Land Rover ideas for Jeeps

[jscherb]

Since I posted a photo of my Jeep tub pop-top camp trailer yesterday, maybe I should post a similar Land Rover version today...

Interior views:

With the matching tow vehicle:

 

[Chorky]

I'm curious why you havne't done this already with the tub. Did you find just driving your LJ more preferred on the Alaska trip over towing any sort of trailer, even if matching dimensions?

 

[jscherb]

I'm curious why you havne't done this already with the tub. Did you find just driving your LJ more preferred on the Alaska trip over towing any sort of trailer, even if matching dimensions?

The Alaska trip did not involve camping, we stayed in hotels and in rooms at Coldfoot Camp and Deadhorse on the Dalton Highway, so no need for a trailer or camper. Didn't plan to camp on that trip for multiple reasons, not the least of which was weather in northern Alaska - we went in July expecting snow and weren't disappointed. Also because of the extreme distance of the trip and many long days driving, we didn't want to have to make camp every night and break down in the morning, the trip was much more pleasant staying at hotels. It's snowing in this photo taken at Atigun Pass, if you look closely you can see snowflakes in the photo.

There are some interesting places to stay in northern Alaska, such as Coldfoot camp, which is halfway up the Dalton (250 miles from Fairbanks and 250 miles from Deadhorse):

And even along the way to Alaska, such as Buckshot Betty's in the Yukon Territory just before entering Alaska from Canada:

But when I do camp with the LJ or the JKU, I most often do it with the roof top tent.

 

[krick3tt]

I appreciate headroom as much as many do but the expense of a pop top on my LR, I am not going in that direction. I would have to sacrifice the roof rack and the storage it affords me. I have 26 inches of sleeping space with the shelf system which is a bit more than I had on the carrier when in Viet Nam so it really isn't all that bad, except it is awkward to put on your pants and shoes while reclined.
If I were doing my off road vehicle from scratch I probably would have done it different but I have been using the RV3 and the covered camp cot for awhile except when the weather is really poor. Some of the ideas posted here are really intriguing and would be a great alternative to my current system.

 

[jscherb]

A "Shepherd's Hut" camper?

Definitetly not to my taste, but wooden structures like this on old pickups are not uncommon here in Appalachia.

What if...

 

[ITTOG]

I haven't made anything as simple as a box before, but the military trailer lid I made is basically a box so I'll show the steps for that project. The steps for making a box are pretty much the same.

I started by making a mold master out of MDF:

I use MDF often for this because it's perfectly flat and smooth, cuts easily, takes a finish nicely and it's not expensive.

Then I put a nice finish on it. Whatever finish (and flaws) are on the surface will be faithfully reproduced in the mold and on the final product.

I made a mold on it, I'll skip those steps, here's the finished mold:

One thing to notice about the mold - there are boards bolted to around the top of the mold - these are forms used to make an inward-facing flange around the edge. I would do the same thing for a weatherproof box, the inward-facing flange give the cover something to seal against. The board facing front in the photo is removable, I did that to make it easier to get the finished lid out of the mold (more on that technique in moment).

To begin making the "box", the inside of the mold is shot with gelcoat:

And once that's cured to the right point, the fiberglass is laid up. I added ribs to the lid to make it strong enough to support a roof top tent and reinforcement pads where the bolts for a roof top tent will go through.

The lid has been popped out of the mold in these next photos, in the first photo you can see the inward-facing lip.

I made the mold for half a cover, the two halves get bolted together to form the full lid. In this next photo, the 225-lb. gorilla test is being done to verify that the lid is strong enough...

The "box" above is not very deep and there's one more consideration when making a mold for a deeper box - draft angle. To allow a deep box to be removed from the mold, one (or both) of two techniques has to be used:

1. Draft angle. A box with perfectly vertical sides won't slip out of the mold very easily, so the sides need to be angled very slightly - the top of the box needs to be slightly larger than the bottom of the box, this is called draft angle.

2. To make a box without draft angle it would be best to make a multi-part mold - a mold that bolts together in the corners. The mold parts are bolted together, the box is molded in the mold and then to remove the box from the mold the mold is disassembled. The inward-facing flanges I did on the trailer lid above are bolt-on parts to the mold, it's the same idea except the entire mold would come apart.

