American Expedition Vehicles Iceland Expedition

Body Modifications: Quite a bit of trimming and fabricating was required to fit the 39.5” tires on the vehicle with only a 4” lift. In the front, the rear of the wheel opening was cut out and rebuilt to clear the tires at full lock and at full compression. Remarkably this didn’t noticeably intrude into the passenger compartment foot area at all. In the rear, the body was cut out to make room for the tires, in order not to interfere with the rear doors, the rear axle was pushed back 5” (127mm) extending the wheelbase to 114.5” (2908.3mm). Custom fender flares were designed and fabricated in house using AEV’s CNC mill and fiberglass facilities. The six piece flare set provides an additional 5.5” (139mm) of clearance and creates a proportional look with the oversized tires.

AEV Winch Mount: The winch mount is fabricated from ¼” (6mm) steel with 1” thick clevis mounts. The Warn 9500XP winch and mount are hidden under the stock fascia with a modified Mopar steel center overlay which includes the custom light mounts for the IPF 900 lights.

Communications:

Yeasu 8900R radios provide radio communications for vehicle to vehicle and vehicle to base operations. The navigator sits in the rear using a GPS enabled Panasonic ToughBook mounted on a modified GamberJohnson laptop mount and docking station in the rear of the vehicle. The driver can view what’s on the laptop using a Panasonic wireless display in the front which also has a wireless mouse and keyboard. Garmin provided top of the line MapSource software and their impressive GPS10 antennas.

Diagnostics: Due to the remote nature of the expedition and the complex electronic system on the Commander, the ToughBook is tied into the CAN bus system on the vehicle to keep an eye on critical functions of the vehicle, in effect a very high-powered scan tool tied into the vehicle diagnostic system.

Paint & Vinyl: All the paint was applied by House of Color in Missoula, MT using Standox premium paint. The graphics and logo design was done by Russ Fry of Russ Fry design located in Bozeman, MT.

Inteview With David Harrinton – Founder of American Expedition Vehicles (www.aevconversions.com)

JPF: What inspired the Iceland Expedition?

AEV: I have some friends that produce extreme sport videos, pretty much most of the whitewater kayaking and free skiing you see on TV. They mentioned how there were so many epic waterfalls and rapids in Iceland, but they just couldn’t access it without some serious 4WDs. For me it was a great fit, we could do a really great 4wd and kayaking trip and in return it would be a great marketing exercise with the opportunity to take some very dramatic photos and video segments.