Used for anything from short weekend trips to multi-week summer retreats from their Seattle-based home, Aaron Reddecliffe and Emily Scott’s 2015 Jeep Wrangler has been thoughtfully built to make the most of a small space. A teacher by trade, Aaron is a wizard at installing aftermarket accessories (including building a set of sliding drawers) and finding a screaming good deal—many of the Jeep’s additions, such as the inverter, ARB fridge, and wheels were found on Craigslist or through a Jeep-focused Facebook group.
Much of what started the couple’s overland journey hearkens back to a trip to Tanzania, where they met some folks touring with a rooftop tent. “Now we probably love sleeping in ours more than our own bed,” Emily laughs. She’s a registered nurse who has volunteered in nearly a dozen countries, taking part in humanitarian medical trips annually. But the Pacific Northwest is where these two call home, and they’ve found plenty of opportunity to explore their own backyard, thanks to their trusty red Jeep. Here’s a peek into the interior of the Wrangler.
Sleeping Quarters
“We’re on our fourth rooftop tent after slowly upgrading over the years. Our first two tents were softshells, and they worked well for us, but we wanted a tent to store our bedding so we didn’t have to pack and unpack it all every day. Enter the hardshell. We started with a James Baroud Evasion and absolutely loved it. It had panoramic views, and we could keep all our bedding closed within the tent, so our bed was already made when we got to camp. We also love that this tent sets up and breaks down in just a couple of minutes—perfect for setting out before dawn to spot wolves in Yellowstone!
We just upgraded to the new James Baroud Frontier Odyssey this year. It has everything the Evasion had and more. Bigger panoramic windows, slightly more sleeping space, and it also has crossbars (in case we want to bring our paddleboard with us).
We build ourselves a nest with two sleeping bags (North Face Dolomite, 20°F), five pillows, and a beloved Navajo-crafted wool blanket we picked up in Monument Valley. We keep all of that bedding in our rooftop tent. We also have a 12-volt heated mattress pad, wired to our house battery, that we fire up on extra cold nights.”
Two Dusty Travelers on Kitchen Items, Food, and Water Storage
“We are simple (read: lazy) cooks, so much of the cooking involves boiling water. For this, we have a Jetboil Sumo. We also have a Gastrorag 1300-watt induction cooktop that we use when cooking a serious meal, though it rarely comes out.
For pots and pans, we have a 1.6-liter MSR Alpine stowaway pot set. We also use a cheap induction-ready frying pan and spatula. We have GSI Outdoors enamelware cups, plates, bowls, and an REI Ti-Ware Sierra cup. We use a 16-liter SOL collapsible sink and Dr. Bronner’s peppermint soap for cleaning.
We have a 40-liter Front Runner footwell water tank behind our front seats. We connected it to a Seaflo self-priming sailboat water pump plumbed through a Pentek FloPlus 0.5-micron carbon filter and an Acuva UV-LED purifier out to a tap on the tailgate. It’s rigged so that water passes through the filter twice—once when filling and once when emptying—so we can safely fill up at streams.
We keep most of our food in the kitchen drawer that Aaron built or in our 37-liter ARB fridge. The fridge is old and has taken a beating, but it’s still going strong. We also keep a plastic snack tub within arm’s reach when we feel peckish on the go.
We are pretty simple when it comes to eating. Our staple meals are wraps and tuna salad. We always have a few basic ingredients: tortillas, cheese, veggies, hummus, canned tuna, mayonnaise, etc. We also keep instant oatmeal, canned chili and soup, bagels and cream cheese, peanut butter, and lots of our favorite snack bars; we go through many Trader Joe’s fruit leathers). We usually grab a couple of premade bagged salads when we pass a bigger grocery store. We have a basic spice wheel, and Aaron always has Taco Bell Diablo sauce to add to any meal.
We use an Oscar’s Mobile Hideout by Last US Bag attached to our spare tire. Aaron also built a simple garbage container to keep in the Jeep for trash when we’re on the go. We try to recycle as much as we can, and we use the outer pockets of our Oscar to hold all our cans and cardboard.”
Camp Life: Table, Chairs, Clothing, and Toiletries
“We keep our clothes in a set of drawers that Aaron built into the Jeep’s cargo area. I have one side, and Aaron has the other. We store our jackets and coats in a Blue Ridge Overland Gear Jeep JK gear attic. We’re big fans of the attic. It was one of those simple, inexpensive additions that allowed us to use space a lot more efficiently.
