some and edit this later)

we did install the 813 designs rear seat compressor mount to house or arb dual and I still need to plumb the lines the idea I have comeup with will put a air chuck on each side of the rear seats for faster inflating without having to put air hoses across, under, over the jeep. With the addition of the compressor mount we also installed a few accessory panels in the truck to stow ifak, fire extinguisher, a few at the ready items that are all part of my edc load out and must haves.

speaking of add ons we are currently designing our setup for our dual battery with redarc and battleborn batteries that we will use for our off road and overland travels. More to come on that later as well.

 

[Newlife]

Quick snap while at work.

And one from this past weekend setting up for a quick overnight trip just getting a feel for our setup in the JTR

 

[ScottHarr_JT]

Awesome build!!! Love the color, waiting for my sting gray JTR currently. How’s the window tint? Did it come stock with any tint on the front windows? Thinking about having mine done at the dealer before I pick it up.

 

[Newlife]

Awesome build!!! Love the color, waiting for my sting gray JTR currently. How’s the window tint? Did it come stock with any tint on the front windows? Thinking about having mine done at the dealer before I pick it up.

Window tint is great no issues seeing out of it with 50% I know if I get pulled over it’s for sure coming off though. The truck unfortunately did not come with Tint.

 

[ScottHarr_JT]

Once the exterior was finished I quickly started on the interior mods. I tried a few different mounts and finally fell in love with the 67 designs mount. I am currently taking a break from installing a flush mount USB port in the top of the dash to power phone and go pro without worrying about cables ran all over. (Sorry in advance no current pictures of interior mods yet but will get some and edit this later)

we did install the 813 designs rear seat compressor mount to house or arb dual and I still need to plumb the lines the idea I have comeup with will put a air chuck on each side of the rear seats for faster inflating without having to put air hoses across, under, over the jeep. With the addition of the compressor mount we also installed a few accessory panels in the truck to stow ifak, fire extinguisher, a few at the ready items that are all part of my edc load out and must haves.

speaking of add ons we are currently designing our setup for our dual battery with redarc and battleborn batteries that we will use for our off road and overland travels. More to come on that later as well.

Really excited to these pics of how this comes out. Nice set up man.

 

[Newlife]

So we haven’t really added much since the last update but we did end up upgrading the headlights and fog lights to led. We have always been a huge fan of diode dynamics lighting and customer service so it was a no brainer we would reach out to them. In this picture you’ll see their ss3 round max leds being utilized in the fog light location. Because this trip came up super quick I hadn’t gotten around to adding the ditch lights or the reverse chase lights to the rack. But this trip would prove be a very cold one for us. We have heard the temps were in the negatives on top of the mountain and I can believe it with how hard the ground froze within hours of us arriving and getting setup.

 

[AXISJT]

what tent is that?

 

[Jerhemi]

Nice rig and nice pics!

 

[Newlife]

what tent is that?

Free spirit odyssey 55” premium best tent I’ve ever owned.

 

[AXISJT]

Free spirit odyssey 55” premium best tent I’ve ever owned.

Thanks man I'd love to tag a long on a trip once I'm a little more set up saw your in TN also

 

[Newlife]

Thanks man I'd love to tag a long on a trip once I'm a little more set up saw your in TN also

Definitely were in knoxville but travel pretty much anywhere we need to.

 

[AXISJT]

Definitely were in knoxville but travel pretty much anywhere we need to.

I only moved here in August but haven't really had the chance to go anywhere yet I'm a little north of Nashville

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