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

[HillbillyfromAL]

So why are replacing a brand new Warn with a Superwinch? Your Defender is looking awesome.

 

[The Rover Shop]

Thanks.. I know it sounds kinda stoopid but the superwinch Husky series has long been regarded as one of the upper end winches...its downfall or detriment is a slow line speed...its upside is that it is a worm drive motor so it will pull the same all day long and the worm gear drive acts as a brake for added safety...that and the original winch fitted to my camel was a superwinch...the correct decals which will be going on the truck soon will say camel trophy superwinch...I can't really have a warn winch on it then can I..???:drool:

 

[The Rover Shop]

I got my long awaited camel trophy rack today from brownchurch in England..boy are they ugly...but talk about functional...now I get to hack it up to allow me to have the front light bars pivot down so I can open my roof top tent to the front... will take pics and update... I also am paranoid about people stealing my **** or worse...stealing my car, I have spent lots of time to figure out how to make it as theft proof as possible and am quite happy with the results i have come up with...If they can steal this after overcoming my obstacles then more power to them...they must REALLLLY want her... and even after that I activate the GPS system and track it down,,,pics and details coming soon..

 

[HillbillyfromAL]

I didn't know they came that way. So now it makes perfect sense.

 

[mep1811]

Can you tell us more about your special shortwave radio ? Sounds like something I would like to have .

great build up Thanks

 

[The Rover Shop]

The radio I installed I had to buy from Israel or soemwhere like that..I think it is model number SONY CDX-GT572..It has the aux plug input in the front as well as cd, flip down face as well as the regular FM, Medium and short wave radio reception, I had a vehicle just recently that had a short wave radio in it and I was always listening to radio stations from all over the world...I guess certain radio stations over here act as repeater stations for stations from all over the world...it also has a switch in the casing to allow you to switch from US spec frequency steps to European frequency steps... the radio frequencies in Europe I believe go on different frequency steps so a US radio has limited if any reception.. I also installed an amplified flexy radio antenna...this has a wire which is supposed to be enrgised at all times but i didn't see the need for that, the instructions called for a minumum 2amp fused circuit for the amplied antenna and i found that the remote wire for the amp (which I am not using) was rated at 3 amps so I just connected the antenna power wire to that...that way the antenna is only getting power when the radio is switched on..and just to make sure I can get radio stations in the remotest of places I had a hole on the other fender that needed plugging so I installed another kind of antenna on the opposite fender...both antenna cords go into a coupler and then into the radio...I had no idea there were soooo many radio stations over here...LOL...

 

[MattScott]

The radio I installed I had to buy from Israel or soemwhere like that..I think it is model number SONY CDX-GT572..It has the aux plug input in the front as well as cd, flip down face as well as the regular FM, Medium and short wave radio reception, I had a vehicle just recently that had a short wave radio in it and I was always listening to radio stations from all over the world...I guess certain radio stations over here act as repeater stations for stations from all over the world...it also has a switch in the casing to allow you to switch from US spec frequency steps to European frequency steps... the radio frequencies in Europe I believe go on different frequency steps so a US radio has limited if any reception.. I also installed an amplified flexy radio antenna...this has a wire which is supposed to be enrgised at all times but i didn't see the need for that, the instructions called for a minumum 2amp fused circuit for the amplied antenna and i found that the remote wire for the amp (which I am not using) was rated at 3 amps so I just connected the antenna power wire to that...that way the antenna is only getting power when the radio is switched on..and just to make sure I can get radio stations in the remotest of places I had a hole on the other fender that needed plugging so I installed another kind of antenna on the opposite fender...both antenna cords go into a coupler and then into the radio...I had no idea there were soooo many radio stations over here...LOL...

Could you give me a link to this radio?

 

[The Rover Shop]

Sure... here's a couple.. (this one is slightly different but looks to have the same features and may be available here..) http://www.shortwavestore.com/product.php?productid=768&cat=0&page=1 ....here is a link to the owners manual but I am having trouble finding the actual radio.. maybe mine is not normally available in this country so it doesn't come up on a search... I will see if I can find the sellers site..
here is a good one...remember...reads right to left...LOL... http://www.karotejarat.com/cat101/item/49548-فروش-پنل-سونی-مدل-CDX-GT572.html?t=پخش-باند

 

[The Rover Shop]

After doing a bit more research and going back through thousands of my paypal purchases (...don't ask...its been an expensive buildup for this trip.:Wow1:
I found the transaction and went back...and it turns out he has another one for sale...here is the item number....if you haven't used ebay before just cut and paste the item number into the search field in the top of the ebay site and it comes up.. 250902740993
SHAYNE

 

[The Rover Shop]

Well I got my newest time consuming challenge yesterday...I bought an on-board welding setup for the truck...now I just need to fabricate a bracket for the welder alternator and a drive pulley setup...I don't think I will leave it in there all the time...will just leave it in my spares kit for IF I ever need it..

 

[Red90]

http://www.shortwavestore.com/car-stereos-with-shortwave/

 

[The Rover Shop]

Well its been a busy week or so fitting all the stuff I have been accumulating to the new rack...doing a trial fit of everything before I remove the rack to install the roof tent and pivoting light bar... Mounted the sand ladders to the left side rear, the high lift jack on brackets and then mounted my LED rear work and reverse lights to those brackets.. mounted the full length ARB awning to the right side and placed the jerry cans into the holders...the jerry cans are the almost unobtainium wedco locking style..




