80-Series overland build - "keep it simple"

[MikesVX80]

This is an interesting read, and very much keeps with my own philosophy on Overland builds ("keep it simple"): http://expeditionportal.com/is-your-overlander-overbuilt/ Nice to see some other people are going the same way!

I would contend that there’s also just a growing movement towards the simplicity of a clean, thoughtful build.

 

[iceman]

Too right Mike - love the article

steel bumpers - check (actually SS)
winch - check
snorkel - not yet
roof rack - not yet
RTT - not yet
fridge - check
water tank - not yet
second battery - check
elaborate navigation system - check
long-reach communications - not yet
lockers - not yet
compressors - check
drawer system - check
solar panel - on the way
slide-out stoves - no way (Ive got to braai)
seat covers - not yet

 

[MarkW]

This is an interesting read, and very much keeps with my own philosophy on Overland builds ("keep it simple"): http://expeditionportal.com/is-your-overlander-overbuilt/ Nice to see some other people are going the same way!


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Beat me too it I was going to post a link to that article. Very wise advice against the pitfalls of fiiting everything from the ABR Catelogue without considering the need. On my first trip there was a defender 110 and a 70 Series Landcruiser both with £10's of thousands in modifications and then 2 of us in vehicles with probale less that a £1000 in modifications. My truck has tyres, storage/sleeping plantform and a roofrack as the only vehicle mods

 

[iceman]

Mark jokes aside you are dead right you can get away with very little in the way of extras if you need to, the key thing is mechanical integrity. I did my last trip without any winch/snorkel/roof rack/RTT/fridge/water tank/ CB/ lockers/ solar/ seat covers and just a street sat nav (Tom Tom). But toys are nice to play with

 

[Waypoint Tours]

My truck has tyres, storage/sleeping plantform and a roofrack as the only vehicle mods

That the one Mark, whose back axle broke off from rust?
You dodged a bullet there buddy, don't tempt fate. Barrie

 

[MikesVX80]

Too right Mike - love the article

steel bumpers - check (actually SS)
winch - check
snorkel - not yet
roof rack - not yet
RTT - not yet
fridge - check
water tank - not yet
second battery - check
elaborate navigation system - check
long-reach communications - not yet
lockers - not yet
compressors - check
drawer system - check
solar panel - on the way
slide-out stoves - no way (Ive got to braai)
seat covers - not yet

Out of interest....what solar panel did you go for, and what nav system? They are two things I might consider at some point!!

 

[MarkW]

That the one Mark, whose back axle broke off from rust?
You dodged a bullet there buddy, don't tempt fate. Barrie

You are, of course, correct Barrie but the same truck has done another 3 trips and another planned for this October. If I hadn't been with you and the group it would have been a major issue possibly life threatening.

It was my first 4x4 and first trip, I booked, purchase and fitted out the truck inside 4 weeks so it was all a bit of a blur. Now I know a bit more and also some of the week points on the 95's (such as the bracket that failed) I would have checked it better before the trip. In my (niave) defense, and I'm not sure of I updated you post trip, but the large family 4x4 Specialist, just out side Exeter, with 50 years of serving the local community, who are also a main dealer, patched that bracket before sale with a coke can to hide the damage, they then issued a dodgy MOT for the car and proudly told me when I collected it it would easily do the trip and more. As a result I successfully rejected the truck under the Sales of Goods Act when we got back to the UK and got a full refund on the purchase price

I then bought the truck for a 2nd time for £1800 less and used the savings to get the rear axle fully rebuilt with all the mounting points strengthened with extra plates. The repair completed in Boujdor survived the 2012 trip when we bumped into you dodging the Oil Libya rally outside Zagora.

So in light of my learning curve I tend to advise people in threads like this that a standard well maintained vehicle will be more than adequate for most overlanding trips.

Are you in Morocco this October? might bump into you again with the forum trip

PS still reccomending you to anyone who asks

 

[Chris]

I'm still pondering the solar question too Mike. I do fancy a flexi one so it can go on the shell of the roof tent. But it needs to be fairly decent output into my CTEK system.

