Building A Defender 90 Into An Expedition Truck

[Witchdoctor Oz]

The only issue we have had with this setup, the diesel connections in the cab are weeping & it stinks in the cab. Just need to workout how to stop this little problem. Refueling is just so easy.

Cheers
Dave

 

[DiscoDavis]

Dave, I had not thought of the makeshift baffling in the practice golf balls! Did you need to make any consideration to the balls being made of a certain fuel safe material?

 

[Victory_Overland]

Genius!

Another way for the bladders is fuel safe foam; takes up a bit of room just as your golf ball idea but really provides the needed anti-slosh and ensures no collapsing due to fuel pump suction.

As far as diesel goes, when you find a way to make diesel not weep, let us know because after 23+ years in aviation, diesel is like a cockroach and finds it's way through everything no matter how good it's sealed. An option could be to enclose that back area with aluminum panel with seals with exterior vents. My fear is you will never get that diesel scent out of the interior, even though this set up is awesome!

Love this thread!

 

[Witchdoctor Oz]

Dave, I had not thought of the makeshift baffling in the practice golf balls! Did you need to make any consideration to the balls being made of a certain fuel safe material?

The balls are made from a no reactive plastic so no issue. But I still need to put more in as it still sloshes when bladder is under half full.

Cheers
Dave

 

[Witchdoctor Oz]

Im going to pull the diesel bladder out this weekend & do some homework on stopping the weeping. Im hoping by removing it the smell will go.
Ill keep you posted on the outcome.

Cheers
Dave

 

[Witchdoctor Oz]

With the compressor & tank fitted under the drivers seat I needed a location for the outlet & with a 6m hose mounting the only outlet close to the compressor only one was required. The side of the seat box was marked out & then cut out with a grinder. I then made a tray to fit in the hole with enough depth to mount the air outlet & the isolator for the main power feed to the winch. I also have my tyre cord kit stowed in their also. I have no images but I did the same on the other side seat box & I have mounted the in & out bound fusses to the DC2DC charger, the shunt for the duel battery monitor is also mounted beside the fuses.

Cheers
Dave

 

[Witchdoctor Oz]

The duel battery is a 120Ah deep cycle AGM. At the start we had a Redarc old school isolator but charging was hit & miss due to the variable voltage alternator so I purchased an Enerdrive DC2DC 20Ah charger & that worked great until I purchased a Lithium start battery. The reason for the Lithium starter is the weight saving & that is a must with a 90. Well the Lithium created a new problem, out of the blue everything stopped. After speaking to Enerdrive the Lithium can spike & jump the fuses & then you get magic smoke from the charger, they are talking 1000Ah. Well that explains why the charger is not charging but the upside Enerdrive come to the party & replace the 20Ah model with the bigger flasher model at no cost to me. So we now have the DC2DC 40+Ah charger & I have seen 96Ah going into the AGM if only for short periods.
Back to the Lithium, it weighs 4.5Kg compared to the 30Kg of the old starter. Next thing will be a 120Ah Lithium duel (12Kg) to replace the AGM (32Kg).

Cheers
Dave

 

[Victory_Overland]

The balls are made from a no reactive plastic so no issue. But I still need to put more in as it still sloshes when bladder is under half full.

Cheers
Dave

Fuel Safe Foam

 

[Witchdoctor Oz]

I had a request from my wife to improve the lighting on her side of the truck so she could you girl stuff. So I contacted Nugget Stuff & he supplies a Passengers side vanity mirror, I just have to send mine to hime & he sends one back to match my interior with all the good parts attached. The plus to all this effort, my wife loves this addition. I simply fished a wire from the interior light & patched in down side of its switch so there is always power to it as long as the key is on.

Cheers
Dave

 

[Witchdoctor Oz]

With remote travel, keeping power up to that duel battery when camped up for any length of time, is dependent on how you can harness extra power. I was given 3 solar panels for nothing so I set about designing a way of mounting them & also utilising all 3 without taking up all the room an the roof rack. Once again the paper & pencil come in handy before any metal was folded. This 3 panel combo in full sunshine was putting 20Ah's into that duel battery. On our first trip after the install these panels proved invaluable to keeping the battery topped up, we spent less time than normal moving so this setup worked well.

Cheers
Dave

 

[Witchdoctor Oz]

After spending 4 weeks in Tasmania & driving from Queensland to the Apple Isl I soon realised we needed better headlight on our truck. We tried a number of types, HID inserts but there was way to much interference with the radio. Next we tried LED insert in the standard lenses, what an improvement, then I found a supplier of Led sealed beams that are plug & play, fantastic.
The first two images are low then high beam factory headlights.
Next 2 are low & high beam with the LED sealed beams.
Final image is with the high beam & 320W spot lights.

Cheers
Dave

 

[Witchdoctor Oz]

We had been using an iPad for our navigation with Hema mapping installed but found it a right pain in the but just holding it or my wife assisting. I needed a better fixed location, with all the back built out & no chance of ever seeing out the rear vision mirror this look like a great un used spot. I made up a alloy mount that simply screws into the same spot as the rear view mirror then tapped an M10 hole in the block. Picked up some RAM mounts from FleeBay threaded a section of 12mm alloy rod. Loctited all sections together, heat shrink on the rod, looks like a bought one. When not in use the whole setup can be pushed p to the roof lining & out of the way. The screen is low enough so as to not hinder your vision & just high enough to see all the buttons on the dash. I have also installed permanent usb power in the roof lining for the iPad. As a tradie I'm always using the street nav to find the next job. Very simple mob & works a treat for me.

