The Trail Cow v3.0

[tobyw]

Another thing I’ve never particularly liked about the JKU is the lack of a true ‘C’ pillar in the factory roll bar. Similar to the LJ, the long open span just doesn’t feel right to me, regardless of what the math says. So, I spent some time with a length of PVC to mock up a couple of ideas for adding my own ‘C’ pillar, and this is what I came up with:









I’m not overly excited about the white color, as opposed to the unicorn charcoal silver that I used on the LJ tube work, but I didn’t have any in the cabinet and the day was running short… I may very well readdress it next spring, but it’s going to be white for now.

[tobyw]

While waiting for some parts to arrive, I spent some time addressing an aspect of the Trail Cow that has been bothering me; the rear view. Now, I've said it before and I'll say it again - JK's are UGLY. But the combination of cut flares, stock steps, terrible wheels, and a modified factory rear bumper all added up to something I just couldn't stand any more. I'll be addressing the steps and wheels at a later time, but the rear view was something I could deal with a little sooner...

Similar to a TJ, the JK has a bulky plastic shroud for the rear license plate, and it pokes outside the body tub by a fair amount just begging to snag on a tree or rock:





Step one was to pull the platic off, and then figure out what to put in it's place. All the cool JK kids order up this nifty little plastic cap that snaps into place to cover the hole, but I took the opportunity to "fabricate"... It's hardly a big job or a complex piece, but I like it better than a piece of plastic, if for no other reason than because I made it:









The other thing all the JK kids seem to do is relocate the license plate to the center of the swing gate, using an overpriced piece of sheetmetal that often times has some terrible graphic on it... I took the free route (again), and mounted my plate below the gate and above the rear crossmember:



You may also notice that I ditched the rear bumper completely. I'm going to let this marinate for a while and see if I like it. There are a few aftermarket crossmember covers out there that sort of catch my eye, although none of them are exactly what I'd want. I'll probably run it like this at least until I come up with a final design for the rock sliders, and maybe try to tie a rear bumper into that theme??

[tobyw]

While there is a relatively vast amount of cargo volume in your average JKU, it's actually not all that useful for trail running due to the lack of tie-down points to keep your junk secure. The fine folks at Jeep did their best to try and placate the average user by putting nice, tidy little folding anchors in the extreme corners of the cargo area, but unless your cargo is setup to be secured properly by an 'X' of straps, they are otherwise unfortunately useless. Even a 3rd set of anchors in the middle of the cargo area would be extremely useful, albeit still not ideal in terms of flexibility for different sized loads. I solved this problem with a couple sections of stainless strut (actually half-strut for those sharp eyed wire nuts among us ) and a few minutes of my afternoon.

Here is the cargo area before. You can see the little anchors in the corners of the floor area at the bottom of the picture. The forward anchors are actually hidden below the cargo mat, making them even more useless:



And here is the strut installed with three spring nuts embedded in each strip. The depth of the half-strut almost exactly matches the thickness of the carpet/insulation, so I didn't technically give up any cargo volume, and most certainly gained some serious flexibility in terms of how to properly restrain my cargo. I'm still waiting on Amazon to deliver my anchor points that will thread into the spring nuts, but you get the idea:









While I was at it, I pulled my Rotopax fuel caddy off the shelf (it hasn't seen duty since it was mounted on the rear tire carrier of GGv2.0) and bolted it onto the heavy duty tailgate hinges I had installed earlier. This effectively provides me with ~6% more fuel capacity, and while not a lot by any means, it just adds a measure of warm and fuzzy:

[tobyw]

While not exactly JK specific, this is one modification I've been hoping to make for a long long time...



It's one of the smaller, 37 quart units, but based on some initial testing I'm considering it more than adequate for my use case. This thing will see part time duty as the new trail cooler, and part time duty as the official adult beverage dispenser while dry camping.

Ice cream on the Rubicon trail?! Youbetcha!!