Land Rover ideas for Jeeps

[jscherb]

Finished the rack extension this morning.

The rail around the extension unbolts so I can use the extension as a simple platform if that suits my load better. And the entire extension unbolts.

What's left to do -

- Make the gutter mounts to support the front of the extension.

- Paint.

 

[jscherb]

A lot of the Series and Defenders I see in the magazines that have roof racks have this style rack, which we never see on Jeeps:

Racks like this are easy to mount on Land Rovers because they've got gutters all around. It would be a little more difficult to mount on a factory Wrangler hardtop but it's a solvable engineering problem.

I checked the web site (https://www.johncraddockltd.co.uk/jc202-series-and-defender-roof-rack-galvanised-swb.html) and the price for the Defender 90 version of this rack (roughly TJ/JK2dr size) is 199 GPB - roughly $257. The price could be why this style is so popular? Some photos from the site:

 

[jscherb]

Roof Rack Overload

How much is too much? I'm pretty sure this is .

Forgive me for deviating from Land Rovers for a minute... the photo above reminds me of seeing sights like this on the road in India:

Or what would you think if you came up behind something like this?

It's a Mahindra jeep carrying a load of straw and it's a common sight in Rajasthan. The loads overflow the bed and hangs down the sides as well as being over the cab.

This is a different one, right after I snapped this photo the driver of the truck stepped on the gas and the front left wheel came off the ground.

Sorry for the off-topic Mahindra photos but Land Rover drivers have nothing on overloading compared to Indian Mahindra drivers.

 

[Paddler Ed]

A lot of the Series and Defenders I see in the magazines that have roof racks have this style rack, which we never see on Jeeps:

Racks like this are easy to mount on Land Rovers because they've got gutters all around. It would be a little more difficult to mount on a factory Wrangler hardtop but it's a solvable engineering problem.

I checked the web site (https://www.johncraddockltd.co.uk/jc202-series-and-defender-roof-rack-galvanised-swb.html) and the price for the Defender 90 version of this rack (roughly TJ/JK2dr size) is 199 GPB - roughly $257. The price could be why this style is so popular? Some photos from the site:

We used to use that style of roofrack on Ford Transit Minibuses as well - they're a common style in UK, and made it easy to load stuff and tie it down accordingly. You can sometimes find them with crawl boards as well so you can move around without standing on the roof (as often)

 

[jscherb]

Sam Watson's column on overlanding in Land Rover Owner magazine often has good ideas in it. I highlighted an idea in one of his columns:

This is the magnetic utensil rack he's talking about:

I mounted one of those on my fridge a long time ago (even before seeing his column). You can see it in this photo taken at the Easter Jeep Safari Vendor Expo in 2019 when MORryde borrowed my Jeep for the booth to show of their Trail Kitchen:

To mount it on the fridge I removed the front handle from the fridge, drilled holes in the magnetic bar so I could bolt it to the handle holes in the fridge and bolted it in place.

This is the other rack Sam mentions in his column. I haven't come up with a use for it in my Jeeps.

 

[jscherb]

Raptor

I've used Raptor for quite a few projects, but never on plastic flares. Sounds like the guys at Land Rover Owner magazine like it for that application:

 

[jscherb]

Alpine windows have been part of the Land Rover design since the 1950's; this is a 1956 Series 1 86":

Oldsmobile did them starting in 1964 with the Vista Cruiser wagon:

There was an aftermarket hardtop on the market in the early days of the TJ that had Vista Cruiser style windows in the roof, it was from a company called Guidon and they called the top the Vista:

And the Smittybilt Safari hard top for the JK has Alpine windows, although they cheaped out and made the Alpine windows out of plastic. Over time they'll probably get cloudy like many headlight lenses do.

Alpine windows add a lot of light into the vehicle and provide additional outward visibility. I think they'd be a great addition to the factory hardtop.

I made them part of the JK Safari Cab design:

It would be nice to see Jeep do a factory hardtop with Alpine windows.

 

[jscherb]

THis could be useful in the RTT:

The company's web site says the product is currently unavailable and searching didn't turn up any other sources.

When we camp I often run a 10' USB cable from the outlet in my dash up into the tent; adding a clip-on outlet inside the tent would be handy.

 

[14JKURX]

Did you design brackets to support a luggage rack for the JKU factory hardtop?
This is exactly what I need.

 

[jscherb]

View attachment 613424
Did you design brackets to support a luggage rack for the JKU factory hardtop?
This is exactly what I need.

I designed a set of 4 brackets (two are visible in this photo and two more are on top of the main roll bar hoop up front) but they're designed for the Safari Cab hardtop and as designed they won't fit the factory hardtop because the Safari Cab roof is higher.

 

[jscherb]

Back to the ground anchor topic...

Another style ground anchor I found in the magazine, this one uses the shaft from a HiLift.

 

[jscherb]

The Flatdog ground anchor I posted from the magazine seems to be a scaled-down version of the British Ministry of Defence/NATO Tirfor Ground Anchor:

The Flatdog product, for reference:

The MOD anchor is about 36" long and has stakes which are roughly the same length and 30mm (just over 1") in diameter.

One source for the military ground anchor in the UK (sold out at the moment): https://dasoutdoors.co.uk/products/ground-anchor-system

The Flatdog anchor is quite a bit smaller than the military one above - based on the size of the guy's shoe in the Flatdog photo, I'm guessing that product is roughly half the size of the MOD version. To me it seems like the military one is larger than needed for most Jeep situations and perhaps the Flatdog one is maybe too small?

The question is how big is big enough and the answer of course is it depends on how stuck you are, how heavy you are and what the ground conditions are .

 

[jscherb]

A week or so ago I first posted this concept drawing showing how aluminum sand ladders could be used as a base for a ground anchor:

Work in progress... I rough-cut the parts for one out of some metal I had on hand:

In this photo everything is posed showing roughly how it will go together. The anchor point will bolt to one or two stacked ladders (two stacked will provide more rigidity). The anchor point parts will also bolt together to make it easier to store - removed from the sand ladders and disassembled it'll fit nicely in my recovery gear bag.

 

[shays4me]

Alpine windows have been part of the Land Rover design since the 1950's; this is a 1956 Series 1 86":

I owned that same make and model. I wish I still had it, it was very unique here.

 

[jscherb]

I finished the parts for the sand ladder ground anchor point. In this photo the paint isn't quite hard yet so I'll let it dry overnight before I bolt everything together.

I still have to do the stakes, that's next.