My Overlanding Build!

[Bird Dog Off Road]

After being inspired by a lot of the work y'all have done on your Broncos, I thought I would share progress on my 2023 Badlands overlanding build. I do a lot of offroading on the Arizona Strip to access Grand Canyon and the roads can be really rough. I wanted to be able to sleep on the roof rack in summer and sleep inside the Bronco in winter. I had a buddy who builds custom cabinets build a drawer system in the rear that also levels the floor. I did a run through of the build so far in the video below:

Badlands 2.7/SAS/MIC/LUX
Mickey Thompson Baja Boss (stock tires punctured twice in two trips)
RCI roof rack with side panels for fuel and water
Trailgater table
rear saddlebag storage
Custom sleep platform and drawer system

Video of the solution here:

Pretty sweet setup! Moving to Peoria, AZ at the end of April. Hopefully we’ll meet up and hit some trails together.

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[CalvinT]

After being inspired by a lot of the work y'all have done on your Broncos, I thought I would share progress on my 2023 Badlands overlanding build. I do a lot of offroading on the Arizona Strip to access Grand Canyon and the roads can be really rough. I wanted to be able to sleep on the roof rack in summer and sleep inside the Bronco in winter. I had a buddy who builds custom cabinets build a drawer system in the rear that also levels the floor. I did a run through of the build so far in the video below:

Badlands 2.7/SAS/MIC/LUX
Mickey Thompson Baja Boss (stock tires punctured twice in two trips)
RCI roof rack with side panels for fuel and water
Trailgater table
rear saddlebag storage
Custom sleep platform and drawer system

Video of the solution here:

Do you get up around the Vermilion Cliffs?

 

[CalvinT]

Pretty sweet setup! Moving to Peoria, AZ at the end of April. Hopefully we’ll meet up and hit some trails together.

Check out Sanderson Ford if you decide to use a Ford dealer for maintence. I've been very happy with them. They have very little turn over in their staff, which is a good indication.

 

[Superstition]

Do you get up around the Vermilion Cliffs?

Often! I'm a photographer and that area is quite photogenic. And it's good to have a Badlands. The sand can be a challenge and a lot of people get stuck out there, but lock front and rear and the Badlands sails through.

 

[Superstition]

Pretty sweet setup! Moving to Peoria, AZ at the end of April. Hopefully we’ll meet up and hit some trails together.

There is no lack of amazing sights to see and trails to run in AZ!

 

[CalvinT]

Many years ago I was fortunate enough to visit radio sites on Navajo Mountain. Back then the road from US 160 to the base of the mountain (Navajo 16) was bladed dirt. There was sand blowing across it most of the way. Was driving a Chevy K20. Had to stay in 2nd gear all the way.

Saw my first porcupine up there!

I bought a Badlands just because of AZ backroads and sand.

 

[SkiRig]

how has your experience with the RCI roof rack been?

 

[Midnight_Blue]

I still haven’t figured out what’s cooler:

1. Visibility; or

2. Hanging small items that could fit literally anywhere else on my windows.

 

[Xjeepowner]

Great build, your friend could make a business making that draw system it looks really cool.

 

[Xjeepowner]

Forgot to ask, do you have to have the roof rack to install the Molle panels holding the gas cans?

 

[Superstition]

how has your experience with the RCI roof rack been?

My experience with the RCI Rack has been great. I held off buying when they had that roof sag issue and waited to buy until they had the brace fix. It went together very smoothly and the install was pretty easy. I don't take the roof compartments off much at all, so I liked the RCI rack because you could add the lower reinforcements that take up the weird looking space that's left so the roof compartments can be removed with the rack on. Additionally, the front fairing is better looking than any other rack. I wanted the side panels to carry extra fuel and water so that limited my buying options to just a few rack manufacturers too.

After installation, I noticed a bit more wind noise, especially at high speeds around 85 mph, and the fuel economy decreased by about 1.5 MPG. Not that you asked, but the heavier Mickey Thompson Baja Boss tires (+18 POUNDS/tire) decreased another 1.5 MPG. So I get about 15.5 MPG now. Still about 1 MPG better than my Rubicon with 35's and a roof rack.

So far, I'm having no issues with a sagging roof. I added a few molle Al plates to the roof rack so I could sleep up there in the summer. I climb on the roof and walk around up there a lot to take photos too. Seems pretty bomber so far.

 

[Superstition]

I still haven’t figured out what’s cooler:

1. Visibility; or

2. Hanging small items that could fit literally anywhere else on my windows.

I struggled with this exact question for a while with my Rubicon. At some point I realized that the visibility out the furtherest rear windows was pretty crappy anyway with the roll bar and all of the gear that I tended to carry on a trip, so I didn't even think twice on the Bronco about the external fuel and water covering those windows or the saddle bags inside. A big bonus for the Bronco too: the 360 camera is so good that I find I use that rather than even look behind me anymore. The Jeep didn't have that feature.

 

[Superstition]

Forgot to ask, do you have to have the roof rack to install the Molle panels holding the gas cans?

The RCI roof rack has an option to include their molle panels on each side. There are connection points on the roof rack and a thin bracket that mounts between the body and roof. You need to remove the roof to install those brackets. Once installed, the side molles bolt between the roof rack and the bottom bracket. It's a nice solution because the body of the Bronco takes almost all of the weight of the fuel and water (or whatever else you choose to mount there).

 

[Superstition]

The RCI roof rack has an option to include their molle panels on each side. There are connection points on the roof rack and a thin bracket that mounts between the body and roof. You need to remove the roof to install those brackets. Once installed, the side molles bolt between the roof rack and the bottom bracket. It's a nice solution because the body of the Bronco takes almost all of the weight of the fuel and water (or whatever else you choose to mount there).

I missed your original point, but yes, you need either the RCI half or RCI full roof rack to mount the molles on the side in this case. If you only wanted the side molles I'd look at the half rack option.

 

[Superstition]

Great build, your friend could make a business making that draw system it looks really cool.

Maybe so. He's pretty busy building custom cabinets for homes. A buddy of mine and I bought Broncos at the same time so we talked him into making two of these at the same time. My guess is that he'd probably need to charge a couple grand for each one with the costs of the high end wood, the manual lamination, the 300 pound sliders and all of the labor. I don't know if people would pay that or if it would be worth it for him to divert his attention to this. Beer goes A LONG way with a good friend on a project like this

Anyway, I'd be happy to ask him if he'd do it again if there was serious interest.

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