Land Rover ideas for Jeeps

jscherb

Expedition Leader
More on the "Mini Me's" I recently posted. Some of them are kits :)

Toylander.jpg


A "bimble"?:

Bimble.jpg


I looked it up in the Oxford English Dictionary:

The word bimble, meaning 'to move at a leisurely pace', is sometimes said to have originated amongst British soldiers serving in the Falklands, and much of our early evidence supports this.
 

jscherb

Expedition Leader
This thread is awesome! Thanks for the ideas and prototypes/proofs of concepts. Lots of great ideas to try out; I love the T-track Gear Carrier! (y)
If anyone tries out any of these ideas on their Jeep, please post pics!
 

jscherb

Expedition Leader
Today I shot the rack extension parts with several coats of epoxy primer followed by Raptor bed liner. I would have used a smooth topcoat but the main rack has a bedliner finish so I used Raptor so they would match. I also shot a thin coat of Raptor over the bedliner on the main rack to ensure everything would match and to freshen up the old finish.

RackExtensionRaptor.jpg


Raptor takes about 3 days to fully cure for light use and 7 days for heavy use, so I'll probably install it early next week so we can see what the finished result looks like on the Jeep.
 

jscherb

Expedition Leader
Many military Land Rovers have tools on the bonnet. I don't think I've ever seen tools mounted directly to the hood of a Jeep - if there's anything on the hood it's usually a HiLift attached to the hood hinges. This one's got a shovel, a pick and a recovery strap on the bonnet - one end of the strap is already hooked to the bumper for quick deployment.

ToolsOnHood2.jpg


Another one:

ToolsOnHood.jpg


If anyone is wondering, the bulge in the hood above is to fit a high-capacity 24 volt alternator. Also notice the side locker behind the door - very common on military Land Rovers, I've posted about it before.
 

jscherb

Expedition Leader
Another Military Hardtop

This version is called the EPV - Enhanced Protected Vehicle but this type is nicknamed the "Snatch". It's "lightly armored" and has a hardtop that looks like the fiberglass hardtops I posted about earlier, but being armoured the hardtop may be metal or at least not conventional fiberglass. Also instead of a single barn door, it has double doors - often called ambulance doors, although these aren't ambulances - Land Rover ambulances have a completely different rear body. I like the doors.

ArmoredEPV1.jpg


The Land Rovers behind the main one in the photo have fiberglass hardtops.

ArmoredEPV2.jpg


I think a hardtop like this would look good on a TJ or LJ. Not sure it would look right on the more curvy JK or JL.

One wearing camo:

Armored1.jpg


I do think a hardtop with this shape would be great on a TJ or JL. Would be great with ambulance doors too, although the doors should have windows unlike these armored doors.

Not sure if I'd like this shape hardtop on a JK or JL, I'll have to do a concept drawing to see what it looks like.
 

jscherb

Expedition Leader
A couple of actual military ambulances:

MilitaryAmbulance2.jpg


MilitaryAmbulance.jpg


The military ambulances would make great campers. This one apparently is a camper now...

AmbulanceCamper.jpg
 

Vinman

Observer
Many military Land Rovers have tools on the bonnet. I don't think I've ever seen tools mounted directly to the hood of a Jeep - if there's anything on the hood it's usually a HiLift attached to the hood hinges. This one's got a shovel, a pick and a recovery strap on the bonnet - one end of the strap is already hooked to the bumper for quick deployment.

ToolsOnHood2.jpg


Another one:

ToolsOnHood.jpg


If anyone is wondering, the bulge in the hood above is to fit a high-capacity 24 volt alternator. Also notice the side locker behind the door - very common on military Land Rovers, I've posted about it before.
Any idea what that long bar with round ends bolted to the front bumper is for?
 

PaulJensen

Custom Builder
Many military Land Rovers have tools on the bonnet. I don't think I've ever seen tools mounted directly to the hood of a Jeep - if there's anything on the hood it's usually a HiLift attached to the hood hinges. This one's got a shovel, a pick and a recovery strap on the bonnet - one end of the strap is already hooked to the bumper for quick deployment.

