Land Rover ideas for Jeeps

[86scotty]

I started a thread on the idea back when I was thinking about doing it and I was very surprised by the amount of negativity to the idea in the Jeep community.

That's because 'the Jeep community' seems to be only interested in completely removing the spare and adding an 8" lift and 37"s. I haven't figured out this logic yet.

I like the idea.

 

[jscherb]

I like that idea. Does it work with a soft top. My wife hates the soft top because its such a pain to access the back of the jeep with the zip out window.

Yes, the soft barn door upper can work with the factory soft top. One mod to the factory rear window is required - adding a jamb for the barn door to close against. I designed a soft top barn door jamb for the JK but haven't built one because I never take my Safari Cab hardtop off the JKU but a few years ago I did a soft barn door for the LJ factory soft top and it worked great. Used it one summer and never used it again because once I put the Safari Cab hardtop on the LJ I never went back to the soft top. But it's definitely feasible and practical on the JK as well.

 

[jscherb]

Jscherb - love the brainstorming and definitely approve of bringing some land rover ideas over to the jeep world.

RE: Canvas & the gladiator. I would like to hear your opinion on "connecting" the soft top over the cab with a "soft topper" style bed cap. Even if it was a simple canvas attachment you added while parked, it would allow you to remove the rear window of the cab's top, and remove or roll up the front window of the bed cover, creating a nice long open interior. I could see building a sleeping platform at the height of the bed rail and thus having the space for a normal size human to sleep "inside" the truck in a reasonably inexpensive way, with the added benefit of the cabin & its HVAC controls.

View attachment 611972

I'd have to study the Gladiator a little more to come up with a final design, but it's definitely a workable idea. The "covered wagon" topper for the bed could be constructed with a design very similar to the design I did for my fiberglass military trailer replica, it wasn't a difficult fab/sewing project. The exact details of the connection between the cab and the covered wagon top and getting that weatherproof would require a little design work but certainly feasible.

A few photos of the trailer covered wagon top...

I have been doing some Gladiator design work recently; just before the pandemic started I finished up a storage system for inside the Gladiator cab and a company liked it so I passed the design and prototype over to them. Just last week, after a bit of pandemic delay, they delivered a preproduction prototype of the product for me to verify and test.

 

[jscherb]

That's because 'the Jeep community' seems to be only interested in completely removing the spare and adding an 8" lift and 37"s. I haven't figured out this logic yet.

I like the idea.

I've always liked the idea and one of these days I may make a mold for a hood (or perhaps I should say bonnet in this thread ) with a recess and reinforcement to carry the spare.

 

[Carson G]

View attachment 611839
This would open up some possibilities...

That was actually powered off the Defender’s PTO as well.

 

[jscherb]

WMIK (Weapons Mount Installation Kit) British military Defenders

Lots of interesting stuff is part of the WMIK setup.

In official British military parlance they call this tailgate a Pannier. They're used as a place to store gear; I've seen ammo cans in them and other items. A tailgate (er... pannier) like this one could be implemented for a Jeep, although you'd need to find a different place for the spare (on the bonnet?). The spare on a WMIK Defender is located on the side of the roll cage, it can be seen in some of these photos.

The one above is a faux WMIK, someone has installed surplus WMIK bits to convert their civvie Defender into a WMIK clone (note no weapon installed on top, and the Defender decal on the back). This next one is a real WMIK:

The Land Rovers pictured above also has lockers installed in the sides. You can see these on some of the photos above, it's the hatch right behind the doors. It's an easy installation in a Land Rover but I can't find any place in a Jeep where something like this, even if smaller, could fit.

 

[jscherb]

Another interesting item seen on military Land Rovers - take a look at the jerry can on the rear corner of this WMIK Defender:

It's a folding jerry can carrier, here's one folded and without a can:

This one's mounted on the hardtop instead of the body, and it's opened and carrying a can:

I like the folding feature.

 

[jscherb]

Inspired by the longer racks on Land Rovers, I began work on the extension for my rack today. I'm adding two feet to it to make the overall length 8 feet. At that length it hangs over the windshield a bit on the LJ and it'll end about even with the top of the windshield on the JKU.

In these photos the perimeter of the extension base is clamped in place.

The extension will bolt to the front of the existing basket, that way I can use only the main basket or I can install the extension in addition depending on the load I need to carry on that expedition.

I'll need to add support in the front for the extension and there are two ways I could go - I could add a gutter-mount crossbar (shown in blue below), or maybe gutter mounts without a crossbar, or I could add braces to the windshield hinge bolts (orange). Haven't decided which way I'll go yet although I'm leaning towards the crossbar. Comments welcome.

 

[jscherb]

An interesting camper conversion.

He's used part of the Tropical Roof as a pop-up, but only to provide standing room.

The Land Rover above has a Tropical Roof, which is second metal skin over the roof with an air gap between. It's designed to keep the interior cooler by providing an air gap between the panel that the sun beats down on and the main roof panel.

I've seen a lot of Jeeps where people put insulation inside the roof of the hardtop to keep temperatures down, but I've never seen a Tropical Roof on a Jeep.

 

[Vinman]

I visited the UK about 13 years ago and across an old Defender with a tropical roof. I hadn’t heard of one before and chatted with the owner about it and he told that particular Defender had been abandoned in the desert by the military before he rescued it. He also told me the roof panel worked really well to keep the interior cool.

 

[jscherb]

I finished fabrication of the rack extension base this morning.

Unbolted:

Next I'll make a rail around the top to complete the basket. It'll bolt in place so I can use the rack extension either flat like in these photos, or with a rail to contain things.

 

[jscherb]

More on the ground anchor topic...

This one might be better on very soft ground than the ones earlier in the thread that use stakes, but it looks like it would be difficult to pound into the rocky ground on a Colorado mountain trail.

 

[jscherb]

More on the idea of having my sand ladders double as ground anchors, I found these rebar stakes (called rebar pins) at Lowes, they're a hefty 3/4" in diameter and come in 18", 24" and 36". I think I'll use these.

 

[jscherb]

Land Rover folks sure seem to like their aluminum boxes... I count 7 in this photo.

 

[Bobs85Reny]

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I used this on my roof rack its strong enough to walk on it makes a great platform for photography and is lightweight. Its like the thickness of a plastic milk carton. It also shields the roof and keeps the temperature down like the tropical roof. This will also make a great Molle panel for all the bags you make.