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2004 Land Rover Discovery II Super clean inside and out. Ready for hauling kids to soccer practice -OR- better yet, kitting out as a cherry overland rig. ENGINE: Replaced original (slipped bearing in bottom end) with engine refurbished by County Rove in Portland, Oregon. Here's what they...

Lowly Update: Exterior electrical work completed on the habitat. 3D printed custom mounting caps for attaching perimeter lighting to the T-slot extrusions on the habitat's edges. Mounted them up and ran the wiring - was able to hide the wiring inside the caps for a clean look and no snag...

I'm still here and chipping away at the truck. Had a busy summer season so most of the work was digital in finalizing the interior with all of the components finding their place. Lots of purchases so components could be measured (and digitally modeled) to make sure their placement and...

There are a couple of options that I found for this type of 12V AC. UndermountAC.com was who I eventually chose. They have several setups to chose from and I ended up getting the 12V system that also allows for a hydronic heater loop to be plumbed into the same distribution blower box that the...

Lowly Update: Purchased a 12V air conditioning unit from UndermountAC.com to provide more creature comfort to both the habitat and cab of the truck. The A/C comes in three separate parts that can be mounted in different locations from each other. The compressor pump along with the condenser...

Lowly Update: Lots of work happening but nothing getting "finished". Here's one: When I purchased the Carefree of Colorado awning I had to decide on what mounting brackets to use - there are several options for a roof-top mount. I ended up designing my mounting system using their "flat roof"...

Lowly Update: Diesel tank, gray water tank and under-habitat storage boxes will be mounted to the sub-frame cross bars. An additional set of "cross bars" was needed under the front end of the habitat to handle the loads of full diesel and gray water tanks. Fabricated one of these bars to be...

Lowly Update: Brush guard work commenced. Using geometry from the CAD solid model welding jigs were printed for the brackets that will weld to the 1 1/2" SCH 40 aluminum pipe and bolt to the habitat's integrated t-slot channels. 1/4" aluminum architectural angle was then cut into the pieces...

Lowly Update: Made the annual pilgrimage to Mecca (California, that is) to visit snow-birding kinfolk and soak in some sunshine. On the way back we picked up a van load of Baltic Birch plywood for the lorry's cabinets. "Day late, dollar short" should have been my middle name. Baltic Birch...

Lowly Update: Aluminum corner covers were supplied by RV GlobeTrekker but since I was printing the rear corners for mounting the hoist system I decided to print the front corner covers as well to complete the look. One of the RV Globetrekker gents stopped by the shop over New Years and liked...

Lowly Update: Big shout out to the crew at Rogue Gear Works for being my freight delivery location as I don't have a forklift, let alone semi truck access at my shop. A couple days ago the Carefree of Colorado awning showed up and I managed to get it home on the wagon without it tearing off...

Lowly Update: The 3D printer has been kept busy printing various bits and bobs for the exterior of the habitat. These little carbon fiber+nylon beauties are mounting brackets for the solar panels. They utilize the geometry of the panel's edges along with the t-slot geometry on the habitat's...

Lowly Update: Die springs, grade 8 hardware and 3D printed spacers have been installed between the truck chassis and the habitat subframe. A bit of high school trigonometry and algebra along with some rough estimates on required spring rates resulted in the following 4 assemblies on each side...

Lowly Update: Design, testing and fabrication of components for the rear pivoting spare tire and bicycle frame continues. This will be another 1-off custom job using 3D printed parts. On paper (aka CAD) it should work great; who knows if it will function as well or consistently as I need it...

Lowly Update: Templated, marked, drilled, circle cut, oscillating cut, jigsaw cut and box knife cut out the two rear cargo hatch openings. Went with the biggest size Arctic Tern had to offer and glad I did; we should easily be able to crawl into this storage compartment if the need arises...

Lowly Update: Finally got enough of the goodies between the chassis rails sorted out to install the habitat box on the previously fabricated and installed subframe. After much contemplation of various lifting options, I decided the best approach would be to lift from above using a spreader-bar...

Lowly Update: While fabricating the subframe I included a couple of cross-bars to help keep the winch cable from drooping down into the underlying components and tearing them out. In an effort to keep them from getting scoured by the cable and kicking off another round of cancerous rust I...

Fusion3 410. 12"x12"x14" print volume. Heated bed, hardened nozzles, enclosed print volume. Not rocket science but it has taken me a couple years to figure out how to get the best results from the various materials. You could get a printer as capable as mine for much cheaper but I chose to...

Plastic of various types depending on the application. Anything critical in nature is printed out of a nylon + carbon fiber filament that is remarkably robust. I've even printed replacement rear sway bar shackles out of the stuff (see post #256 & #272) but haven't been able to fully test...

Lowly Update: Turned my attention back to the 5"x3" rectangular tubing end caps on the back of the subframe that also house the tail lights. I'd already 3D printed a test piece awhile back but it was time to cap off this part of the build (pun intended). I also figured it was a good place to...