ToolsOnHood2.jpg

The hood/bonnet seems like the perfect place to mount something like MaxTrax...
 

jscherb

Expedition Leader
The hood/bonnet seems like the perfect place to mount something like MaxTrax...
Definitely agree - here's a quick concept to show how MaxTrax could fit on a Wrangler hood.

MaxTraxTJBonnet.jpg


Could easily do this without drilling any holes using the hinge bolts and removing the windshield rest bumpers and using those holes.

Hasn't this been done before?

If someone wants to lend me some Maxtrax I'll do a prototype :).
 

grizzlyj

Tea pot tester
I had a Series III Lightweight as a daily driver for about 7 years and sometimes had the spare 7.50R16 on the bonnet if I needed the space in the back. But that made lifting the bonnet/hood super heavy, and made a big difference to the weight of the unassisted steering. It didn't help visbility either. Not a preferred set up.
A neighbour has two of those ex British Army ground anchors and they are super heavy. The full set comes with what looks like a meat hook that goes into the eye on the stakes to help twist and lift them out. The twist for removal may be why they are multi sided (hexagonal?) not round to help break the sticktion?
Also, I think when I got to look around a lovely Dormobile (or Carawagon??) ages ago that had the rear awning thing on, there were holes in the top of the rear wall section for the extending rear frame bars to slide backwards out of. These were (I think) inside tubes fixed inside the roof maybe to keep them from bouncing while retracted and driving and keep water/dust from the interior? They also gave a degree of cantilevered support when out prior to the vertical legs being fitted.
And I have a vague idea that the over windscreen roof rack may have been started as an option on the likes of a Dormobile, since the pop roof excluded a normal roofrack.
I subscribed to LRO from about '85 for quite a long time then gave them away. Stupid. Reading back always reminded me of good ideas. So thank you for the thread :)
 

jscherb

Expedition Leader
The Raptor bed liner was very hard today, so I took care of a few details. Left to right - end caps to close off the tubing, nutserts to attach the extension, and (did this the other day before finishing) t-nuts welded in place to make it easy to install the gutter mounts. The hole in the top of the rail visible in the last photo is for attaching the extension rail; there are threaded holes in the bottom of the rail that make it easy to install using bolts through these holes.

Details.jpg


Assembled with only the extension base:

FinalExtensionBase.jpg


Depending on what I'm carrying I can install the extension as above, or with the rail around the extension:

FinalExtension.jpg


Hanging from the garage door rails so the Jeep can be driven under and the rack lowered onto the Jeep. This is where the rack lives most of the time when it's not on one of the Jeeps.

RackStored.jpg


Since the Raptor was so hard I was going to install the rack on the Jeep today but just after I finished hanging it from the garage door rails it started to rain so I'll install it and take photos another day.
 

jscherb

Expedition Leader
What do all of these Land Rovers have in common?

Slider1.jpg


Slider2.jpg


Slider3.jpg


They all have slider windows in the rear sides of the hardtop - it's a very common option.

It's an easy option for a JK/JKU and soon JL/JLU, Retrofit Offroad offers a kit to replace the factory windows in those hardtops: https://www.retrofitoffroad.com/product-category/jeep-wrangler-jk-factory-hardtop-slider-window-kit/

Retrofit2drSliderOrange.jpg


This is an aftermarket option for the Land Rover sliders, it's a grille that functions as a screen to allow air flow:

SideWindowGrilles.jpg


The Retrofit Offroad sliders come with screens.

SliderInstall1.jpg
 

jscherb

Expedition Leader
And speaking of factory windows, what about half Doors with removable uppers? This was a Land Rover idea that took about 40 years to become a Jeep feature. Series 1 Land Rovers in the 1950's had half doors with removable tops, we didn't get them as a factory option until the 1987 YJ. And even then, Jeep never provided hard uppers or slider windows, both up which were available in the 50's as a Land Rover feature. And even today, Jeep hasn't released half doors for the JL.

HalfDoorTops.jpg
 

jscherb

Expedition Leader
...And I have a vague idea that the over windscreen roof rack may have been started as an option on the likes of a Dormobile, since the pop roof excluded a normal roofrack...
Not a Dormobile, but the Land Rover in this cover photo is in line with your comment.

Maybe someone should design an over-the-windshield rack for the Gladiator, seems like there will be campers for the Gladiator that are similar to this one.

SpareOverWindshield.jpg
 

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