Here's a pic of my Jeep when I took my nephew on a 3 day hunt. Inside the XJ was my 33" spare (standing up using the carrier bracket) and the rest of the rig was loaded to the gills with tent, buddy heater, big cooler pulling double duty as a chuck box, packs, rifles, chairs, stove, axes, shovel, propane tank and 5 gallon water jug. On the roof is a roof bag with cots, sleeping pad, sleeping bag and misc stuff, bungeed to that is a dry bag with warm bulky clothes. On the back, I used a hitch extender (glad I did since my hi-lift jack is bolted to the bumper and ended up needing it to change a tire) where I attached my cargo rack. On the cargo rack is 5 gallons of gas, smallish Coleman Xtreme cooler for food needing to be stored cold and a chainsaw. The white cooler in between them held some beer and came with in case we got an animal.
My dilemma is I'd like to upgrade the rear bumper to something like the Smittybilt XRC bumper with spare tire carrier to get the spare out of the back. But, I don't believe I would be able to use my cargo basket if I have the spare on the back. Does anyone have this bumper setup on their XJ? If so, how do you like it? I'm open to other ideas as well.