Project Shoestring: a overland TJ build

[rasband]

What are some innovative ways you guys have come up with storage solutions?
I have the smittybilt seat cover deals with the bags that are snapped on the back of the seats.
Looking for ideas that you all have seen or come up with

Unless you carry a lot of tall things, and easy one is to buy or build a “shelf” in the storage area, effectively doubling your usage floor space. This may be overkill, but I’ve been wanting to learn to weld and decided this will be the first “big” project as I learn.

 

[TJDon]

Unless you carry a lot of tall things, and easy one is to buy or build a “shelf” in the storage area, effectively doubling your usage floor space. This may be overkill, but I’ve been wanting to learn to weld and decided this will be the first “big” project as I learn.

Not to many big things I’m planning on carrying. I have OCD when it comes to Organization and everything having its place.

Any under the hood storage for that “ don’t need all that often” stuff?
Or under seat besides the expensive Tuffy products.
Has anyone done a metal grid type deal that connects to the back side roll bar where small canvas bags could be attached too?


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[TJDon]

Managed to find an out of the way place for the power source and cargo area light switch
Still need to screw it down. But I think this will be good for usb and arb fridge power
Birchwood is a pain try not to split it

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[Chris]

Managed to find an out of the way place for the power source and cargo area light switch
Still need to screw it down. But I think this will be good for usb and arb fridge power
Birchwood is a pain try not to split it
View attachment 61388
View attachment 61389


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I assume you're going to carpet over that to give it a finished look? Should look good!

 

[TJDon]

I assume you're going to carpet over that to give it a finished look? Should look good!

Ya. Thought about painting the wood black
But matching carpet would look good too. I just don’t have any
I wound up mounting it behind the roll bar and I like that better being it put the whole thing further back out of the way



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[Chris]

View attachment 61424
Ya. Thought about painting the wood black
But matching carpet would look good too. I just have any
I wound up mounting it behind the roll bar and I like that better being it put the whole thing further back out of the way



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Should be pretty easy to find some matching carpet at any auto upholstery shop. The carpet in the TJ is nothing special.

It will definitely look cool that way and much more "finished".

 

[Shane Mckinley]

The shelf is killer. Amazon has either a single or this double shelf. I opted for more usable space
Rock Slide Engineering AC-TB-100-JTY Tailgate Table https://www.amazon.com/dp/B018H7GT1Q/?tag=wranglerorg-20

As far as axles and gears. As I promised myself to keep the build as cheap as possible. Hence the name “shoestring”
I scored BIG TIME with the diffs

The Jeep has the crappy 30,35 and I had been running around on the stock 3.73 gears. Rarely was I able to find 5th gear
A friend of mine was upgrading his LJ to rubicon diffs and installing a Metalcloak lift kit. For helping him with the install, he gave me his rear Dana 44 with disc brakes.
We all know how hard it is to find a front dana44 for our rigs. Out of absolutely dumb luck, a guy on Facebook marketplace was selling a rubicon front empty housing. After messaging back and forth I picked it up for $150!!! I installed 4.88’s with limited slip carriers both front and rear (because they were free [emoji16]) and I had to buy one front shaft while my friend gave me the other side
All in all cost wise. I have about $500 wrapped up in front and rear axles. And nice to have rear disc brakes too

Weak fuses removed!
View attachment 61293

Heavier duty Dana 44 fuses installed! It’s just a ARB cover, it was free also lol
View attachment 61294View attachment 61295


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NO FREAKING WAY!!!

What a score!!!!


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2005 RHD TJ Sport
2010 BMW 528xi

 

[TJDon]

Took a ride down to Metalcloak yesterday. Some nice projects they’re working on at Cloakworks
.

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[tomtaylz]

Love the overland inspired build. I definitely want mine more overland - I think I'm going to go with a RTT trailer for flexibility though. Following along

Managed to find an out of the way place for the power source and cargo area light switch
Still need to screw it down. But I think this will be good for usb and arb fridge power
Birchwood is a pain try not to split it
View attachment 61388
View attachment 61389


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This is awesome. Is the switch for that exterior light you had or the dome lights? I have been thinking about adding some power in the back of my LJ (my solution for storage space hah) and it would be nice to have light inside the rear for when the tailgate is open.

 

[TJDon]

Love the overland inspired build. I definitely want mine more overland - I think I'm going to go with a RTT trailer for flexibility though. Following along




This is awesome. Is the switch for that exterior light you had or the dome lights? I have been thinking about adding some power in the back of my LJ (my solution for storage space hah) and it would be nice to have light inside the rear for when the tailgate is open.

Thanks. It’s been fun so far building it up

The switch is for the KC led flood lights I have mounted on the back of the rack. Flood lights do a great job lighting up the inside and around the whole back of the Jeep


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[tomtaylz]

Thanks. It’s been fun so far building it up

The switch is for the KC led flood lights I have mounted on the back of the rack. Flood lights do a great job lighting up the inside and around the whole back of the Jeep


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You have me thinking about all the nice to have lighting in and around my jeep now haha

 

[1515art]

Hey guys! My name is Don. Live in Galt CA

It’s great that there is this forum specific to TJ’s only!

Been lurking for a while here on the forum and decided to share my build

I picked up this 2002 “X” last September with intentions of building it up for my daughter to eventually drive to high school. Now I don’t want it out of my sight [emoji23]

When I brought it home it had the rack, tore up soft top, wore out smittybilt 8k winch and clapped 33’s with a 4” procomp lift.
Over the last year I’ve been making it more mine with extreme budget in mind. So far I’ve been pretty lucky finding deals and having friends in the Jeep business world.

First pic is of it the day I bought it

View attachment 61280

This is how she sits today
Metalcloak front and rear bumpers with tire swing out, Metalcloak rockers, BFG 35’s, smittybilt RTT and a few other things
View attachment 61281

We’ve only taken it out camping one time. My daughter keeps us really busy with travel softball
View attachment 61282
View attachment 61283

I look forward to more trips hopefully soon with it and making memories with my daughter adventuring


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I like what you are doing, I’m sort of looking for camping solution too not sure yet if the rtt is for me I think there are some great advantages to going that route. In the meantime I’ve added the Olympic interior cargo shelf from eBay at $277 to get extra gear capacity, the install was simple and it seems very solid I think I’m going to like it.
Good luck on the overland build, looking good.

 

[Chris]

Is adding A/C on the build list?

 

[FarminAg]

Hey guys! My name is Don. Live in Galt CA

It’s great that there is this forum specific to TJ’s only!

Been lurking for a while here on the forum and decided to share my build

I picked up this 2002 “X” last September with intentions of building it up for my daughter to eventually drive to high school. Now I don’t want it out of my sight [emoji23]

When I brought it home it had the rack, tore up soft top, wore out smittybilt 8k winch and clapped 33’s with a 4” procomp lift.
Over the last year I’ve been making it more mine with extreme budget in mind. So far I’ve been pretty lucky finding deals and having friends in the Jeep business world.

First pic is of it the day I bought it

View attachment 61280

This is how she sits today
Metalcloak front and rear bumpers with tire swing out, Metalcloak rockers, BFG 35’s, smittybilt RTT and a few other things
View attachment 61281

We’ve only taken it out camping one time. My daughter keeps us really busy with travel softball
View attachment 61282

View attachment 61283

I look forward to more trips hopefully soon with it and making memories with my daughter adventuring


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Which specific smittybuilt tent do you have? Looks like it fits nice.