Expedition Earth’s Jeep Gladiator is ready to explore the globe

Gunther, our Wrangler JK used to explore the world, is currently parked in an open-air carpark in Moscow as COVID has kept many borders closed for the foreseeable future. Gunther has seen all four seasons after we had no choice but to abandon him at the airport only two months into Leg 3 of our journey, when Russia closed its land borders. We occasionally receive Whatsapp notifications from his parking warden and now we can even see him on Google Earth.

While we wait for Gunther to make his return, we have been working with the team at RVE in Auckland to kit out a 2020 Rubicon Gladiator we have since named Roman. We decided on the name not because of the Gladiator origins but because of the Siberian man named Roman who led us and Gunther into the Yamal peninsula in early 2020.

We don’t know when, or in which order, the borders will reopen but when they do, we want to be ready to depart as soon as possible. Having a second vehicle may open up the opportunity to continue Expedition Earth before we can return to Gunther in Moscow. If we can get to Moscow and continue our Leg 3 route to Auckland, having a second vehicle will be a huge help as we will then be able to push both vehicles harder, opening up more exciting terrain.

Because Gunther and Roman are our teammates, we want them to be matching. We decided upon the color white for Roman, as it’s not only Gunther’s color, but it is also considered the safest and most practical color for overlanding.

For the Gladiator we wanted to try something different and go for a sportier feel. We have been working with Maximus-3 who supplied the sport tail rack and roof rack systems. Being based in Detroit, the team at Maximus-3 were able to produce after-market kit for the Gladiator faster than other manufacturers. Their roof rack systems for the Gladiator are very solid.

We often get asked why we don’t carry a roof tent. Bridget and I try to sleep inside our cars rather than outside of them. This is mainly because we go to places that can be extremely cold or dangerous. Sometimes, we have no choice but to sleep in places that are just plain ugly because it’s the safest option. We have spent many nights parked at gas stations, town centers, laybys and airports. We’ve even parked in front of a night club where we made friends with the security. But these are not really the kinds of places you will want to have a ginormous tent perched upon your car and draw attention to yourselves. Because we can’t sleep inside Roman, we may look at adding a roof tent to him when we approach the winter months, but for now, we are happy using a conventional tent.

During Leg 1 and 2 we had taken one set of 33″ KO2’s through 4 continents with only two punctures along the way. By the time we reached London, the tires still had a quarter of their tread remaining. With the BFG team in New Zealand, we all agreed to stick with the KO2 as the staple for the various terrains here in NZ. For long range driving, a 33″ is an ideal size because anything bigger is expensive to run and the handling is compromised.  However, because we will be taking the JT on sand, snow, and mud, we have increased our tire size to a 35X12.50. It’s summer here in New Zealand at the moment and very dry, but as we approach the wet winter months we may look to try out the 37×12.50 KM3.

We gave Roman a 2″ Mopar Suspension lift cater for the larger tires. It’s worth noting that JL and JT Rubicon’s in Australasia do not come with the high line fender flares like they do in the US. According to Mopar, the high line fenders are not yet for sale either which is a shame for us in this part of the world.

Because of the 2″ lift, Bridget was having a workout getting in and out of Roman so we looked at getting some low profile nerf steps. Westin Automotive make a really cool HDX drop step which doesn’t compromise your clearance.

On our expeditions, we can become reliant on our extra lighting. In places like northern Russia and Iceland, our factory headlights would become clogged with ice and snow so we like to keep our lights on the roof so we can cross rivers without them freezing up. We called up our friends at Lightforce who got very excited about our new Gladiator. Together with their team in Adelaide and New York, we decided 5 x HTX2 hybrid driving lights would be suitable. If you’ve ever seen an HTX2 in action you’ll know why it’s considered the world’s brightest driving light. Having five of these on the roof is probably a tad over the top but when driving at night, these are the greatest accessory you’ll ever want. Just make sure you have an S-Pod HD or something comparable to control the lights if you’ve got a few of them.

We were lucky to have the team at RVE right here on our doorstep in Auckland. They gave the interior of the Gladiator a full refit, replacing all leather with their own Saddle Brown from the steering wheel to the front dash. Gunther’s interior is also a tan, so we like that the two Jeeps are now matching. Because we have Quadratec tube doors and like having our roof off, saddle brown seats are a more practical color than black as some of the places we visit can get up to 40C.

At over 1.5 meters (just under 5ft.), the tray on a JT Gladiator is quite long, even if you’ve got long arms like me. So RVE installed one of their electric rolling shutter lids which is controlled by a switch inside the tray as well as a remote control. Because we drive through sand, mud, ice and rain there is also of course a manual override switch which can always be engaged if the vehicle’s electrics fail. This lid has already proved essential and we haven’t even been using the tray for its storage potential yet.

 

We like to think we are well organized when it comes to food. We literally have boxes of Canterbury Biltong that we stowaway in hidden places for times in need when on expedition. But no matter how prepared we are, we always run out. If you run out of food in somewhere like Sudan or China, you will probably only be able to find fresh meats or vegetables (or at least you’ll hope they are fresh). In these places’, temperatures can reach 40C, so you’ll want to keep that produce as cold as you can. Inside our back tray we have installed a Dometic CFX 35 fridge. This is the same fridge that we had in Gunther throughout Africa and it was very reliable and easy to clean, which is important when on the road.

There are still several accessories that we will look to add to Roman before taking him overseas. This will include an on board ARB tire compressor, Dometic solar & inverter systems, Front Runner overland roof accessories, a Dometic roof tent, recovery equipment and a custom made tire mount for when we are using 37″+ tires.

We can’t wait for the borders to reopen so that we can unleash Roman into the wild. If we can partner the two vehicles together, we will be heading to some very exciting terrain!

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