Mark-Norfolk

Alarm mines (the mine body may be fixed permanently to the trailer). http://www.henrykrank.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2964 Then the immediate deployment of that shotgun in your avatar

Hi Tacr2man It looks like you had the same thought at the same time as me. We’re just back from a family trip with a rooftent, where we’d been gazing at other peoples’ motorhomes and thinking whether such convenience could ever be engineered onto a Defender chassis. This would provide the mobility of the Defender, with the convenience and security of a self-contained motorhome, but without the uber-naffness of most motorhomes. A bit of poking around the web found only the Azalai, distributed in the UK by OEC International which went into liquidation in 2014. A few old threads say it was very expensive but no one actually states a price. The original French company appears still to be going – I sent them an email today to ask for details. Arjan – you say they’re like gold in France: is that on the used market, or can you still order new? From the very little web info available, the Azalai kit does look good. The perfect solution would be to buy a kit of parts to do the conversion yourself. It looks to me that only the main body moulding and a few internal fittings are totally bespoke. Surely kit like a shower/WC cubicle, cooker tops, cupboards, waste water tanks, sofa/bed/table fittings would be available from caravan parts suppliers, or better, via buying a damaged caravan. Anything technical like split-charge systems, lighting, solar power chargers, compressors, fresh water tanks, water pumps etc are all bog-standard kit as fitted to ‘normal’ expedition Land Rovers. I can’t see it would be such a big deal to do a conversion, if one could buy the lightweight, insulated body shell. The Quadtech mentioned above looks like just a rear box, without the over-cab section which provides such a perfect space for a double bed, especially if the whole roof can be raised. I wonder if anyone has ever thought of offering this? I’d love to do a conversion on a 130 doublecab chassis. It would make a brilliant vehicle for those who, like me, are a getting a bit tired of hardcore camping, but are not yet willing to absolutely prove I’m an old git by buying a motorhome. Ideas, anyone?

Hi Troddenmasses I have a Maggiolina Extreme Small on the top of a 110 TD5. Snailracer covers most of the points that I would – the main problem with roof tents is the nuisance of having to put the thing down if you want to drive anywhere. Apart from that detail it’s brilliant. I’ve used it in Africa, Southern Europe, and last week in Scotland. It stays on the car all the time, and still looks and works like new. Erected in one minute, you then have a proper bed with mattress, sleeping bag or duvet, proper pillows, an additional blanket or two, and if you’re a softie like me, the option of a 12V electric blanket, switched on for an hour before you retire: bliss! None of this kit needs to be rolled up before you collapse the tent, and never again will you rough it on the cold, hard ground. One point: if you’re alone, putting the Maggiolina down without someone else to push in the loose canvas on the opposite side means you have to go up and down the ladder a couple of times to do this yourself, before the final squeeze down, or you may trap some canvas in the shell. I suggest you carry a 2ft length of dowel to push the canvas in from ground level, which makes it a lot easier. The Maggiolina is not good for changing in, especially if you’re wet. You’d need somewhere else to do this. What my partner and I do is to shower and change into tomorrow’s clothes, then go to bed, putting the clean clothes into the overhead mesh storage bin. Getting dirty clothes or shoes into this roof tent would be a mistake as, unlike many ground tents, there is no separate area in which to stow dirty kit. I have no experience with the Maggiolina ‘changing room’, which as you say is expensive, and looks a bit of a faff to put up. How about a simple pop-up tent for changing and dirty kit? I use a pop-up for our small son, which is very easy. The Maggiolina ladder is quite big. Despite what they say, it will not stow inside the tent itself. I had a bag made for it (bags-for-everything) and keep it inside the Defender. But to make it fit crosswise, one has to shorten the ladder, which needs a bit of thought and engineering, but it’s no big deal. In short, I’d recommend a roof tent, and especially a Maggiolina, to anyone. So long as you’re not overweight or very unfit, getting in and out is quite easy, but this does need some concentration in the morning! Falling off the flimsy ladder could end badly. And one final thought: Do not lose the handle! I did this once. Had a fellow traveller not had a huge screwdriver in his toolkit, I would have been unable to open the tent the next night. I have now painted mine fluorescent yellow, and have a ritual of checking it’s in its unchanging stowage place before moving off each morning. This is very important, with the tent screwed down hard, there’s little way of opening it without the right tool and the application of a lot of torque. Have fun! Mark

Hi Reb78 I’m just back from visiting the same area, in our 110 TD5. Not sure of your dates – maybe we waved at each other! If you’re still there I suggest you consider driving up towards Fort William, then over the Corran ferry (£8 one-way, just turn up), West to Strontian and on into the Ardnamurchan peninsular. It’s a little-known area, and absolutely beautiful. Head Northwest, over the volcanic caldera, to Sanna Bay. A more extreme option would be to carry on up to Ullapool and over to Lewis and Harris (Outer Hebrides) on the CalMac ferry. (Costs about £150 return for a 110 Defender with occupants). These islands are amazing. Some parts are like driving over the moon, but without the inconvenience of having no atmosphere. As Retroanaconda says, I don’t think there’s much legal off-roading in the Highlands and Islands, but the single-track roads are often so rough, you sometimes wouldn’t know it! There are a few abandoned quarry and forestry tracks you can try, which often lead to excellent wild camping spots. We planned a varied time: combining wild camping, campsites, B&B’s, and a couple of top hotels. If anyone wants hotel recommendations, please ask. Cheers, Mark

Ha! Glad to find I'm not the only uber-Geek who hates 'upside-down' American switches. Gentlemen, there is now an easy solution: buy the 'Carling Contura XIV rocker', available from Mud UK. http://www.mudstuff.co.uk/carling-contura-xiv-rockers.html This has two identical translucent windows, and is symmetrical. Replace the standard rockers (using the correct tool, also available from Mud), then rotate the switch bodies by 180 degrees. Result! All will now be right with the world, and you can sleep at night without nightmares about switches which are on when they should be off .

I was about to try butchering the illumination in a Carling switch for almost the same reason (in my case controlling additional spotlights via a Carling SPDT: up on permanently / center off / down with the vehicle’s high beam). A quick search - in case anyone had done such a small-print thing before – bought me here. The Internet still amazes me sometimes! Thanks, Adam 001, for saving me from reinventing the wheel. I have only one comment on your excellent procedure: there’s no need to reassemble the switch body to hold the link in place before soldering. I just used a blob of Blu-tack. Whole job done in ten minutes. This was my first use of Carling switches. They are a brilliant design: modular and very accessible, therefore modifiable. A car electrical geek’s delight! It should also be easy to change the colour of the LED/s so as not to be stuck with the standard green locating and orange function indicators. The supplied resistors are 560R – these might need to be changed for different colours, but a quick search of LED specs on rs-online.com reveals a huge range. I’ll do some research and experiments, then provide RS part numbers for the use of anyone else who might want to mess around with the indicator colours. I bought my switches from Mud UK – their prices are competitive with online electronics suppliers. They also sell the very useful ‘Contura XIV rocker’ which has two symmetrical windows. http://www.mudstuff.co.uk/carling-contura-xiv-rockers.html Using this enables Carling switches to be mounted upside-down to give UK-standard up-off/down-on operation. Brits will understand how irritating American switchgear can be .