For our trip we purchased a 1995 Land Rover 110 Defender, County Tdi. When we purchased it our Land Rover had about 118 000 kilometres on the clock and had already completed a trip from Johannesburg, South Africa to Hamburg, Germany. In theory therefore, we could just put it on autopilot and let it lead us to the European Continent. Since we left Cape Town we have put almost 20 000 kilometres on the clock and we are not even past Tanzania yet! Although providing a good basis, having had a lot of kit fitted already, we spent a lot of time adding more and improving on the existing set-up.
The 1995 Land Rover 110 Defender was sold with Steel rims and General Super All Grip 750/16 inch tyres as Original Equipment. When we purchased our vehicle, it was fitted with 4 rather sorry looking General Super All Grip tyres on the vehicle and 2 of the same tyres in reasonable condition, fitted to the 2 spare rims. After careful consideration, we decided to stick to the Original Equipment tyres and purchased 4 brand new General Super-All-Grip (SAG) 750/16 Inch All purpose Tyres. Unfortunately one of these new tyres was irreparably damaged on a particularly rocky stretch of gravel road close to Swellendam after only 3000 km's ! Fortunately Continental, who manufactures these tyres in South Africa, took pity on us and replaced it free of charge, as they felt these were some of the toughest all terrain tyres on the South African market. Except for this incident we have had no other problems and look forward to testing these tyres properly on the remainder of our trip. For the time being, we can certainly recommend them.
We also have a Volcano air compressor which plugs into the 12 Volt power plugs on the vehicle and seems to be ample when inflating the tyres after driving in sand. As a backup we also have a small footpump, which I sincerely hope I never have to use!
In case we have any punctures, we have a spare inner tubes, a set of tyre levers, a puncture kit and some quick fix type tyre sealant. So far we have only needed these 30 km's from home in Cape Town of all places! Hopefully we won't have to make a habit of using these either.
Roof rack
High Lift Jack,
Bull bar
This is an important bit of equipment if you want to keep the front of you vehicle intact in case you hit a goat or some other animal, which is not at all unlikely in Africa. Ours has added protection in front of the headlights as well. A winch plate has also been added to house the winch on the front of the vehicle. Having all this additional weight on the front of the vehicle provides another good reason to improve the suspension.
Radiator Grille Protection
To keep those nasty bugs and grass seeds out of our recently
cleaned radiator, we have covered the radiator grill with metal guaze. The
guaze is not very fine and therefore doesn't restrict the airflow much. It
is also very easy to clean as it merely requires a quick brush once in a while.
A cheap and very usefull modification.
Tent
Our vehicle is fitted with a roof top tent manufactured by Cristys Sports in Kendal Road, Cape Town, South Africa. Having a roof top tent has proved invaluable to date as it is extremely quick and easy to open or close. It also provides a safe haven from creepy crawleys and other unwanted guests. The only draw back is that we have to take down our tent if we want to drive anywhere, which probably makes roof top tents less suitable when camping for a long period of time at one place. That has however not been a problem for us as we mostly only spend one or two nights at a specific place.
Most campers seems to prefer the roof top tent opening sideways or to the rear of the vehicle, but we have found the best place to be on the front portion of the roof rack, flipping forwards, allowing the ladder to rest on the bull bar, by way of specially designed (thanks ARC, Johannesburg) feet. We have found that not only is the weight distribution on the roof rack better this way, but the ladder is also more sturdy and easier to use.
Fridge
Our vehicle came with a 40L Minus 40 Caravelle 12V Fridge/Freezer. Thus far it has been extremely useful, especially to keep those beers and the ever present Tonic cold. It also works well for keeping meat and salad and other less important food stuffs cold. Unfortunately it does consume a lot of power (2-5Amps per hour), as it uses a compressor, necessitating a rather elaborate battery system. I have heard that Minus 40 now makes a three-way 12 Volt, 220 Volt, gas fridge, which utilises Ammonia gas and apparently is a little bit more energy efficient. If our vehicle didn't come with a fridge we might have considered this option. All said and done, the little Minus 40 has been great to date and hopefully will continue serving us well in future.
Battery/Power system
Awning
We bought the vehicle fitted with an Easy-Awn 2000 retractable awning. As the 110 Land Rover is a rather long vehicle, it could accommodate the large awning, which is approximately 4 Metres in length. This canopy is especially useful when it rains as we do not have a tent on the ground which we can use to prepare food in, etc. However, we find that unless it rains, we don't usually use it when we are only stopping over for the night as it does make setting up camp and breaking it down ever so slightly more tedious. Nevertheless, I would recommend an awning for overlanders, especially the retractable types, as it is very useful. I have seen some other vehicles fitted with a canvas-type awning which is stretched over retractable arms - it is claimed that they are much more durable than our type of awning. Be warned however that this type of awning is even more effort to use than ours and in my opinion is no stronger than the retractable type, provided that you tie it down with guide ropes and tent pegs.
