Prepping a defender 130 for around the world..

[The Rover Shop]

Been finishing off the electrics and wiring everything up the way I want them, was having concerns about our fridge sucking down too much power so I bought the Mac daddy of odyssey batteries...sure, it was $400 but WOW is this thing big and heavy...

straight out of the box it had 12.5 volts in it..I've had the fridge running on this battery for the last 3 days and not just on...but really cold..

And this was after I had turned the fridge off an hour ago...it had been running at 18 degrees..during this time the fridge dropped a whole 0.3 of a volt...down to 12.2.
Solar panels will kick in tomorrow and sure it will be back up to 12.5+..

 

[lrover52]

Hi Shayne,

Nice project and built!

It should give you a nice rig to travel to many places. I shall be following your trip afterwards.

Having "lived" in roof tents for 15 months of travel, for my current vehicle (planning a Round The World trip) I decided that I wanted a closed cabin. - I must be getting old - lol!

Cheers, Bernard

 

[The Rover Shop]

Living in south Florida a priority was not placed high on getting the diesel cabin heater up and running... Well since I am finalizing and tidying up the wiring and rear storage box today was as good a day as any to get it done.. I left it in its original position as fitted in the works utility compartment that it had when I bought it.. The outlet is into the rear centre cubby so when we want to use it we just open the lid...extended the wiring and fired up with no problems..


This unit will also be used to heat the rear box and hence the rooftop tent by ducting a heater pipe into the rear box.. More on that soon.. This also makes it very handy to be able to dry out our bedding in really damp conditions.. Just leave it on for a couple of hours with the tent up and voila..everything is dried out..and toasty warm..

 

[The Rover Shop]

Oooohhhhh, shiny expensive bits finally going in... ARB air lockers front and rear..after owning a high end shop for many years with all the equipment at your disposal and workers to do the heavy boring mundane stuff.... This working on the ground stuff sucks..... Especially of a night..after the rain storms..

 

[jeffe]

Amazing build! You're basically the Mark Watney of Defenders. Keep going!


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[Deleted member 9101]

Just so you know... I am living vicariously though this discussion...haha.

 

[The Rover Shop]

So with just days left before we take off for some back to back weekend Land Rover rallies since I was installing the front and rear ARB lockers I decided to take a quick overhaul of the front swivel hub assys... Biiiiig mistake.. The upper swivel pin bearings were totally trashed and there are none available in the USA at the moment..thankfully I'm guessing it had happened before and there were extra rollers laying in the bottom of the housing assys... So I managed to cobble em back together for the rally and will replace when I replace the swivel hubs...

 

[The Rover Shop]

So we did a total of nearly 5000 miles over the last 4 weeks and everything is holding up really well... Got to use the camping setups in real time and am very happy with everything... A few minor tweaks but nothing major...
Also got to use the lockers in some gnarly terrain and was extremely happy with the big old girls capabilities..

 

[lrover52]

I have two ARBs on my short wheel base Serie III, they are fantastic, they make a huge difference!

!

 

[ZG]

So with just days left before we take off for some back to back weekend Land Rover rallies since I was installing the front and rear ARB lockers I decided to take a quick overhaul of the front swivel hub assys... Biiiiig mistake.. The upper swivel pin bearings were totally trashed and there are none available in the USA at the moment..

Must have forgotten to call us then eh...11 in stock...

 

[The Rover Shop]

Oh contrair my furry little friend..... I did call... These are the later style that carry the tapered roller bearing and not the cage roller and shim... Comes as a kit.. I ALWAYS call Rovers North for all my Land Rover needs...

 

[Red90]

Rusty balls. Happens to the best of us later in life.

 

[The Rover Shop]

Just rusty means they haven't been moved in a little while...pitting means they haven't been used in a lonnnnng while..

 

[The Rover Shop]

Update of the blanket installation.. This wading blanket is used for when going through deep water or mud, stops any floating debris in the water from blocking or damaging the intercooler and radiator, also used in cold climates to allow the radiator to stay a little warmer and also limits the amount of air pushing through your engine bay and hopefully keeps the firewall from getting too cold and keeping the occupants a little warmer. I chose the "lift the dot" style retainers as they are less inclined to get rusted in place than the other push button style. The SDO grille makes these extremely easy to install as you just drill a hole and the studs screw right into the grill...perfect.. I will also have a screen mesh in between that stops insects and mud from blocking the rad, if the screen gets too blocked you can just pop the blanket off and brush the screen off or back wash it.. Easy peasy..

 

[Deleted member 9101]

The screen idea is a good one. I have done something similar on my 4x4's over the years to keep the radiator clean(er).