Toy-Roverlander
Adventurer
Hello everyone,
I'm in a bit of a conundrum. 5 years ago I converted my 4door 109 to a 4door softtop (albeit the second row doors are of not much use) and fitted a roll bar for safety.
It's a heck of a lot of fun driving it around topless or with a bikinitop. Too bad the weather here doesn't give me much opportunity to enjoy it often in such way. The rollbar takes up quite a bit of usefull interior space too.
Even though I love it being a softtop, it does have a few disavdantages. First of all, the noise. Sure, they're not the quietest vehicles to begin with but a mate's 109 stationwagon (technical identical to mine, engine driveline etcetera) is much more quite than mine. It leaks water in... also, not unusual for a rover but not that great.
Security is ofcourse non existant.
This is what it looks like with the bikinitop on
Now, what I would like to do is travelling. I've been on roadtrips before and it was great. Except when the weather is crap and you're using a little ground tent and there's nowhere to hide from wind and rain.
I was looking at 4door defenders converted to a flip up roof, which looked fantastic. It has some advantages like a fixed bed, and a raised section of roof where an awning can be fixed to (foxwing would be nice, with the sideflaps). That way the bed is easily set up, cooking and dining can be done outside, underneath the awning when it rains.
BUT, I would need to convert it back to a stationwagon to do this. What I'm looking for is a way to keep it a softtop and have an somewhat easy solution for sleeping and under cover cooking and dining in case it rains. That's a challenge. I don't like ground tents nor rtt's. So I was kinda hoping someone here has seen something, or knows of something that could be possible.
I really llike the idea of a flip up roof and all, but then I see pictures of open top trucks travelling back country and that really, really appeals to me too....
I'm now sort of thinking about a hard shell rtt fitted to a frame of some sort that's bolted to the hoodsticks, which obviously need a bunch of reinforcement to handle the weight.
I'm in a bit of a conundrum. 5 years ago I converted my 4door 109 to a 4door softtop (albeit the second row doors are of not much use) and fitted a roll bar for safety.
It's a heck of a lot of fun driving it around topless or with a bikinitop. Too bad the weather here doesn't give me much opportunity to enjoy it often in such way. The rollbar takes up quite a bit of usefull interior space too.
Even though I love it being a softtop, it does have a few disavdantages. First of all, the noise. Sure, they're not the quietest vehicles to begin with but a mate's 109 stationwagon (technical identical to mine, engine driveline etcetera) is much more quite than mine. It leaks water in... also, not unusual for a rover but not that great.
Security is ofcourse non existant.
This is what it looks like with the bikinitop on
Now, what I would like to do is travelling. I've been on roadtrips before and it was great. Except when the weather is crap and you're using a little ground tent and there's nowhere to hide from wind and rain.
I was looking at 4door defenders converted to a flip up roof, which looked fantastic. It has some advantages like a fixed bed, and a raised section of roof where an awning can be fixed to (foxwing would be nice, with the sideflaps). That way the bed is easily set up, cooking and dining can be done outside, underneath the awning when it rains.
BUT, I would need to convert it back to a stationwagon to do this. What I'm looking for is a way to keep it a softtop and have an somewhat easy solution for sleeping and under cover cooking and dining in case it rains. That's a challenge. I don't like ground tents nor rtt's. So I was kinda hoping someone here has seen something, or knows of something that could be possible.
I really llike the idea of a flip up roof and all, but then I see pictures of open top trucks travelling back country and that really, really appeals to me too....
I'm now sort of thinking about a hard shell rtt fitted to a frame of some sort that's bolted to the hoodsticks, which obviously need a bunch of reinforcement to handle the weight.
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