Jeep Cherokee XJ build + trip, Part 3:
The XJ is a pretty small box for two people to live HAPPILY in for a couple months but with good planning, navigation, food, sleeping gear, and judgement, it can be done.
The back of the rig will fit 5ea 14gal Rubbermaid bins, a cooler, 4ea 4gal water jugs, and a few things on top. We each have a personal bin, there’s a misc bin, a food bin and a kitchen bin. On top is a dry bag with a massive down comforter and 4 pillows, cheap camp chairs, and a few small backpacks filled with clothes that we hang off the gutters with hooks in camp.
2 blocks of ice in a tightly packed a cooler will stay cold for 5 days. We cook on an alcohol stove because it’s the only stove that I’d dare light inside of a vehicle on an ice cold morning. Sometimes we have eggs or oatmeal for breakfast but often times I cook one big meal in the evening and we eat off it all day the next day. I generally cook over low heat because it makes pan clean up MUCH easier.
The Xped synmat XP7 is The only sleeping mat I found that is tough enough for car camping but light enough for backpacking and comfortable enough to sleep on for months. We put these on top of Therm a rest Ridge rests, which can be stacked in case one mat suffers a catastrophic failure. These are also great ground mats for laying around camp.
A whisk broom brushes every bin that gets loaded to manage dust build up. I replace all interior lights with 2700K warm white lights for a much nicer evening experience. The main camp Light (unfortunately 5500K) is a crazy bright rechargeable Blue Fuel auto repair light that sticks magnetically anywhere I want on the vehicle.
Generally you need a lot more ventilation than you think you do in a vehicle to keep the carbon dioxide below 1000 ppm at night. A small rechargeable fan keeps our sleeping faces from being devoured by mosquitoes and gnats that come in with the fresh air.
We try to keep a tidy camp to deter mice (and burros!) and minimize unexpected encounters with rattlesnakes and scorpions. After Liz found a baby rattlesnake curled up beneath her sandals we learned to keep the shoes off the ground!
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