Land Rover ideas for Jeeps

[jscherb]

All of the awnings I've seen require a roof rack or similar mounting arrangement but what if you want an awning but don't have a rack? Or have a soft top with no rack? I like this idea:

Unlike most awnings, this one also has roll-down sides, although it appears they only go about halfway down. Might be nice if they went all the way down to form a full enclosure. I also like the inside pockets (inset photo).

Seems to me an awning that could easily attach to a Wrangler soft top or hard top and extend out the back like this would be very useful for people without roof racks.

 

[14JKURX]

This ay be a good idea.

 

[jscherb]

I've been thinking about this awning idea and I've come up with a design for attaching an awning like this to both factory Wrangler hardtops and soft tops that doesn't require any modifications to the factory tops. I'm working now on a design for supporting the outboard end (legs and a spreader at the top) and once I come up with something I'm happy with I'll think I'll make a prototype or two for testing.

 

[Ghetto Fab.]

It's true that there are so few places in the lower 48 where fuel isn't readily available that carrying jerry cans or Rotopax for fuel on a Jeep is more of a fashion statement than a necessary accessory, but judging by the number of Jeeps at events like Easter Jeep Safari that carry cans or Rotopax it's an extremely popular fashion accessory, which to me doesn't make it wrong.

There are places in North America though that fuel isn't readily available and carrying extra is a very good idea. Alaska, for example, the last gas before Prudhoe Bay at the Arctic Ocean on the north end of the Dalton Highway is 250 miles south at Coldfoot Camp. That's just about the comfortable limit of my LJ depending on speed and other factors, so when I did that trip I carried extra fuel.

The Dalton is also very well known for tire punctures, lots of bolts and assorted crap fall of the trucks on that road so extra spares are also a very good idea. I carried extra fuel and spares on the Dalton, and I'm planning more extended expeditions like that, so better ways to carry extra fuel and spares does interest me.

And carrying extra fuel on that Alaska trip gave me the flexibility to explore off the main road, like this side trip to the Koyukuk River.

I'm planning exploring northern Canada and extra fuel will be a good idea there too. And occasionally on trips off road in Colorado I carry a 5 liter "just in case" extra supply of gas. A 5 liter can is pretty small and can be 25 miles or so of extra range so it can be nice to have when the gauge approaches "E".

I guess that kinda brings up another point though about the US market vs others, over here we probably have access to better vehicles for those situations. Kudos to you for driving a jeep LJ to alaska, I can't imagine that at my age anymore! I might have attempted it back in the day with my toyota, and yes, I would have brought gas cans too! However, these days I'd just get in my crew cab full size that carries twice the amount of fuel and has a 500mile highway range. I'm not trying to say its right or wrong, its just a commonly available option over here so the market for those types of parts just isn't that strong.

Yes, the rotopax are very popular bolt on gadget over here as are roof racks and roof top tents.

It would be neat to hear about how people in the UK or elsewhere actually use those landrovers? Like what does a typical trip look like? Especially since, as you say, there isn't much offroading or overlanding in the UK.

Kevin

 

[Bluest]

I don't want to Hi Jack the thread, but I guess it's OK if I answer Ghetto Fab's questions. I'm not sure if there is a typical trip, although what I could call regular family camping with not much (if any) off road is probably the most common. The fundamental difference with off roading in the UK v America is that we have practically no wilderness. Pretty much every piece of land here is owned by someone, and the vast majority of tit either agricultural or developed. What public wilderness we do have is encompassed in National Parks and they are heavily controlled and attracting 4x4s is not high on there list of priorities. So that leaves only two choices really; public rights of way, known as green lanes, which are just ancient roads that no one ever got round to putting tarmac on, or there's private 4x4 sites that you pay to use, usually disused quarries etc.

The hardcore rock crawling types have to go to pay sites.

