Land Rover ideas for Jeeps

[jscherb]

In a "Get set for summer" issue one of the magazines did a story covering the pros and cons of the many different ways to camp...

I'll just pick out two things I found interesting. First, this piece about camping inside the vehicle. It's a common thing to do but for people of my height it's a bit cramped even in the longest Jeep. What they did in the front seats is interesting. They've got a small butane stove set up on the center console between the seats, and a removable table that hangs on the dash. I could see using the table - this past year during the pandemic every time I've eaten drive-through fast food because inside dining is close I wished I had something like this. As for the stove, Jeep seats are closer together than Land Rover seats to this might not be a good idea in a Jeep.

One thing I would like to have for future camping trips is a hammock. Not for sleeping as they write about in this piece, but for relaxing (and maybe a nap). It doesn't show clearly in the photos, but it appears they've hung one end of the hammock on the bottom of the a-pillar. Wouldn't he hard to make a hook/mount that attaches using the a-pillar/windshield bolts on a Jeep. Of course you'd have to park close enough to a tree or something for the other end of the hammock, but a setup like this wouldn't take up much storage space in the Jeep - hammocks roll up pretty small.

 

[Jurfie]

The Hennessy Hammock is popular with expedition sea kayakers around here. The advantage is not needing to find a flat campsite when landing on shore; trees around here are plentiful and the integrated rainfly and insect screen is awesome and necessary.

I could see a detachable or retractable support mounted on a roof rack working. Two ”hangers” off the side of the rig would eliminate the need to find a suitable tree to park next to as well. The advantage is you would always sleep well because you naturally hang level, so no need for levelling blocks. You’d have to make sure the roof rack mounting could resist the moment forces acting on the opposite side as the hammock, however. Mounting through the top to the roll bar (like your Safari cab rack) would work.

 

[pith helmet]

I love these magazine scans....maybe its the scan itself or the look of the rovers, but they always look like they are 'vintage' articles from the 90's. Thanks for sharing!

 

[bitbckt]

I’ve seen a hitch hammock used on a Jeep. I’m sure they aren’t the only brand selling that idea.

 

[jscherb]

I love these magazine scans....maybe its the scan itself or the look of the rovers, but they always look like they are 'vintage' articles from the 90's. Thanks for sharing!

You're very welcome.

The earliest LR magazines in my collection only go back to 2005 or so, when I lived in London I picked up that habit of reading them and found them much more interesting than Jeep magazines back home and they had lots more good ideas, so I subscribed when I moved back to the U.S.

Many of the scans look a bit grainy because some of them are very small images in the magazine that I've scanned and upsized so they're easier to view in this thread.

 

[jscherb]

Been there, done that part 12. Imogene Pass

From an article about a U.S. Land Rover club adventure in Colorado... Tomboy Road leaves the east side of Telluride, ascends to the ghost town of Tomboy and after a 4,350 foot elevation gain arrives at the 13,114 foot summit of Imogene Pass. On the way up, check out the height of the snow against the orange Disco at the back:

At the summit:

Also at the summit:

On the way out of Telluride, part of the way up to the Imogene summit is Social Tunnel:

And in Yankee Boy Basin on the other side of the Imogene summit towards Ouray is this "half tunnel" carved out of the mountain to allow the shelf road to continue, this photo is from the magazine:

Me too:

A little history...

This map shows the reason for the pass route... by road, it's about 50 miles from Ouray to Telluride. Overland, it's maybe 10 miles. At the speeds you'd be traveling on the trail today it's easily an hour or more, but back in the days when horsepower was provided by actual horses, the long way around would have taken far longer than the pass route.

In 1891 the Rio Grande Southern Railroad reached Telluride via roughly the same route the road takes today, but before then it was animal power either the long way around or over the pass to Ouray.

Map by Dell a. McCoy, 1990 - The RGS Story, Vol. 1-12, 1990, Sundance Publications, Ltd., Denver, Colorado., <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0" title="Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=92958899">Link</a>

 

[jscherb]

A solution for charging a wireless-chargeable phone on the road:

That will charge the phone, but while it's charging the phone will be useless because it's in the pocket and the screen isn't visible. Doesn't seem like a good solution to me.

Here's what I did.

I found a wireless charge cradle at Walmart. I didn't like the way it mounted because it was designed to clip into HVAC vent slats so I took the suction cup parts from a cradle I used with my old phone and adapted the wireless charge cradle to it. On the lower part of the dash to the left of the steering wheel I mounted a marine dual USB outlet and voltmeter. The outlet is close enough so a 12" USB cord is all that's necessary to connect to the cradle.

A closer view. The voltmeter and USB outlets are connected to switched power, which means they're only powered when the ignition is on. The ignition was off when this photo was taken, which is why the voltmeter isn't illuminated. The small slide switch above the voltmeter connects the meter and the USB outlets directly to the battery (through a fuse of course). There are two benefits to this:

1. I can switch on the charger when the engine isn't running.

2. I can test battery voltage with no other load on the battery. This is very useful for determining battery condition - using it I can detect low battery voltage, which often indicates a battery that is entering the end of its life. Knowing battery condition at all times is useful when you're away from civilization (and a jump start *).

