jscherb
Expedition Leader
My pleasure. Many more ideas to come.
Land Rover Ideas for Grenadiers
- Thread starter jscherb
- Start date
jscherb
Expedition Leader
Places to carry a second spare? For some expeditions, I like to carry a second spare tire. For example, when I did the Dalton Highway up to the Deadhorse on the Arctic Ocean, I carried an extra because word is that there's lots of metal junk along the 250 mile unpaved stretch from Coldfoot Camp to Deadhorse. I did get a bolt through one of the tires, but it held air until I got back to Fairbanks and I changed it there. This photo was taken atop Atigun Pass on the Dalton Highway, it's July and it's snowing. I've got an extra spare on the roof rack and also jerry cans on either side of the Jeep because there's only one fuel stop in the 500 miles from Fairbanks to Deadhorse:
On some British military "Wolf" model Defenders, the spare is mounted on the side of the hardtop. Not sure if this makes sense for a Grenadier.
A more common place to mount a spare on a Land Rover is on the bonnet:
The Camel Trophy Defenders, part of the most difficult offroad challenge in the world, were fitted with 7.50x16 Michelin ZXL tires. There were two spares, one on the rear door and one on the bonnet. These are significantly narrower than the tires on the Grenadier:
Not sure that's a good idea either - the Grenadier hood is higher than the Defender hood and the tires are wider than many Defender tires, so it migh obstruct vision too much. And I wonder if the Grenadier hood is reinforced enough to hold a heavy spare. Land Rover hoods for carrying spares have a recess the tire sits in, and their reinforced underneath.
Another Land Rover option; I haven't seen one of these for the Grenadier yet...
Another dual spare carrier, this time on a Discovery that probably is traveling far from the nearest place to get a tire fixed.
On some British military "Wolf" model Defenders, the spare is mounted on the side of the hardtop. Not sure if this makes sense for a Grenadier.
A more common place to mount a spare on a Land Rover is on the bonnet:
The Camel Trophy Defenders, part of the most difficult offroad challenge in the world, were fitted with 7.50x16 Michelin ZXL tires. There were two spares, one on the rear door and one on the bonnet. These are significantly narrower than the tires on the Grenadier:
Not sure that's a good idea either - the Grenadier hood is higher than the Defender hood and the tires are wider than many Defender tires, so it migh obstruct vision too much. And I wonder if the Grenadier hood is reinforced enough to hold a heavy spare. Land Rover hoods for carrying spares have a recess the tire sits in, and their reinforced underneath.
Another Land Rover option; I haven't seen one of these for the Grenadier yet...
Another dual spare carrier, this time on a Discovery that probably is traveling far from the nearest place to get a tire fixed.
jscherb
Expedition Leader
Mounting solar panels on the roof is fairly common, here's one that looks like a flexible panel:
The solar panel on this series Land Rover is mounted under the front of the roof rack and slides out for use:
I liked that idea so I implemented a slide-out solar panel for my roof rack...
Deployed:
Stowed:
It works very well. The Grenadier reports that my battery is now usually in the high 90% state of charge, and in the wild, the solar panel keeps up with the demand of the kitchen/fridge.
The solar panel on this series Land Rover is mounted under the front of the roof rack and slides out for use:
I liked that idea so I implemented a slide-out solar panel for my roof rack...
Deployed:
Stowed:
It works very well. The Grenadier reports that my battery is now usually in the high 90% state of charge, and in the wild, the solar panel keeps up with the demand of the kitchen/fridge.
jscherb
Expedition Leader
A project I did that was inspired by this small piece in a Land Rover magazine:
Seeing that in the magazine inspired me to sew my own, I made a two but only one is hanging from the edge of the tent in this photo:
At first I used "awning rope" to hang them. Awning rope is a rubber extrusion that has a bulb that slides into a channel and a flat edge that can be sewed.
There's a channel on the bottom edge of my RTT (and many other RTTs) which accepts the awning rope:
Later I made a changing room that hangs below the tent and to hang it I used awning rope to attach it to the tent base. Since that meant that the awning rope channel was no longer available to hang the shoe bags I changed the bag mounting to snaps. In these photos the tent is off the Jeep and standing against the wall of the garage but you can see how the snaps are implemented.
