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#21 · (Edited)
I've slept in the back on several camping trips in the year that I've had 'er. I CANNOT stand airbeds, so picked up a twin bed-sized, 2inch thick high-density foam from a foam store like Foam Factory. (Do NOT get egg crate.) Fits between the wheel-wells PERFECTLY, like mrJeepr44's air mattress. Its really comfortable, but I'm still thinking of getting another inch-thick sheet of this stuff, or a self inflating air mat for underneath--for the female's comfort. As they say, when she's happy... yada yada, eh hem, cough

Sooooo much better than sleepin' on the ground, I'm never using the tent agin!

My foam definitely does NOT fold up as well as an air mattress, or roll up as well as an self-inflating air mat, but its damn comfy! Rolled up, it does fit standing upright behind the driver's seat and into the back left seat's footwell without interfering with vision when driving. Might have been a better idea to have gotten two or three one-inch thick pieces, might have rolled up and stored more easily.

When solo, I sleep head towards the back, when sleeping two, its roomier to have heads towards the front, in which case, it helps to have the fold flat front passenger seat (great feature!) and a height-impaired significant-other, cuz of the driver's seat, and you'd need to use something to fill the gap between front and back seats if you sleep this direction. I'l actually been thinking of building a kinda a 'table' to fill that gap, with screw-in legs. Planning on it being sturdy enough to be able to serve as an off-roading sand/mud ladder in a 'mergency.

oh, and definitely need to crack a window an inch on each side, or you'll wake to alot of condensation. I've been concerned about carbon dioxide levels, but survived a night I forgot to roll down the window--but that was solo--am very sure their ain't enough air for two when its sealed up. A bit of mosquito netting over the windows is a good idea, I use cheap hardware store magnets to stick it to the door. I'm kinda bear-paranoid, and thinking about some kind of steel mesh on the inside and outside of the window instead, a bit bigger than the opening and clamped or tightened together . Just want a few extra seconds to wake up and fumble for the bear spray if I ever get the visit. Don't want to first wake up from the sound of the bear pulling out the window. I'd feel freer to have the window open alot more... or as an alternative, have been thinkin' of gettin' one of those van roof-vents installed... seems alot cheaper than gettin' a moon roof...

Oh, and yer gonna wanna park 'er just so, to get a semi-level bed-surface--surprising to me how little angle it takes to really screw this up, particularly side-to-side. Kept waking up night with my face planted right into the Boston speaker cover, and couldnt manage to get away from it, just kept sliding back into it overnight!
 
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#22 ·
I've not done this in the Patriot, yet, but have an air mattress for the bed in my pick-up. Don;t do that as much as we used to though, and only used it once this year.

I put the head of the mattress toward the cab of the truck, and like my head slightly higher than my feet, but the rest as level as can be.

I also use an air mattress in the tent if tenting too.
 
Discussion starter · #23 ·
Sandstone said:
So how'd it work out? Was thinking about doing something similar.
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Sooo comfortable for sleeping. My wife tends to toss and turn, and that woke me up, but it's not much different than at home.

The bed was great. As far as camping goes, I had to make sure all of our stuff would fit in the front seats while the bed was in the back, and entered the bed from the rear passenger doors. It was a bit of a step up, but not bad. I ended up folding the front passenger seat flat and scooting it back all the way, which gave some support to the mattress. The mattress was very good and very comfortable. We tend to like the mattress filled up very firm, and the mattress didn't leak. It was cozy, but my wife had a blast and preferred it over tent camping. Heck, I think I preferred it over tent camping. We got to our campsite in the pitch black of night under a tree canopy. All I had to do was park in the campsite level with the back end slightly higher for our heads, and voila. Slid the front seats forward (and eventually folded one flat), put all the gear and food up front, and using our inflator, the bed was fully ready in about 45 seconds. We even grabbed redbox movie on the way out of town and watched that on the media center radio before bed. It was secure, quick, and easy. A tent definitely offers more room, but the Jeep was more comfortable.

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#24 ·
Good to hear, sounds about like what we were thinking. We thought through the same issues of space, convenience, comfort, etc. compared to a tent and using the Pat seemed to made the most sense. We'll probably get a Rocket Box or some kind of roof carrier to store all stuff we usually take.

Phineas and Dixie, thanks for the input. Maybe all this info should become a sticky for Patriot camping.
 
Discussion starter · #27 ·
Well my MPG's seem to be improving now that I no longer have a screwy tire. My last tank was over 24 mpg, and that included some sitting and idling the engine for the A/C while we were parked. We did have a 15 MPH tail wind for the highway portion of the trip, but still, including the time idling.... I am impressed. I hope to see 26+ some day. 280 Miles before the fuel light came on.... not too shabby for a FDII
 
Discussion starter · #28 ·
I polished and waxed my Jeep this weekend, and finally took some hi res photo's with a decent camera. They are the top three in my sig post now
 
#29 ·
nice pictures. sorry if I missed it - is yours lifted? I assume so and if so what kind of lift did you get?

in addition if so, any challenges with the lift? alignment issues? how many miles on it since? could you describe the difference in the riding ability from when you first got it to it now?
 
