Halley - '17 WK2 Trailhawk Overland Build

2180miles

Endurance Adventuring
So I've gone radio-silent over the last two months partially due to the incredible 7,000 mile trip across North America, and partially because work and end-of-summer trips have been crazy since I got back. I've got a handful of write-ups left to do from before we departed for Canada, and will do some specialized posts regarding gear and stuff in this thread, but for now anyone who has been reading that might be interested can check out the write-up in the Adventure and Overland report sections.

QB-5: Adventuring in Ontario's Backcountry

and the still-being-updated complete overland story..

Trans-Canada: North America and the Canadian Rockies


and here's a few teaser shots of the WK2 Trailhawk from the trip :)



QB-5 Overland Group by 2180miles


Trailhawk Adventures by 2180miles


2180miles Trailhawk on the Smith-Dorrien Trail by 2180miles
 

Scoutman

Explorer
I love what you've done so far. I've had my eye out on one of these for some time now but my wife seems to have a Q7 in her sights instead. I was looking for the Hemi and no 'safety group' package though and for it to be used as my daily driver. Keep up the good work and I'm anxious to see where this one goes.
 

echo7tango

Road tripping, overlanding
Ryan, nice job on your rig, it looks great so far. I too like the WK2 platform, it's comfortable on the road and decently capable on the trail. I'm a little biased, of course. Mine is a ‘16 Overland with the 3.0 CRD and I want to do some similar mods as you've done.

Will you post night pics of your aux reverse lights? Or did you already, since I did not click on all your pics links?

Nice work, and thanks for the great details and photos!

Roy
 

2180miles

Endurance Adventuring
I love what you've done so far. I've had my eye out on one of these for some time now but my wife seems to have a Q7 in her sights instead. I was looking for the Hemi and no 'safety group' package though and for it to be used as my daily driver. Keep up the good work and I'm anxious to see where this one goes.

Thanks Scoutman! Q7 is a big vehicle... I'll be honest, I enjoy the WK2 more than the Q5s I've driven, and that's as an Audi fanboy.

Taking some time this winter to look over where the build will go next. Everything I did this year proved perfectly aligned for the needs of the overland trip this summer.
 

2180miles

Endurance Adventuring
Hey, I grew up in NWA. Huge mtn biking community there.
How do you like the area there?

Never got a chance to really explore the area more than a few times, but it was absolutely beautiful while I was there and off the main roads. I'm hoping I'll get out there a little more next year!
 

2180miles

Endurance Adventuring
Ryan, nice job on your rig, it looks great so far. I too like the WK2 platform, it's comfortable on the road and decently capable on the trail. I'm a little biased, of course. Mine is a ‘16 Overland with the 3.0 CRD and I want to do some similar mods as you've done.

Will you post night pics of your aux reverse lights? Or did you already, since I did not click on all your pics links?

Nice work, and thanks for the great details and photos!

Roy

Thanks so much Roy. It's a great platform and you're right - comfortable on road and capable off. I dragged her through some river crossings during our Ontario QB-5 backcountry adventure this summer with the club, through some great washed out roads, and over all kinds of terrain without issue.

I don't know how many reverse photos I have right now, but I will be home next weekend (for the first time in 6 weeks) and will gladly get some for you of the reverse system turned on. Check back with me next week :)

Appreciate the kind words!
 

2180miles

Endurance Adventuring
Hey Roy-

I was able to snap a few photos for you over the weekend when I was back in Boston. Stats on the images are as follows: ISO200, f/5.0, 13" exposure time. I measured the space out for the visible light beam. The edge of the trees was 75 feet from the rear bumper of the Trailhawk, and the beam pattern at the middle point (about 35 feet off the bumper) was 53 feet wide. For reference, I'm standing at the treeline in the background to give you an idea of height of the diffused beam. I'm about 5' 9" tall. Unfortunately it was very overcast, so I wasn't able to capture it in complete darkness, but it was dark enough that I had to use a flashlight to find the camera on the tripod after standing in the beam.

As a reminder, these are the Rigid Industries SRM reverse lights. I tried to get video of the strobe function, but my camera wasn't playing nice with me and the lighting.

Hopefully these help!



Rigid SRM Reverse - 1 by 2180miles


Rigid SRM Reverse - 2 by 2180miles


Rigid SRM Reverse - 3 by 2180miles
 

echo7tango

Road tripping, overlanding
Awesome, Ryan thanks. Those really are great, and I’m going to put them on my list too. I really like them.

