Project-JK Jeep Helicopter Desert Pursuit

Back in May, I received an interesting email from the owner and general manager of a company called Powerline Patrol Services. Located in Gilbert, Arizona, this unique company specializes in high voltage asset inspections for utility companies and apparently, they were seriously looking into the options and possibilities of building a more capable patrol vehicle. As I would learn, most power line patrol vehicles today are built off of standard 3/4 ton trucks which have stiff suspension systems and have limited wheel travel. Unfortunately, these drawbacks significantly limit the patrol range of these vehicles to easy driving locations and, when the terrain gets too tough, the only other option available has been to employ the use of Helicopters. In the search for a better and more cost effective solution, Powerline Patrol Services came across a few of our YouTube videos and, as you can guess, that's when they contacted me.

Inspired by what they saw in our videos, Powerline Patrol Services decided that a new patrol vehicle based on the Jeep JK Wrangler might be the solution they've been looking for. Eager to test market this concept, they hired a production company to create a promotional video highlighting some of the unique services they offer and asked if we might be willing to bring out our JK so that they could film it traversing the rough power line roads and difficult right-of-ways that are commonly found in the Arizona desert. Happy to help out in any way that we could, we hammered out the details and made our out to Phoenix.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• Project-JK
• Jeep
• JK
• Wrangler
• helicopter
• powerline
• patrol
• services
• phoenix
• arizona
• desert
• off
• road
• evolution
• vehicle
• offroad
• stunts
• 4x4
• mud
• truck

[OGKILLa9365]

California?

[wayalife]

@OGKILLa9365 arizona

[JamesE0300]

@wayalife What part.?

[wayalife]

@JamesE0300 this is out by kingman

[alldayeverydayjeep]

what axles do you have in the front and rear?

[wayalife]

@alldayeverydayjeep dynatrac pro rock 60's

[Josephus1]

Lemme see if I got this right - you've gotten sponsors to pay you to advertise on the best Jeep JK website on the planet (Project-JK and JK-Forum are even better than Jeep.com Marketing dept!) plus you've got PowerLine comanies paying you to 'inspect' their properties in beautiful remote desert locations that nobody else can even get a permit to access?

You are the Man! Live the dream...

[glamisfanatic]

I think they would benefit more from an F150 Raptor

[foxfan48]

@tfos32 I'm not an American..

[domeslacker]

@wayalife Could always salvage a 2.8l Diesel that is offered on foreign JKs. Better power, torque and mpg than the gas engine. Could get them from an 06 Liberty CRD (if i am not mistaken). Cheaper and maybe easier swap would be a cummins 4bt. Plenty of ppl do so on their YJ and TJs. I plan on going 1,9 TDI this summer on my TJ to replace my 4banger.

[domeslacker]

I can't understand how there wasn't a single PowerLine Patrol tech who didn't suggest they just swap their existing trucks' suspensions out for an aftermarket kit and just get better tires. Or equip their new trucks with factory lockers etc.That they had to look it up on youtube and saw ur video and said "That's what we need,Jk base and 30k worth of accessories" kind of has me floored. Powerline trails arent hard, seems they could save $ with suspension and tire upgrades to their current fleet.

[tfos32]

@foxfan48 not all states have that law and most that do don't enforce it

[alldayeverydayjeep]

@wayalife and are those the BFG's Rubicon tires?