Finishing touches

Time to get to grips with all the little things that make the difference between an expedition vehicle that just carries a lot of kit and one where the kit is in the right place. This takes a lot more planning than you'd think. For example, if you build storage bins  like ours, and intend to use them for storing kitchen stuff, food, pots, pans, cutlery...well, you get the idea - then all this has to be accessible while the chef is working. Not good if she needs an essential cookerything and she's sitting on the cupboard that contains it. This isn't going to be Good Design. The same goes for the Man Stuff . An example is the toolset, which is a heavy plastic fold-open briefcase thing. It sits perfectly in the space behind the passenger seat.

 It could've been made to fit there, but imagine trying to get at it in a hurry with a cab full of gear to climb over. I had to find a better place but this could only be right inside the back door. It then stopped us from easily opening the rearmost storage bin so this couldn't contain kitchen things and is being used for storing vehicle spares, which (hopefully) should never need to be used. This isn't an efficient use of otherwise useful space - the stuff you hope you'll never need should be somewhere less accessible. We are making this sort of compromise all the time, generally forced by one apparently insignificant factor which in this case was the shape of the tool box.


Another constraint is the need to make everything we carry do at least 2 jobs. Sue needs a thick cushion or something to get to the right sitting height to use the cooker and an old Series Landrover seat cushion was just right. But that's all it was useful for and otherwise got in the way. To solve the problem and address the "2 jobs" requirement - this is our folding table:

It folds down the middle and resembles a rifle case.
 It contains the support leg and fits on the back fender like this:

...and also provides a seat for the chef (the canvas sleeve is padded) or can fit on the rock slider like below. Put here it's under the awning which is useful. It's a better height for eating while the higher mounting on the rear corner makes it better for food preparation. Since it'll flip round - the support tube can be fitted into the jacking points in the crossmember -  it can be set up under the extended roof tent or inside the porch, if we ever fit it. Also, it allows the chef to watch what the kitchen apprentice is up to with all those sharp knives....

The kitchen "extension" hangs off the rear door as before but we've made it a bit bigger so the Cadac BBQ can sit on it, hopefully out of the wind.The rectangular bowl is a bit of an extravagance but it's better for doing the washing up than the circular one inside.



The overhead storage "parcel shelf" and centre console were made up from 6mm plywood and carries the CB radio and storage for maps, guide books, tickets, chamois leathers, hi-vis vests, breath testing kits (for France) and all the lightweight gubbins that otherwise gets scattered about or buried in the cubby box so it can't be found unless everything else gets pulled out. Commercial equivalents are very expensive so we thought we could do at least as good a job for the cost of a few beers.
We removed the original headlining and tried to do a DIY recovering job but the fibreboard - or whatever it is made from - just wouldn't support any sensible adhesive so we couldn't get the headlining material to stick back on.

 In the end we gave up. It was bent in the middle, sagged and nothing we tried, including making a stainless steel support for the back edge, would hold it up properly. We decided it wasn't worth bothering about and pulled it out. The roof panel had already had silentcoat panels stuck to it, so we added a layer of 10mm rubberised foam -the same as we'd used in the back - and this has had some effect on noise levels. Not much, admittedly, but better than nothing.

Since Holiday Time is fast approaching it's time to put everything back on that was removed for the refurbishing. First on was the awning. We reversed the mounts so that it now sits a bit lower than when it arrived.

This gives more room to operate the zip on the roof tent cover but makes it really difficult to get access to the underside of the rack when you want to fix the roof tent on...we found out the hard way. The tent had been fixed on by TPO using bolts that were far too long and with the heads under the rack. This meant the ends of the bolts stuck up through the floor by 40mm or so. OK, these could be cut off but the better solution was to move the mounting holes and put the bolts in the right way round. Still a right pain, though, and not a job we'd want to do too often. The ladder is only just long enough to reach the ground and has to be vertical to do so, which isn't a comfortable climb for anyone who isn't a mountaineer.

I spoke to the UK importer who expressed surprise that there was a problem here. Perhaps we have a Defender that's different to all the rest but I don't think so.
















We made a short extension out of a shelving kit which meant we didn't have to buy the ridiculously overpriced ladder extensions sold for this purpose by Hannibal and others.
A bit amateur but it does the job, cost nothing but 30 minutes of time since we had the metal anyway and will be reinvented once I find some ally tube of the right section to fit into the bottom of the "proper" ladder. This is ours:

and this is the commercial alternative at £60 a pop:


Plus postage, of course.

With the extension on the bottom, the ladder adopts a slightly less intimidating angle..not to mention a lot less difficult to negotiate in the middle of the night if necessary.

Internal storage wasn't as plentiful in the hardtop as the CSW since the low floor of the second-row seats gave a lot of useful space in Daphne once the seats were removed. All the gear that had been put there now needed another home. Some of the oils and grease went under the floor as before, and we found a way to mount the levelling chocks along the chassis rails which might survive rocky terrain a bit better than our previous attempt.
The large empty spaces under the hard top's floor needed to be used and we looked at the metal boxes sold for the job that fit into the spaces in front of the wheel arches. Because we have rock sliders the large versions of these boxes that'll hold 2 jerry cans won't fit. One UK company sells a smaller version that will fit, but our experience of dealing with them hasn't been good and I wasn't keen to give them any more of our money. A bit of research and some careful measuring turned up these:

They're marketed for use on yacht decks and are therefore watertight, lockable and solid enough to stand on. They also fit perfectly into the side of a Defender:

As usual, the longest part of the job was measuring up and making sure that I only cut once and got it right the first time. A couple of cardboard templates made sure that everything would fit and there would be no hidden brackets or bits of chassis that would get in the way.