We each have small travel toiletry bags that we keep in individual drawers. Mine is a Sea to Summit hanging toiletry bag, and Aaron’s is a zippered bag he got for free on an Emirates flight—he keeps it simple. We store our liquids in Humangear silicone squeeze bottles called GoToob+.
We try to use every nook and cranny of our rig efficiently. We removed the rear seats and built a two-tier false floor, giving us lots of storage room. We also have a custom-made Hi-Lift jack storage bracket connected to our roll cage in the rear of the Jeep. We store our jack, yoga mat, shovel, ax, and kayak paddles there. We have two inflatable Tahe Beach LP1 kayaks that pack up fairly small, which we’ve made space for in the back. We have a Yakima SpareRide rack on the spare tire when we want to bring our bikes along. We also love our Last US Bag seat back caddy, a set of zippered pockets that hangs behind the passenger seat. We keep sunscreen, bug spray, two-way radios, masks, and lots of other small items in there for easy access.”
Tools, Spare Parts, and Recovery Gear
“We keep a lot of recovery gear in the Jeep. We’ve almost never had to use it for ourselves, but we rescue others a lot. We carry a 30-foot Bubba Rope kinetic recovery rope and a number of soft shackles as well as a Factor 55 Rope Retention Pulley, a 30-foot tow strap, and a Warn tree protector. Most of the gear is stored underneath the false floor (with the ARB tire repair kit and our baling wire) or in the bottom of our Last US Bag Oscar on the spare tire.
We keep our tools in a Last US Bag Waximillion tool roll and a Bucket Boss Super Roll. We have almost every socket and wrench needed to disassemble the Jeep completely. We also keep a breaker bar, a torque wrench, and a GreenWorks 40-volt electric chainsaw tucked away in various nooks and crannies. It’s a good day on the road for Aaron if he gets the chance to clear a trail with the chainsaw.”
Two Dusty Travelers on Solar, Batteries, Inverter, Electronics
“We have a solar/Redarc/Victron LiPo4 setup in the Jeep. It starts with two 100Ah lithium batteries hooked up in parallel. They are connected to a Redarc BCDC1240D smart battery manager. We also have a Cascadia 4×4 100-watt solar panel affixed to our hood that runs through the Redarc BCDC. That way, we can charge from the alternator as well as the solar panel. Also connected to the batteries is a 1500-watt pure sine wave inverter that allows us to run our induction cooktop.
We also have a SpaceX Starlink RV setup. We decided to rid ourselves of the 120-volt router because it was too inefficient to run off the inverter, so we use a Dishy Dualie DC 12-volt Starlink power kit. Everything except the Starlink is housed in a custom battery compartment located in the drawer setup in the back of the Jeep.”
Emily and Aaron write a blog, Two Dusty Travelers, that focuses on ethical travel. Passionate about traveling in ways that leave places better than they found them, you can follow the couple’s latest adventures on Instagram @twodustytravelers.
Specifications
Sleep
James Baroud Frontier Odyssey rooftop tent
North Face Dolomite sleeping bags
Navajo-crafted wool blanket
Heated mattress pad, 12-volt
Kitchen
Front Runner Expander camping chairs
Camco Bamboo folding table
Gastrorag 1300-watt induction cooktop
MSR Alpine stowaway pot set
GSI Outdoors enamelware cups, plates, bowls
REI Ti-Ware Sierra cup
SOL 16-liter collapsible sink
Front Runner Footwell 40-liter water tank
Pentek FloPlus 0.5-micron carbon filter
Acuva UV-LED purifier
ARB 37-liter fridge
Storage
Last US Bag Oscar’s Mobile Hideout
Blue Ridge Overland Gear Jeep JKU gear attic
Sea to Summit hanging toiletry bag
Emirates Airline zippered bag
GoToob+ squeeze bottles
Custom-made Hi-Lift jack storage bracket
Yakima SpareRide rack
Last US Bag seat back caddy
Last US Bag Oscar
Recovery
Thirty-foot Bubba Rope kinetic recovery rope
Factor 55 Rope Retention Pulley
Thirty-foot tow strap
Warn tree protector
Tools
ARB tire repair kit
Last US Bag Waximillion tool roll
Bucket Boss Super Roll
GreenWorks 40-volt electric chainsaw
Accessories
Redarc BCDC1240D smart battery manager
Two 100Ah lithium batteries
Cascadia 4×4 100-watt solar panel
1500-watt pure sine wave inverter
SpaceX Starlink RV setup
Dishy Dualie DC 12-volt Starlink power kit
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