American Expedition Vehicles just dropped something that a lot of Jeep guys have been quietly wishing for – a way to turn an already serious Wrangler into a rolling base camp without drilling holes or welding racks all over the roof. They call it the Venture Package, and if you’ve ever spent a night on the trail digging through bags looking for a headlamp or a stove canister, you’ll understand why heads are turning.
The package is built on top of AEV’s JL370 build, which is already one of the most capable Wranglers money can buy. The JL370 comes with the heavy-duty suspension, 37-inch tires, steel bumpers, and all the other goodies that make people stop and stare at gas stations. But the new Venture Package takes it further, adding a handful of upgrades that are all about living out of the Jeep for days – or weeks – at a time.
Image credit: Jeep/American Expedition Vehicles
The star of the show is a set of MOLLE panels that replace the side glass on the removable hardtop. Yeah, you read that right – the glass comes out and these tough metal panels go in. Each panel is rated to hold 22 pounds of gear, and they come with lockable covers so nobody walks off with your recovery kit while you’re grabbing coffee in town. Think traction boards, a compact shovel, extra water, a first-aid bag, or even a couple of Rotopax fuel cans. Anything you used to strap to the spare tire or cram inside can now live on the outside, neat and reachable.
AEV didn’t just slap some generic panels on there either. These are finished to match the rest of the build, with “AEV Venture” lettering and a clean look that doesn’t scream aftermarket from fifty yards away. The hardtop itself gets painted body color, inside and out, so when you pull the panels off for summer running you’re not staring at raw primer.
Other touches round out the package. The B-pillar gets a blackout treatment, Venture badges show up front, rear, and on the sides, and you can choose between body-color wheels or AEV’s own Borah wheels if you want a little contrast. Up front, the EX bumper is tweaked a bit, and a snorkel comes standard – because when you’re this deep in the build, raised air intake isn’t an option anymore, it’s part of the plan.
The whole Venture Package adds $4,982 to the sticker. That might sound like real money until you remember the JL370 you have to start with already carries an $18,324 upcharge over a stock Rubicon. Guys who are already in that deep aren’t blinking at another five grand for something this useful.
Image credit: Jeep/American Expedition Vehicles
What it really does is solve one of the Wrangler’s oldest headaches: storage. Even with a roof rack and a trailer, there’s never quite enough room for everything when you’re gone a long time. These MOLLE panels give you secure, weatherproof, lockable space right where you can reach it without climbing on the tire or unfolding a ladder. It’s the kind of smart, purpose-built detail that separates a weekend toy from a rig you can point west and not come back for a month.
A few months back at the Smoky Mountain Jeep Invasion, AEV rolled out the first example and the crowd around it never really thinned out. Guys were running their hands over the panels, popping the covers open and closed, and doing that slow nod that means the credit card is already halfway out of the wallet.
If you’ve been holding off on the full AEV treatment because you weren’t sure it was worth the jump, the Venture Package might be the nudge that sends you over the edge. It takes an already legendary platform and adds the one thing a lot of hard-core overlanders keep complaining is missing: easy, secure places to put all the stuff it takes to stay out there.
In a world full of bolt-on chrome and light bars the size of billboards, it’s refreshing to see a company still solving real problems the way AEV does – quietly, cleanly, and built to last longer than the truck itself.