I know this isn't specifically a Land Rover idea because these are generically for roof top tents and are available in the U.S., but I was inspired by the photo in the Land Rover magazine to make mine. Anyway I thought some might find the two methods for hanging the caddies useful so that's why I posted this.In the one of the photos above you can also see a grommet in the top edge of the shoe caddy, it's there because the tent awning support rod goes into a hole in the edge rail of the tent platform there.
Seeing that in the magazine inspired me to sew my own, I made a two but only one is hanging from the edge of the tent in this photo:
At first I used "awning rope" to hang them. Awning rope is a rubber extrusion that has a bulb that slides into a channel and a flat edge that can be sewed.
There's a channel on the bottom edge of my RTT (and many other RTTs) which accepts the awning rope:
Later I made a changing room that hangs below the tent and to hang it I used awning rope to attach it to the tent base. Since that meant that the awning rope channel was no longer available to hang the shoe bags I changed the bag mounting to snaps. In these photos the tent is off the Jeep and standing against the wall of the garage but you can see how the snaps are implemented.
I know this isn't specifically a Land Rover idea because these are generically for roof top tents and are available in the U.S., but I was inspired by the photo in the Land Rover magazine to make mine. Anyway I thought some might find the two methods for hanging the caddies useful so that's why I posted this.In the one of the photos above you can also see a grommet in the top edge of the shoe caddy, it's there because the tent awning support rod goes into a hole in the edge rail of the tent platform there.
texasnielsen
Outdoorsman
Room for two more that would slide out from the sides of the rack also? Perhaps slide to either port or starboard, depending on which way the camp is set up, shade, etc.?Mounting solar panels on the roof is fairly common, here's one that looks like a flexible panel:
The solar panel on this series Land Rover is mounted under the front of the roof rack and slides out for use:
I liked that idea so I implemented a slide-out solar panel for my roof rack...
Deployed:
View attachment 890033
View attachment 890034View attachment 890035
Stowed:
View attachment 890036
It works very well. The Grenadier reports that my battery is now usually in the high 90% state of charge, and in the wild, the solar panel keeps up with the demand of the kitchen/fridge.
jscherb
Expedition Leader
Yes I could add more panels to slide out from the sides but I've been using this same solar panel for years on the Jeeps and it keeps up with campsite demand (fridge, kitchen power, etc.) in almost all sun situations so my experience says another panel isn't necessary. Also I've installed a more efficient solar controller in the Grenadier than I have in the Jeeps so performance is even better in the Grenadier than it is in the Jeeps.
About the need to catch the sun, I designed the slides so the panel can be removed by turning two retainers and sliding the panel all the way out; the panel has ground legs and I carry an extension cord for the solar connection so if the sun isn't optimal hitting the panel up top I can put it on the ground and aim it directly at the sun at some distance from the vehicle if necessary.
And my Grenadier has the factory dual battery option and with that option the auxiliary battery only serves as a backup to the main battery, power is only drawn from it if the main battery is low, so even if the panel didn't keep up with the campsite demand there wouldn't be any problem starting the engine because the auxiliary battery will help if the main battery is low.
A little more info on the solar configuration... the panel is a 100w rated panel from Harbor Freight that I paid about $80 for on sale. It's gone up since then but it's still a good value and can be bought for about $120. It's capable of putting out 23+ volts at 6+ amps in full sun. I use a Victron solar controller which is very efficient; I chose that for several reasons over the CTEK that would have been a direct plug-in to the factory CTEK dual battery controller - 1, CTEK documentation (and I checked this with their support staff) can't support a panel that outputs over 22 volts, 2. It's way less expensive ($60) than the CTEK ($400+), and 3 it has Bluetooth support so I can monitor the performance of the solar panel, the charge current to the battery and the battery condition on my phone.
jscherb
Expedition Leader
This post is a bit off topic and isn't really a "Land Rover Idea for a Grenadier" but it did come from the UK Land Rover magazines and it's more like a "Land Rover Idea for a Trip".