I'm a big fan of wireless charging - I had to get a new phone recently, my old one was in perfect condition except that the micro-USB socket on it had started to wear from repeated use and was making intermittent connections, meaning that sometimes I'd plug in a charger only to find out later it hadn't charged. I decided that from now on any phone I have will have to have wireless charge capability to avoid that problem in the future and I outfitted everything (Jeeps, house) for wireless charging.

* About jump starting - I've got dual batteries in the Jeeps, but the second one is just for the kitchen. While it is charged by the Jeep, it is not wired to contribute to starting the Jeep. But I carry jumper cables that plug in to an Anderson connector under the hood and can reach to the kitchen battery in the back in case I ever need to jump the Jeep from the kitchen battery.

 

[jscherb]

Early in the thread I posted this item:

I showed how you might modify an inexpensive folding stool to serve the same purpose: https://expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/land-rover-ideas-for-jeeps.218029/page-11#post-2834973

I get a weekly email from Coleman's Military Surplus, which is my favorite military surplus shop. This item showed up recently:

Seems like a good complement to the stool idea. https://colemans.com/u-s-g-i-go-anywhere-sanitary-toilet-kit-bags-10-pack

Walmart also sells something for the same purpose, it includes 6 bags, and they have something called "Bio-Gel", which I assume does the same thing the chemicals in the military bags do to neutralize waste:

I think I would go (pun intended) with the military surplus ones.

 

[jscherb]

LandieTent

This is an interesting tent design - it attaches to the roof rack similar to an awning but instead of deploying horizontally like an awning, it deploys at an angle to form a tent:

An ad for the tent:

Another unusual design from the same company. Seems a little large even for a large Land Rover barn door.

 

[pith helmet]

I love this tent you posted...I am wanting to attach some sidewalls to this awning for something similar in this position. I can also extend the poles for standing headroom all the way to the edge.

 

[jscherb]

I love this tent you posted...I am wanting to attach some sidewalls to this awning for something similar in this position. I can also extend the poles for standing headroom all the way to the edge.

Time for you to get a sewing machine. Almost any sewing machine can do tent fabric. One of my machines is an early 60's Janome New Home Dual Duty, made back when sewing machines were all metal, built to last an icon of Japanese precision. Similar machines can be found on eBay for $100 or so and they run forever so they're a great investment.

I've sewed soft top mods, roll-up soft sides for my LJ Safari Cab, custom Molle gear, the pop-up camper canvas for my Jeep-tub trailer and lots more using this machine. There's very little you'd want to do for a Jeep or camper that it can't do.

Learning to do the simple sewing required for tent construction is not a big challenge. And for advanced topics there are lots of great how-to videos at Sailrite.com (a marine and home sewing supplies company), for example, "How to Install a Vinyl Window in Canvas": https://www.sailrite.com/How-to-Install-a-Vinyl-Window-in-Canvas-Video

 

[pith helmet]

Time for you to get a sewing machine. Almost any sewing machine can do tent fabric. One of my machines is an early 60's Janome New Home Dual Duty, made back when sewing machines were all metal, built to last an icon of Japanese precision. Similar machines can be found on eBay for $100 or so and they run forever so they're a great investment.

I've sewed soft top mods, roll-up soft sides for my LJ Safari Cab, custom Molle gear, the pop-up camper canvas for my Jeep-tub trailer and lots more using this machine. There's very little you'd want to do for a Jeep or camper that it can't do.

Learning to do the simple sewing required for tent construction is not a big challenge. And for advanced topics there are lots of great how-to videos at Sailrite.com (a marine and home sewing supplies company), for example, "How to Install a Vinyl Window in Canvas": https://www.sailrite.com/How-to-Install-a-Vinyl-Window-in-Canvas-Video

I believe you're right. I'll have to see what the wife's machine is able to do and see what she can show me to get me started.

 

[jscherb]

Here's an idea for the Cherokee folks... this is a Discovery, the top has been cut off and replaced with a roll-bar structure and a canvas roof. The article doesn't provide any details about the conversion, but zip-on/roll-up soft sides would be an easy addition to the configuration.

 

[Jurfie]

Here's an idea for the Cherokee folks... this is a Discovery, the top has been cut off and replaced with a roll-bar structure and a canvas roof. The article doesn't provide any details about the conversion, but zip-on/roll-up soft sides would be an easy addition to the configuration.

I love that idea! Would probably suck for anything but a dedicated trail rig though.

 

[jscherb]

I love that idea! Would probably suck for anything but a dedicated trail rig though.

Designed and made properly, why would it be any worse as a daily driver than a Wrangler with a soft top?