Building Bumble Beast

We bought our 2008 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon on November 28th 2015. As Pam mentioned in About Our Jeep, it was initially intended for weekend fun and escapes from Sydney. Soon after that we joined the Sydney Jeep Club, hoping to participate in their excursions, and took an off-road driving training course in order to not appear completely incompetent when doing so. We then attended Camp Coffs Off-roading weekend with the club, and caught the rock-crawling bug, hook, line and sinker.

It wasn’t long before we began exploring enhancements like bigger tyres and better suspension, but I’m getting ahead of myself. The more off-roading we did, the more time we spent camping, and the further we had to go from Sydney to find new places to camp and explore. This lead us to also adapt our rock-crawler for touring, and to us eventually taking the trip we’re on now. We’ve made many changes to it over the past three years, so I’ve tried to sort them according to their locations – underneath, outside and inside the Jeep.

Underneath

To improve the Jeep’s capability in the tricky stuff, we’ve had a 3″ lift kit installed (Teraflex S/T3), complete with adjustable shocks (Teraflex Falcon 3.3) and steering stabiliser (Teraflex Falcon 2.2), the latter attached to an upgraded and flipped Synergy drag link. The lift kit also included Teraflex control arms and track bars for complete geometry correction (The higher you lift, the wonkier the suspension and steering can become), yellow steel-braided brake lines, and heavy duty springs (Teraflex Outback 4″) and stronger rear axle shafts (RCV Dana 44) to carry all the camping gear we won’t leave home without. We’re now also sporting a Teraflex extreme duty Tera44 axle with RCV shafts up front too.

For added clearance and traction, we’ve changed the wheel and tyre combination as well. I chose 17×9″ Mickey Thompson Classic III wheels, which are wider than the stock wheels and increase our track width. Those wheels enabled us to run 35″x12.5″ mud tyres off-road and 315/70R17 all-terrain tyres for this trip, without any rubbing or steering issues while the suspension flexes.

To compensate for the larger tyres and extra weight of the camping gear, we’ve also installed the Teraflex big brake kit with rotors 1.4″ larger than stock and twin-piston calipers rather than the smaller single-piston factory-spec ones. When off-roading or driving on dirt roads for great distances we always drop our tyre pressures – to climb Big Red we dropped each tyre’s pressure to 12 PSI! For the sake of convenience, we’ve mounted an ARB High Output air compressor under the hood, which has proven invaluable, and saved a bunch of space inside the Jeep.

Those larger tyres caused a drop in power, requiring more use of the clutch from a stopped start, and rendering 6th gear virtually useless, so we also had the differential (Diff) gears upgraded from the Rubicon’s already tall 4.1 ratios to 4.88s, and added Poison Spyder Bombshell diff covers. This has reduced our top speed, but restored power for everyday driving, and has really enhanced its ability to crawl over the rocks.

Water crossings certainly cause my heartbeat to rise, and to help ensure the Jeep makes it to the other side, we have extended the transmission and front and rear diff breather tubes so they don’t get contaminated with water while fording rivers. Another, more obvious modification is the AEV Snorkel which runs back alongside the hood and up the driver’s side of the windshield. Bumble Beast’s safe fording depth is now much higher than it was in stock form. Rock crawling means a lot of high-revving fun at low speeds, so we’ve also recently installed a Poison Spyder hood louver to help keep the temps down under the hood.

The wrangler’s fuel consumption is atrocious, so we’ve added an auxiliary fuel tank from Long Ranger, which adds 44L of capacity without decreasing ground clearance. With all our gear, we get about 15L/100Kms highway, worse than that in the city and much worse when we need 4WD Low. This is why Jeepers always express their mileage in Smiles/Gallon. Our range is now nearly 700kms without needing extra jerry cans of petrol. But you can never change just one thing at a time, and to add that, we had to have the exhaust replaced and re-routed; We opted for 2.5″ ceramic-coated stainless steel piping to an OEM sized muffler to keep things quiet on the long drives.

Staying at a campsite for days at a time can draw a lot of power, so there are now two Optima Yellow-Top batteries under the hood, care of a Genesis Off-road dual battery system, which enables us to power our lights and other devices without drawing down the starter battery.

Outside

Part of the selling features of our little yellow beast were the modifications done by the previous owners, Dean and Kylie. We bought the jeep with a modular stubby steel bumper (Smittybilt XRC M.O.D.) and Warn winch (Zeon 10S) up front, a steel bumper at the back capable of carrying two jerry cans (Smittybilt XRC Atlas), a full size spare tyre, and lots of accessories. They had also mounted steel rock sliders (Smittybilt EEEEEE) along each side to help prevent panel damage. We have since replaced the winch rope and changed from a standard hook to a Factor 55 Flat-Link.

