Prepping a camel trophy defender 110 for around the world...

[The Rover Shop]

Did I mention how snug the tent is in the roof rack...it will also interfere with the bracket I made to secure my front light bar mods...so now I need to raise it up 2 inches off the floor to clear...no problem, it leaves me a 2 inch space to make a small slide in drawer under it to store the tent window opening rods and other stuff

 

[The Rover Shop]

I initially thought about the cradle setup but the problem of storing it is a big problem...there is nothing I can do to store it as low as this... I looked at the construction of the rear bumper and looked at lowering the winch mounting plate and it would be difficult to do without basically remaking the whole thing....I have already ordered 100ft of plasma cord for the winch but I think I will also look into one of the smaller style winches...my thought is that with enough rope length I can double up with a snatch block and get enough power to get me out of most problems...after all if i need to go backwards I shouldn't be in tooo deep right..???...:bike_rider:.. asmaller one should remedy the problems with weight and clearances...after all...whats another 5 or 6 hundred $$$$$ on a bucket load of money pit truck...:drool:
The rear bumper does also allow me the benefit of having a rear step and I think it is not too much heavier than the other rear hitch setup I was going to install and this unit has better support to the chassis as well as added recovery points...and it was very rust free... my mind is trying to look at the positives...LOL...

 

[The Rover Shop]

So I looked into different rear winch options and wasn't really satified with what I could find nor could I get physical height measurements, so after much deliberating (reads...stand around looking at that cool rear bumper and saying things like...what if I...) I came up with a solution that is very simple...raise the spare... so I went about cutting off the rear spare mounting studs...the feeling of hacking up your expensive rear mantec swing away mount is a little daunting...LOL.. so I de-horned it..

I took the rear securing plate and off I trotted to my plasma cutting machine.. (boys and their toys require cool tools..lol..) and duplicated the ring.... filet ground the studs secured them into the plate to ensure correct alignment and tack welded them to the base, installed and tack welded the base to the tyre carrier about 2 inches higher...(the correct spare had some serious clearance issues)..



So now the spare sits with about an inch or so clearance...shave the top of the clutch engament lever and I can install a cover step and all is good...

 

[The Rover Shop]

So I sold an older Mercedes a while ago and it was a northern car that had some really nice sheepskin covers in a bag in the back...south florida here so we dont have much call for sheepskin seat covers so I threw them in the back room.... pulled them out the other day and said to the missus...here...make these fit camilla... Never being one to back down from a challenge off she toddled..after all..it was destiny..LOL...


after much careful deliberation and some not so careful hacking... I mean cutting and sewing... it was looking pretty damn good...even if I do say so myself... (she claims me to be a control freak...ppffffttt..)

Due to the internal roll cage the sides had to be trimmed off so she made a rear attatchment system so that they could easily be removed yet still secure enough.. I think I may just marry this woman before someone else does...

 

[overlander]

I think after a week, having to wrangle that RTT cover on every night is going to get old. I have a hannibal full length rack on mine with a EA 1400 and putting the cover on mine gets old without any sides. And you're not going to have a ladder to do it away from home. If the squeeze is that tight, I say cut the sides off your rack for the RTT portion. If you are concerned about appearance, then hinge them. Raising the RTT up does not sound like the best approach to this problem.

 

[The Rover Shop]

I couldn't agree more...for the routine day to day operations of it..depending on where and how far we are going and the weather conditions.. I roll the hannibal cover up and leave it at the back of the tent i the cavity between the tool box and the tent, the 2 inch height raise alows me to place it where it doesn't interfere with anything.. I had the missus make up a cover out of some sunbrella material I have been using for other stuff and this cover while not as waterproof as the hannibal cover is much easier to put on as it wraps over the side rails and secures with snaps and velcro...if we start heading into nasty weather and I need the tent a bit more waterproof and still intend on using it I can still use the factory one as it goes right over the one we have made.. I thought about taking the sides of the rack off but then I have no rigidity in my front lighting bar...I hate it when lights vibrate as you are using them...and the front limb risers would have no real strength either..I really thought about going back to the smaller one but I think I will enjoy the extra space of this one...hopefully it outweighs the PITA bit with the cover...

 

[The Rover Shop]

Due to the pain in the a** it has now become to put the factory tent cover off and on on a daily basis I had the missus make up a sunbrella cover...a light doody cover...hehe...he said doody... all tools used in the making of this cover were done so on period correct Land Rover tools...


and done in old world style fashions...hey..I want my cover freshly ironed please...



So we ended up with something like this...being a thinner material and snaps and velcro instead of the whole length zipper its easier to take off and put on..

 

[The Rover Shop]

Installed some under awning led light strips the same as what is installed inside the truck.....installed it facing down so that it reflects off the awning housing extrusion that sits just below the strip..I think its for a skeeter netting or similar material..this seemed to give it a more indirect light and not hitting you in the face... This system works really well and will give plenty of light and I have the ability to dim it also..as well as lots of different colours and strobing..fades, flashes etc etc...my own personal psycadelic experience in the middle of the mongolian plains..





I think this will also give me some very interesting lighting effects for some night time pics.. that whole faint glow of the vehicle with aurora borealis backdrop pic kinda thing..

 

[The Rover Shop]

Mounted up the rear winch bumper and winch...bought one of those new style winch control solenoid pacs and installed a warn winch control remote plug..I went with the new style solenoids as they take up a heck of a lot less room and are said to be totally waterproof, this allows me to install it in the back of the rear fender area with the plug to the rear....





Now just waiting for my 100ft plasma cord and slimline fairlead etc to arrive

 

[HumphreyBear]

Could you try to reattach the images in the two previous posts? I'm getting this when I try and view them:

vBulletin Message

Invalid Attachment specified. If you followed a valid link, please notify the administrator

 

[The Rover Shop]

there ya go...have a gander at that...LOL>...

 

[HumphreyBear]

Cheers!

 

[The Rover Shop]

Got my camel stickers today...

 

[The Rover Shop]

Cheers!

That's it...cheers...after 6 months of bloody hard slog and countless hours of mental anguish a 10's of thousands of dollars...I expected a bit more out of the Aussie who has so much to say...not even as much as a "good onya"...or "nice one" or even a little more exuberance like.."struth mate..and stone the bloody crows, thats a bonza bloody rig ya gots there, betcha could go to the back o bourke or the other side of the black stump in that thing"...man, my feelings are hurt....

 

[HumphreyBear]

Hmm, let me look around here, I have a lollypop somewhere... As I said in the PM I am practising twitter style communications these days...

Bloody nice Defender, BTW.