The green lanes are almost always very short, usually not more than a few miles but can be challenging. But because they are often shared with hikers, horse riders, cyclists there can be some tension, especially if they get chewed up in winter and many have been closed to motor vehicles over the years. We just don't have enough space to spread out here and not get on each others nerves. Add to that wild camping being sometimes not allowed, and not common anyway, means that there isn't much scope for "proper" expeditions in the UK in my opinion.

The other way to get off road is to do what I do, go abroad. Spain and Morocco are both excellent places to go with a 4x4 and are only 2 or 3 days drive from the UK respectively. When I go we usually can manage one, maybe two trips a year and take at least 2 weeks off work to do it. Morocco we did twice with a small guided group (the white defender with side box earlier is who we go with), but I would be happy to go self guided next time. Spain we just went on our own, used route books from an excellent French company called Vibraction. We camp for the whole time. I have an Oztent RV5. I have a relatively simple vehicle set up, just a dual battery system and I temporarily remove the back seats and fit a the fridge and camping gear, then take it all out when I get back.

 

[jscherb]

I don't want to Hi Jack the thread, but I guess it's OK if I answer Ghetto Fab's questions. I'm not sure if there is a typical trip, although what I could call regular family camping with not much (if any) off road is probably the most common. The fundamental difference with off roading in the UK v America is that we have practically no wilderness. Pretty much every piece of land here is owned by someone, and the vast majority of tit either agricultural or developed. What public wilderness we do have is encompassed in National Parks and they are heavily controlled and attracting 4x4s is not high on there list of priorities. So that leaves only two choices really; public rights of way, known as green lanes, which are just ancient roads that no one ever got round to putting tarmac on, or there's private 4x4 sites that you pay to use, usually disused quarries etc.

The hardcore rock crawling types have to go to pay sites.

The green lanes are almost always very short, usually not more than a few miles but can be challenging. But because they are often shared with hikers, horse riders, cyclists there can be some tension, especially if they get chewed up in winter and many have been closed to motor vehicles over the years. We just don't have enough space to spread out here and not get on each others nerves. Add to that wild camping being sometimes not allowed, and not common anyway, means that there isn't much scope for "proper" expeditions in the UK in my opinion.

The other way to get off road is to do what I do, go abroad. Spain and Morocco are both excellent places to go with a 4x4 and are only 2 or 3 days drive from the UK respectively. When I go we usually can manage one, maybe two trips a year and take at least 2 weeks off work to do it. Morocco we did twice with a small guided group (the white defender with side box earlier is who we go with), but I would be happy to go self guided next time. Spain we just went on our own, used route books from an excellent French company called Vibraction. We camp for the whole time. I have an Oztent RV5. I have a relatively simple vehicle set up, just a dual battery system and I temporarily remove the back seats and fit a the fridge and camping gear, then take it all out when I get back.

Good answer, that's roughly how I would have answered if you hadn't beat me to it .

Pretty much every magazine issue has an article on greenlanes, they seem to be everywhere, which is not something we have here in the US. I did a little greenlaning on old Roman roads in a Defender when I lived over there, but I didn't do anything difficult. Some greenlanes have challenges, but as you say, for more extreme off-roading people in the UK go abroad. There is some very good off-pavement exploring that can be done in northern Scotland, but again mostly old roads nobody bothered to pave over but very beautiful and remote scenery to enjoy.

 

[jscherb]

I guess that kinda brings up another point though about the US market vs others, over here we probably have access to better vehicles for those situations. Kudos to you for driving a jeep LJ to alaska, I can't imagine that at my age anymore! I might have attempted it back in the day with my toyota, and yes, I would have brought gas cans too! However, these days I'd just get in my crew cab full size that carries twice the amount of fuel and has a 500mile highway range. I'm not trying to say its right or wrong, its just a commonly available option over here so the market for those types of parts just isn't that strong.
<snip>

There's not much interesting off-pavement exploring to be done where I live (upstate NY), so I've driven my Jeeps to Alaska, the Mojave Desert, Death Valley and lots of times to Colorado to enjoy off-road exploring and overland camping.