While I prefer the look of the narrow front bumper, I’ve learned that it’s illegal in New South Wales to have a bumper that does not cover the full width of the vehicle (NSW is quite the nanny state – ask me about recouping my paintball gun from Australian Customs and Border Protection). To address this, Pam flew home from San Francisco with new bumper extensions in her suitcase after one of her many business trips. They filled a full-sized suitcase! Pam has brought the front bumper’s hoop bar and several other bits home from the States as well, causing some not-so-random baggage checks since then. The front bumper is also where our onboard compressor valve and sand flag mounting point can be found, and we’ve added 50A Anderson sockets to each bumper too.

Aftermarket LED headlights bookend those seven slots (JW Speaker J2). There’s a STEDI 18.5″ LED light bar front and center, and a pair of LED work lights mounted on the A-pillars (either side of the windshield).

Another NSW regulation says that the flares over the wheels must cover the tyres, so we’ve replaced the stock plastic flares with metal ones 2″ wider at each corner, and after market removable mud flaps behind the rear wheels. The flat flares conveniently double as counter space while set up at camp.

Prior to the eight-week tour we completed last year, we had the roof rack installed (Front Runner), which carries our roof-top tent and awning (Darche Intrepidor II and Darche Eclipse 2.5m). We also have an electrical box for tent power and room for two extra jerry cans up top.

We had attached a Trasharoo canvas bag to the spare wheel just in time for this trip… It served as a safe place to keep our rubbish outside of the Jeep to prevent odours, and also carried our camp oven, extra rope, kindling, and firewood when necessary. However, halfway through our 12 months, we really made an effort to reduce our carrying load and decided to send the Trasharoo home. The camp oven and rope fit inside the Jeep, and we weren’t needing to carry firewood often enough to justify the extra weight at the very back of the Jeep, where it causes the most strain on the vehicle.

Inside

The Jeep’s dashboard looks even more like a cockpit now, thanks to the six additional switches mounted above the rear-view mirror (SPod with Genesis controller), the gauge & switch for the auxiliary fuel tank found next to our ignition

The metal bar lining the top of our dash is a JK E-Dock that we use to hold our phones, an iPad, a GoPro and our winch remote. Next to the stereo you’d also notice our UHF (CB) radio handset, near Pam’s wrist in the above photo. The radio itself is hidden behind the glove box, but the microphone and all controls are readily available. Our InReach satellite communicator stays clipped to the passenger side visor too.

We have no second-row passenger seating. That bench was removed to make space for a Drifta drawer system. It has two massive drawers: one is used for cooking and has our pots, dish ware and cutlery, dry goods and spices. The other is used for tools, fluids, spare parts and random bits and pieces. We’re using IKEA Hemnes cloth bins to organise the drawers, they’re coincidentally a perfect fit.

Our recovery gear (and marshmallow roaster) lives in the recesses on either side of the drawers, and there’s a slide out table available above the right hand drawer. Our fridge lives on the left side of the surface, so we’ve mounted another power point back there too, with 2 12V sockets, 2 USB jacks and a voltage meter for piece of mind.

We have a jerry can of water squeezed between the fridge and passenger-side window with a hose and tap extended to the back of the drawers for convenience. When one water can is emptied, we simply put another one in its place and reconnect the hose.

Last but not least, there’s a Front Runner fold down table fixed to the inside of our tailgate which we use regularly for meal prep or doing the dishes.

Oh, and there’s a 1Kg fire extinguisher strapped to the roll cage. It’s a Jeep thing.

Remaining Projects

We have a few ideas remaining on how to perfect our setup, and hopefully we’ll get a chance to address them eventually, though they may require shops available only in cities, or at least a post office and lots of commitment.

A rear-view camera. With our full size 35″ spare tyre mounted at the back, and the fridge, water tank and other gear piled on the inside, vision is restricted and backing up requires extra care. Our hardtop is already a little worse for wear. I’m confident I could install the hardware myself too.

More lighting…some lighting has failed us along the way (our LED rope in the tent burned out, and the lighting we purchased for our awning failed on first test), and we’d love to add more. There’s something about amber lighting at your campsite that is just so cozy.

Another big change is likely in-store for the Bumble Beast… We’ll likely be changing to a lighter rear bumper in the new year.

We’ve put lots of thought into the modifications and camping gear that we do have and are happy to share, so if you’d like to know more about anything specific, let us know.