Land Rover ideas for Jeeps

[jscherb]

Colemans.com is a good place to get military surplus NATO cans; they also sell brand-new Wavian NATO cans: https://colemans.com/nato-military-jerry-can

The blue 5 liter can on the spare in the photo in my earlier post was given to me by Wavian. I dropped by their booth at the SEMA Show a few years ago and they were displaying all their cans and their can holders but no holder/mount for the 5 liter size. I introduced myself and told them I would provide them with a design for a 5 liter can holder but I would need a can to work with, so they gave me the blue one. I did a design and sent them photos of a prototype I built and the engineering drawings for it, I don't know if they ever did anything with it.

One feature of the design is that it has a Rotopax bolt pattern so it can bolt up to any place that has that common bolt pattern. In the photo below there's a military surplus 5 liter can mounted on the side of the MORryde Overland Rack on my tailgate, the rack has Rotopax mount holes on bolt sides so I just bolted it on.

If you're wondering why there's so much stuff on the Jeep (more than I might carry on an expedition), MORryde is borrowing the Jeep for a show so there are lots of their products installed.

 

[jscherb]

The "Air Down" patches I mentioned two weeks ago arrived today. I took a few out of the package for myself and I'm turning the rest over to the company that'll be selling them. As soon as the company is ready to take orders I'll post a link. Here are a few...

These patches are 2" wide and 3" high. They have a Velcro hook backing so they'll stick to any velcro loop surface, and they come with a matching piece of velcro hook in case you need to sew that onto something (the loop piece is offset on one patch in the photo).

Again, for the record: Other than the few patches I'll take out of the shipment for myself I will receive none of the proceeds and no compensation from the sale of these patches.

I put one on the compressor bag I just finished designing/sewing:

I posted details about the bag here in case anyone's interested: https://expeditionportal.com/forum/...factory-hardtops.127687/page-303#post-2865333

 

[jscherb]

The other day I posted this tent:

I liked it because it could provide access between the tent and the Jeep out of the weather. I was in Walmart yesterday and saw this:

The Walmart tent doesn't come with a canopy to bridge between the Jeep and the tent, but it wouldn't take much work to make an awning for the tent that could bridge the distance between the tent and the Jeep and have the whole setup (tent and awning) be under $75 (the tent in the Land Rover magazine was 850 GBP, it's probably better quality than the Walmart one, but for less than 10% of the price maybe the Walmart one would be ok.

One detail I didn't point out the other day about the tent in the magazine - look at how there's a flap at the outer edge of the awning that appears to connect to the Land Rover's roof rack. Nice touch to keep weather out of between the tent and the vehicle. Easy feature to add to a DIY version.

 

[rnArmy]

Slumberjack also sells something similar that connects the tent to your vehicle (like the Campfire tent above):

Slumber Shack 4 Person Tent | Slumberjack

 

[jscherb]

The "Air Down" patches I mentioned two weeks ago arrived today. I took a few out of the package for myself and I'm turning the rest over to the company that'll be selling them. As soon as the company is ready to take orders I'll post a link. Here are a few...

These patches are 2" wide and 3" high. They have a Velcro hook backing so they'll stick to any velcro loop surface, and they come with a matching piece of velcro hook in case you need to sew that onto something (the loop piece is offset on one patch in the photo).

Again, for the record: Other than the few patches I'll take out of the shipment for myself I will receive none of the proceeds and no compensation from the sale of these patches.

I put one on the compressor bag I just finished designing/sewing:

I posted details about the bag here in case anyone's interested: https://expeditionportal.com/forum/...factory-hardtops.127687/page-303#post-2865333

The "Keep Calm and Air Down" patches are now available on the Overland Outfitters website: https://www.overland-outfitters.com/store/p42/Keep_Calm_and_Air_Down_patch.html#/

I ordered only a small quantity so if anyone wants a patch they should order quickly, I don't know if the company will make them a regular product or if selling this batch will be a one-time favor they're doing for me.

For the record: I will receive none of the proceeds and no compensation from the sale of these patches. The company will reimburse me for the expense of having these patches made and they will keep all of the proceeds from any sales.

 

[JoyRider]

I use foldable steps to access my rack but they don't require a rigid wall of backing plates. Instead of drilling holes and bolting them to the body and the hardtop, I bolt them to the door hinges. I find these more than adequate to gain height for accessing the rack and deploying the tent. The steps flip down for use and lay flat against the door when not in use. I only have them mounted to the lower door hinges because that gives me the height I need, but I could put them on the upper hinges as well if I needed more height.

They're not very large, but large enough to be usable/comfortable in flimsy flip-flops.

They also can mount on my tailgate hinges but I rarely do that because to climb all the way onto the rack I can step on the bumper and on top of the spare as I mentioned in my last post.

Because I have the MORryde HD door hings on my JKU, these hinges install/uninstall in a minute without the need to loosen the door hinge bolts, so I install them when I need them for an expedition and remove them when I get home even if the expedition is just a short trip to Home Depot to load some building supplies on the rack.

There are other steps on the market, all of which I think mount to two hinges rather than just mounting to a single hinge like the ones above. Also, when mounted to the rear door, if the rear door is open the other on the market interfere with opening the front door when the step is down.