There’s probably times you don’t want them on. Do you have controls so that they can either be:

• on whenever you shift into R ... ?
• off when you shift into R ... ?
• on when you want them, whether or not in R ... ? And, I imagine a flash-to-pass-like control would be good, like a spring-loaded button to press to momentarily flash them on, briefly. This is a little different from this third bullet.

Thanks again! They look great!
 

2180miles

Endurance Adventuring
Awesome, Ryan thanks. Those really are great, and I'm going to put them on my list too. I really like them.

There's probably times you don't want them on. Do you have controls so that they can either be:

• on whenever you shift into R ... ?
• off when you shift into R ... ?
• on when you want them, whether or not in R ... ? And, I imagine a flash-to-pass-like control would be good, like a spring-loaded button to press to momentarily flash them on, briefly. This is a little different from this third bullet.

Thanks again! They look great!

So I opted for two switches for these lights in my 4-switch bank. The first switch is to turn them on and off, the second of the two turns on a solid state strobe controller for them to strobe. The first switch will override the strobe control and turn them solid again, even if the strobe switch is activated. As with my Wrangler, I chose to not tie these into the stock wiring harness, so they do not in fact turn on every time I'm in reverse. I like having complete control of them. The spring loaded button idea is an interesting one, though if ever need be it's easy enough to just reach down and flash them on and off quickly with the first of the two switches.
 

2180miles

Endurance Adventuring
Custom Rear Deck / Dometic CFX-35 Installation

So there are a few updates I never got a chance to catalogue before we departed for the Trans-Canada trip this summer. One of the most integral additions of gear to the Trailhawk was the Dometic CFX-35 fridge/freezer… I had hesitated at the cost initially but the value this thing brought to our trip as a whole cannot be conveyed. Once I had decided to purchase one (ended up just getting it on Amazon, paid something in the range of $550.00) it became a task of designing a way to have it held down. While I had initially wanted to put it on a slider, spending the extra $200 to buy the kit from Dometic just wasn’t in the budget that close to our departure, so I decided to flat mount it directly to the deck. This is where the need for some kind of secure deck came from.


OEM WK2 Trunk Deck by 2180miles
*please excuse the mess... it's the plastic wrap from the OEM deck that started falling apart


A while back I had seen a thread where a guy used his OEM deck cover and attached mounting hardware to it to tie things down. While the idea was great, I didn’t necessarily want to attach all that weight to the plastic deck that simply “clipped” into place in the back of the Jeep. Measuring the OEM deck to roughly 7/8” tall, I decided that ¾” cabinet plywood would come close enough to be nearly flush. Thinking out the layout I wanted to achieve, I ordered some aircraft L-Track tie-down hardware from US Cargo Control with round tie-down points. These are great because they can slide anywhere on the track and fasten in every 2” as you move down. Total cost from USCargo was $89 delivered.

Parts List:
[*] 4x8’ sheet of ¾” plywood cut to size
[*] 2x 24” Airline Track
[*] 2x 12” Airline Track
[*] 8x 2” Round Stud Fittings
[*] 6x Home Depot Fastener Straps

First up in this process was to remove the OEM deck and trace it against the plywood. Discussing this design with my buddy Shaun who is also a WK2 guy, I offered to make him one as well while we were at it. I used my jigsaw to follow the curvature of the deck, and an orbital sander to clean it up and take down extra material where necessary. It took two or three test fittings before things were great, then we repeated the process on the second deck.


Tracing OEM Deck by 2180miles


2x Deck Stencils by 2180miles


Shaun’s Dometic was living on the sliding deck, so we built a riser out of 1x3s to get it up enough to clear the rear trunk lip. While he went to work bolting the fridge into the tray - a heck of a process, it seemed - I began laying out my L-tracks. My initial thoughts were to have the fridge be on the 40% fold side of the rear bench, as it’s exactly the same width of the fridge itself. This would obviously allow me to utilize the 60% side if (when) I need to sleep in the back, add some lumber, or store whatever needs to be stored. On the left side of the rear deck I spaced the L-Track far enough apart to fit in stacked Pelican 1610 and 1620 cases that store our camp and cook gear during overland trips. *This may eventually change, as Dani and I have discussed a move towards a drawer system for wherever we go next.

I took some time in the week after to add a bed-liner paint job to the new deck, using a rough, sandpaper like base to it to help things not slide as much. The paint held up pretty well over the course of the summer trip, but wore down a little bit from the Pelicans sliding here and there underneath their ratchet straps.


