18 months ago my friend and I knew nothing about land rovers but thanks in no small part to all you experts, enthusiasts, **** takers and general good eggs we have build and shipped our DIY expedition land rover to India. The plan is to drive it up through the Thar desert and into Nepal before undertaking some medical work in conjunction with a local hospital and a few NGO's.

There are plenty of expedition build threads around but we thought we'd share ours with you all, budget and amateur as it is!

We can't than you all enough for all the help and advice

This is our blog should you wish to follow our progress.

medicsoverland | ?No, no! The adventures first, explanations take such a dreadful time.? ? Lewis Carroll.

Before

This is what the old boy looked like when we got him. He had an electric instead of the factory standard viscous fan and the previous owner had a replaced the rear cross member, fitted a full set of new BFG all terrain tires and given it a 2’’ lift with TerraFirma shocks all round. At the time we didn’t really know what that meant, but it turns out it was all quite useful. We bought it from an RAF pilot, whose rather attractive blonde wife was draped across the bonnet when we arrived. Being hot blooded males with a penchant for shinny things we pretty much decided then and there that henry, as the vehicle affectionately became known, was going to be ours. Given that the test drive didn’t reveal anything ominous and the old rust mouse had left the chassis in pretty good nick we exchanged paper work and bank details – the blonde woman was not included – and blindly walked into the quagmire that is land rover ownership.

Sound system

As any adventurer will tell you, you can’t go on an expedition without some tunes. Sound system wise, the factory standard for this particular vintage of defender was a gaping hole where a stereo should have been. The sound of the engine mixed with Scott’s beat boxing got old pretty quickly – and he certainly didn’t appreciate my walking in the air impression – so we decided to install something a bit more effective. We built a roof shelf for storage in the back, the front of which makes a perfect place to mount the main speakers – a pair of 13in pioneers. Music nuts will tell you that you shouldn’t let a pair of speakers share the same airspace but we ignored that advice and it didn’t seem to make any difference. We were installing split charge system so ran the stereo off the second battery via an auxiliary ignition live fuse box. We also put a second set of speakers in the cubby box. To improve the sound and for its general advantages we insulated the whole land rover with closed cell foil lined matts – £5 a pop from Tesco’s and bloody brilliant. The green button on the dash allows the stereo to turn on without the ignition, meaning that most of the time your not going to forget to turn the stereo off and drain the battery but if you want to listen to music when parked up you can. Pretty pleased with final result you can listen to music happily at 30% volume and barely notice the sound of the engine.

Split charge system and electrics

To run all our kit we used a national Luna split charge system and dual deep cycle Odyssey batteries. The ‘intelligent relay’ as they call it works on a time delay system. The starter battery gets preferential charge for the first 5 minutes and then the relay charges both batteries in parallel. We mounted the controller for the split charge relay on the MUD console for easy viewing of the charge status of both batteries. The controller itself has a number of useful features. Firstly, there’s a timer override button allowing you to manually connect both batteries in parallel. Secondly, it has an alarm to alert you if either battery drops below a certain charge or if an over charge situation exists. We insulated the battery box and strapped the batteries down. We chose to install all the electrics onto the metal bulkhead behind the seats, mainly because we had two auxiliary fuses boxes and a lot of extra relays and wanted them easily accessible. We could have put some of these components in the battery box but there isn’t much room and should either of the batteries become dislodged they risk being damaged. Both main and auxiliary circuits have their own 300amp marine isolator switches. For the main auxiliary we used an old discovery fuse box bought cheap off eBay. It works perfectly for this purpose with loads of output terminals for the various bits of electrical kit we have installed. In the picture below the main auxiliary fuse box is below the fire extinguisher and powers the rear light bar, front light bar, stereo, 1000w inverter, T max HD air compressor, air horn and additional rear taillights. The little fuse box to the left is for ignition live outputs and the big black box houses the extra relays. Also, before anyone picks up on the obvious mistake – the green electrical tape was only temporary until we got some more heat shrink insulation!

