yellow Posted September 23, 2005 Share Posted September 23, 2005 I have to change the roof of my Defender, after vandals decided that it was the best place for a Riverdance re-enactment... As I have issues with airco and summers are getting hot, I was wondering whether the Defender roof could be retro-fitted with the top layer of the Series Tropical roof. Does anyone have pictures, in and outside, of a Series tropical roof? Did anyone ever fit one to a Defender without changing the window frame to Series? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Reedy Posted September 23, 2005 Share Posted September 23, 2005 I can tell you that a "square" Land Rover probably has the lowest solar gain of any vehicle, thanks to the almost vertical windows. Paint your roof white and line it with felt and you'll have a quiet and cool vehicle, without the hassle of a tropical roof. With this setup, in my experience in British summers (admittedly only to 26-28 degrees C) most of the heat comes from the ambient air and warm metal rather than radiated downwards from the roof. But yes, I have often wondered this myself - surely you could achieve the same effect with a sheet of ali, a few strengthening ribs underneath it and some SS bolts with spacers? If you had an older 90 roof with the ribs outside you could just rivet your sheet of ali to the ribs, bolt and spacer at the corners and the job's done. A bit of silicone around the rivets would be needed to keep the rain out. Carrying on this train of thought, you might find that a modern "ribless" 90 roof would sit nicely on top of the older ribbed 90 roof, if you cut off the back and trimmed the sides by a few inches. Perhaps you could find a scrap one with a few dents that could be beaten out or filled or, if at the edge, cut off? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yellow Posted September 23, 2005 Author Share Posted September 23, 2005 I believe that the original tropical roof has 6 vents that can be opened or left open. These additional vents will aid the circulation of air, and 'suck' the hot air out of the vehicle. ...or at least that is the story behind it I believe... It is more for the extra vents that I would do it. Airco gives me terrible headaches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michele Posted September 23, 2005 Share Posted September 23, 2005 Does anyone have pictures, in and outside, of a Series tropical roof?Did anyone ever fit one to a Defender without changing the window frame to Series? I have pics (at least one!) of a recent Defender with a tropical roof fitted B) I don't know if it was factory fitted (being in Cyprus) or added later. I can try and ask my friend if you want. Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
headhunter Posted September 23, 2005 Share Posted September 23, 2005 A G4 roof rack with the floor takes the brunt of the sun on my 110. That's if you want to go round with a rack all the time. You could fit a rack with a chequer plate platform or even fit solar panels to keep the fridge chilled for the cool beers! John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve H Posted September 24, 2005 Share Posted September 24, 2005 Yellow, some pics at the bottom of this page, sorry no further info than that. http://members.lycos.nl/bowy/dorris.htm Cheers, Steve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest diesel_jim Posted September 25, 2005 Share Posted September 25, 2005 I was just flicking through this months LRO magazine (sorry... but i only brought one with me here to Spain so havn't got any others to read!) but there is a story there of some chap who drove to Germany (or was he German?) in an ex military 110 and he has, what looks like, a series roof panel nailed onto his 110. it's definately got the safari double insulated bit, and the front edge looks series, grafted onto the 110 windscreen. also, when i was in REME,we had a 110 which we stuck on a series 3 roof (as thats all we could lay our hands on), i recall we just used loads of gun-gum to "fill" the slight gaps and irregularities that were there becaosy the two roofs wern't compatable! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbocharger Posted September 27, 2005 Share Posted September 27, 2005 Anyone who's ever lifted a Series tropical roof will vouch for the INCREDIBLE weight of the thing. I'd be tempted to break out the nibbler and fit vents to your own (white) roof if that's what you really want. Unless the roof panel is actually getting hot to touch (and therefore transmitting heat to the vehicle) then direct conduction isn't your problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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