 

[jscherb]

Been there, done that...

Apologies in advance, this post is a bit off topic and isn't a "Land Rover Idea for Jeeps" but it did come from the UK magazines.

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 last fall and Chitwan was part of our road trip but we chose a more primitive form of transport to go into the jungle. The elephants can go places the Land Rovers and Mahindras (and Jeeps, if they had them) 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.

More Land Rover Ideas for Jeeps tomorrow.

 

[shays4me]

I think its really the differences in how people are traveling that your seeing. I mean most folks in the US don't do month long expeditions to africa or other very remote locations. I surely wouldn't want to put gas cans on the side of my vehicle. I just don't think its safe, but it might be reasonable if I'm going somewhere where there literally are no gas stations. That is not the case in the US. There is usually some small town somewhere not far from where your at that has fuel.

While I'm not completely disagreeing, there are plenty of places that I've gone in eastern Oregon where extra fuel is a requirement. There's not really a requirement for point to point travel, but if you want to explore a little you definitely need more fuel. I took a trip to the Steens and the Alvord desert this summer, and I was on fumes getting to Fields and very happy to pay so much for gas (which turned out to be cheaper than California later). When I return I'll make sure I have at least ten extra gallons extra so I can spend more time looking around!

 

[shays4me]

These would come in handy for visiting Portland, Seattle, Kenosha, Minneapolis etc...

 

[jscherb]

I don't quite get this product. It's a grab bar bag and attaches to the bar by wrapping the flap over the bar. Seems like to get at anything inside the main bag you'd have to undo the flap and remove the bag from the bar. I think the only storage you could access without removing the bag is the small net pocket on the side.

Probably UK Land Rover owners didn't get it either because the bag isn't on the company's web site anymore.

I do like the idea of attaching things to the grab bar though. This is a toiletry bag from Duluth Trading (about $12), I added straps to it so it can attach to the grab bar:

My copilot uses it for her sunglasses and other small things she likes to keep handy.

I've experimented with a bunch of other things on the grab bar, I can post photos if people are interested.

 

[NatersXJ6]

This Series 1 107" is outfitted as a family overlander - two roof top tents. I've seen a few Land Rovers outfitted that way but I don't think I've ever seen a Jeep with two tents.

I had 2 Tepui Ayers on a JKU when I started out. One opened forward over the hood, I made some braces down to the front bumper. It was, to say the least... really loud. And my wife was, to say the least... really not happy. Thus I dropped back to one, then a single bigger one, and now a trailer with an even bigger one.

I even toyed around with the idea of putting the tents on heavy duty drawer glides, so you could separate them in the middle of the roof and create an open “porch” on the rack between them. I still think it would have been ridiculous but cool.

If I ever reach your level of tinkering, I might try that again just for schnitzengigles.

 

[jscherb]

I had 2 Tepui Ayers on a JKU when I started out. One opened forward over the hood, I made some braces down to the front bumper. It was, to say the least... really loud. And my wife was, to say the least... really not happy. Thus I dropped back to one, then a single bigger one, and now a trailer with an even bigger one.

I even toyed around with the idea of putting the tents on heavy duty drawer glides, so you could separate them in the middle of the roof and create an open “porch” on the rack between them. I still think it would have been ridiculous but cool.

If I ever reach your level of tinkering, I might try that again just for schnitzengigles.

Pics? You know what they say on the forums - pics or it didn't happen .

 

[NatersXJ6]

Pics? You know what they say on the forums - pics or it didn't happen .

In modern life, anything that happened before your current phone has faded into legend... I’ve been meaning to download the old phone in the drawer. Maybe I’ll do that tonight.

 

[PaulJensen]

Great topic...!!!...

When I redesigned the XV-JP I was inspired with the Land Rover Defender roof lines and the functionality of the body mount add-ons...