- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
That's why I'm buying someone else's money pit at a steeeeeep discount
bigwalton's new Jeep: "The Colonel" - 2018 Rubicon Recon JKU
- Thread starter bigwalton
- Start date
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
I wouldn't want the tent on the Jeep, that's the whole reason I built my camping trailer. I want a basecamp I can leave set up and come back to every night. The idea of breaking down "camp" every day, setting up every night and wheeling with that extra weight up high was always a no-go for me. I don't do long one-way trips where I'm moving every day (then one on the Jeep is perfect), this has been exactly what I needed.
- City
- Landing
- State
- NJ
Ok 4wd does great work, and congrats on the upgrade. Will be a great escape to AZ..!
- City
- Rochester
- State
- Mi
I agree. That’s a nice find and a great setup. The ARB in my JK has been running almost continuously for 5 years. And now I’ve got a 110 Quart ARB Zero in the bed if the ram for trips and hasn’t had any issues with the hot and cold extremes living back there snd the truck being kept outside. They are bulletproof when it comes to portable frigsThat's why I'm buying someone else's money pit at a steeeeeep discount
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
We've had coyotes roaming around under our camp trailer while we were up in the tent. We're sold on rooftop tents
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
Maybe someday, for now my GMRS setup and license is sufficient. I have a Midland radio sitting on the shelf that will go into this one.
Belizeit
CJ-8 Member
- City
- River Ridge
- State
- La
What kind of electrical draw is there if it is running full time ? In other words, if you left it in the garage while you were out of town, how many days could it run and still be able to start the engine ?
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
I don’t know about the ARB, but the Dometic’s have an adjustable voltage cut off that you set to preserve the battery however you want. In my trailer, it’s not running on a starter battery and in the JKU the ARB will be running off of the “house” battery so you can set the cutoff lower.
If you only have the starter battery you’d set it higher.
How long it can go totally depends on the ambient and set temperatures and what you have in the fridge. My experience in the trailer is that it can go a number of days without any issue.
For both of the ones I have, I also have the insulated cover to help with this. I assume the ARB has the same.
- City
- North Dighton
- State
- MA
BW, I tried to find the build thread for your LJ to compare/contrast and see what the differences were. It's hard to search for anything posted by you because there are like a zillion posts to go through. Also, the search function won't search for "LJ", says its too short and omits it. I tried searching "Bigwalton LJ", same thing, drops the LJ from the search. I was just curious as everyone else seems to know all about your LJ.
- City
- Charlotte
- State
- NC
I have ARB with auto cut off... with stock battery it stopped in 24 hours... with the odyssey I have run for three days...
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
UUUGH, it looks like I lost lots of the photos, but I found the thread:
Bigwalton's LJ - Formerly "The LJ gets some big tire love"
EDIT 3/9/12: turning this into an overall build thread on the LJ, just ordered some new goodies and some other cool things are going to be happening to this that are worth having in a build thread ;) This is actually somewhat Scrambler-related because it's all based on something that happened...
www.cj-8.com
- City
- Rochester
- State
- Mi
I run a genesis dual battery system in there with a couple Odyssey extreme batteries one of which runs the accessories including the frig. When I was driving the Jeep as a daily for 5 years, it was never an issue keeping everything charged, but now that it hibernates during most of the winter I keep it on a Odyssey Charger/maintainer when its not getting driven. If I didn't put it on the charger, it would take about 4 days to drain that battery before the frig's power protection system would kick in an turn it off so there was still enough amperage to turn the engine over. But with the dual battery system that was never an issue. The Primary battery was completely separated.
I'm setting the scrambler up the same way and I'll start moving the frig into that one for trips. It prevents any phantom draws from not allowing the Jeep to start especially because it will sit for longer periods of time. The ARB Zero Frig in the truck only gets turned on for trips a couple times a month. It has a boost cooling feature that can cool it down to temperature in an hour our less depending of what you have in there and how cold it was when you put it in.
- City
- Rochester
- State
- Mi
Exactly, and ARB does make insulated covers that do help. I keep the frig in the Jeep around 38 degrees, don't trust the digital indicators, They tend to be off a few degrees. I just but a cheap portable one and put it in there.
- City
- North Dighton
- State
- MA
Thanks BW. That LJ looks pretty stout, and that safari top is awesome. Not sure how you could give it up, but understand your choice.
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
I've found that's the key, start with things cold and it takes no time at all to cool down. That said, I tested the Dometic freezer for review in JPFreek by throwing a room temp water bottle in it and I was completely shocked how fast it froze solid. Don't remember the time, but it floored me.
The fact that this JKU already has that Genesis dual battery system and the optional cabin monitoring setup makes me very happy, it looks killer.
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
Yeah, always thought it would be a lifetime keeper along with the Postal, but honestly Mater, my '77 Cherokee S means more to me now that it has the 401 than the LJ. The Cherokee is honestly more fun as a DD to me because it's so UNlike the Postal. The LJ is really sort of similar to the Postal (well, much more so than the Cherokee).
The past 6-12 months or so, knowing I am going to have to take the Postal off the road for major frame-off work, has resulted in a lot of soul searching relative to what I have and what I'd be doing in the time that the Postal is down. This JKU is a better all-around backup solution for us to have.
It's tough because I very specifically remember going shopping for this LJ and stopping at Babies R Us to get a car seat setup to test fit in the back seat, preparing for Laura's arrival. I know I'll have seller's remorse, it's a given.
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
That plan needs to be rejiggered with this purchase. I may try to get another year out of the Postal as is. It was going to be pulled off the road at the end of the "season" this year.
I still have not fully decided on the tub. I feel like I owe it to the Postal to repair the existing but it's going to have to forgive me for learning on it as I go.
