That is a good question. It is why I much prefer a motel with outside room doors where I can park my Jeep right outside the window. I always try to get a first floor room. Or a KOA Kabin is also secure--more so than the typical seedy hotels I stay at, LOL. I do take in the camera gear, which for me is actually quite expensive. But the rest of the gear stays on the Jeep.

 

The painters pole as an extendable light pole is genius. My MBRP roof rack could handle such an application with ease. Gonna have to look into this. Perhaps a crutch?. They are cheap from a pharmacy and possibly more robust? I have a few kicking around from injuries.

Sent from my recliner

 

That is a very good question. My requirement is that the Rotopax cans have to be removable from the carrier without having to remove the spare tire.
I also wanted to be able to lock down the Rotopax cans so no-one can run away with the cans themselves & the filler caps needs to be locked also to deter un-authorized siphoning . So I turned the filler caps in towards the middle, in order to make the top capture plate as small and light as possible.
The top capture plate will have 2 turn knobs to tighten down it down onto the Rotopax cans to eliminate any movement and rattles. The other function of the top capture plate is to secure the filler caps from tampering and of course actual removal of the Rotopax cans. I have provisions for a PADLOCK that is keyed to my Jeep key, which will prevent removing the top capture plate.

As far as making sure the spare tire stays in place I have welded on two (6"x4" -1/8") plates to the vertical "rail" that captures the Rotopax cans. (see picture above) The spare tire is bolted to the flange with the 3 bolts shown in the picture above and the spare tire rim mates firmly with the flange surface itself. The flange is adjustable and is set to where there will be a slight interference between the tire rubber and the 2 afore mentioned (6"x4") plates. which will help stabilize the spare a lot. It feels VERY solid and there is not pressure or interference with the Rotopax cans at all.. i.e. the Rotopax cans can be removed without messing with the spare tire.
Sorry about the long winded explanation, but I hope it answered your question.

 

Been working on the "Jurassic" JK. Getting ready to order a 40'' rigid, MBRP exhaust and new gears. I have also been having fun building my Axial scale replica. Just wanted to share. Pics to follow soon

 

I wish I could take credit for this idea But as with most of the things I do to my Jeep, I ruthlessly "steal" ideas from other people and put my own twist on it . But that is what makes these forums so great; the sharing of ideas!.
I first saw this picture somewhere and liked the idea, but the implementation was not super slick IMHO:

Then I ran across this on another expedition forum: Paint Pole LED Camp Light | Expedition Utah.
The cool thing about this implementation is that the wire is coiled inside the pole and does not require a second tube next to it as with the picture above.
The only change I am going to change, is to use a slightly different kind of painters pole that has a twisting locking feature as opposed to the pin/indent locking feature in the article above. This will allow both up/down & rotational movement. The pin/indent locking feature will not allow rotation if the light, unless you rotate the whole pole.. I am planning on hard mounting it permanently, so this was not an option for me.
Here is an example of the kind of painters pole I will be using:

Keep in mind that even a LED flood light is fairly heavy (cast aluminum case) and the light will be top heavy.. So if you are mounting it permanently to the Jeep, you will need to make sure the flood light cannot rotate and hit your rear window for example (When on the trail or emergency braking in traffic).
A nice addition to this setup could be a dimmer for the floodlight, so you don't get your retinas burned out when you want to relax after setting up camp :-)

 

Love the scale model.. Awesome detail :-)
But you know that now every time you add something to the big Jeep, you will have to add the same to the replica

 

Very cool, love it

 

For those that have traveled long distances, I have a different type of tire question

When do you change out tires before a long trip?

As of today my original tires, BFG MT are in good shape with 21k miles on them.

In June I will leave on a 10k mile trip to Alaska and back, guessing tires will have 30k miles on them, so still good tread (?). In March/April I will need 2/3 tires to use on a trailer that will follow my Jeep to Alaska. Originally, I had thought about replacing the Jeep tires in June just before leaving and using 3 of the old tires as trailer tires. But, I will need trailer tires earlier and a friend got me thinking that my current tires could make the trip to Alaska and back and still have some tread left.

So the question is,
A) stick to original plan and get new tires for the Jeep, use current tires for the trailer?
B) use original tires for trip & find some good used tires and put them on the trailer?

 

For me A is the way.

 

Thanks Danish! Well thought rotopax solution! I like the light pole idea as well, very clever.

When you get my rotopax setup built, PM me and I'll give you my address for shipping, lol!