Expeditions... in every issue of the magazines there are articles on expeditions somewhere in the world - many are in Africa, many in Europe, Australia, Asia/South Asia and often in the US. Here's one about Nepal. Land Rovers are used for jungle safaris in Chitwan National Park...
From the article:
We were in Nepal a couple of years ago and Chitwan was part of our road trip but we chose a more primitve form of transport to go into the jungle. The elephants can go places the Land Rovers and Mahindras can't, such as crossing the river in the photo below, which was too deep for a Land Rover and had steep muddy and slippery river edges but it was an easy stroll for the elephant.
We did see a white rhino close up:
Didn't see any tigers on this Nepal adventure, they're fairly rare in Chitwan but we've seen wild tigers, leopards and elephants in the Indian jungle. In the Indian jungle we've used elephants, Mahindras and Maruti Gypsies (a.k.a. long wheelbase Suzuki Samarai) but no Land Rovers.
I'll be posting more expedition articles from the magazines, most of which will detail trips you can take in the USA.
Expeditions... in every issue of the magazines there are articles on expeditions somewhere in the world - many are in Africa, many in Europe, Australia, Asia/South Asia and often in the US. Here's one about Nepal. Land Rovers are used for jungle safaris in Chitwan National Park...
From the article:
We were in Nepal a couple of years ago and Chitwan was part of our road trip but we chose a more primitve form of transport to go into the jungle. The elephants can go places the Land Rovers and Mahindras can't, such as crossing the river in the photo below, which was too deep for a Land Rover and had steep muddy and slippery river edges but it was an easy stroll for the elephant.
We did see a white rhino close up:
Didn't see any tigers on this Nepal adventure, they're fairly rare in Chitwan but we've seen wild tigers, leopards and elephants in the Indian jungle. In the Indian jungle we've used elephants, Mahindras and Maruti Gypsies (a.k.a. long wheelbase Suzuki Samarai) but no Land Rovers.
I'll be posting more expedition articles from the magazines, most of which will detail trips you can take in the USA.
jscherb
Expedition Leader
A project I did that was inspired by this small piece in a Land Rover magazine:
Seeing that in the magazine inspired me to sew my own, I made a two but only one is hanging from the edge of the tent in this photo:
At first I used "awning rope" to hang them. Awning rope is a rubber extrusion that has a bulb that slides into a channel and a flat edge that can be sewed.
There's a channel on the bottom edge of my RTT (and many other RTTs) which accepts the awning rope:
Later I made a changing room that hangs below the tent and to hang it I used awning rope to attach it to the tent base. Since that meant that the awning rope channel was no longer available to hang the shoe bags I changed the bag mounting to snaps. In these photos the tent is off the Jeep and standing against the wall of the garage but you can see how the snaps are implemented.
I know this isn't specifically a Land Rover idea because these are generically for roof top tents and are available in the U.S., but I was inspired by the photo in the Land Rover magazine to make mine. Anyway I thought some might find the two methods for hanging the caddies useful so that's why I posted this.In the one of the photos above you can also see a grommet in the top edge of the shoe caddy, it's there because the tent awning support rod goes into a hole in the edge rail of the tent platform there.
Seeing that in the magazine inspired me to sew my own, I made a two but only one is hanging from the edge of the tent in this photo:
At first I used "awning rope" to hang them. Awning rope is a rubber extrusion that has a bulb that slides into a channel and a flat edge that can be sewed.
There's a channel on the bottom edge of my RTT (and many other RTTs) which accepts the awning rope:
Later I made a changing room that hangs below the tent and to hang it I used awning rope to attach it to the tent base. Since that meant that the awning rope channel was no longer available to hang the shoe bags I changed the bag mounting to snaps. In these photos the tent is off the Jeep and standing against the wall of the garage but you can see how the snaps are implemented.
I know this isn't specifically a Land Rover idea because these are generically for roof top tents and are available in the U.S., but I was inspired by the photo in the Land Rover magazine to make mine. Anyway I thought some might find the two methods for hanging the caddies useful so that's why I posted this.In the one of the photos above you can also see a grommet in the top edge of the shoe caddy, it's there because the tent awning support rod goes into a hole in the edge rail of the tent platform there.