Mission Overland 
Top 10 Interior Overland MODs
Hey everyone! During this overland travel thing, I have been known to spend 10+ hours a day in driver’s seat. Between the long drive times during the day and the inevitable need to cook something fast when I get to camp, I have added some interior mods to the Jeep that make life a little easier. Fair warning, I use my stuff so if you don’t like seeing used and dirty items, you may want to look away. lol. Here are my favorites:
10. Mil-Spec Monkey Visor Panel
This visor panel offers a lot of features that serve many purposes for me. The majority of the time I find myself shoving different pens and pencils through the elastic. You can see in the picture some of the other things I keep up there but overall it is just a great place to stash things without hiding them away in some black hole like the center console or glove box…
9. WeatherTech Floor Liners
One thing that I NEVER worry about is whether or not the carpet in my jeep is getting ruined or not. I know a lot of people take the carpet out so they can just wash the whole thing out but I like the sound deadening and the factory look. These floor liners are perfectly molded to the floor pan shape and never move around. When they get dirty, just pop them out and wash them off. Fair warning, they are expensive but were the first items I purchased when I got the Jeep. Buy once, cry once!
8. Apollointech Switch Pod
Nothing looks cooler that those guys with exterior accessories everywhere and one pod that controls it all. Well, most of those are outrageously expensive in my opinion and way out of my budget in my wife’s opinion. I came across this pod and it had everything I needed. It connects to a single battery which allowed me to connect the pod to the secondary battery and run all of my accessories off of the secondary battery and not risk draining the primary. For me, this works great because I use the rear light bar and rock lights at camp most of the time and I don’t have to worry about draining the main battery.
Even better is the fact that all of the lines run into a neat box inside the engine bay and I don’t have to fool with running wires through the firewall. The cost is fairly low and getting all of the switches up and out of the way is priceless. If any of you have ever had a Jeep, you know how much room there is for adding switches into the dash… There isn’t any.
7. Sony Stereo and Alpine Wrangler Kit
After buying my jeep (without the upgraded stereo) the first thing I noticed is that my hearing was suddenly worse than before. Then I realized that it wasn’t me, it was the terrible factory radio. I immediately got online and started searching for a solution. Here is what I ended up with:
Sony XAV-AX100 – This head unit had everything I needed and even included Apple CarPlay which was a necessity. It really drives the speakers well and was a fairly easy install.
Alpine PSS-21WRA – This was one of the most expensive mods that I have done to the Jeep but WELL worth it. This kit comes with everything you need and is designed to perfectly interface and install into a Jeep Wrangler. I’m not listening to my music through a tin can and has made a huge improvement in my ability to spend time in the driver’s seat.
6. GrabBars Fire Extinguisher Mount
Having kept my fire extinguisher on the back roll bar for a long time, I realized one day that if I needed to get it out in a hurry, it wasn’t gonna happen. I began looking for solutions to use some of the valuable, hard to use, empty space in the Jeep, like in front of the rear wheel well behind the back seat. I saw this mount in a magazine and began searching to find it. I finally found it and have not looked back. One thing to note here is that is is designed to slide between the hard top and body, which works great, but causes some issues with the length of the hard top hardware when using something else (like my roof rack support) that uses the same attachment method.
5. Recovery Gear and Hi-Lift Mount
There are too many items to list here and I’ll have to cover that later but invaluable items to these adventures are the things I carry to recover myself or others. I recently went on a trip and left the day my winch was arriving. As my winch was sitting in my garage, I did something I never have done before, I got stuck and stuck real bad. I had EVERYTHING I needed to get out except a winch… Lesson learned. Even though you may not ever need recovery gear, by the very nature of adventure traveling/overlanding, you need a way to recover yourself and/or other people.
The Dominion Offroad Hi-Lift mount has been great and another way to use the valuable space inside the Jeep. I used to have the jack mounted to the hood but one day the thought crossed my mind that I would hate to be in an accident, live, and then eat my Hi-Lift jack as it comes through the windshield. Not a fan. I moved it inside the Jeep and cannot even see it when it is in its mount. Perfect.
4. Medical Kits
More important than your ability to recover your vehicle is your ability provide medical aid to you, the people traveling with you, and people you may come across. I am a firm believer that even with little training, everyone should have a substantial medical kit in their vehicle so that in the event there is an accident, a medical professional who happened to be there would have the tools to give the aid necessary. More on that in the future. I carry a well-stocked kit in the back of my Jeep in a bright orange bag with a cross on it so it can be easily seen. I also carry a tear-away trauma kit attached to the back of the seat that has items to hopefully keep someone alive should they endure major trauma.
3. Front Runner Drop Down Tailgate Table
This thing is one of the BEST mods that I have done. It was relatively easy to install and is probably used more than anything else I have when camping. It is a great way to keep things off the ground and with my bad back, that is always an up side. It is also a good place to prepare and cook food while keeping the camp neat and organized. I used to pull out a big table and set it up and pack it away every time I was cooking but with this table I have literally pulled over on the side of the road, popped the table down, boiled water for some ramen while airing up my tires. When I was done eating, I did a quick wipe down of the pot, folded the table up and away I went. I love this table.
2. iPad RAM Mount
I have covered the lengths at which I go into when planning these trips which means following something like Google Maps is not an option for me. I use Gaia GPS on my iPad where I upload my planned route, reference and follow it throughout the trip. To do this, I use a full size iPad which presents its own challenges for mounting securely. I have tried many mounts in the past but happened to be testing a RAM product for some work I was doing in the military and fell in love with the versatility and reliability. I picked up their iPad mount and found a way to mount it to the passenger’s grab bar where it has stayed for over a year now with no issues.
Amazon (Cradle)
Amazon (Attachment)
Amazon (Arm)
1. iPhone RAM Mount
While I use the iPad for navigation, I use my iPhone for everything else. Sometimes I’ll run maps on it if I’m looking for a store or gas station but mostly I use it for entertainment; music, audio books, podcasts, etc. For this reason, I like to have it accessible but without blocking any of my view. The x-grip mount gave me a way to securely mount my phone near the A pillar of the Jeep which is within arms reach, in my field of view, but not blocking my view of the road. This allows me to make quick changes to songs or see messages that come across the screen without having to look away from the road. Even looking down at the radio can cause an accident so I do everything I can to take the distractions away and having my phone in the x-grip help that a lot.
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Well, that about covers it. There are some things that I have done that were not mentioned because they are smaller additions or not easily photographed. I have installed seat covers so that I don’t have to worry about getting them dirty and a cell signal booster was installed but is behind the dash. I am not sold on the benefits of it but have been able to make calls when it is on that I may not have otherwise been able to make. I also have a cargo net that keeps all of the heavy things in the back from making their way into the front in the event of an accident.
These things are the installs but I do have items that I would consider more EDC for the vehicle that I will cover in another post. I also carry a lot more things on my trips that I will also cover in another post. If you have comments or questions, please let me know!
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