 

[MikesVX80]

I'm still pondering the solar question too Mike. I do fancy a flexi one so it can go on the shell of the roof tent. But it needs to be fairly decent output into my CTEK system.

That's exactly where I had mine planned to go, on top of the Maggiolina

 

[MikesVX80]

EFS suspension kit should arrive tomorrow!! Pretty excited, can't wait to ditch the tired stock stuff...also interested to see if it will still fit in the carport once lifted!! ;-)

 

[MikesVX80]

Latest addition fitted this evening - Rhinorack 'Sunseeker' awning, thanks to forum member "cwc" for selling it to me and helping me get it fitted up to the vehicle in the beautiful British weather this evening!




Next up: fitting my EFS suspension kit, steering damper and polyair rear helper springs, some new LED interior lights and may get the roof tent mounted up at some point too

 

[yogi]

Mike, what do the wire rope things from the bullbar going to the roofrack (I think) do? I've seen them a couple of times in pictures, do they not foul up on bushes and trees?

 

[Chas]

They deflect those bushes and trees that leap out at you when you're laning.

 

[MikesVX80]

Mike, what do the wire rope things from the bullbar going to the roofrack (I think) do? I've seen them a couple of times in pictures, do they not foul up on bushes and trees?

As Chas said, I believe they're to brush off tree branches and bushes when 'laning, but that's not my 80 so don't take my word for it! Mine's the grey one in the foreground

 

[David]

The grey one is mine, the cables are called bush wires that as beensaid help push small branches over the truck. I only have them on when going on a trip
David

 

[Xetabur]

Mike, what do the wire rope things from the bullbar going to the roofrack (I think) do? I've seen them a couple of times in pictures, do they not foul up on bushes and trees?

They're called limb risers.

 

[moggy1968]

They deflect those bushes and trees that leap out at you when you're laning.

and arguably dangerous and illegal on the road! handy when laning as said but not something to leave on. They would cut a pedestrian in half, or remove limbs, and almost certainly the insurance company wouldn't pay out in that event, so like above, if you fit them, detach them when you don't actually need them

 

[moggy1968]

only just picked this thread up. I like the KISS principal for overlanding. Generally stock is best in terms of reliability. I have never overlanded a modded vehicle and don't feel it has ever been a disadvantage. My 60 is now heavily modded. This has been from the benefit of several trips and anything new I have tried to install with an ability to work around if something fails. other mods have been to improve reliability, such as changing the electric wondows (the only bit that failed on mine in Africa!) to manual.

Thinking you needed a new vehicle and thousands in mods stopped me overlanding for years, but the magazines talk shite. Their articles are paid for through companies advertising all that crap you don't need, so they have to tell the readers they need it, but it is entirely possible to overland in a cheap truck if you choose carefully, without chequerplating everything, with a cheap tent, without long range fuel and water tanks, or a fridge (I used a cheap halfords coolbox!) without underbody protection, without a winch, without a split charge system, without an expensive roof rack (again, mines a halfords HD rack in the pic below), without airlockers or onboard air. There's a big difference between essential, nice to have, and totally unnecessary.

My 60 does have some of those things now, but I have previously managed without quite happily.

you highlighted one of the other musts. know your vehicle. absolutely essential to know you vehicle for some time before you go and get some miles under your wheels. I had owned my 60 for sometime when we drove to the gambia, but the white one I bought only a month or so before we left and it gave us no end of trouble.





most vehicles can be overlanded! just need to be reliable and driven right.




there is of course another aspect to consider

 

[yogi]

and arguably dangerous and illegal on the road! handy when laning as said but not something to leave on. They would cut a pedestrian in half, or remove limbs, and almost certainly the insurance company wouldn't pay out in that event, so like above, if you fit them, detach them when you don't actually need them

Have to say I also wondered that too Moggy.

Even to someone like me that laughs at health and safety, doesn't wear a seatbelt or a hat on a horse etc I thought they looked like leathal pieces of cheese wire!!

I can see how they would help with light brush, but if you hit something firmer do they not do damage when they rip their mountings?

 

[moggy1968]

I didn't know you get seat belts for horses