Engine

A new alternator and replacement viscous fan were important repair works, as it soon became apparent that the small electric fan wouldn’t be up to the task of Indian heat. After all, the defender was designed carefully to adapt to the challenges of -30 to +50 degrees Celsius, so why differ from a very well thought out plan. Back went in a viscous fan and cowling. Upon removing the electric fan, we realised we’d be best replacing the corroded radiator and rusted water pump as well A quick morning’s work left us with a shiny, almost entirely renewed cooling system.

Aux fuel tank

We have a 35l auxiliary fuel tank on the passenger side, bolted high up on the chassis to keep it out of the way. It pumps fuel into the main tank controlled by a switch on the centre console. It’s a very simple set up; no sender, and no complicated fuel tank switch over – just a pump and a pipe.

Rear Compartment and storage

Getting the back of your vehicle sorted out will help no end in keeping you sane on the road. Even on short trips, incessantly unpacking and repacking it just to find your stove will drive you bonkers. But first things first, we had to (reluctantly) lose the bench seats. We were lucky enough to have a checkerplate coated back of the vehicle which makes it pretty rugged for throwing things about in. We went for a simple concept, keeping the heaviest stuff as low as possible, and having things as accessible as their frequency of use… i.e. The stuff that’s most likely to be used needs to be easiest to get at. A 70L FrontRunner specialist designed water storage tank sits up against the back of the front bulkhead, which will hopefully keep us out of a sticky situation in the desert! Strapped up against the tank is our hi-lift jack, essential kit for getting out of a mess. We’ve used two old airliner aluminium tins that the air hostesses used to keep the dinners in on the plane, for our spares and fluids. Pushed up against the water tank, they fit snuggly between the two wheel-arches and don’t really need fixing down especially when they’re loaded up.
In front of the two aluminium tins, we’ve got the more accessible tool box – a 100L heavy duty stanley toolbox with pretty much every tool we could think of bringing. Essential kit for a land rover – The Persuader (Big hammer) and the torque wrench, anything in the engine and the axles is likely to require the torque wrench somewhere in the job and without it you run the risk of sheering some essential bolts. We learnt this one the hard way. In front of the toolbox sits two shallow drawers. In a 110d you’d have the space to create deep drawers which can hold tonnes of stuff, but in a 90 you’ve got more limited space, which is actually not a bad thing. The purpose for the drawers is to be accessible in all situations, whether that’s to tow you out of a swamp, or cook up a brew with a back-drop of the himalayas at a moment’s notice. But only for the immediate bits, the rest of it can be stashed in the rest of the rear compartment. To make the drawers you just need a bit of plywood, some hyperextending drawer runners to get the drawer as open as possible, and a variety of short screws. The basic design is pretty easy, but make sure to put a midline support in between the two drawers for strength and check that it wont foul on the door bracket. Then it’s pretty straightforward. We’ve then got 4 Flatdog Wolf boxes – easily stacked, quickly strapped down and secure to shut. They’re really useful for quick access stuff, and mounted up above the aluminium aircraft tins. A simple dog guard from a discovery is above the aluminium tins mainly to protect us from stuff flying forwards in the event of sharp braking, but also partly as security. Using a combination of ratchet straps helps to keep everything strapped down and secure. And a roof section storage area has been a useful addition for immediate access clothing. In the back, the semi-essential kit of an air compressor is bolted down on the side wheel-arch, accessible to use the extension pipe reaching to each wheel. A power invertor with 1000W constant and 2000W surge rating sits alongside.

Security
In terms of security for the back we have bolt combination locks on all the doors and we made window grills. There’s also a fuel cut off switch, clutch claw, steering wheel lock and battery isolators.

Other upgrades and work.
In preparation we also replaced both front CV joints as one started to fail during some off-roading and the other one seemed on its way out. We also replace axel wheel bearings and the rear brake shoes and drums. We also replaced the rocker cover gasket, adjusted the turbo, replaced the rear shocks and welded up some bits of the chassis.

Finished

The roll cage was installed by Whitbread off road - a great bunch of people, very professional work.

