Land Rover ideas for Jeeps

[jscherb]

This post isn't about Land Rover Ideas for Jeeps, it's about Land Rovers at SEMA. The show was a few weeks ago but I went through all of my photos from the show again yesterday and decided I should post these. There were more Defenders at the show than TJ/LJ Wranglers BTW.









This one's electric:









This one's in the display of a company that makes replacement body parts:

 

[jscherb]

The interior of the last one, this forum only let me attach 10 files to the last post.

 

[jscherb]

From Land Rover Life magazine... if you've got a Defender, you can start at 1650 GBP (about $2100 at today's exchange rate). In the Jeep world, if you want a pop-top camper, it's going to cost you about $10 g's (Ursa Minor).



Why hasn't anyone in the U.S. done a reasonably priced pop-top that adapts to a Wrangler hardtop?

 

[jscherb]

There's an 8-page article in a recent issue of Land Rover Life about the Santana Trophy rally. Sponsored by Santana, a Spanish automaker of license-built Defenders, it's a road (well off-road) rally where navigation skills are important - participants are given a booklet with instructions which they must follow to complete the course and get to the finish.



The rally takes place mostly in the Moroccan desert, partly on somehat improved roads and also on trails. More on the rally: https://www.santanatrophy.com/



I think this could be a great Land Rover (ok, Santana) idea for a Jeep - there are lots of off-road events like Easter Jeep Safari where everyone lines up and follows the trail leader on the trails, and some more involved offroad events like like the Dirt Every Day event that the now-defunct offroad magazines in the U.S. used to sponsor (maybe they still do?), but as far as I know there's no event like the Santana Trophy - an event where each team's ability to follow directions while mostly solo in the wild and their driving skill makes the difference.

Imagine this - starting in Los Angeles or perhaps Las Vegas, the rally instructions route you through the Mojave Desert and maybe Joshua Tree National Park, then across Arizona and north to someplace to cross the Grand Canyon into Utah, north to Moab and east across Colorado with the final destination being Denver. Roads would be used when necessary but as much as possible the rally route would go off-road. It would be a week-long event, with the rally participants expected to live overland, carrying whatever they need to live on the route for a week. Camping would be part of the adventure and each team could decide where to camp along the way each night depending on their progress so far. Starting would be staggered so at least at the beginning it's not just a parade of vehicles following each other.

It could be called the American Overland Challenge.

Would you sign up?

 

[wyowandering]

The interior of the last one, this forum only let me attach 10 files to the last post.

View attachment 807715

And not a single one of these built to be used and hosed out when home. Whoever owns the polished one should be kicked in the nuts.

 

[LRNAD90]

This post isn't about Land Rover Ideas for Jeeps, it's about Land Rovers at SEMA. The show was a few weeks ago but I went through all of my photos from the show again yesterday and decided I should post these. There were more Defenders at the show than TJ/LJ Wranglers BTW.

View attachment 807705

I like the nearly stock yellow one the best (but I'm biased). Looks like it was an Arkonik build, but not there to be showcased as a build, but as part of the Battery Tender display? Odd that they'd choose a Defender (with the battery under the seat) and showcase it with the hood open and the battery charger hanging and connected to what? The alternator positive stud and a ground?

AND SURPRISED to hear there were more Defenders than Jeeps at the show..

And not a single one of these built to be used and hosed out when home. Whoever owns the polished one should be kicked in the nuts.

I agree, swift kick in the nuts for the builder of the polished turd..

 

[jscherb]

AND SURPRISED to hear there were more Defenders than Jeeps at the show..

More Land Rovers than TJ/LJ Jeeps, not more than Wranglers of all types . But I do believe there were more Broncos than Wranglers of all types at the show, I didn't do a formal count but that's how it seemed to me.

 

[jscherb]

There's an 8-page article in a recent issue of Land Rover Life about the Santana Trophy rally. Sponsored by Santana, a Spanish automaker of license-built Defenders, it's a road (well off-road) rally where navigation skills are important - participants are given a booklet with instructions which they must follow to complete the course and get to the finish.