Test Fitment by 2180miles


WK2 Trunk Deck Layout Test by 2180miles


Hardware Fastened by 2180miles


Airline Fastener Rails by 2180miles


I ran power for the fridge through the trunk trim and down to my auxiliary control box under the rear bench, and it functioned absolutely flawlessly during our trip. I had hesitated initially to drop the cash on it, but cannot imagine doing what we did without having the Dometic for fruit, veggies, meats, cheeses, and the occasional cold hard cider. The Pelican cases would move an inch or two over the course of an overlanding day, but the occasional yank on their straps would fix that for a few hours. The fridge never moved an inch, and ran 24/7 from a few days before our departure until I thawed it out upon arriving back in Boston. For the $110 investment into a solid way to secure things down, this plan worked perfectly for both my Trailhawk and Shaun’s Summit.

The final photo below is how the Jeep looked fully loaded, the morning we departed for the QB-5 Overland Adventure in Ontario/Quebec back in July.



Dometic Test Fit 2 by 2180miles


Loaded & Strapped Down by 2180miles
 
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lolrwd

New member
I know this is my first comment to your thread, but the JGC WK2 looks great and seems like it's performing the way you like it!! I have a 2014 Overland EcoDiesel 4x4 that I'm building up. Your posts were an inspiration to some of the routes I went (Chief Products, aplenty...). I really like the trunk spare cover conversion you did for placing the Pelican cases and fridge. I was wanting to keep the OEM cover in there and have an ARB fridge eventually, but mixing the two seems like a PITA given the 'slidy' nature of the rails in the trunk. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it... Anyways, check my thread if you're interested on Overland Bound until I get my build thread going here (https://overlandbound.com/forums/threads/2014-jeep-grand-cherokee-overland-4x4-ecodiesel-build.9231/). If you don't have a login for OB, the pictures are tiny, by the way.

I went a different route for the roof rack than your WK2. I went with the Front Runner Slimline II given how modularized it is for additional items. The tie down holes are genius, and the mounting hardware for hi-lift and shovel work really well. I also bought their 40" light bar which mounts directly to the roof rack, so no need to drill additional holes into the vehicle like some others I've seen. Anyways, looking forward to more on your thread! Maybe we can get a crew of east coast WK2's to do an overlanding trip someday. I'm out in northern Virginia.

Ian
 
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2180miles

Endurance Adventuring
I know this is my first comment to your thread, but the JGC WK2 looks great and seems like it's performing the way you like it!! I have a 2014 Overland EcoDiesel 4x4 that I'm building up. Your posts were an inspiration to some of the routes I went (Chief Products, aplenty...). I really like the trunk spare cover conversion you did for placing the Pelican cases and fridge. I was wanting to keep the OEM cover in there and have an ARB fridge eventually, but mixing the two seems like a PITA given the 'slidy' nature of the rails in the trunk. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it... Anyways, check my thread if you're interested on Overland Bound until I get my build thread going here (https://overlandbound.com/forums/threads/2014-jeep-grand-cherokee-overland-4x4-ecodiesel-build.9231/). If you don't have a login for OB, the pictures are tiny, by the way.

I went a different route for the roof rack than your WK2. I went with the Front Runner Slimline II given how modularized it is for additional items. The tie down holes are genius, and the mounting hardware for hi-lift and shovel work really well. I also bought their 40" light bar which mounts directly to the roof rack, so no need to drill additional holes into the vehicle like some others I've seen. Anyways, looking forward to more on your thread! Maybe we can get a crew of east coast WK2's to do an overlanding trip someday. I'm out in northern Virginia.

Ian


Ian-

Appreciate you taking the time to post. It certainly seems like you've got a great build going as well. Your thoughts on the OEM rear deck make sense, retaining it and attaching the fridge. For what it's worth, you could buy the same rails I have and replace the factory "rails" on the OEM deck, simply bolting the rails to the factory deck. The reason I personally didn't do that was safety/retention of a heavy fridge in the event of an accident. The deck is not held down securely from the get-go, so I decided it was easier to replace everything and latch the plywood deck down with straps to the cargo tie-downs. It's by no means perfect, but I have slammed on the brakes with the fridge full and had no issues with movement. I can't say it'd hold up in a high speed roll-over kind of incident, but for my needs with day-to-day life and overlanding, it has done quite well. Perhaps you could secure the OEM deck in the same way.

I like your roof rack a lot... My other half and I are debating the direction we want to go in with the roof on the Trailhawk - it'll either be a platform tray like the Rhino Pioneer, or we'll move towards a RTT. I'd prefer the latter, and it seems she would too. What does your set-up allow for weight wise?

I'm 100% down for an East-Coast WK2 event, and in the mean time look forward to following your new thread on here.

Ryan
 

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