Rugged Terrain
The outing that started it all...
Some good friends of ours invited us out for a weekend of jeeping back in late 2021. She had bought a newer rubicon, and offered us up her stock 2017 Wrangler which was a manual transmission to drive along with them for the trip. (She mentioned she would be putting the jeep up for sale after this trip). Even though we had owned multiple lifted trucks capable of off roading, we really didn't take them off road much, just up to the snow and dirt bike riding back roads for the most part.
I was reluctant to take her jeep on the trip, as I didn't want to break something we didnt' own. Travis assured me that if we broke it, he would fix it, and before we knew it we were on our way. On this trip we did a bit of mild off roading, nothing too crazy, but we did have to engage 4wheel drive a few times along the way. We drove with the doors and top off so I was able to sit back, relax and enjoy the trip for what it really was.
Shooting some fun video and photos as I hung out the open door was a real excitement to me I remember. And the biggest game changer was what this little stock jeep could do. We just rolled over rocks and up and down some pretty good terrain with no care in the world. Easy peasy, I thought to myself. On the drive home, and to my husbands surprise, I turned to him and threw out a big "Hey Babe, we should buy this jeep!?" He looked at me like I was absolutely crazy, and responded with, "Are you being serious?!"
The quick story goes like this: We bought that 2017 Jeep Wrangler Sport Unlimited that next weekend. We kept it for about a month and started pricing out mods which were going to be expensive. Probably more than I was truly expecting. Thats when Travis suggested that we go look at the local dealer at new Jeeps to be sure we were making the right decision for us, as he knew I liked amenities and this 2017 was definitely lacking in that department. Would't you know it, we ended up testing driving a 2021 Jeep Rubicon JLU with manual transmission and took it home with us. The next day the 2017 went up for sale and within a few days it sold.
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Now...this is where our real adventure began...
"Trail Caddy"
2021 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon JLU
The reason behind the
Trail Caddy build...
Following the purchase of the 2017 Wrangler and prior to the purchase of the 2021 JLUR in October 2021, Travis and I found ourselves hooked on watching YouTube channels on Jeeping. One channel in particular that we began binge watching belonged to the couple by the names of Kevin & Brittany Williams of Lite Brite Nation. Right off the bat, their channel seemed super intriguing to us. They were a down to earth outgoing couple who bought a 2018 Rubicon and were traveling across country, 4wheeling, adding mods/building their rig, and all along the way documenting it to share with others. Let's just say that this couple helped to really inspire us to want to build our own Jeep!
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After spending most of 2022 building Trail Caddy (The Cadillac of our two jeeps today), we finally found ourselves ready to take this beast on its very first real off road journey, The Rubicon Trail. What was funny was that we frivolously took the leap and bought tickets to the Jeepers Jamboree 70th anniversary Rubicon Trail event earlier that January. This gave us a real push to have to get this new jeep built! The now, Trail Caddy, was ready to go for the most part come event time. We were running 37 KM3's on a 3.5" Metacloak Game Changer lift with 6-pak shocks and modified stock Rubicon axles, along with a Metacloak undercloak system and power tank on board air. The rig ended up out performing our every expectation, especially since it seemed every other rig on the trail was running 40's.
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Following the trip, we did end up selling the 37's and upgrading to 40's, just because even though our skids did their job and protected us from any low hanging fruit, we found ourselves drooling over that extra few inches of rubber...
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Travis's goal today: He has put together the build sheet to upgrade our axles. We know it is just a matter of time before we break something running these size tires. It's all just time and lost of $$$ right??? Remember, we all know what JEEP really stands for... Just empty Every Pocket. Yeah, well said. LOL!
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