Cheers
Dave

 

[Witchdoctor Oz]

We have used a number of different TMPS systems in the past, but they have always been attached to the valve stem on the inside of the rim. Thats great for protecting them from external damage but not so good with tyre fitters. Every time I got my tyres balanced they would break the first sensor then all was good except for me, I always carried an extra one in the glove box for tyre balance day.
Well this time we would try a valve cap type, I did a lot of reading about this crowd funded model & ordered a set. They only do 4 tyres but they are by far the easiest ones to set up or re set as long as you have the internet. The little black car looking thing retrieves all the data & then sends it to the App on your devise our devise being the iPad. This little unit is also powered by the usb power used by the iPad. You get visual & audible warnings if a problem arrises. Next this to add to this will be their WiFi reversing camera, it will also go through the iPad.

Cheers
Dave

 

[Witchdoctor Oz]

With a double crossing of the Simpson Desert on the travel itinerary we decided that our ground tent was not the best way to go when looking for a spot to camp amongst the spinifex of central Australia. Its much easier to just find a level spot for the truck & camp. The only way to do that is with a roof top tent. As an ex agent for Hannibal RTT we knew you could not leave your bedding in one of their folding tents so that type was ruled out, I do not like fibreglass so that ruled all of Hannibal's models out, in my eyes they make the best RTT. So we started looking at other brands of hard shell RTT's & preferably one that you could have some of the bedding locked in it. Some worked on that front, some did not, others did not open high enough or where way to long for the roof of the 90, I like things to look like they fit the vehicle they are installed on.
If I could not buy something of the shelf that worked for us then I would build my own. Spending loads of time with pencil, paper & tape measure. I finalise the design then sent it all to my CAD guy to work his magic.
The external physical size had to match the 90's roof line & that works fine for us as we are both vertically challenged, what we ended up with was a bed length of 2030mm & width of 1300mm & when opened the highest point is 1750mm so high enough to stand & get changed. We can leave all the bedding in the RTT except the pillows & that is due to the thickness of the canvas & I failed in that department, I did not calculate how much room folded canvas would require.
The floor is made from 1.6mm alloy sheet & folded like roofing iron to give it the strength required, the base body is 2mm alloy sheet, the roof section is also 2mm alloy sheet. All sections are laser cut & folded then TIG welded except the floor, it is polyurethane sealed to the base body. The RTT rack is made from 3mm alloy sheet & counter sunk riveted & bonded to the roof of the RTT.
Once fabrication was complete it needed to look nice & professional so it was painted to match the truck in Galway Green at an automotive paint shop, I did not want problems with the finish.
The roof had to be insulated using 30mm polyurethane foam panel then the LED light track was installed & marine carpet glued to the insulation. We do not get any condensation inside the tent due in part to the insulation but also the top of the canvas has hooded vents to let the heat out, we have also added another thing to assist air flow at the hinge end there is a full section of screen, water cannot get in but when the tent is open you get air flow through the tent.
The floor is also insulated but only in the hollows.

Cheers
Dave

 

[Witchdoctor Oz]

Once I had completed the D seal, Hinges & locks we sent our baby away to a canvas specialist. The colour of the canvas was chosen to make a statement & we think it really works well with the green of the truck & RTT, our camp is very easily found from a distance amongst other campers. One of the biggest, no the biggest issues we noticed with of the shelf hard shell RTT was the canvas or lack of it. Where we live & camp it can be 30-40deg C & be bucketing down with rain & if you cannot have the openings open to keep cool then your expensive RTT is a great waste of coin & this is by far the biggest missed thing in hard shell tents not enough over hang over side openings. Then you come to the main opening another short fall from manufacturers, the awning is now to short to cover the ladder you have to clime in the rain, the water is collected on that square of canvas & runs down right onto you when you are accessing your RTT.
The main access awning would be big enough to cover the ladder foot print so the climber would not get wet before entering the bed area. We also decided to have good
awnings on the sides to allow air flow even in the worst storm.
As we sleep with our heads at the hinge end I wanted air flow at our heads, so the front square has canvas that can be zipped open with fixed screening. The side awning openings have canvas & screen that can be both opened if required as does the main access. The only difference between the openings the side openings roll down & the main opening roles up.
The bow to hold the main awning in shape, when not in use slide into a tube welded into the body of the tent, a mate developed this for his own folding tent. This is shown in the last image.
Once I got the tent back from canvas I test bolted the gutter mount legs to the tent to ensure all fitted then sent them away to be powder coated textured black. The legs have 3 gussets to stop racking of the RTT & to aid removal of the RTT I have holes that a pole goes through, combined with the trusty endless chain makes removal to easy. As you can see the roof of the tent is strong enough to stand on even with point loading there is no rippling.
The other thing I did was have a slot laser cut in the drivers side leg to take the camp table, that just works so good plus the table takes up otherwise un used space. The legs are made from 6mm alloy sheet with the gutter brackets machined also billet with S/S fixings all-round.

Cheers
Dave