Additional fuel and
water tanks
The 110 Land Rover Defender has a lot of space for additional fuel/water tanks. One of the reasons we purchased our vehicle was that the previous owner fitted two additional fuel tanks and two additional water tanks. One 55 Litre fuel tank is situated under the body under the driver's seat, connected to the main tank with an electronic fuel pump operated with a button from inside the cab (unfortunately it is a bit of an effort to fill it, as you have to take of the driver's seat before doing so) The other is a 45 Litre fuel tank mounted in the back driver's side corner of the vehicle, forming a first stage to the main original equipment 80 L fuel tank, therefore giving us a combined onboard fuel capacity of 180 Litres. As the Tdi Landi averages a fuel consumption of approximately 12 Litres of Diesel per 100kms that gives us a fuel range of approximately 1500 kilometres, making it just that little bit easier to avoid having to fill up in countries like Zimbabwe, which is currently having a fuel crisis. We also carry 2 empty Jerry cans on the roof in case the going really gets tough.
On the other side of the vehicle we have the same combination of 55 and 45 litre water tanks, each fitted with a manual tap and an electronic water pump. Along with two 25 litre plastic containers inside the vehicle, we carry at least 150 litres, catering for most of our water requirements.
Snorkel
We fitted an Australian make called the Safari Snorkel. It
has a air ram on the top instead of another air filter. It serves a dual purpose
in that it obviously provides an extended air intake when we drive through
deep water, but its main purpose is to provide the engine with cool clean
air, being far away from the wheels and the dust, therefore reducing fuel
consumption and extending air filter and engine life in general. Having a
ram at the end of the snorkel further helps to provide ample air as needed
by the engine Our vehicle is a turbocharged diesel and therefore the affect
of this is not so great, but with naturally aspirated and petrol engines the
affect is astonishing. It might cost a few rand (approximately R2400,00),
but this modification is definitely worth it.
Windscreen wipers
This idea came from Andrew St.Pierre White's book, The Complete Guide to a Four-Wheel Drive in Southern Africa, 2000/01 Edition, (ISBN 0-620-24184-5), page no. 123, and works more or less as follows "You attach two wiper blades on each wiper arm and run a brass pipe from the water outlet, up the arm, to spray the water between the wiper blades. A brass bolt is then used to attach two wiper blades to the arm and a thin brass tube is glued underneath the arm. Another brass tube is used to run the water from the outlet to the wiper arm. In order to allow the wiper arm to move, a short length of clear plastic hose is used to join the two brass pipes. To create a jet at the end of the brass pipe, crimp the end so as to narrow the aperture. The windscreen is then conditioned with RainX and lastly a tablespoon of window cleaning detergent is poured into the water reservoir. This system remains effective no matter how thick the insects or mud are splattered onto the windscreen."
Incidentally, I have found Andrew's book very useful and
would recommend it to any off-road adventurer as it contains tons of useful
stuff. You will also find his website very useful. If you have a moment, be
sure to look it up at
Spot lights
Driving in Africa after dark is never a good idea, but sometimes you just can't help it. When this happens you want to have good light, which is why we have two additional 100 Watt "driving" spotlights mounted on the bull bar in front of the radiator grill and wired into the "brights" circuit on the main headlamps. These help a lot but we could probably do with some more, mounted on the roof rack.
Land Rover reverse lights are not the greatest, which is why we installed a Hella "work light" above the rear door, mounted onto the roofrack. We also use this light when setting up camp as it swivels in all directions. I have rigged it so that we can switch it on from the drivers seat as well as at the light. As this light has worked so well I got our trusty friend, Nic Ellender to help me make a bracket and mounted another Hella worklight on the roofrack support next to the windscreen on the passenger side. This light is controlled from a switch mounted onto the front console. This light is great for setting up camp or viewing something next to the road while driving. These lights are unfortunately rather power hungry at 100 Watts each, so I will be changing the bulbs to 55 Watts in the near future. 100 Watts is to bright for a worklight in any event, in my opinion.
Other lighting
As long as we still have our vehicle, our money and passports will be safe, as we have a safe installed underneath the front console between the front seats. Although a bit tricky to open, it is well worth having that extra safety blanket. However, if our vehicle is stolen, we are pretty buggered.
Packing system
As it can be fairly difficult to find the exact filters and lubricants you need when far from major towns, we also carry several diesel fuel filters, oil filters, and an air filter and enough lubricants for one change of everything including the oil in the diff's, power steering system, brake fluid and all of those easy to forget items. Except for topping up these fluids, we are hoping to keep these lubricants in reserve and will only need to change them when the vehicle is serviced at a recognised Land Rover agent, which we have done in the past and plan to keep doing in the future to prevent breakdowns wherever possible. In addition I inspect the vehicle on a regular basis including tightening of all those pesky nuts and bolts on the vehicle. I also carry a small grease gun which I use to grease the propshafts on a regular basis.
Unfortunately there is an endless list of accessories, spares and tools one might need and should take along, but at some point we had to draw a line and decide what we thought was absolutely necessary as we simply did not have the space or money to prepare ourselves for each and every eventuality. This is unfortunately the challenge all overlanders have to face, but it also makes it fun.