Opinions on 130 body configuration please

[Rovertrader]

Okay, I am considering one of the following configurations, and would appreciate your help. Which would be most practical in the States, and which would be most popular- if not one in the same? Please look closely, as the Hi-Cap bed cantilevers over the rear crossmember a foot or so, whereas the other two end at the rear crossmember in 110/90 fashion. Thanks all, Cheers!!

 

[overlander]

Classic 110 or 130 for sure! I would only go with one of the bottom two choices if absolulely necessary to meet some kind of commercial requirement. That length isn't practical as a DD or off road.

 

[LtFuzz]

Agreed, those both look very strange and artificial.

The classic 130 (isn't it actually 127"?) looks the best, IMO

 

[maxingout]

This is the configuration of our Australian 130. It worked well for us with a custom made top for the pick-up bed on which we could mount our roof top tent.
I was happy with this configuration. There is plenty of room for creative thinking. In Australia, they might even remove the pick-up bed and mount a customized tray on the back. I have seen some nice modifications along those lines.

 

[JSBriggs]

One of my favorites. This one has actually been stretched to 145. the rear doors are made from front doors to give them extra length.

Who says they dont go offroad.

-Jeff

 

[Rovertrader]

Mark & Felix- Thanks, and I tend to agree, though I get tunnel vision at times, hence the question to others. I did DD and wheel my 130(the white one above), and while a bit cumbersome at times off road, a great DD: very near same size as a CC F150. And correct on the 127, but like the 90, while not exact on nomenclature, it is what the green powers to be chose Also, the gray truck has three or four rows of seats- think along the lines of a Rover Suburban...

Dave- That is a very nice truck for sure!! I am working on one with a box currently, and would love to do a Ute bed as I had one on my PW, and loved it!!

Jeff- Wheeled with Slade and his Series I in Moab years ago, and he had the 147 there as well. If I remember correctly, either the front or rear doors were lengthened beyond a stock front door size?

Appreciate all the input, and hoping for more...

 

[4xdog]

Definitely the HCPU for me. Just looks right.

Don

 

[Antichrist]

What's your intended use? Hard to answer without that key information.

 

[UnfrozenCaveman]

Gotta be the Hi-Cap double cab.

"If yer' gonna be a bear...."


KAA

 

[LR Max]

The grey one for me. I need more of an SUV than a pickup truck. Also the back kinda is a pickup truck, can still hose it out!

All three configurations would be good sellers but I think the grey and the white ones would be very good sellers. Look at tahoes/suburbans/crew cab F-150s. I see MANY of these vehicles around. The configurations are very popular.

 

[JSBriggs]

...Wheeled with Slade and his Series I in Moab years ago, and he had the 147 there as well. If I remember correctly, either the front or rear doors were lengthened beyond a stock front door size?
...

The front doors are stock. The back doors are actually modified front doors. More than just squaring off the bottom of the rear door, the front door is actually several inches longer. This gives more leg room for the back seat.

-Jeff

 

[Ooops]

The front doors are stock. The back doors are actually modified front doors. More than just squaring off the bottom of the rear door, the front door is actually several inches longer. This gives more leg room for the back seat.

-Jeff

I think my questions may be useful to Rovertrade and I Hope I'm not hijacking, but please let me know if I need to start a new thread.

Jeff could you expand on that idea a little. What I mean is, were there other mods made to increase the leg room other than enlarging the doors? I ask because I have a modded 150" and I've been asking myself the same questions as Rovertrade

Max, same sort of question for you. In particular, what did you do to maximise the functionality of the pickup bed and cover? I've plaid with all the tray back, pickup backends in my mind but I can't begin to get my head around the pros and cons of each.

Olly

 

[rijosho]

Okay, I am considering one of the following configurations, and would appreciate your help. Which would be most practical in the States, and which would be most popular- if not one in the same? Please look closely, as the Hi-Cap bed cantilevers over the rear crossmember a foot or so, whereas the other two end at the rear crossmember in 110/90 fashion. Thanks all, Cheers!!

Don't know why you didn't post this over on d-90 for something this specific, but anyway here's my opinion. You're looking for the biggest bang for your buck, which means you'll want to appeal to the Nantucket crowd - I know of at least 2 130's there currently (pictured). The most lucrative option will be a ST configuration using a non-NAS cage, or one of your burned up cages, and trying to sell it for $100k or something crazy like that. Sure, puritans will have issues with the ST conversion, but it fetches some crazy money. As such, you'll want to start with a Dutch Spec type of truck bed which is integrated into the rest of the body, like in this ad (pictures below as the blue 130 TD5):

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Land...2?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item19ce40ae8a#v4-43

and convert it to a 9 seater soft top. You can see in the link that the truck pictured was only bid up to the $30s and never reached reserve (it went up for sale quite a few times over the past 6 months) and I'm assuming you'll be looking for way more than that - just showing that in that configuration as a truck it's not as desirable as you're probably hoping it is over here. The ST conversion will appeal to a crowd who will be making the purchase purely for pleasure and weekend "beach driving", and therefore things like A/C in the rear will not be as important as it would be if you wanted to turn your ambulance into a SW or something like that, as the hard top crowd tend to be more practical people.

What's your intended use? Hard to answer without that key information.

Resale

 

[Rovertrader]

Josh- nothing against D-90 at all, just thought it more appropriate here as the range of interest seems larger. And you are correct concerning resale...
All that said, and if I am interpreting you correctly, go the route of the blue truck on my original post, except a full length s/t with some sort of cage configured? Or, perhaps keep the CC, but convert it to s/t, and then the bed can be used as truck, or extra seats with the top down? Good ideas, all- thanks!!

 

[rijosho]

I know you have nothing against them, it's just that those are the guys who usually have the most constructive criticism(s) for Defenders, and could probably be useful in this instance as well.

Yeah, I'd say go the route of the blue truck in your original post (and coincidentally the blue truck in my post) as your STARTING point, but that body style is super rare is it not?? You may have issues sourcing one. Then, yeah a full length canvas ST and a cage. On the cheap you'll at least want to put two center-facing flat benches in the "truck bed" as they're not that expensive and your return will be way higher than if you just left the back as a blank bed (sort of like staging a house's outdoor space instead of leaving it blank - thanks HGTV). Along the same budget you could do a removable NAS-type forward-facing bench seat all the way in the back, but that yields a 7 passenger, or most expensive you could do those lock and folds!! You'll also probably want to remove the center bulkhead and put in a W bar so that the cabin is more obviously a single space instead of two separate spaces.

With the 110s as an example you see that sure the SW configurations sell all the time, but the bigger mone comes from the "proper" ST conversions.