Let the adventure begin!

Brilliant thread bud. Made me chuckle. Good luck on your trip.

Brilliant, i do like to read a build thread, especially one that has a few updates already as I'm really impatient and want to know everything that happens now. :lol:

My only criticism is the following!

payydg said:

A new alternator and replacement viscous fan were important repair works, as it soon became apparent that the small electric fan wouldn’t be up to the task of Indian heat. After all, the defender was designed carefully to adapt to the challenges of -30 to +50 degrees Celsius, so why differ from a very well thought out plan. Back went in a viscous fan and cowling.

Click to expand...

Most people would take the viscous fan off and install an electric fan! due to there unreliability.

GINGE said:

Brilliant, i do like to read a build thread, especially one that has a few updates already as I'm really impatient and want to know everything that happens now. :lol:

My only criticism is the following!



Most people would take the viscous fan off and install an electric fan! due to there unreliability.

Click to expand...

I ran a electric fan for Morocco and had no problems with overheating in 30 degree heat using low range

Glenn who left his viscous in had problems when it packed up, 5 minutes driving 10 minutes stopped to let it cool and so on

The other advantage of electric is that I could leave it running while we were stopped to further cool the engine before we set off again

Interesting reading, thanks.

Great thread. Good luck and have fun u lucky pair of b*stards!!!

Can I ask why a 90 and not a 110?
Surely a 110 would give you alot more space?

chrisyleigh said:

Can I ask why a 90 and not a 110?
Surely a 110 would give you alot more space?

Click to expand...

Talking of 110's I'm seriously thinking about making the switch from disco to defender and I fancy a 110. But can't decide on a 300tdi or a td5...

Pfttt sell out

Haha. Cheers mate. It's natural progression, I think we all get there eventually...

Hi all, v interesting read on the over heating piece and debate regarding viscous v electric fans… also the piece reference the carefully thought out engineering of the engine operating from -30 deg to +50. I can only comment on my personal experiences and observations with the four Land Rovers I have owned, but this is more or less how it goes for me, I think I have had over heating problems on all 4 of them. Firstly they were all 1998's apart from the Disco 1 200tdi (1993 & the best of them all!) the petrol Freelander had the cylinder head gasket conversion, nuff said on that one. The disco 200tdi has recently had a paddocks radiator fitted by a friend whom bought that platform from me - no probs so far but it's not summer here yet… I also replaced a rad from paddocks last summer into the wife's Disco 300tdi auto and no probs at all in the summer here in Gibraltar (although I have other over heating issues at the moment - suspect the heater matrix may be at fault - nightmare job!) and finally I spent a small fortune on the Def 110 300TDI the year before last on a full Allard alloy rad, intercooler, header tank silicone hose set etc… but obviously I'm getting a lot more bang for my buck with that little lot.. and zero overheating issues as of present (it got totally thrashed in Morocco last year and had absolutely zero issues - engine overheating wise) so, the personal observations now (if I may) I'm (personally) leaning strongly towards a robust maintenance schedule - I'm not talking about oils & filters here… in terms of over heating issues for any car, but probably more so for our beloved Landy's is a heart attack scenario, so consider a replacement rad for an Africa / Asia type exped where you may be visiting really remote regions (and / or your viscous fan if you decide against electric) and although I'm loving the whole Allard experience, and as your thread title suggest's I think I would personally stick to a standard rad fit, 1/10 the price (that is my bundle of kit BTW) and if it was damaged etc, a simpler part source for your given application. A new water pump, why? it's too cheap and item not to replace for a too terminal an outcome should it fail! (at the very least, carry a spare) now, a kickback against the Landy engineers. ROE and the Military Wolfs all have gearbox coolers. I've had issues in my hot climate conditions with both the Defender & Disco. I believe the engineer's got this one wrong, and all lt77, r380's etc should have had this fitted as standard (gearbox oil cooler), just my opinion though. Oh and apologies to everyone, I know it's slightly off topic in terms of fan v fan, but it's still a killer for us Landy lover's...