For the last year I have been working away at our vehicle. Our Discovery, which we have been using to wild camp on beaches for the last few years was suffering from severe corrosion. So I decided to spend this following year reading forums, facebook groups and watch a billion hours of youtube videos to try and work out what to do for ourselves.
Over the last few years (Im 43) my arthritis has been getting worse, to the point its making climbing up into a roof tent very painful, but also properly embarrassing in the mornings when I try and get out and hide how sore it is going down the ladder. So I decided upon a camper unit, with solid walls.
Covid-19 has stopped work for the last few months as the garage is closed. They should be getting back to it very soon. So far the Disco has been chopped with the rear disposed. We fitted the Longranger 4x4 fibreglass single cab kit to turn it into a single cab. Shielder Chassis built us a brand new 3mm (HD) Defender 130 chassis for it. We never had them galvanise it. We then moved all the body mounts and engine mounts so they would suit the Discovery 1 body. We also grafted on a different nose to the chassis as there Discovery bumper's bolts are oriented differently to a Defender. We are just waiting on delivery of the aluminium to build the subframe and also to create lockers to provide extra storage outside. We will also be building a stainless steel water tank and fitting it between the chassis rails just behind the single cab. Space is so limited on this vehicle so we need to take up all the available space.
I have had a 3D model made up from Sketchup. The windows are not exactly what I will use, or the exact size, nor are the steps or bumper identical either. However, it gives a very good representation of what it will look like. The roof will lift up 950mm on linear actuators so that we can easily walk about in there, while keeping the roof height reasonable compared to a typical camper height. The bed will be a full UK King Sized mattress which will also be on actuators and be pushed up into the roof when we don't need to use the bed but have the camper open. It will lower down to countertop level when we want to use the bed.
Everything on this vehicle is diesel powered. It's a 300TDi engine which has a boost pin, boost ring and a Core2 Fourby Hybrid Turbo. I will be installing a Madman EM3 system for engine monitoring. We will be creating an install video of that on our youtube channel, as well as the build itself of course. The cooker is the Webasto X100 diesel cooker and the heating and the hot water is taken care of with the Truma Combi D6E system.
We are also fitting a full Pioneer incar entertainment system, both in the front, and also in the rear.
Here are some photos for you to have a look at. Let me know what you think.
Over the last few years (Im 43) my arthritis has been getting worse, to the point its making climbing up into a roof tent very painful, but also properly embarrassing in the mornings when I try and get out and hide how sore it is going down the ladder. So I decided upon a camper unit, with solid walls.
Covid-19 has stopped work for the last few months as the garage is closed. They should be getting back to it very soon. So far the Disco has been chopped with the rear disposed. We fitted the Longranger 4x4 fibreglass single cab kit to turn it into a single cab. Shielder Chassis built us a brand new 3mm (HD) Defender 130 chassis for it. We never had them galvanise it. We then moved all the body mounts and engine mounts so they would suit the Discovery 1 body. We also grafted on a different nose to the chassis as there Discovery bumper's bolts are oriented differently to a Defender. We are just waiting on delivery of the aluminium to build the subframe and also to create lockers to provide extra storage outside. We will also be building a stainless steel water tank and fitting it between the chassis rails just behind the single cab. Space is so limited on this vehicle so we need to take up all the available space.
I have had a 3D model made up from Sketchup. The windows are not exactly what I will use, or the exact size, nor are the steps or bumper identical either. However, it gives a very good representation of what it will look like. The roof will lift up 950mm on linear actuators so that we can easily walk about in there, while keeping the roof height reasonable compared to a typical camper height. The bed will be a full UK King Sized mattress which will also be on actuators and be pushed up into the roof when we don't need to use the bed but have the camper open. It will lower down to countertop level when we want to use the bed.
Everything on this vehicle is diesel powered. It's a 300TDi engine which has a boost pin, boost ring and a Core2 Fourby Hybrid Turbo. I will be installing a Madman EM3 system for engine monitoring. We will be creating an install video of that on our youtube channel, as well as the build itself of course. The cooker is the Webasto X100 diesel cooker and the heating and the hot water is taken care of with the Truma Combi D6E system.
We are also fitting a full Pioneer incar entertainment system, both in the front, and also in the rear.
Here are some photos for you to have a look at. Let me know what you think.
