TrailRecon

Today in the garage I remove the plastic bumper from my wife's 2018 Jeep Wrangler JL, install a Warn winch plate, mount up a Smittybilt 9500 XRC winch and install a Mopar steel stubby bumper with LED lights. This is a very easy install you can do in your garage with some basic hand tools!

We had been planning this Mojave Road overland trip for several months and we would have never imagined we would get hit with a snow storm along the way. We spent 4 days and 3 nights along this historic trail exploring the interesting geological structures, historical landmarks and quickly man made relics.... it was truly and unforgettable adventure!

Finally we take my wife's 2018 Jeep Wrangler JL out and get it a little dirty along with my son 1999 Jeep Cherokee XJ. We ventured up from Pioneertown towards big bear along the Burns Canyon Trail. Since this was the first time we've had the JL off-road, I thought it was fitting to cover some basics that you might find helpful when going off-road for the first time.

There is so much work that has gone into making this 1973 bullnose Jeep Commando the ultimate adventure rig. Just about everything on this Slantback 6 has been gone through. ROAMR has been putting out some excellent custom 4x4 vehicles and I think you will really enjoy the walk around we do of this one.

Wheeling with Lite Brite, cooking with OVRLNDX and camping with good friends, no better way to spend a weekend! We had a blast wheeling and camping with several of our old friends and some new ones! In this video I take a moment and speak with everyone about their Jeep and find out what is there favorite piece of camping gear and what is something they no longer use. Additionally, I had the privilege of talking with the good folks from Lite Brite and my good buddy Marco from OVRLNDX good up some tasty dinner!

This is one of those upgrades we have put off for way too long. I this video, my son and I spend an afternoon installing some new rock sliders on our 1999 Jeep Cherokee XJ from Goliath Off-Road. This is a straight forward install that will add some much needed protection to our recent paint and body work.

I spent a few days cleaning up the garage and came across many pieces of gear I had previously installed on my Jeep Wrangler and have since removed for a variety of reasons. Sometimes you install something and realize later that you just don’t need it or you eventually outgrow the capability, this has been my case for a few items. In this video I share with you some of the Jeep mods I know longer have installed.

I have been wanting to build a rear drawer storage system for my Jeep Wrangler for a while now and I finally pulled the trigger. I have plans for a full storage system, but first I needed to build a secure platform for it to all be fastened to. In this video I'll show you how I built my platform, give you a quick look at the Dometic 30 Drawer fridge I'll be using and I've you all insight on the full system to come.

We had an amazing time at the 2019 American Adventurist Desert Rendezvous. My good friend Marco, a few close friends and I spent the weekend hanging out and socializing, taking a close up look of some well built overland vehicles, taking notes of what camping gear others are using and cooking up and enjoying some great camping food.

There are some Jeep builds that stand out above the rest and in this video we meet with the owner of Titan and take a close up look at the custom modifications he has done to make this a very capable trail rig and still have manners for driving around town.

Having a few of the right tools when you are out on the trail could make the difference of you or your buddy getting home or being stranded. In this video I’m going to share with you what I carry with me in my Jeep Wrangler just in case of a mechanical break down when we are hitting the trail.

When Baja is in your backyard, it's easy to take a couple trips down their every year. In this video, we meet up with some old and new friends and spend 4 days on the West and East side of Baja California doing a little camping, a bit of off-roading along the Baja 1000, eating some amazing food and sharing with you some of the camping gear we brought for this overland trip.

After over 40,000 miles and trekking across almost every terrain, it’s time to decide if I should buy another set of the BFG All Terrains or switch to something else. In this video I share with you my opinion about these tires on and off-road performance, how well they have held up and just a little general tire knowledge.

The 2020 Jeep Gladiator is the hottest new truck on the market and it’s going head to head with the mid-sized truck competition like the Toyota Tacoma, Chevy Colorado and new Ford Ranger. In this video I discuss some of the features, the newly released pricing and options, talk about some potential overland possibilities and share with you if I might buy one.

A lot of work has been done to the Jeep in the last 2 weeks and I wanted to take a moment and bring you up to date on what's been done and what is still left to do before I leave for the Jeep Dirt N Drive event, Easter Jeep Safari in Moab and Overland Expo West. We will talk about my new roof top tent, IVD suspension, tires, storages system and more.

