The Vehicles

Daphne

Daphne the Defender is a 2000 petrol 2.8 BMW engine defender 90. Her brakes are good, she has acceleration, the gears flow, she has air conditioning, an awesome sound system, a rev counter and she’s ours!

Let me give you a walking tour of Daphne…

Beneath the vehicle gleam two new Front Runner long range fuel tanks with specially modified running boards that were almost sent to the scrap heap in frustration! In the rear springs nestle two bright red Air Lift Airbags that help to take some of the topple factor and give us a steadier ride.

The roof of the vehicle notifies all that we are hardened overlanders with a Front Runner expedition roof rack (in black to match the colour scheme), Front Runner gas bottle holder, Front Runner double jerry can holder donated by the lovely combo of James and Kay and Ziets. The piece de resistance is the Howling Moon Tent complete with ladder extension donated by the kind David Frasier.

In the front we have 2 seats separated by a cubby with space behind for shoes, waterproofs and other essentials. The seats are covered in rather attractive blue and black canvas covers that sport all manner of pockets for the storage of lip-balm, maps, she-wees and documents. The dash has some rather funky new switches with places gouged out for them using various drill bits, hole saws and Stanley knife. There’s a switch for each of the long range fuel pumps, a switch for the GPS, a switch for the spot lights and a switch to control the voltmeter to tell you whether the batteries are charged. Behind the passenger seat is a rather wonderful inverter holder (complete with inverter) designed and made painstakingly by Georgie when Rob was so busy with the spot light electrics that he didn’t notice her picking up the drill with that gleam in her eye.

In the back in the newly designed storage system made from aluminium plate and steel box sections and slides. We made 3 removable structures. On the right hand side of the vehicle we strapped a 50l water tank above the wheel arch and built a pivot shelf above this with elastic cord and hooks to hold our belongings in place. Above the window we placed a steady shelf complete with cord to hold our chairs.

On the left hand side of the vehicle we have filled the wheel arch space with spares and covered these with a hinge shelf and cord. Above the window is a steady shelf to hold the roll up table.

In the centre of the back in a draw system. We began by making a cubed frame, 1m by 1m by 50cm (so far so good). We then covered the frame in aluminium checker plate (getting heavier). To this we then attached 4 pairs of steel slides inside the frame and to the slides we attached specially made mild steel draws. This was a rather time consuming affair in which we discovered that not only was our frame a little skew but so was the flat bed trailer that we were working on. This invariably resulted in wonky draws that wouldn’t open past one another. We drilled out the rivets and found a flatter surface – Jane’s veranda and measured the gaps between the draws with carefully placed aluminium sheeting and bar. Eventually the draws were in place and all that was needed was a tad of filing and jot of grinding to get everything flowing smoothly. All that was needed were the aluminium checker draw fronts and the addition of black plastic handles, by comparison an easy task. By this time the draw system weighed an absolute ton and it was a daunting task placing it in the vehicle. With a lot of puffing and panting, shrieks and scratches, resting and the use of a bottle jack – we had her in place.

We stood back and admired our handy work only to discover that only one of the draws would open. The other three were obstructed by various Land Rover parts. Pushing away the urge to cry we set upon that back door with a vengeance and removed wire protectors and hinge protectors. Hacked pieces out of our up till then beautifully cut draw fronts and filed till the blisters showed on our thumbs.

We are now the proud possessors of a draw for clothes (full already so no shopping for me!), a draw for tools and recovery kit, a draw for cooking equipment and finally an entire draw for food. We made the mistake of shopping in Macro Cash and Carry and have therefore stocked up on 12 cans of baked beans, 6 packets of fire lighters, 18 packets of instant yeast etc…

Finally on the back door Daphne sports a Front Runner (noticing a trend yet) swing away spare wheel carrier complete with spare wheel.

Complete all this with Logos on the doors donated by the Ethekwini Banner and Signs team in Pinetown and you have a force to be reckoned with. Africa here we come!

Betty

For the expedition we needed a vehicle which would be tough enough to make the distance, simple enough for us to keep running and big enough to take four people plus all the required kit.

We decided that the vehicle for us would be a Defender 130. This would allow us to have a crew cab which could seat the four of us and still have enough room, in the high capacity box at the back, to fit in all the kit and equipment. Ours had been in service with Scottish and Southern Electric since it was put on the road in 1998 and came with a few essencial extras such as the PTO winch and split charger system.

Getting her ready

Our first job was to strip it down completely and prepare it for painting: This involved taking off the roof rack, removing all the stickers, clearing out the rear box removing doors, bonnet, mud flaps and any other exterior parts which we didn't want to paint yellow.

Now painted a suitible desert colour the work of finding and fitting extra tanks, roof top tents and all the other kit we will need has started.

Betty made her first two public appearences in June. The first was at Land Rover Monthly's show at Eastnor Castle and the second was at the Bristol UOTC Summer Ball. Her presence at the ball helped us to raise our first £1000 for the charities!

We have fitted two Howling Moon roof top tents and a 2.5m Howling Moon awning. These were given a baptism of fire at Billing with the persistant torrential rain and gusting wind. Both the tents and the awning proved themselves more than fit for the task.

A couple of hard days work with a saw and a screwdriver saw the storage system in the box completed. A false floor allows for a table and our waffle boards to be slid out from the bottom. Above this the wheel arches have been boxed in and a shelf provides space for four metal boxes, these are to contain our spares, tools and recovery kit. At the back there is space for a spare tyre and four jerry cans. Shelving on each side houses 12 plastic boxes which will contain the remainder of our kit, food and clothes.

A pair of rear seats from a 110 defender were adapted to fit in the second row of the cab, under each there is space for 20l of water and between them a National Luna 40l fridge which will provide the rear passengers with a rear arm rest and some cold refreshment after a hot day's drive.

Other major additions to the vehicle are a Safari Snorkle, which will keep unwanted dust and water out of the engine, steering guard, driver side auillary sill tank, front and rear diff guards and rock and tree sliders which will both protect our sills and act as a step.

Electrical additions

As well as all the wiring for the fridge, four driving lights, two fog lights, three work lights and the two fans we had mounted in the roof of the cab, we installed a 600W inverter to power anything from an ipod charger to a small power drill. We also made a consul between the rear seats with four normal 240Vac sockets, two DIN sockets and two cigarette lighter sockets. These can either be powered from the auxillary battery or an external power source meaning that when in a camp site we can run the whole land rover from the mains. The whole system is watched over by a national luna battery monitor.

We have also added two flourescent strip lights in the rear box, an overide switch for the fridge and finally a switch to turn on the fuel pump from the auxillary to the main tank.