SkiWill LR4 Build, What I liked, and what I'd do different.

[SkiWill]

I realized I'd never really posted what I had done to my LR4, what I liked, and what I'd do differently. I realized I better get on it, because I just listed my LR4 for sale in the classifieds since we're going to try "van landing" for the next few years to have more interior space for all the kids and dog.

Anyway, the LR3 and LR4 platform seems to be highly underrated in terms of its use as a backcountry touring vehicle, which is the purpose mine primarily served.



It has dragged a teardrop trailer all over Utah and has been used for hunting and remote travel throughout the west.



And it saw plenty of varied terrain and conditions:



I went through a few iterations with this vehicle starting with a Frontrunner rack and Eezi-Awn Series 3 tent:



While the quality of the tent was fantastic, the set up and breakdown were more of a PITA than I wanted to deal with, so I ended up selling the tent.

Also, due to the tendency to travel to places that are cold at night regardless of the season, we ended up adding a Colorado Teardrops Mt Massive trailer to the set up. The quality of this trailer is definitely better than the typical RV industry trailer, but Colorado Teardrops overextended themselves in the COVID boom and the subsequent RV industry crash sent them into bankruptcy, so there's no ordering a Mt. Massive trailer. I will say, I looked at a Bean trailer, and that would be my preference if you can tolerate a little less space. They're still available with production in the Salt Lake City area.

While we loved the tear drop, a third kid arrived and 2 little bunks and queen bed isn't really enough for 6' plus Mom and Dad and three kids so I added an Eezi-Awn Blade tent, which is about 100x more convenient than the soft shell tent. Since the LR4 (and LR3 for that matter) have a split tailgate, it's astonishingly easy to set up and take down the tent standing on the tailgate. Plus, you can keep two sleeping bags in the tent when stowed, which makes a world of difference for convenience.



I also moved the fridge slider over so I could use it just popping the upper half of the tailgate and with the rear ladder, I never needed to mess with the tent ladder either, which was a major plus.

 

[SkiWill]

For the electrical, I went a little overboard. I wanted a lithium ion battery to save weight, but it had to work in the cold. The smallest I could find was 100 AH. After a dodgy Renogy battery, I put a Battleborn battery in the teardrop and it was fantastic. It kept working on a Wyoming trip that didn't see above -5F for a couple of days. I thought about another Battleborn, but after watching some Will Prowse battery videos dissecting various cheap Amazon batteries, it appeared that the Chins battery was reasonable well built, had an acceptable BMS and was available in a heated version, so I threw one in the LR4, and it hasn't missed a beat.

Another known weak point of these vehicles is that the alternator never really keeps the battery as topped up as I would like, and opening doors all the time while camped wakes up the computers and draws down the starter battery. I looked for an charger that would use solar to charge the house lithium battery and the AGM start battery, but struck out until I found a sailing forum that discussed using solar to charge multiple battery chemistries.

Basically what they did is had a bus bar that the solar fed into and then different charge controllers for the different battery chemistries. So that's what I did:



I also added a DC-DC charger to charge the 100 AH lithium battery in case it wasn't sunny, but that was just excessive and I wouldn't do it again. I don't draw enough power and the battery will last several days without being charged in my use case.

With the Eezi-awn blade tent on the roof, I wanted to add solar some place that was not on the tent which would likely come on and off. Since the tent covers the entire roof, the only real estate left was the hood:



I installed a Lensun 110 W panel on top of 3M clear bra material. I've never seen much more than 60 W out of it, which is disappointing, but also totally adequate for my needs.

It keeps both batteries charged while I'm camping if I'm not turning the vehicle on for a couple of days. The white hood is actually cooler than the black tent even with engine heat, so I'm not really worried about thermal degradation. I haven't noticed any decrease in performance over the past couple of years.

 

[SkiWill]

The extra attachments I added to the rear swing outs have been great for one handed operation when holding a kid, but the slam latches freeze up in the cold, so I keep the swing outs off the bumper in the winter.







The 265/65R18 Cooper AT3 does fit in the stock location, but only fully deflated. Coopers tend to run a little larger than some other manufacturers at the same size.

Overall it's been an incredibly flexible and useful vehicle, but it will be time to build a van in a couple of days. If the LR4 doesn't sell, I'll probably do a 1 person van build, sell the RTT and maybe the drawers and try to make it configurable for sleeping and light cooking inside for just me on work or hunting travels to remote and cold places where the van might not fit.

 

[gabrielef]

I like you rear bumper swing out mods, I should do that on my LR3 and 4.

Sad you are switching platforms, but if you ever come back to a smaller platform, the Grenadier has been amazing for us.

Cheers!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[SkiWill]

I like you rear bumper swing out mods, I should do that on my LR3 and 4.

Sad you are switching platforms, but if you ever come back to a smaller platform, the Grenadier has been amazing for us.