If I decide to make a roof rack box out of fiberglass, I'd probably do it with a diamondplate surface texture. I've got a brand-new 4x8 sheet of thin aluminum diamondplate here, it's too thin to make a box out of but if could be used as a skin for a mold master. I'd make a wooden mold master box, skin it with this thin diamondplate and then make a mold from that. The resulting boxes out of the mold would look just like a metal diamondplate box. A box with a diamondplate surface texture would need to be made in a multipart mold; the raised bumps in the diamondplate would lock the box into the mold so the only way to get the box out of the mold would be to make a mold that can be disassembled.

When you do the layup, how do you keep the inside flange from drooping (what you called inward-facing lip)?

 

[jscherb]

When you do the layup, how do you keep the inside flange from drooping (what you called inward-facing lip)?

The flange is a little over an inch wide so I trim the fiberglass pretty close to the edge so there's no excess fiberglass to droop.

 

[ITTOG]

The flange is a little over an inch wide so I trim the fiberglass pretty close to the edge so there's no excess fiberglass to droop.

I figured even at just an inch it would want to droop, especially given you are turning a tight corner. What kind of mat were you using? Thanks for the info.

 

[jscherb]

I figured even at just an inch it would want to droop, especially given you are turning a tight corner. What kind of mat were you using? Thanks for the info.

I typically use two layers of 3/4 oz. mat as first layers, the 2-3 layers of 1.5 oz. mat on top of that, depending on how thick I want the finished product to be. Sometimes I'll also add a strip of 1.5 oz. mat along the inside of a flange like this to add a little more thickness to the flange, especially if it's a bolt flange (this one is not a bolt flange).

 

[jscherb]

Ambulance conversions were very common with Series and Defender Land Rovers, I've posted a few earlier in this thread. Here's a Series 3 ambulance:

Land Rovers were relatively easy to convert because the rear body can just be unbolted as I posted about earlier.

Another what if...

That would make a great camper.

 

[Vinman]

Ambulance conversions were very common with Series and Defender Land Rovers, I've posted a few earlier in this thread. Here's a Series 3 ambulance:

Land Rovers were relatively easy to convert because the rear body can just be unbolted as I posted about earlier.

Another what if...

That would make a great camper.

That ambulance conversion looks cool as heck, the shed conversion, not so much?

 

[jscherb]

Last week I posted a number of different rack box ideas. I decided to go with one of the commercial boxes I listed, it arrived yesterday and all-in price with shipping was $135, which I think was very reasonable. In these workshop photos it's sitting on the rack extension I made earlier in this thread. It's a good width for the rack and a good height - it'll be a bit lower than the stowed roof top tent.

I've worked out a tie-down design to secure the box to the rack that doesn't require drilling the box or the rack, I'll make that next.

 

[jscherb]

Ever since the beginning, Land Rovers have been available with windowless "van" hardtops. Here's a Series 1:

And a Defender:

They even made a version of the Discovery that they call the "Commercial", the rear windows are blanked out:

They do this mostly for commercial use but also for tax reasons - in some countries commercial vehicles like vans are taxed at a far lower rate than passenger vehicles. A friend of mine in Singapore had a small Ford Transit compact van because the road tax was $75,000 less per year than a passenger car - they really discourage private car ownership in that small island nation but if you're willing to drive a commercial van the tax isn't too bad.

In the past Jeep has offered several commercial versions overseas, but as far as I know none of these were available in the U.S. This flyer is from the U.K.:

And this one is for the "World Cab" hardtop that Jeep made for export only, this ad is also from the U.K.

I designed my LJ Safari Cab so that it could be built as a van and when I was building it I ran it for a short while that way before I installed the windows and painted it.

Gr8Tops offers a van version of my Safari Cab design, and as far as I know that's the only commercially available van-style Wrangler hardtop in the U.S. https://gr8tops.com/shop/jeepmodels/wrangler-lj-2/lj-alaskan-cab-full-length-hardtop

BTW if you think my Safari Cab resembles the Jeep World Cab, you're right - the World Cab was a big part of the inspiration for my design.

 

[Chorky]

I see the idea but personally not a fan of the windowless. I use my windows to look through all the time, and find that super helpful actually. But that's the beauty of a modular system, to change as per different desires.

 

[Chorky]

pretty darn cool! lets see some jeeps!!!