Land Rover Ideas for Grenadiers

[jscherb]

I recently read a book about the history of Land Rover, it's entitled Land Rover: Workhorse of the World.

In it is a mention of a booklet published by Land Rover entitled A Guide to Land Rover Expeditions, which says "over the years they had built up so much know-how on the art and craft of of crossing unknown territory that they were able to publish a useful little book...". I searched and found a PDF copy, and it is indeed useful: https://www.roverhaul.com/pdf/a_guide_to_land-rover_expeditions.pdf. It's worth downloading and printing a copy (it's only 24 pages), there are many useful Land Rover Ideas for expeditions in there. The cover and introduction:

 

[jscherb]

Carrying one of these seems like a good idea to deal with fallen branches across trails or to make firewood, especially since it's small and inexpensive:

I was in the local Sportsman's Warehouse and they've got a good selection:

 

[jscherb]

Many Defenders and Series Land Rovers have the spare on the hood, which leaves room on the tailgate for mounting other things.

I can understand carrying 4 jerry cans for an African safari perhaps, but the one above has California plates so these jerry cans must be fashion accessories - I can't think of anywhere they could possibly go in the U.S. where that much extra fuel could be required so the cans must be a California fashion accessory .

 

[jscherb]

In a "Get set for summer" issue one of the magazines did a story covering the pros and cons of the many different ways to camp...

I'll just pick out two things I found interesting. First, this piece about camping inside the vehicle. It's a common thing to do but for people of my height it's a bit cramped in a Grenadier. What they did in the front seats is interesting. They've got a small butane stove set up on the center console between the seats, and a removable table that hangs on the dash. I could see using the table - during the Covid pandemic every time I ate drive-through fast food because inside dining was close I wished I had something like this. As for the stove, I don't think I'd do that inside a vehicle.

One thing I would like to have for future camping trips is a hammock. Not for sleeping as they write about in this piece, but for relaxing (and maybe a nap). It doesn't show clearly in the photos, but it appears they've hung one end of the hammock on the bottom of the a-pillar. Of course you'd have to park close enough to a tree or something for the other end of the hammock, but a setup like this wouldn't take up much storage space in the Grenadier - hammocks roll up pretty small.

 

[jscherb]

Been there, done that (In the Jeep, not yet in the Grenadier)bb. Imogene Pass

From an article about a U.S. Land Rover club adventure in Colorado... Tomboy Road leaves the east side of Telluride, ascends to the ghost town of Tomboy and after a 4,350 foot elevation gain arrives at the 13,114 foot summit of Imogene Pass. On the way up, check out the height of the snow against the orange Disco at the back:

At the summit:

Also at the summit:

On the way out of Telluride, part of the way up to the Imogene summit is Social Tunnel:

And in Yankee Boy Basin on the other side of the Imogene summit towards Ouray is this "half tunnel" carved out of the mountain to allow the shelf road to continue, this photo is from the magazine:

And this one isn't from the magazine:

A little history...

This map shows the reason for the pass route... by road, it's about 50 miles from Ouray to Telluride. Overland, it's maybe 10 miles. At the speeds you'd be traveling on the trail today it's easily an hour or more, but back in the days when horsepower was provided by actual horses, the long way around would have taken far longer than the pass route.

In 1891 the Rio Grande Southern Railroad reached Telluride via roughly the same route the road takes today, but before then it was animal power either the long way around or over the pass to Ouray.

Map by Dell a. McCoy, 1990 - The RGS Story, Vol. 1-12, 1990, Sundance Publications, Ltd., Denver, Colorado., <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0" title="Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=92958899">Link</a>

I had planned a Colorado off-road trip in the Grenadier this August but had to cancel due to treatment for a foot injury. I have to do it next year, it's too late in the season now.

 

[wilbo2402]

I did that route as a kid with my parents to access Mt Sneffles in our Isuzu trooper. Memories!

 

[jscherb]

From one of the magazines: a solution for charging a wireless-chargeable phone on the road:

That will charge the phone, but while it's charging the phone will be useless because it's in the pocket and the screen isn't visible. Doesn't seem like a good solution to me.

Here's what I did.

I found a wireless charge cradle at Walmart. I didn't like the way it mounted because it was designed to clip into HVAC vent slats so I took the suction cup parts from a cradle I used with my old phone and adapted the wireless charge cradle to it. On the lower part of the dash to the left of the steering wheel I mounted a marine dual USB outlet and voltmeter. The outlet is close enough so a 12" USB cord is all that's necessary to connect to the cradle.





There's plenty of room behind the lower dash panel for things like this outlet to be installed. The outlet is connected to the INT1 wiring and my phone holder is a wireless charger so all I have to do is slip my phone in the holder and charging happens (when INT1 is switched on of course).