Cheers!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ha! I actually test drove and crawled all over the Grenadier before we bought the van and was thoroughly impressed with he vehicle. Ultimately I decided that the van fit the overall needs a lot better for the time being, but I was so impressed with the Grenadier that it's going to be on my 5 year plan for when I recover from the van purchase.

Ultimately, I'm in the life stage where there are enough instances where the older kid(s) want to keep at something, whether skiing, kid bouldering, etc. and the younger one(s) tucker out and need a nap or a warm dry place for hot cocoa that a van is a better fit for the time being because, unlike a trailer, it can go to all trailheads. It also goes 90% of the places we travel with AWD, so it's not a hug sacrifice at the moment.

But, I'm very likely to be a Grenadier owner one of these days.

 

[SkiWill]

Frontrunner Roof Rack vs. EEZI-AWN Load bars

When I went to the hard shell Blade tent, I swapped over to load bars to save weight because with the Frontrunner rack I was way over the Land Rover recommended dynamic load weight. I think the Land Rover number is based on their rebranded Thule bars and is very underrated, but at the same time, anything to reduce weight on the roof is worth a try.

I installed a Frontrunner wind fairing on the rack and this really made a big difference in wind noise.



With the load bars I saved a lot of weight and it's noticeable, so for a full length hard shell RTT it's the way to go. Long term a custom fairing would help with the noise.

The other note is that the Frontrunner rack fit perfectly. Every piece of hardware was bagged and had a signature from whomever performed the QA/AC. Switching to the the Eezi-Awn rail and load bars, most of the screws were actually the wrong size. It wasn't a big deal since I live walking distance to a hardware store with a great fastener selection, but clearly Frontrunner is the winner on the QA/QC department. The Eezi-Awn products are good, but they clearly don't have the same attention to QC as Frontrunner.

 

[HokeyRover]

Thanks for posting this. I’m planning a very similar build with my 2012 lr4. I’m currently debating front and rear bumpers and feel like tactical may be the best option. What made you select them and would you again now that you’ve lived with them for a while?

 

[SkiWill]

Once I modified the Tactical rear bumper as shown above, I felt it became more practical. There's no good way of dealing with the lighting for the rear license plate though and all of the LED lights come with very small gauge wiring that's easy to break and hard to crimp, solder, etc. I'm not sure any bumper manufacturer is easier to deal with in that regard. It's just an unfortunate reality.

I would also recommend that you just get the bumpers without the parking sensor holes and disable parking sensors with a GAP tool if you leave the swing outs on all the time.

The swing outs are a double edged sword. They're a pain for day to day use. It's just more latches and things to move when you want to get groceries out of the trunk, so unless I'm on a trip, I usually take them off.

I think that the Kaymar rear bumper is a better design. The hinges are located such that the struts only push the swing outs once they are opened a little bit. They just did a better job with geometry, but when I checked a few years ago, they didn't have a good mounting solution around the NA spec V8 mufflers.

For the front, the advantage of the ARB is it is crash tested or at least built to a crash test standard in Australia. However, the Tactical4x4 bumper with a metalized finished is much more resistant to corrosion than some of the older ARB bumpers and it doesn't stick out as far.

All that to say, I've been pleased with them and I'd order my bumpers from Tactical4x4 again, but without the parking sensor holes.

Finally, you can order 10.9 metric bolts for the winch cradle from McMaster Carr. They're stronger than SAE grade 8, and haven't had an issue when using the winch. Easier than drilling everything out and using grade 8 fasteners for the winch cradle. Also, easier to install the Tactical4x4 front bumper with 1 or 2 people because of the two piece design and winch cradle.

 

[SkiWill]

And here's something I'd do differently. I bought the conversion kit from Atlantic British to convert the transmission from the plastic one piece pan and filter to a steel filter and pan.

Turns out this kit is just made by Brit Part which rhymes with (ahem) Part for a reason. The pan seemed reasonable quality, but the gasket is not at all and started leaking after 500 miles. Apparently on some of the other Land Rover forums this is a known issue, which I would like to have known before I did this conversion.

So, if, like me, you are driving your LR3 or LR4 with the 6 speed ZF transmission on adventures, you need to be able to regularly change fluid. The trick is to use Ford parts and avoid the known issues with the AB/Brit Part kit.

Land Rover metal transmission pan gasket issues.

Land Rover transmission service at a Ford price.

It's possible to use a Ford pan and gasket since they used a rebranded ZF 6 speed in a number of their vehicles. I'm going to swap the gasket on Tuesday next week when my new OEM Ford one arrives on Tuesday.

The gasket I ordered is Part # BL3Z-7A191-C

Supposedly the pan Part # 9L3Z-7A194-A will work as well instead of the Brit Part piece.

I'll post some pictures comparing the gasket when I get it in hand, but just from the pictures of the Ford part, it looks vastly superior. I really wish I had done more research on this earlier so I didn't have to do it twice.

 

[XJLI]

You can use the 6R80 Lubelocker gasket, I have it on my truck.