Installed the side facing lights to the rack..these are placed above the front doors so you can actually reach them from the front seats to direct them where you need them while "driving"..


got my heating and cooling system "finished.. from the engine the coolant goes through a shut-off valve..red handles front centre and rear centre of pic. (allows me to turn off the hot water to everything outside the engine in case of hot weather or a blown hose, heater core or..???) then through a heat exchanger unit for hot shower water etc ....
then back to a 1000 watt heat pump circulator red pump looking unit right of pic....then into the main heater box and then to the auxillary heater box in the left rear of the cab, this unit (genuine land rover part) originally had the inlet and outlet coming straight out underneath but this would have made the hoses go into the left rear wheel arch leaving them susceptible to damage...so I did my best plumbers impersonation and made them into the abomination you see before you...this allowed me to run them forward and down into the seating area where I once again ran copper pipe through the floor to stop the hoses from being cut.. after that the return hose runs back to the engine.. the rear heater section has 2 speeds which I wired in a switch into the housing itself...power feed will come from the overhead console since this heater is also designed to be used while sleeping inside and the unit will be inaccessible..

 

[The Rover Shop]

Next I wanted the ability to walk on the fenders to access the roof tent if necessary, so I went about installing a set of the heavier duty fender panels...question...when does it take a qualified mechanic all day to install a pair of fender trim panels..Answer...when he is trying to not mess with original camel fittings..
First a template was carefully made..

and then cut...fit...remove...trim...fit...remove...trim...etc etc..



Also got to install my much sought after superwinch wander lead socket back into its original marking holes as well (thanks to "grease nipples" in the Camel Trophy Owners Club)... I was quite happy with the results..
next came the job of installing my specially ordered Terrafirma rock sliders..I went with the one with the extra side rail as it allows me a little bit more side and fender flare protection as well as the added bonus of a side step to access the roof rack stuff.. first of all I had the replace the rear mounting member and strengthen all the other mounting points...this was done by welding in extra pieces of channel iron to give better rigidity to a chassi that is starting to get a little bit worse for wear already..I think now I should have no trouble jacking the complete car up from the sliders without having the slider come off in my hands...most embarrassing

after installing I applied some of the 3m tread grip tape..

I also got to install my completed aux fuel tank, I measured its capacity and it takes 30 quarts (7.5 U.S. gallons) was hoping for more but oh well..filled that sucker is heavy..


I made the neck a little lower than the last pic and made a top securing plate on the top side that spreads the weight of it over the entire upper surface..as mentioned before I will plumb this into the main tank so that I can dump it into the main tank if needed at the turn of a valve...will onlu have it filled when I think it may be needed...i.e..in the sahara or south africa or the remotest of regions etc..

 

[The Rover Shop]

Occasionally I will be needing to leave the vehicle unattended for periods of time from a few minutes to a few weeks, while every attempt will be made to park smartly or at a friends place crafty thieving bastards can strike at any time any place...I mentioned some anti-theft ideas before and here is some of them.. The rear section of the truck is having the manted interior and exterior window guards installed, I am replacing the front door window glass with polypropolene (you can't break it with a hammer) I will be installing a very basic alarm that sets off an internal and external siren if not switched off within 10 seconds of opening a door, this will also have the basic flashing red dash led to act as a visual deterrent, if they get past those 2 things and manage to get the ignition and steering lock broken when they switch the ignition on they will get no power, first of all they will assume this is because of the interior perko switch being in the off position...

but after switching that they will still find no interior power..this is due to when I rewired the main power feed through the amps guage I installed a trippable circuit breaker high up in the engine bay (to stop them from going at it from underneath)..when leaving the car i trip this breaker thereby eliminating power going into the vehicle

the accessories in the overhead console are on a seperate battery so they will have power but have no relation or connection to the vehicle power circuits...now IF they manage to get this far I will be installing an unlabelled switch inside the lockable portion of the tuffy box (similar to the radio one)

that controls a fuel cut off solenoid that will be carefully hidden above the chassis, this will allow a would be thief to start the vehicle and drive maybe a couple of feet before it dies again...most times a would be thief will not try to get it running again when it is in the middle of the road.now if they manage to bypass all of this the GPS system will be activated allowing me to track the vehicle...SHOULD they manage to get this far undetected any valuable stuff is located in the safe inside fireproof bags..as mentioned before I have made the safe as theft proof as I can think of including an extra reinforcing plate on the underside of the body which has 4 large welded bolts fitted into it which go through the floor into the safe and the large locking nuts are fitted inside the safe, you need to get into the safe to undo them..


I also have plans to have a metal pipe with a closed off end that goes over the handbrake and is locked into place, this will stop them from releasing the hand brake by not allowing them to hit the release button, I know there are ways of getting around all of these but it all takes time and the idea is just to make it as inconvenient as possible and slow them down as much as possible...lets face it, thieves are lazy little buggers and prone to giving up fairly easily and seeking an easier target.You have to think like a thief to stop a thief...and being Australian I know how an (ex) thief thinks..LOL..
I also got to install my rear salisbury diff guard..

 

[navydevildoc]

Looks like you are already well along on the radio front... but like I mentioned over on D-90 another route would have been combine the 2m and shortwave radio into one and just picked up an IC-7000 or FT-857D. Both can receive in the shortwave bands, and if you upgrade to a general class ham license you can transmit on HF (shortwave) yourself. With a little bit of setup you can even use the Winlink system to get e-mail for free over HF from anywhere in the world. Winlink also has a position reporting system kind of like a SPOT, except you get a confirmation that it was received. It would have also saved you from having to purchase a rare radio from eBay.

I used my D-90's IC-7000 in Alaska last year and was picking up the BBC just fine from over the pole, and got e-mail service from British Columbia.