This thread on the INEOS Grenadier forum explains how to access the INT1 wiring: https://www.theineosforum.com/.../removal-of-side-panels.../ .

After the access to the wiring described in that thread, there are two panels below the dash, a narrow one at the bottom which gets removed first with 3 Torx screws and some clips to pop out, then the one I mounted the outlet in; that one has 4 Torx screws and some clips. Then connect from the INT1 wires found behind the kick panel to whatever USB outlet you install in the dash panel.

If you look closely at the photo above showing my phone and GPS on the dash, you might have noticed that they're mounted in an L-Track on the dash. I replaced the shallow tray on the dash with an L-Track, details are here: https://forum.expeditionportal.com/threads/outfitting-my-grenadier-trialmaster.247640/post-3213932

 

[jscherb]

LandieTent

This is an interesting tent design - it attaches to the roof rack similar to an awning but instead of deploying horizontally like an awning, it deploys at an angle to form a tent:

An ad for the tent:

Another unusual design from the same company. Seems a little large even for a large Land Rover barn door.

 

[jscherb]

It's hard to tell from the photo but I think the container on the rack of this Defender might be a water tank. The article doesn't say what it is.

But it made me think - there are many sizes and shapes of water tanks available in the RV and marine market. Within reasonable weight limits, one of these tanks on a roof rack might be a good place to store water for cooking, showers, etc. One source: https://www.tank-mart.com/rv-marine-tanks/rv-water-tanks/

 

[jscherb]

Once you put a roof top tent on most roof racks, there's not much room left in the rack for other cargo. How about mounting the tent over the windshield on a rack extension? That leaves lots of cargo room on the rack:

 

[jscherb]

Another idea for RTT mounting - roof rack chop

The rack basket on this Land Rover has been chopped in the back so the roof top tent can be mounted on the bottom bars of the rack rather than on top of the basket rails. Nice way to reduce the overall height of the vehicle.

On the other hand, the space under the tent can be useful - I mount my sand ladders there; they slide out of the side of the rack when I need them.

 

[jscherb]

I posted this photo yesterday. Notice the "mains hook-up" outlet on the outside of the body.

Because of the design work I've done for a company in the RV industry, I subscribe to a RV industry email newsletter. Often there are new product stories in the newsletter that can easily apply to overlanding vehicles as well as RV's. The other day the newsletter featured a new series of exterior electrical connection products...





I don't know that I have a need for these in my Grenadier project, but they look very useful and an external outlet was a Land Rover idea in the photo above, so I'm posting them here. For example, for those with the factory inverter in their Grenadier (or an aftermarket inverter installed), the AC outlet installed on the outside of the vehicle could be useful at the campsite. The company: https://www.scanstrut.com/rv/inlet-outlet/ventura-series

The offer several outlets intended for solar connections; when I implemented solar in my Jeeps years ago I used SAE connectors and when I transferred the solar components to the Grenadier I continued using SAE connectors and added an SAE connector to one of the rooftop power connection locations:



That was a fairly easy add and the new outlet probably wouldn't be better for my solar installation than what I did, but I still can imagine uses for some of the other outlet types in the story.

 

[jscherb]

Nets like the ones above in a range of sizes can be found in eBay. I've got a few small ones here so I did some "what if" photos in the Grenadier...



Another type of net:

Nets like that can often be found in the back of an SUV or minivan; I found many in vehicles in a U-Pull junkyard . These are a few I've picked up there while looking for other parts:

Might hang one like those above from the tie-down points in the side walls of the Grenadier's cargo area, or perhaps across the ceiling from the bolt points there. I hung this one on the headrest posts on the rear seat. It's not a very good fit and I probably could find one that's a nicer fit but this is one I had on hand from a previous trip to the U-Pull junkyard so I tried it to see if it might fit.

 

[jscherb]

From an article about a Discovery2 outfitted for overlanding/camping... check out her shelving/storage setup:

One thing she has that you don't see too often is a 10-liter NATO can for spare fuel:

I don't know why we don't see more of the smaller 10-liter and even 5-liter NATO cans in use in the U.S. Five gallons/20 liters is a lot of fuel (and a lot of weight) to carry around.

Sometimes I carry a 5-liter NATO can so I can have a bit of spare fuel just in case.

I built a mount for the 5-liter that has the same bolt pattern as a Rotopax mount so it can install pretty much anywhere a Rotopax can.

 

[jscherb]

A large Bonnet Bag...

Could be done on a Grenadier but I doubt many people would want one.

This next one seems like it could be useful, and if you really wanted to you could strap it to the hood?