View attachment 808515

The rally takes place mostly in the Moroccan desert, partly on somehat improved roads and also on trails. More on the rally: https://www.santanatrophy.com/

View attachment 808516

I think this could be a great Land Rover (ok, Santana) idea for a Jeep - there are lots of off-road events like Easter Jeep Safari where everyone lines up and follows the trail leader on the trails, and some more involved offroad events like like the Dirt Every Day event that the now-defunct offroad magazines in the U.S. used to sponsor (maybe they still do?), but as far as I know there's no event like the Santana Trophy - an event where each team's ability to follow directions while mostly solo in the wild and their driving skill makes the difference.

Imagine this - starting in Los Angeles or perhaps Las Vegas, the rally instructions route you through the Mojave Desert and maybe Joshua Tree National Park, then across Arizona and north to someplace to cross the Grand Canyon into Utah, north to Moab and east across Colorado with the final destination being Denver. Roads would be used when necessary but as much as possible the rally route would go off-road. It would be a week-long event, with the rally participants expected to live overland, carrying whatever they need to live on the route for a week. Camping would be part of the adventure and each team could decide where to camp along the way each night depending on their progress so far. Starting would be staggered so at least at the beginning it's not just a parade of vehicles following each other.

It could be called the American Overland Challenge.

Would you sign up?

Another idea - add some Geocaching along the way so in order to get full points for the rally you've have to find the cache and take a photo of whatever is there.

 

[AggieOE]

There's an 8-page article in a recent issue of Land Rover Life about the Santana Trophy rally. Sponsored by Santana, a Spanish automaker of license-built Defenders, it's a road (well off-road) rally where navigation skills are important - participants are given a booklet with instructions which they must follow to complete the course and get to the finish.

View attachment 808515

The rally takes place mostly in the Moroccan desert, partly on somehat improved roads and also on trails. More on the rally: https://www.santanatrophy.com/

View attachment 808516

I think this could be a great Land Rover (ok, Santana) idea for a Jeep - there are lots of off-road events like Easter Jeep Safari where everyone lines up and follows the trail leader on the trails, and some more involved offroad events like like the Dirt Every Day event that the now-defunct offroad magazines in the U.S. used to sponsor (maybe they still do?), but as far as I know there's no event like the Santana Trophy - an event where each team's ability to follow directions while mostly solo in the wild and their driving skill makes the difference.

Imagine this - starting in Los Angeles or perhaps Las Vegas, the rally instructions route you through the Mojave Desert and maybe Joshua Tree National Park, then across Arizona and north to someplace to cross the Grand Canyon into Utah, north to Moab and east across Colorado with the final destination being Denver. Roads would be used when necessary but as much as possible the rally route would go off-road. It would be a week-long event, with the rally participants expected to live overland, carrying whatever they need to live on the route for a week. Camping would be part of the adventure and each team could decide where to camp along the way each night depending on their progress so far. Starting would be staggered so at least at the beginning it's not just a parade of vehicles following each other.

It could be called the American Overland Challenge.

Would you sign up?

I love this idea. There's a similar women-only event, called the Rebel Rally that takes place here in west. It'd be fun to do this. There's plenty of rally events for car enthusiasts but not many for the off-road crowd.

 

[jscherb]

This Defender was featured in the latest issue of Land Rover Life:



I completely agree with the caption on that photo, I like the open air but don't want the sun on my head. Here's why that photo caught my attention, this is my LJ:



The article mentions that the Land Rover's sides are stowed in the back:

Each of the canvas side panels can be quickly removed, folded, and stored in the back of the Defender, eliminating the need to roll them up and secure them with straps, a cumbersome task when you're on your own."

I disagree with that, it's not difficult to roll up properly designed sides.



They did go further with the open air idea than I did with my JKU Safari Cab hardtop though...




When I was designing and building the JKU Safari Cab I made provisions for a soft roof. I experimented with a very rough prototype using the soft tonneau from my Jeep-tub trailer.



Because of the way my hardtop is designed with upper door surrounds on the sides, it would be fairly straightforward to use a soft top header along the front (lower left photo above), and mount soft tonneau rails to it and the modular surrounds, sides and rear of the Safari Cab.

 

[Zeep]

This Defender was featured in the latest issue of Land Rover Life:

View attachment 810707

I completely agree with the caption on that photo, I like the open air but don't want the sun on my head. Here's why that photo caught my attention, this is my LJ:

View attachment 810706

The article mentions that the Land Rover's sides are stowed in the back:



I disagree with that, it's not difficult to roll up properly designed sides.



They did go further with the open air idea than I did with my JKU Safari Cab hardtop though...

