LAND ROVER #2

Our second land rover...

When we bought the Land Rover in Harare in Jul 96 it was a white station wagon Defender 110 built in 1987. Now it looks like a very hi-tech expedition vehicle with the colours of our major partners. Inside, the passenger's seat can easily be turned on its swivel base to face back to the rear seat. Here is our new mobile office...

We started with an "empty" Land Rover with no powersteering, no air-conditioning and not even a heating system! We first removed everything inside including the dashboard. We insulated the floor, the sides and the ceiling with foam rubber and rubber. No more dust inside! Then we rebuilt the interior with most of the equipment taken from our first Land Rover but reshaped it to have more living/working space and to accomodate two extra passengers.

One of the biggest jobs was to change the entrance of the tent to be on its smaller side (on our first Land Rover, the tent with its entrance on the longest side had to be swiveled every evening and morning otherwise the tent was to wide for driving). For that reason, we had to dismantle the tent completely, modify the lifting mechanism and rebuild it with a new green canvas. Now the tent has moved 30 cm towards the back and is fixed on the roof rack. No need to turn it anymore... we have the entrance just above the sunroof... anytime!

We reinstalled the 100 l water tank in the middle of the cabin, just behind the extra passenger seat. Thanks to an automatic electric pump, we have a direct output and a drinkable output through a porous resine filter. The fridge is now near the passengers' seat close enough to take a cool drink when cruising the highways!

The 5 solar pannels charge the extra battery through a special regulator for the fridge, the computers and the lights. For cooking, we now rely on the 2 butane tanks fixed aside the rear door and a gasstove fitted aside the sink.

We swopped most of the equipment from our previous Land Rover including :

• the 2.5 TDi engine in replacement of its 2.25 D
• double coil-springs (Peugeot 504 coil inside) and shock absorbers on the rear and reinforced coil-springs and simple shock absorbers on the front
• electric winch WARN M8000 (12 V - 8 T with double cable) with relays in the engine cabin and remote switch plug on the top of the bull-bar
• hi-jack fixed on the top rear of the roof rack just below the tent
• modified central lock system (lock on all doors - open on driver's door - independant switches on the dash board for all doors)
• home-made extended roof rack (160x320 cm) specially adapted for the sunroof, the tent, one spare wheel & one box for camping gear
• rack with 2 jerrycans (2x 20 l diesel) on the side of the sand plates
• metal/wood box (120x120) fixed on the roof-rack
• steel 5 mm plate fixed on front bumber & chassis to protect steering bars
• electric pump for diesel (12 v)
• 4 orientable projectors on each corner (4 x 55 W)
• support for spare wheel on back door
• support for 2 sand-plates on the right side of roofrack
• support for a shovel on the right side of roofrack
• support for GPS antenna GARMIN GPS 45
• soft radio antenna on roofrack
• roof camping tent MAGGIOLINA Family (210 x 165 cm - 75 kg)
• home-made tent entrance waterproof canvas tunnel (100x100x80 cm)
• side waterproof canvas tent (3x3x2 m)
• plastic water tank (75x40x35 cm - 100 l) with filling pipe & tap, level control pipe & output pipe
• automatic water pump FIAMMA Superflow S20 (12 V - 1.5 A - 6 l/min)
• water filter KATADYN HSFK
• 5 solar electric modules SIEMENS M55 (12 v - 53 W)
• solar charge regulator SIEMENS LR16 (12 v - 16 A)
• compressor refrigerator ELECTROLUX RB2265 (12 v or 110/220 AC - 7 A - 75 l)
• 2 folding chairs LAFUMA
• folding table

We renewed the following :

• 6 tyres BF Goodrich All Terrain 31x10.50R15LT
• 6 shock absorbers Old Man Emu
• 2 batteries (12 v - 120 Ah)
• 2 head lights KPC (2x 130 W - halogen)
• integrated alarm system Sherlock with remote and central lock
• strong home-made bull-bar with light protection grill
• air filter with cyclone CIKLON
• swivel base for the passenger seat
• bracket for 2 Cadac gas cylinders fixed aside the rear door
• inox sink with mixer (filtered and non-filtered water)
• 2-burner gas stove attached to the sink

We redesigned the cabin according to the 4-door concept instead of the 2-door of the previous Land Rover and fitted the following accessories :

• pair of seats Recaro fixed on a quick release support to access the battery & tools
• autoradio/tape AUTOSOUND A640 received from Krautli
• 4 home-made 2-way loadspeakers JBL (4 x 60 W)
• home-made sliding brown plexiglass sunroof (100 x 100 cm)
• electric fan for fresh air (our airco system!)
• set of VDO instruments & gauges (engine & gear-box oil thermometer, engine oil barometer, amperemeter, voltmeter, odometer)
• indoor/outdoor electronic thermometer
• 2 electric plugs for recharging computers (12 v)
• fire extinguishers (2 x 1 kg)
• navigation compas RITCHIE PowerDamp (¯ 10 cm)
• portable global positioning system GARMIN GPS 45
• converter (12 v DC -> 110/220 v AC / 600 W) COMPOWER
• universal Ni-Cd battery charger (12 v DC)
• relay switch to charge the second battery by the alternator
• inside isolation with 1 cm thick polypropylene foam + 4 mm thick rubber floor
• TL lights inside

Our toolbox and spare parts are the same as for the previous expedition vehicle.

We still have no aircon!