[elhigh]

I think you could keep the costs pretty far down by doing your project in coroplast instead of metal. It'll be lighter too, and with a bit of clever construction will be just as rigid - important in your Kansas winds.

SUVs, especially older BOF SUVs like your XJ, are aero-terrible. All the aerodynamic work done to it was to keep the wind out of the driver's eyes at speed and that's all (which is to say, none - that's what the windshield is for). There are LOTS of aero mods you can do to make this thing less of a disaster.

Nice work. Looking forward to seeing where you go with it.

ALSO: can you take off the roof rails at all when you're not overlanding? If you don't need them and removing them won't open holes in the roof, that's worth doing. That's costing you too, and they're actually a surprising source of wind noise right up near your head.

ALSO ALSO: if you can, try to run some longer tanks for your mileage logs. Short fills don't give very accurate results.