You might have noticed a Dometic fridge/freezer in the booth photos I posted:



Dometic had a booth a few down from MORryde/Retrofit, and when they saw we put a cooler on the rack they asked if we'd like to display a fridge up there. We said sure because it's heavier than a cooler and it looks cool, so they brought one over.

At the end of the show they asked if we'd like to keep it, so we quickly took them up on the offer. We (me, MORryde and Retrofit) decided that I'd take it to experiment with - I've got some ideas for mounting a fridge in the Jeep that I don't think have been tried yet, so I'll experiment with those ideas and see if they make sense, and if they do, maybe what I come up with will end up being a MORryde or Retrofit or Dometic product.

If anyone has any of their own creative fridge ideas, post them up and maybe I'll try implementing them too.

Stay tuned.

 

I was looking at some of their fridges after I saw the picture, they have a few that would fit my rack.



I could mount a battery above the passenger fender behind where my spare will go to get power to the rack. Could even mount an inverter there as well.

 

The Rack, and all the heavy stuff than can be put on it, plus the heavy spare, are likely to change the handling of the 4dr.
A 2dr would be even more affected by the weight, high center of gravity.
This is a "can vs should" decision on the part of the Jeep owner, my concern is that not everyone realises how profoundly weight well behind the rear axel can change handling, especially at highway speed, in "avoidance" maneuvering.
If that rack can hold 250lbs, you know someone will load it up...

 

^^^This.

I put my spare on top of my ZJ and really changed the handling, it was up there for all of 2 days. Its one of the reasons Im going the direction Im going.

I havent loaded the Action Packer or loaded out the cooler yet but the low rack is solid as laid out.

 

Everyone needs to decide what's best for them in terms of cargo loading. There are lots of "over the spare" racks out there; it seems like almost half the Jeeps here at EJS have one, most of which are carrying heavy things like extra fuel, so my rack certainly isn't the only one out there. I look at it like this: take the Teraflex Alta rack, for example, it's rated for 75 lbs. and weighs 96 lbs., so for the sake of simplicity let's say that a fully loaded Alta adds 175 lbs. to the back of the Jeep. My rack weighs 39 lbs., so let's imagine it also gets rated at 75 lbs. as well, that's 115 lbs - 60 lbs. less than the Alta rack for the same cargo load.

I do about 500 miles per year off-road in Utah and Colorado in my LJ, and standard outfitting for me is a rack on the roof carrying at least an extra spare, and often a HiLift and more luggage. I've never felt at risk on the trail (or on the highway) because of that, but as I started this post - everyone needs to decide what's best for them and then load and drive their Jeep responsibly.

 

My 33" Super Swamper probably didnt way much more then my 9' cataraft, so it was probably how the tire was mounted on the ZJ. I could go all summer with the raft up top, with the raft my only complaint was wind. That said I dont think my back could take getting a tire up there, the raft is much more manageable.

ETA: If I carried my spare on the back, for weight reasons Ild take yours over the others on the market.

 

I sometimes carry a spare battery in the ammo can tray in my JKU, a battery box fits nicely.



The back seat takes up too much room for this in a 2-door, although without the back seat it might work.

 

I dont have a rear seat Ill have to sere if that will fit.

 

Gladiator front clips seem to be a popular item these days, at least with vendors for their booth Jeeps. There were at least 5 at the EJS Vendor Expo, here are photos of some of them. Three are the Thaler Design (::: Jeep® JK Wrangler M7© front conversion kit / by Thaler Design :::) and the one at lower right is a ne wkit by Chris Durham Motorsports (https://chrisdurham.wordpress.com/).



I think the Thaler kit starts at $6500, and Chris told me his new kit starts at $3600.

 

Really interested in the 2 door hardtop sliders! Also, the soft top option for the hardtop as well. I'm looking into flat fenders..I'm really wanting to go with aluminum. Any suggestions? Totally dign your ideas and thoughts..you turn imaginations and ideas into real possibilities. I thank you for that. Keep it up!