Land Rover ideas for Jeeps

[jscherb]

Next: Tent Gear Line

I hadn't seen one of these until I saw it in a Land Rover magazine:

Seemed like a good idea. I was in Walmart about a week later and found that you can get them there:

I guess sometimes it takes a magazine from overseas to make me aware of something I can get at the local Walmart .

 

[jscherb]

Maybe this one qualifies as a Jeep idea for a Land Rover...

You've probably all seen those tire covers that say "One Life, Live It":

What if your wife doesn't agree and doesn't like all the money you spend on Jeep accessories? Land Rover Magazine sympathizes with you:

I don't have that problem, my wife is enthusiastic about out Jeeps. She should be - in her role as a consultant/coach she's helping a Jeep accessories company with marketing, operations and products.

 

[rnArmy]

A couple of small products from the Land Rover magazines today. First:

Does anyone really care how much noise airing down makes? For ninety bucks U.S.? Really?

I think they should also offer a patch you could sew on your jacket to go with it...(I made this up, it's a photo-edit )

You could sell those patches. Velcro on the back would be even better. I would buy one, as would a lot of four-wheelers and overlanders. .

 

[jscherb]

You could sell those patches. Velcro on the back would be even better. I would buy one, as would a lot of four-wheelers and overlanders. .

I'll look into it - I have a source for custom patches so I'll see what it would cost to get some made.

 

[jscherb]

Dormobile again

Dormobiles have come up a couple of times in this thread, here we go again. This is a Dormobile kit, which starts at about $2300 (maybe more by now, this was from an issue a few years ago):

I wonder what the market would be for a $2300 Dormobile-style conversion kit for a Wrangler?

Having designed and built a fiberglass tilt-up camper top for a trailer and several custom Jeep hardtops, I can say it wouldn't be too difficult to build a Dormobile-style kit for a Wrangler. A mold for a fiberglass Dormobile-style lid wouldn't be too challenging, and the hinges, framework and canvas would be pretty straightforward.

Unlike an Ursa Minor for a Wrangler, which is a complete hardtop, this kit would mount on top of a factory Wrangler hardtop and the buyer would do a few mods to the their hardtop to mount the kit.

 

[jscherb]

Bags that hang on the spare and spare tire covers with some functionality besides covering the spare are common both here and internationally and there are some different designs outside of the U.S.

I think the one above is this one from South Africa:

Here's one from Exmoor, which is a major Land Rover accessories company in the U.K.:

Another one from the uK:

The Exmoor spare bag looks the nicest and inspired me to create my own. I'm not a fan of the shapeless bags that are on the market here in the U.S. so I designed one with a more defined shape. I didn't add all the straps and things that the Exmoor bag has, my design is a bit simpler. I sewed two, a black one in factory premium JK soft top fabric to match the soft sides on my LJ, and a tan one in Spice vinyl soft top fabric to match the color of the hardtop on my JKU.

Here's another one from the U.K. This one only covers the top half of the tire, so it might also be good inside an XJ Cherokee where the spare stands vertically in the rear cargo area.

 

[jscherb]

Here's another spare cover with some functionality.

A visit to the web site in the article above doesn't show the spare cover anymore - it seems this company does restoration of Land Rovers and perhaps a few years ago they decided to try selling some of these spare covers in addition to their resto work. Apparently that didn't work out for them.

Another functional one:

I designed the one above and sewed several in different colors. The PALS grid in use:

Under the flap on the back is a zipper that opens a pocket; the pocket is in the space in the dish of the wheel and is pretty roomy. A nice place for a recovery strap:


When my son saw these covers he decided he wanted one for his 2dr, but he asked if the PALS grid could form the stripes of a flag. I sewed him a special one to his specs; the starfield is Velcro loop so things can be stuck to it and the PALS grid is the stripes. He and I decided to call it a Patriot Spare Cover.

 

[jscherb]

This isn't a Land Rover idea for Jeeps, but it's been covered a lot in the Land Rover magazines and I thought some here might be interested.

Land Rover discontinued the classic Defender a few years ago and released the "New Defender" recently. Some people think the new verison looks like an overgrown Mini Countryman and many are upset about the demise of the classic. A company called Ineos plans to do something about that, introducing the Ineos Grenadier:

More info here: https://ineosgrenadier.com/

It looks so much like a Defender you might expect a legal challenge from Land Rover, and that's already happened: https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a33552851/ineos-grenadier-legal-challenge-land-rover-defender/. A U.K. court rejected Land Rover's claim that the Grenadier infringed on Land Rover's intellectual property.

Jeep brought a similar case in the U.S. courts against Mahindra, claiming that the Roxor infringed on Jeep's "trade dress" and the courts agreed. Mahindra was forced to change the design of the Roxor (and the new Roxor design is very ugly BTW, I've seen photos on an Indian forum I belong to).

I wonder if Land Rover will bring a suit in the U.S. to prevent the Grenadier from coming to the U.S.?

Back to Land Rover ideas for Jeeps tomorrow.

 

[jscherb]

A few more nice trailers made from the back of Land Rovers.

