Alternative Powered Jeeps at All Breeds Jeep Show – Part 1

Last month I attended a Jeep Festival with a friend in York, PA. It is known to be a rather large two-day gathering full of offroad enthusiasts and their beefed up vehicles. Now I’m sure you’re wondering why a person who cares about organic food, historic and nature preservation would care to attend a Jeep festival. The short answer is that I also appreciate Jeep and have one of my own. I enjoy the occasional offroad adventure and always practice Tread Lightly, to ensure that all lands are preserved for future use. I’ve always found the use of fuel to drive around the forest for fun a bit wasteful, but was never sure there was a better way.

I truly love the concept of e-vehicles, but I never found them aesthetically pleasing enough to want my own, with perhaps the exception of the Chevy Volt. Especially with the Volt, 40 miles per charge wasn’t enough for me to find the price tag worth it.

To my amazement at this Jeep Festival, I encountered a fully electric 1998 Jeep Wrangler. It was converted to all electric power at Mount Zion Offroad in Dover, PA. I was very glad to see there is a shift lately to more sustainable ways of doing things in the offroad community. This Jeep was especially well received by the offroad community at the festival. As I spoke with the owner many people came by to check out this unique Jeep.

The owner stated that it only took a few months for the conversion and finds his Jeep gets 80 miles per charge. Which is similar to what the Nissan Leaf and BMW i3 electric cars can do in a single charge. The owner converted his Jeep to use as a daily driver vehicle for his commute and has yet to take the vehicle offroad. Though he intends to use it on an offroad adventure, he warns against taking it through any water crossings. Many of the electric components are protected from any water that might naturally occur from weather, he doesn’t want to test out that protection to the max with rides in a river.

For me, aesthetically pleasing vehicles take the cake over the environmentally helpful ones. For now I will make up for that with my other environmentally conscious tasks. With the ability to seemingly convert any Jeep into an electric version, I would be interested to have my own vehicle converted, since I am one of those people who get attached to the vehicles they drive.