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Discussion starter · #30 ·
Thanks John. That is actually stock. It is the FDII with no real mods... stock suspension, stock tires :)

Sent from my HTC using AutoGuide App
 
Discussion starter · #31 ·
Oil change

Well after several trips to Oklahoma and a recent trip to Colorado and Utah, My Oil Change reminder light came on at 7,485 miles. I am now at 7,800 and able to change it today. I am pleased it's finally telling me I should change at 8,000 miles. I've got close to 21,000 miles on the Jeep now and this is oil change #5

Other than the factory oil, my Jeep has had nothing but 5-w20 Mobil1. I have seen 0-30 AFE, but don't really like the idea of jumping up to a 30 when 5-w20 is right on the oil cap. Today when I was buying oil, I saw they were carrying 0w-20 AFE so I'll be using that today. I am not sure why I have never seen it before... I did a search and found this thread which is 2 years old and they were using it then.

I'll also be rotating my tires and finally treating the rust I noticed last summer. Hopefully it's not too far gone...

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Discussion starter · #32 ·
Well before I changed the oil, I cleared out the EVIC and drove 6 miles. The EVIC average got up to 26.8 MPG before the final hill climb, and by the time I parked it said 25.5MPG.

After changing to 0w20 AFE, going the same route before the final hill climb it got up to 28.7 MPG. Unfortunately the second trip I hit two really long stop lights, and by the time I parked EVIC said 24.5.

The stop lights threw things off, but after the oil change the MPG was about 2 MPG higher at the same hill as the previous trip. The biggest problem with this test is that there were a lot of hills to go down. Usually I don't get 25.5 MPG, so I am not sure how accurate of a comparison it is. If only I could take this 6 mile drive to work..... I go a different direction with lower MPGs
 
Discussion starter · #33 · (Edited)
Today I got some black Plasti-dip to go over my dark grey plastic cladding and the non painted parts of the bumpers. I also got some Rustoleum High Temp paint in black to go over my muffler, which was painted at the factory and is already fading and changing colors from heat. I was going to get VHT, but they were out of black. The VHT stuff I saw was rated to 900° while the Rustoleum is rated to 2000° so it ought to work. They also had Rustoleum Engine paint which was rated to 500° and the BBQ paint was something like 1300°

I'll try to get some photos up later
 
Discussion starter · #34 · (Edited)
Today I had a personal best for MPG in my Patriot. I removed the cross bars last weekend because I was thinking of painting them, but haven't put them back on yet, so I am sure it helped. I noticed the cross bars are the shape of an airfoil, which is probably to to reduce drag (either that or lighten the load ;)). On top they have an arrow at each end pointing to where the front should be. I am sure if they were installed backwards it would significantly increase noise and drag.

I had been meaning to get down to the lake for awhile so I picked a spot on Google Maps using the satellites, then I took city streets to get there. The city roads eventually opened up to a 55 mph road, but that was only that last 5 miles of the trip. Once I got to the lake, I drove on the trail for about a half mile or so until I got into some really thick mud right on the waters edge. The mud was so thick I wasn't getting much for steering, and I got to a point where the water level had risen too much and blocked the trail. With the trail blocked, I had to stop in the mud and reverse out. Being alone and on the edge of a lake, I didn't take any chances and locked 4x4 (which turns on off-road mode and BLD on FDII). I slowly reversed, sliding a little bit towards the lake. Fortunately steering through the mud was a little bit easier in reverse and I made it back to dry ground without any problems.

When leaving I drove back up to the highway and went home the same way I came, and filled up at the same gas station I topped off at the beginning of the trip. There were 15 MPH cross winds for most of the trip, and in a couple of places it was a tail wind, then a head wind on the way home.

I went 48 miles using 1.47 gallons of gas, which averaged to 27.6 MPG for the trip (That's 33.2 for you Imperial folks). I think removing the cross bars made a bit of difference, and todays outing only cost me six and a half bucks. Not too bad considering fuel prices are up a good 30 cents from where they were most of the winter
 
Discussion starter · #35 ·
Well my Jeep is FINALLY going to the body shop this week to get that little peak on the lift gate fixed. Just in time to look its best after I install these (which came today by the way):

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#36 ·
mrJeepr44 said:
Today I got some black Plasti-dip to go over my dark grey plastic cladding and the non painted parts of the bumpers. I also got some Rustoleum High Temp paint in black to go over my muffler, which was painted at the factory and is already fading and changing colors from heat. I was going to get VHT, but they were out of black. The VHT stuff I saw was rated to 900° while the Rustoleum is rated to 2000° so it ought to work. They also had Rustoleum Engine paint which was rated to 500° and the BBQ paint was something like 1300°

I'll try to get some photos up later
Click to expand...
Same here...:doh:
 
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#38 ·
Yep. It looks like a burnt khaki color... rather crappy.
 
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Discussion starter · #39 ·
Mine hasn't faded a bit since I painted it with that 2000° Rustoleum high temp paint, however I still feel a little light headed... and that was a couple months ago ;)
 
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