I just spent all day trying to figure out how to mount those steps to my jeep... Which ones do you have that mount on the hinge, if you don't mind me asking? I have the ursa minor top and am trying to find a way to get up there from outside, so a step on the tailgate hinge would be great!

 

[JoyRider]

(above) Below the side window I added the stainless steel handicap grab bar... I use that for easy access to the roof rack without climbing on top... To get to the bar, the lower fold-down step is used to get to the bar height... The mounting flanges are backed with a 1/4" aluminum plate on the inside... The rear cabin is 1/2" balsa core/ glassed with 1/8 glass and resin inside and out... Solid... The 8" deep plywood rear door overhang (glassed and painted) serves as a minor rain cover for the door and a nice solid place to stand up there... In a pinch, I can tip toe along the top of the awning covers (2 sides)...

Great thread, keep 'em coming... Thanks...!!!...

Hey, Paul, I have been trying to come up with a way to access my Ursa Minor top from outside and thought about installing a grab bar like yours. I was going to attach it to the quarter panel with a backing plate behind each end. I'm worried about the panel being strong enough to hold my weight without causing any stress damage to the quarter panel. Do you have any advice for me? What is your grab bar screwed into? Thanks for your help!

 

[jscherb]

I just spent all day trying to figure out how to mount those steps to my jeep... Which ones do you have that mount on the hinge, if you don't mind me asking? I have the ursa minor top and am trying to find a way to get up there from outside, so a step on the tailgate hinge would be great!

The steps are available from Retrofit Offroad: https://www.retrofitoffroad.com/sho...ryde-jeep-jk-door-hinges/jk-door-hinge-steps/. They require the MORryde HD door hinges, which are also available from Retrofit.

 

[JoyRider]

Ah! Thank you! Those are very cool. Unfortunately I've got a JL so the search continues.

 

[jscherb]

Been there, done that part 9

In the first post in this thread I posted about a Land Rover trip up the Continental Divide from Panama to Canada, I'll post a few photos from that series here as well as some of my own and having returned to the very first post of this thread maybe this is a good place to end the thread.

Their expedition crossed Hagerman Pass; this photo is captioned as being on the ascent to Hagerman Pass, but I'm pretty sure the pass is in the White River National Forest, not the San Isabel National Forest as captioned, the San Isabel being maybe 50 miles to the southeast of Hagerman.

Hagerman is a scenic way to get from Leadville to Aspen, I crossed the pass in late July one year and there was still about 5 feet of snow beside the trail.

A photo from the magazine near the top of Tincup Pass:

Tincup pass is on a trail from the ghost town of St. Elmo to the still active town of Tincup; I believe the photo they took is near the top where there's a bit of slickrock. One year I crossed the pass in the rain...

Another time in nicer weather:

Beautiful Mirror Lake is close to the summit of Tincup Pass.

This this photo from Webster Pass was in one of the Continental Divide articles:

Webster Pass is one way to get from Breckenridge to the high valley of South Park; I've done Webster but don't think I have any photos of it. But the photo they posted reminds me of a trail to the top of Kendall Mountain on the south side of Silverton. At the trail's end there's a great view of Silverton:

I've been to Silverton many times, the first time was about 35 years ago when I drove through in my old Dodge Aspen and stopped to visit my great uncle Alfred. Alfred was a mining engineer and spent most of his life as a miner in Silverton. He died not long after I visited, but I've been back many times since then exploring the area. One year I visited the historical society to see if they knew where his mine was and they were able to give me enough information to find it, it's partway up Kendall Mountain. Somewhere in my files I still have a paper share of Silverton Mining Company stock that he gave me one Christmas when he made a trip back east for the holiday. I also had to search this out in the cemetery there:

One pass they did in the magazine that I planned to do this past August is Rollins Pass, it's the site of an early railroad crossing of the Divide that was later replaced by the Moffat Tunnel.

I had planned to do Rollins east and west (you can't drive through anymore since Needle's Eye tunnel near the summit was closed due to falling rock) just before attending the Overland Mountain Expo, but the event was cancelled due to the virus and I didn't make the trip to Colorado. Rollins Pass is in my plans for the next time I explore Colorado.

 

[Jurfie]

...maybe this is a good place to end the thread.

 

[14JKURX]

What he said.

 

[zgfiredude]

I think not.

 

[PaulJensen]

I used 1/4" x 4x4 aluminum backing plates... The XV-JP rear cabin is 1/2" thick end grain balsa core with slightly less than 1/8" polyester fiberglass inside and out... SOLID...

 

[jscherb]

What he said.

I think not.

I still get both Land Rover magazines every month so as I find things in new issues that I think might be interesting for Jeeps I'll post them but I'm done going through my back issues . Well, maybe if I get caught in a weak moment I'll post more from the back issues, there are a lot of camper conversion ideas in the magazines that I haven't covered here.

I'm thinking of starting a new thread - I've spent a lot of time in India over the past 20 years and I've collected quite a few photos of the various Mahindra jeep models made over there. There's a fascinating range of body styles there that I wish we could have over here. There aren't too many overlanding/mod ideas in those photos, but the jeeps themselves are fascinating. If people think Mahindra means Roxor, that's only a tiny fraction of the interesting models you'll find over there, so if you folks think a thread like that would be interesting (and not too far off-topic for this forum) I'll consider starting a thread to let my many photos see the light of day.