 Still a bit nerve wracking, though, making that cut....as you can see from the guide holes, I cut a little on the small side first and took off the rest afterwards since it's easier that way than trying to make a hole that's too big a bit smaller.

We could only fit one, on the driver's side, as the water tank filled the space on the other side. I used an air saw bought really cheaply from Lidl and it did a really good job.

The box was primed and painted and a layer of thick aluminium tape - much thicker than DIY-store stuff- put over the sides to protect it from stone chips etc.

 

This'll give an idea of how much can be stored in here. The can is a 10 litre jerry. Obviously there is some bracing underneath. We used a strip of galvanised brickie's tie bar that spans 2 of the chassis frames and a couple of brackets from an Aldi kit. Our backwoods stove fits in here perfectly.

Sand ladders, or rather, bog bridges.

I've never had to use these but I guess it'd be tempting fate to leave them behind. They also provide a stable platform when I'm fiddling about with the roof tent and  across a couple of boxes they make planks to sit on. I wanted to hang them from the side after putting some cargo rails on, but they're too long and heavy - ours are the full 50mm version - so we strapped our firewood bag there instead. It's not particularly secure but a bag of sticks isn't much to lose and frees valuable space elsewhere.


The second spare wheel can now hang off the rear carrier. Getting this fitted was a real head-scratcher.

I couldn't get access to the nuts that hold the crossmember on because the fuel tank extension was in the way. It fills the otherwise empty space between the wheel and the back body panel, and I needed to take the bolts out to mount the lower carrier bracket. Removing the tank was going to be a major job and not one I was looking forward to having to tackle. Fortunately the fog warning light need to be replaced and I decided to use a round NAS-type reflector instead of the standard box-shaped one.

This meant moving the location a little to clear the hi-lift jack mounting point so I cut a hole big enough to get a spanner through and find the nuts, then made a slightly oversize blanking plate to cover the hole as well as carry the new fog light.
 
 Now it's painted it's barely visible.

The Engel fridge has been tested and works very well, as you'd expect. Ours also has an extra box that fits to the top so we can have a freezer compartment with a fridge/cooler on top. Really useful but for this summer's trip we'll not be far from civilisation - and shops - for long so we've decided to use the Waeco fridge we used in  Morocco last year. This takes up less space and will let us use the full width of the cab for sleeping if we need to. This might be useful if we spend any time needing to "stealth camp" - using Spanish and French aires, for example.


Almost done, now. Final bits and pieces included the mud shields for the front outriggers together with the extension bars for the mud flaps. Hopefully these will prevent the trademark "rooster tail" muddy spray up the door as they move the flaps out about 100mm to catch the crud thrown off by the wider tyres. 

All the metal fasteners are coated with copper grease. Probably won't last more than 10 miles.



The rust is breaking out on the hinges already. A job for Santa Claus, perhaps?

These were invented by a Welsh company and makes me wonder why Solihull didn't think of such a basic modification and save folk like me a bag of cash to achieve the same thing. I could've made some up myself I suppose, but the original designer deserves to be rewarded for an excellent idea and a well thought out kit. Gwynn Lewis 4x4 - my plug, I don't work there.

We cut the top section from the ARB bull bar. I can hear the howls of anguish now, but to be honest I have no use for something that makes the Defender into a ram-raider lookalike. We don't get many kangaroos where we drive and the thing got in the way of the "dead lift" required to raise the heavy bonnet now that a spare wheel's on it. I used the redundant metal to mount a light bar which will be a lot more use, not to mention 10 kgs lighter. The standard bonnet latch has been replaced with bonnet pins since it wouldn't "pop up" and stay unlocked with the extra weight. This meant a 2-person job - one to pull mightily on the bonnet release while the other did the hard work.

A bit more underbody protection was needed in the form of diff guards. I bought a pair for Rover axles only to find that the rear one, although it's generally described as a "Rover" is a lot bigger than the supplier thought it was so only one of the pair - the front one - would fit. Another delay while I sent one back (yet to be refunded after a week) and bought one of a different design that should fit. Note the "should". I tried to fit it today (9th) and had to butcher it quite severely to get it on. Basically the lower mounting holes won't line up with the ends of the diff studs. I had to cut them off and grind the residue away before the lower part of the guard would wrap around the diff.

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The 2 upper mounting bolts included were the wrong size and I've had to substitute 2 M10 screws which aren't correct and need to be replaced before the guard can really offer any protection. I went to the local tractor fixer and he provided 2 Imperial bolts that fit perfectly. The original supplier has been e-mailed....

Our plan now is to do the usual "shakedown  trip" starting with a visit to the UK HUBB meeting in Wales in 10 days or so, then the ferry to Roscoff and after a relaxing bimble through France we'll have a go at the Pyrenees Traverse à la Vibraction. Home via Bilbao and the ferry.


So, everything's back together, the MoT is complete with no issues and all we have to do, if the blasted rain ever stops, is to open the tent and fit the jumbo awning. We prefer having a covered entrance so I hope that we can fit it and leave it attached when the tent is folded away. Given that the tent cover is quite tight this may be a frustrating experience. We'll see. Want to get this done before we try to set up in public for the first time, probably in the rain (it will be Wales, after all) and in the dark.


Next instalment from The Road, somewhere. Probably. In'sh'allah.