The MPV (Multi purpose vehicle build): An introduction

 

"All People Bring Joy, Some when they come-

others when they leave, however all people bring joy" 

        For the better part of my storm spotter/ volunteer career I have owned and driven a few Dodge Grand caravans such as my recent 2006 one pictured below. Some o f the nice things about it were  that we had plenty of room for gear, people, and it made a great road trip vehicle. Form a storm spotter perspective it wasn't too bad (the NWS uses these) but three of the major downfalls was one, it was a giant wind sail. Second it lacked the mobility in the snow (it became stuck twice last winter). Finally it lacked the ability to be upgraded  and outfitted wit some of the necessary items needed to be able to storm spot properly. Besides storm spotting I wanted a vehicle that should a snow storm or disaster happen I wouldn't be stuck. .

The old faithful  Caravan 

With the Beginning demise of the caravan we began to look for a better alternative and I wanted a JEEP, one of the setbacks was cost with some of the base models ranging from 15k to over 35k it just wasn't the ideal financial  choice, but to no avail I was blessed to find a 1998 Jeep Wrangler TJ Sport for under 10k which while it needs work, it provides a great build platform and still comes in under the lowest priced model we looked at. 

The New MPV 

Over the course of this fall and next spring we will be doing a lot of upgrades and doing videos on some of the upgrades and why we chose some of the upgrades for our vehicle. 

 

The reason we are calling this our multi purpose vehicle is simple it will provide us a vehicle that will do some of these functions. 

Everyday Driver: Now you know the basic reason for this to essentially go to work, to the store, and do everyday tasks without the need to be worried about getting stuck in the snow or not having the capability to do everyday tasks due to other situations that may arise. 

Storm Spotter Vehicle: Being a local storm spotter /chaser I don't plan on driving 100's of miles a week and the smaller footprint saves gas money and makes the vehicle less susceptible to high winds, wet roads, and debris laden roads. Also another thing is we rarely get super severe thunderstorms that produce F4-5 tornadoes, most of our threat comes from winter weather and lake effect snow so the 4 wheel drive is a excellent choice for our adaptation of the vehicle for this purpose. 

Disaster response vehicle: Going hand in hand with storm spotting, we were in the need for a vehicle that will enable us to help should we need to help others in need. Some of the things we may come upon is pulling vehicles out of snow or trees off of vehicles in the event such things are needed. 

Camping/ Bug Out vehicle: Should the need to evacuate arise, we want to be able to evacuate and or get out of Dodge we want to adapt this vehicle with our gear and do it quickly and efficiently. By using the Jeep as a camping vehicle we will be able to test load and evaluate it well before we ever have to use it. 

Conclusion: This vehicle build is going to be a fun family project and we want you to come along on our journey as we build it. If you have jeep parts, are a mechanic, have a shop, and or just want to be a patron and help with the build just message me here on blogger. I want to thank you for reading my blog and remember God is still in control, until next time take care.