I was invited out to the 2019 Jp Magazine Dirt N Drive 2019 event sponsored by Jeep. This event limits sign up to 100 folks and they keep the details about locations and trails pretty quiet until just right before, so I wasn’t really sure what I was in for. In this first part of the adventure, we started off in Farmington, NM to tackle the Skinny Canyon Trail… it was a blast! There were all kinds of Jeeps on this adventure, new, old, stock, custom, even a new Jeep Gladiator!

This trail is rated a 9 out of 10 and doing this trail with a rooftop tent is not advised, but with a great spotter, the new Icon suspension and Cooper tires I just installed, my Jeep just might make it up. Die Tryin trail is 1.2 miles of hard, technical boulders and is located in Montrose, CO and is hands down the most difficult rock crawling trail I've ever been on.

It's been a few months in the making, but with the help of my good friend Marco from @ovrlndx, we finally completed my rear drawer and fridge system for my Jeep Wrangler. Doing long overland style adventures requires carrying lots of gear and food and having this new cabinet system is really going to help stay organized. Please not this is not a full step by step DIY video, but just a brief overview of the work we did, materials used an a few challenge we encountered.

I have been considering vinyl wrapping my Jeep Wrangler for a long time, but I honestly just didn’t even know were to begin. Recently I ran into one of the partners with LV8 Design Group and he walked me through the process. Working with a graphic artist, understanding what it required, the simple and short time commitment and the very affordable cost made this an easy decision. I love the way the whole thing came out and now my Jeep has a complete personalized look. Something worth considering.

I was doing a gear check before I head out on a week long trip across the desert and to Flagstaff, AZ for Overland Expo West and I thought I'd bust out the camera and share with you all the gear I'll be packing in my Jeep Wrangler.

Overland Expo West is one of my favorite events! This year I set out with a group of great folks with an amazing mix vehicles (Jeeps, Toyotas, a Ford Raptor, and Chevy Z71) for 3 days to get to the expo the hard way... across the desert. In this videos I talk with a few of my friends on camera about their rigs, their camping gear and even a little bit of the food the were cooking up at camp along the way.

This was my third year attending Overland Expo West in Flagstaff, Arizona and each year it has grown larger and larger. There are always some amazing overland vehicles, trailers, gear, educational classes and great people at Expo West. In this video I take you around and show you what the event is like, look at a few products, rigs and meet with some fellow YouTube creators.

In this video I walk your around the Overland Expo West in Flagstaff Arizona to take a look at just some of the standout overland built vehicles. We will take a look at some of the expedition style rigs, full sized overland trucks, mid sized trucks, conversion vans, Toyotas, Land Rover Defenders, Jeep Wrangler, Ram Trucks and Jeep Gladiators. Be sure to stay until the end where I will choose my favorite vehicle of the event.

Are you looking for some advice on planning your next overland adventure? Well I had the pleasure to meet up with Ronny Dahl from Australia while he was visiting Overland Expo West 2019 in Flagstaff Arizona and we broke the camera out and had a great discussion about overland trip planning. In this video we cover topics like choosing the right people for a trip, the gear we pack, the food we bring, the routes we choose and discuss off-road vehicles.

Are you looking for new resources to help you find your next trail adventure? Well you are in luck! In this video I share with you 10 ways I find some of the most amazing trails to explore. We'll talk about a few basics, but I'll also give you some suggestions that you may not have heard of before.

I have ran 35 and 37" All Terrain and Mud Terrain tires on my Jeep over the years and have experienced different off-road performance results. In this video I share a few historical video clips with you showing a couple situation with the AT's and MT's. Now it's important to note there are many factors to consider with off-road tire performance comparison; tire pressure, vehicle weight, throttle control, tire placement.... none of which were attempted to be replicated here. This is not a scientific comparison video!

There are some amazing places to explore on the Eastern side the Sierra Nevada Mountains range. In this video my son and I with a few close friends set out to explore the Alabama Hills Recreation area and Coyote Flats. We had a blast out on some easy, moderate and even a little difficult trail, we found some amazing camps sites and of course cooked up some great food at camp.

I've been using this Roam Adventure Co. Rambler prototype roof top tent for 4 months now and in this video I share with you my thoughts on the tent, show you some of the features and discuss the pros and cons of a hard-shell vs. a soft-shell roof top tent.

I am so excited to share with you the my new 2020 Jeep Gladiator Rubicon. In this video I'm going to show you all the standard and optional features that came with this model... A good Jeep Gladiator review. No many of you have asked, did I sell my Jeep Wrangler and why didn't I buy the Gladiator Sport S model and I answer these questions and more in the video.

