Every year, right about the beginning of March, Jeep likes to unveil a small fleet of concepts and studies that will make it to the Easter Jeep Safari out in Moab, Utah. This is done to advertise accessories that are offered via Mopar, to provide inspiration to buyers who haven’t started a build on their own Jeeps, and to let the design and marketing teams cut loose a little and have some fun. Each year, we can find at least one Easter Jeep build that we’d happily drive off in, never to be seen again, and for 2018, that vehicle was this vehicle, the “Wagoneer Roadtrip”. Starting life as a 1965 Wagoneer, the Roadtrip concept received a five-inch wheelbase stretch, a widened track, flared fenders, a “Razor” grille that was used in both the Kaiser Jeep and AMC era (1966-78), a 5.7L Hemi and four-gear automatic, and a general clean-up that any fan of FSJ Jeeps can appreciate. Four-link coil suspensions, a transfer case instead of full-time, and an interior that is just about perfect…all metal, just with a couple of drain plugs for the wash out after the trail.

When this thing debuted, I was all over myself. My experience with FSJs mostly move to mid-to-late 1960s trucks, but I’m a huge fan of the Wagoneer/Cherokee/Grand Wagoneer lineage and love the idea of an updated classic that isn’t so overdone that you can’t recognize it as a classic vehicle anymore. We’ve talked about possibly finding one of these to add to the BangShift Mid-West fleet as the family truckster vehicle, but that’s currently a Lottery winning dream for sure. Beautiful, for sure. Hey, Jeep…learn from the reactions to this thing and find a way to bring something like this to market…preferrably below the $50,000 mark this time, ok?