A Jeep trailer similar to the last one above...

Another Jeep trailer - this next one is made from two Wrangler tubs. I made this one before I made the molds for the Dinoot fiberglass tub pictured above - it was so much work to turn two Jeep tubs into a nice trailer I decided there had to be a market for an easy-to-assemble trailer tub kit so I designed a simple fiberglass Jeep-style trailer tub kit which a company picked up and has been marketed as the Dinoot j-series for some years now.

About the fiberglass Dinoot trailer kit, check out this virtual Overland Expo video, Sean's trailer is an overland-outfitted Dinoot:

 

[jscherb]

Been there, done that, part 5...

Land Rover Owner did a story on what was supposed to be an adventure in the Mojave Desert a few years ago, although it turned out to be a misadventure.

There were only a few scenery photos in the magazine, here's one:

The reason there were so few scenery photos is that the Range Rover (which was borrowed from a Las Vegas Land Rover dealer) broke down and the occupants spent most of their time in the desert trying to get out of the desert. They had a coolant leak and after they used their drinking water in the cooling system, without coolant in the hot desert they couldn't drive very far.

There's lots to see in the Mojave, here's the map they published of the western half of the desert.

A few years ago I spent a couple of days in the Mojave and I'll post a few photos since the magazine wasn't able to .

Our beginning point was where the old Mojave Road intersects the Colorado River.

From there we went west to the long abandoned Fort Piute.

Heading west on the Mojave Road:

Among the Joshua trees...

The Lava bed at Cima is interesting; you can climb down into this lava tube (there's even a ladder there).

I highly recommend spending a few days in the Mojave - there's a lot to see (lots more than I posted here), interesting history and some fun off-roading.

 

[jscherb]

Speaking of deserts... recovery advice from 75 years ago...

Land Rover Monthly published an article entitled "The search for a WWII lost patrol in Tunisia". The "lost patrol" referred to was part of the British Long Range Desert Group, based in Egypt and operating west in Tunisia/Libya. Patrols could be weeks long and cross thousands of miles of desert. A few photos from the article:

The article is online here: https://www.landrovermonthly.co.uk/...atrol-land-rover-search-tunisia-libya-desert/, also theres a pretty comprehensive entry on the LRDG in Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Range_Desert_Group

After reading the article, I picked up W. Kennedy Shaw's book on the LRDG. Shaw was the LRDG's intelligence officer and his book was first published in 1945: https://www.amazon.com/Range-Desert-Greenhill-Military-Paperbacks/dp/1853674079

It's a fascinating book even if you have no interest in WWII - there's plenty of desertcraft techniques and tools to learn about. The LRDG, for example, adopted sand ladders (p.39), which were invented in 1929 by the officer who was to command the LRDG (they called them sand channels). Enjoyable reading if you plan any desert expeditions - the Mojave, remote Utah, even Death Valley.

Land Rovers weren't invented yet, so the LRDG used modified Chevy trucks. Notice the sand ladders on the side of the truck. Also notice the rolled up things on the fenders.

The rolled up things on the fenders are lengths of heavy canvas, they called them "sand mats" and used them for "unsticking" (that's the term the author used). One of the other officers of the LRDG was credited with inventing them, also in 1929.

In this photo it's hard to tell if he's shoveling or putting a sand ladder in place.

 

[Zeep]

Would be curious to know if they abandoned any of those vehicles out there.

 

[jscherb]

Would be curious to know if they abandoned any of those vehicles out there.

According to the book, that was fairly common. When you're 1000 miles from your home base, the enemy is near and your vehicle is broken down or battle-damaged, you move whatever you can into the good vehicles and get out of there.

 

[Vinman]

Would be curious to know if they abandoned any of those vehicles out there.

I met a guy in from Germany while visiting London around 2007 that had a Land Rover 110(?) with a tropical roof installed on it. We got chatting and he said it had been abandoned in the desert by the Egyption military and he managed to get ownership of it for a keg of beer. The truck was in pretty much mint condition when I saw it.

 

[jscherb]

I don't see too many people carrying two spares in the U.S., so this might not be a popular or useful accessory here:

Check the photos of my Jeep from Sunday's post about the Mojave and you'll see a second spare on my roof rack. Or check the photos of the Alaska Expedition for the same thing. I pretty much always carry two spares on an off-road expedition, and I do it for several reasons. First, most of my expeditions involve long drives across country to get to the location I plan to explore - I live in upstate NY and most of my off-road miles are done in Colorado, Utah or the deserts of California. I've got the highway part of the trip pretty tightly scheduled and I don't want to have to stop mid-way to find a place to fix a flat or replace a tire. Carrying two spares means it's unlikely I'll have to alter my highway trip for that. And second, if I do have a tire problem on the trail, I don't want to have to think about exiting the trail because of a lack of a spare. Yes, I do carry a tire repair kit on the trail but I prefer the peace of mind of carrying two spares.

A spare carrier like this on a Jeep would have complications - the tires would obscure the tail lights, so alternate tail lights would have to be rigged. Having all that weight on the back would be another consideration.