It was finally time for my 2020 Jeep Gladiators first time off-road. I wanted to get a feel for how she performed with stock tires and suspension before doing any modification, so I headed towards a family trail, Mica Gem Mine, which is rated easy to moderate. My good friend Josh joined me for the day, because it's always best to have someone with you on the trail, in his newly lifted Jeep Gladiator with 37" tires. It was a great day!

It's only been a few weeks since I brought home our 2020 Jeep Gladiator Rubicon and shortly after taking it out wheeling in stock form, it was time to begin doing some modifications. In this video I share with you a few of the things I have done already and discuss the plan of the overland build going forward. A bed rack, new tent and new wheels and tires are only the beginning.

There have been a lot of questions regarding the Jeep Gladiators off-road capabilities every since it was released and in the is video we decided to have a little fun and do an off-road comparison. We will take a look at how it stacks up agains a 2018 Jeep Wrangler 2 door. Wheel base, turning, departure angle and more.

This was the first multi-day trip that I would be taking my Jeep Gladiator on with my son and good friends Marco and Josh in their Jeep Wranglers. We headed North along the 395 highway towards Coyote Flats in search of new trails and camping sites. In part 1, we find some amazing places to spend the night, eat some great camp food, explore some trails just to see where they will lead and we run into a few challenges along the way.

After spending 2 amazing days exploring Coyote Flats just off of the 395 highway, my good friends Marco, Josh, my son Justin and I set off again in our Jeep Gladiator and Wranglers in search of some new and exciting camp sites. We have a true passion for overlanding and being able to find new trails that lead to some awesome campsites is something we all truly enjoy... oh and of course we love some good camp cooking!

Now there is the option to purchase a completelthy loaded out Jeep Wrangler purpose built for overlanding right from the dealer. I partnered with Redlands Jeep to design a Jeep using parts and gear I use and designed an off the show room, brand new 2019 Jeep Wrangler with the new TrailRecon Edition logo.

This Jeep Wrangler Unlimited JL was built for the Ultimate Adventure 2019 in Alaska. I was fortunate to have been invited on this trip and spend a week wheeling in this Jeep with Ryan. In this video, we take a close up look of all the modifications that have been done to this Jeep built by Smittybilt. It's not your typical build, it's running on 40" tires, has a body lift, coilers and much, much more!

I had a blast wheeling in Alaska on the Ultimate Adventure and Ryan and I on the last day of the trip had some in-depth conversations about transmissions, tires, terrains, vehicles and more. So we decided to turn on the camera and just see what came of it.... I hope you find some of this informative.

Having some extra storage and a place to mount some off-road lights is going to be extremely helpful. In this video, I visit my friends at Rebel Off-road and they install their new Halo 2.0 roof rack on my Jeep Gladiator. I'll talk you through the steps, show you how we wired it and answer a few common questions I get about roof racks.

After spending a great day at Jeep Bash 2019, 16 of us decided to head towards the Anza Borrego Desert to do a little camping. The next morning, I broke the camera out and walked around camp to take look at what gear, equipment and creative DIY things folks are using to outfit their Jeep Wranglers with camping gear for overlanding. And my buddy Marco cooked up something very tasty for breakfast!

It’s time to start adding some electical accessories to the Jeep Glaidaotr, but first I decided to build a custom hub using an sPOD system to keep all the wiring clean and organized. In this video, I install the sPOD Bantam with HD, wire up and ARB compressor and show you how I built a custom plate in one of the Leitner pods. Let’s run some wires!

I have been wanting to explore Slick Rock trail for a long time and finally my good friend Marco, Ali and I headed to Northern California to explore a few local trails with some good friends. We ventured off onto Sour Grass, Slick Rock and Deer Valley. We found some amazing camp sites, wheels our Jeeps hard, ate some great camp food and had a couple challenges along the way.

Join Marco and I as we travel along the Top of the World trail in Moab talking about some common questions viewers like you ask. We'll talk vehicles, trails, camping, food, life and more!

I wanted to add a little custom touch to my Jeep Gladiator, so I went back and visited my friends at LV8 Design Group to vinyl wrap the JT. I wrapped my Jeep Wrangler early last year (link below), but this time I wanted something a little more subtle. In this video I just set up the camera and let the time-lapse run, I thought it was pretty interesting to watch and I hope you do as well. If you'd like more information about what's involved in wrapping a Jeep, you can find out lots of details in the Jeep Wrangler vinyl wrap video or visit LV8 Design Group.