View attachment 810708


When I was designing and building the JKU Safari Cab I made provisions for a soft roof. I experimented with a very rough prototype using the soft tonneau from my Jeep-tub trailer.

View attachment 810709

Because of the way my hardtop is designed with upper door surrounds on the sides, it would be fairly straightforward to use a soft top header along the front (lower left photo above), and mount soft tonneau rails to it and the modular surrounds, sides and rear of the Safari Cab.

That must have been some time ago, I notice you still have the stock flares on the JK.

 

[jscherb]

That must have been some time ago, I notice you still have the stock flares on the JK.

The first fiberglass design I did for the JK was the barn door, I actually did that before I owned my JKU. All I had was a factory hardtop at the time and I made the barn door compatible with the factory hardtop. When I got the JKU a little later I then designed and built the Safari Cab for it, which used the same barn door. And after all that I did the flat fenders and the JL-style grille.

 

[LRNAD90]

I completely agree with the caption on that photo, I like the open air but don't want the sun on my head.

Me too, I rarely take the soft top completely off, usually just take all the windows out. The original Tickford tops that were optioned on '94 NAS Defender 90s had roll up windows (and Alpine windows), but the Bestop that they moved to in '95 had zip out windows (and no Alpine windows). So more of a pain to carry with you after removed. My rear Window, I often just 'hang' from the cage inside as a result.

But either way, it is much more enjoyable to have the sun coverage and all the windows out. Now evening drives in the summer are another story..

I completely agree with the caption on that photo, I like the open air but don't want the sun on my head. Here's why that photo caught my attention, this is my LJ:

 

[rgallant]

@jscherb @AggieOE Having set up a few rallies they are a ton of work, and you need the teams to be in the same location each night. The same campsite covers logistics, making sure you have no one missing, you are responsible it is your event.

Even club rally events take a lot of work.

But it would be nice to have a vehicle agnostic rally run, and the Rebelle rally is a pretty outstanding event as a starting point.

I planned a 2-day club event here in Sw BC that was more or less a map and compass rally it took 3 weeks to plan and covid killed it. I had to limit it to 14 trucks any more would not be viable - too much traffic.

By the time I was done, this is where I was

• I needed 56 targets - not every target would be hit but it makes it more random and fun
• Had to locate and drive each route based on the least capable truck and driver combination
• Time the routes, and time & mileage did not matter to scoring as there could be multiple routes
• At each target see if there was a good object or plan for one to be placed - photos of the target for scoring
• Find a campsite for the competitors and volunteers
• Come up with an emergency plan for recovery and injury cellphones have no coverage
• Setup a VHF radio net and relay locations in case of emergency
• Final drive through the week before and set the targets

 

[jscherb]

An Ineos Grenadier idea for a Jeep...

In my SEMA thread I posted about an Ineos Grenadier that was at the show: https://forum.expeditionportal.com/threads/sema-show-2023.241528/post-3137301. I posted a few photos of the embedded factory L-track on the sides and I wrote:

One thing I found interesting is the L-track built into the sides (it comes that way from the factory). I'm not sure what it'll be used for but I'm anxious to see the uses people come up with when enough Grenadiers get out into the field.

Several companies are already making accessories that mount to the Grenadier's L-track. A Swiss company called Blacksheep Innovations (https://www.blacksheep-innovations.com/en/ineos-grenadier-2/) has several products that mount to the Grenadiers L-track...

A MOLLE panel:





Rotopax-style containers:



A fold-down side table:





An Austrian company called HGM (https://hgm-rack.at/) offers a little bit larger mounting panel:



And a Polish company called Bison Gear (https://bison-gear.com/en/home/132-ineos-grenadier-molle-panels.html) has panels which can hold jerry cans as well as Rotopax:



There are very few Grenadiers out there yet but the aftermarket support is growing quickly.

It would be a very easy job to DIY-install L-track to a Wrangler hardtop. I drew this L-track so that the details can be seen; on a black hardtop you'd probably install black L-track, on a body-color hardtop you might do aluminum or black depending on the color of the hardtop.



I did some searching and didn't find any examples of L-track on the side of a Wrangler hardtop. Probably that's because there aren't any accessories to mount to it on a Jeep, but sure seems like a good idea.

Could be useful inside the tailgate too, and probably a few other places.