RN M OVR

Prepping to go on a 3-4 week excursion this summer in June. Arizona--> Utah--> Wyoming--> Colorado--> back to Arizona. The trip I have in mind will be all camping. Though I don't intend to be stupid and venture too far away from a town to the point where I'm stranded if G_d forbid something happens, though I do plan to cruise the Jeep down some desolate back roads and way out into no-man's-land.

Questions:

1) I was planning to bring 3-4 (or more if you think) extra cans of fuel, each of which would hold 4-5 gallons of gasoline. Figure that would be smart when hitting some of these desolate back roads. I would purchase a receiver hitch basket to hold them and strap them down via ratchet tie down. Any recommendation on which receiver basket(s) could securely hold this much? Pray I don't get rear ended on my trip, any concerns I should be aware of with holding extra gas cans via receiver hitch basket?

2) Aside from being smart and preplanning my routes before hitting the road, any good books, maps, atlas, etc. you can recommend that show a good variety of back roads around the states? If not, any good websites you know of where I can print off some detailed maps?

3) Any specific maintenance checks I should conduct to ensure my JK can handle the driving and especially the three-digit heat it will be dealing with throughout the deserts? (mechanical and electrical checks)

Thanks for the help. Any questions you wish to ask or advice you want to give will be much appreciated. I love the outdoors and camping but have never done anything like this, so of course I want to be safe; if that means accepting some of your criticism and skepticism, I'm cool with that.

Mr.T

Sounds like fun! I'm interested in extra fuel too, but the safety angle, where too mount, and just plain procrastination have kept me on the main tank.

Regarding the maps, National Geographic seem pretty good. See http://www.natgeomaps.com/ and http://maps.nationalgeographic.com/maps . I also use AAA's maps, which have major dirt roads on them.

For specific maintenance, check or change fluids/lubricants is a usual good practice. Check for leaks. Check torque on the track bars and lower control arms.

Hope you have a great trip!

mkjeep

Umm, you do know that your exhaust would be blowing hot fumes pretty close to a hitch carrier carrying 15-20 gal of gas.
Thats really too low, the gas cans need to be up higher and not in direct line of fire of a rear end collision from most vehicles.Plus thge carrier will be obtrusive and hanging too low if you decide to go off-road.I wouldn't think you'd need over 10 gal extra anyway unless your doing some kind of overland expedition in a remote area.

RN M OVR

Yeah, I figured the exhaust would be a potential problem. What do you suggest then?

mkjeep

I looked at your album" selling the JK", is that the one you still have? With the fuel can holder in the back?

RN M OVR

Yeah. I was suppose to do some editorial work in New York, but I ended up writing columns for various publications back home instead. The city's nice and all, but I'm too in love with the natural outdoors to be living in one of the world's largest concrete jungles. So I still have the Jeep. I do still have the dual jerry can rack, too. I should use that for my excursion, I know, but then my tire would take up too much valuable room in the 2 doors trunk space. Plus, I've been trying to sell that rack (no one's biting) so it's been off the Jeep for a couple months now.

owntmeal4life

They have extensions that you can put 2+ cans on your spare seen em on one of the sites out there I think it was quadratic they are big long and flat so if u have a roof rack could strap em Down on top sorry no links or any thing on my phone pm me if u can't find any thing

Sahara_Maverick

Sounds like a great trip!

Questions:
1) how much do you have in your budget?
2) how much do you plan to camp and be "off the grid"?
3) how much far from main roads do you plan to go?

Depending on how you answer these questions you should consider one of those Safari racks that go on top of your Jeep.

If you have a hard top and will use it in the trip there is the option of installing a Thule basket. It will let you strap gas and water cans, tent and other supplies on it.

For maps, if you have an Android device with a GPS, check OruxMaps. You can download several maps, including topo, for offline use. But I would take printed topo maps and a compass as backup.

westchester

I've transported a bunch of 5-gallon gas cans in these hitch baskets, it isn't safe and I was comfortable only for short distances. The baskets can be loaded with a surprising amount of weight, however the contents and the basket are low and mostly out of the line of vision for most tailgaters. For multiple cans, I'd strongly suggest using a bumper, spare tire carrier or roof rack.

Note that gas cans will expand in hot weather, so get decent metal cans that vent, not the cheap plastic gas carriers.

westchester

To see how low they are, this thread has alot of photos "trailer hitch cargo baskets pics?"

https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/show...basket+camping