Previously on this adventure we met up with some good friends to take on some scenic and challenging forest trails, did a little camping and we even had to overcome a few challenges along the way. In this episode, we will put our rigs to the test even more, explore some more of the beauty California has to offer, search for another epic camp site, of course eat some good food and yes, even encounter some more challenges.

There has been so much exciting stuff happening lately, I just wanted to take a few minutes and give you and update. A few things we will talk about are some of the challenges I’ve been having with the Jeep Wrangler, we’ll talk about some recent trips I’ve been on, I’ll explain why there is an off-road trailer sitting in my garage, some exciting news about my wife’s JL, my upcoming trip to SEMA 2019 and what’s to come for the channel.

I'm very excited to introduce the new TrailRecon Edition Jeep Gladiator build! I've partnered with my friends at Redlands Jeep to custom build some off-road vehicles using the parts and gear I've used on my adventures. This is the first Gladiator and in this video I'm going to take you on a walk around of all the things we've added to make this the perfect adventure rig for it's soon to be new owner.

There are so many Jeep Gladiators at this years SEMA show and in this video I take you not a tour as we get up and close with a whole bunch of them. We'll look at some Gladiator overland builds, rock crawlers, show rigs and some that I would rate as Rocklander worthy! SEMA 2019 has been a great event and the quality of design that has gone into the Jeep Gladiators at the event was exciting.

There were so many amazing built trucks, jeeps, and custom off-road vehicles at this years SEMA 2019 that I had to take a day and just film as many as I could. This was the first year at SEMA that they had and Overland Experience section, so of course we had to dive in and see what cool overland rig builds where there.

Are you struggling to find the perfect gift for your overlander, off-roader or adventurer? Or perhaps someone is asking you want for Christmas or your Birthday and you just don't know what to suggest? In this video I share with you 10 items I think will be perfect for those looking to have some great adventures out on the trail and at camp.

Over the last few years the stock dana 44 axles on my 2015 Jeep Rubicon have hit some serious trails, carried the weights of tons of overlanding gear, managed the load of some larger wheels and tires and now have over 100k miles on them. While I have done a few upgrades to make them stonger like c-gussets, chromoly axles shafts, Dynatrac ball joints, and more, they are now showing signs of failure and I've had to make a few repairs. In this video I head over to Dynatrac to upgrade my front axles to the new ProRock 44.

There are some great Jeep Wrangler builds out there, but not too many of them allow you to be self sustained for day on end and explore some epic places. In this video we take a close up look of this 2018 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon Unlimited that has been outfitted with all the right overlanding gear and talk with the owner to find out why he chose the modification he did.

A lot has been happening with the Jeep Gladiator build in just the last few weeks. When I was invited to SEMA and the LA Auto Show, I knew there were some things that needed to get done quickly, so in this video I’m going to catch you up on all the updated modifications (lift kit, tires, led lights, winch, roof rack, bed rack, rooftop tent, fridge and more), give you my opinions about what’s been installed, talk to you about some changes I’ll be making and what future projects are coming.

This wasn’t an easy decision by any means, but in this video I’ll explain while after less than a year, I decided to remove the custom vinyl wrap from my Jeep Wrangler. I’ll show you how well it’s held up after being out on the trail many times, out in the sun and other weather conditions, then I’ll show the process I went through to remove it and share with you my thoughts on if I’d ever wrap it again?

In this video my son and I have some upgrades to our 1999 Jeep Cherokee XJ that we've been wanting to get done for a while. We pull it back in the garage to replace the steering wheel, serpentine belt and we were going to beef up the differential cover until something unexpected happens, but more on that at the end of the video.

Well it's not quite Christmas, but I just couldn't wait to open this massive box that was just delivered. In this video I will unbox my new roof top tent that I'll be using over the next several months on some multi-day overlanding and day camping trips. This is the RoofNest Falcon and is one of the slimmest roof top tents on the market. Let's take a close up look of what's in the box, the outside and inside of the tent and I'll share my initial impressions.

My wife has had her HellaYella 2 door Jeep Wrangler JL for over a year now and she loves daily driving it and exploring new destinations out on the trails. While the JKUR is very capable in stock form, I’ve always wanted to add just a little lift and slightly larger tires to it to give it just a bit more capability, but still maintain good daily driving manners. In this video, I try a little experiment to see if she’s willing to allow me to install 35” tires and a 2.5” lift kit… we’ll see!

Happy New Year! In this video I recap 2019 and I share with you some exciting plans coming in 2020!