freeagent Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 anyone on here use a disco 1 (1996 3-door) for overland/ expedition use? Am looking for a bit of inspiration for packing the load space.. anyone built any cunning storage units, or found boxes that fit well..? I've got 6 wolffe boxes, but have discovered that you cant fit 4 on the floor of the boot as the back door won't close... thanks in advance.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 Matt, I am planning to use a D1 for that sort of thing - 1996 5 Door, rather than 3, but I am still trying to get the vehicle prepped. First thing I did was to build the drawers for the back. These effectively bring the floor up level with the top of the wheelarches, giving a bigger area for boxes to be stacked, whilst still giving access to stuff in drawers. The seats will be split - the 60 will be left in place (there are 3 of us) and the 40will be folded up (or probably removed), and the floor built up to the same level as the drawers. Not a huge amount of help I am afraid, and I haven't decided what boxes to use either, so I will be interested to see what else is suggested. Cheers Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
v8bertha Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 Peter and Eileen Crichton (??) have been around the world several times in their disco 1. They have also published a couple of books. The one we have, Chasing Rainbows, doesn't have a huge amount of info, but the other one may. However... I'm pretty sure their email address is listed in the book too so it may be worth getting yourself a copy. Failing that I'll have a look in the copy I have when I get home tonight. IIRC they were pretty good at replying to emails asking fore advice and the like, so they may be able to give you some pics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FridgeFreezer Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 TSD did an overland jaunt or two in his D1, this is one of my favourite photos and also does show some of the advanced storage methods employed in the back More photos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeagent Posted April 14, 2008 Author Share Posted April 14, 2008 I do have a copy of chasing rainbows, so good call... There will be three of us aswell... the third being a 15 month old baby I'd like to keep all the rear seats in place because if our daughter is unwell, or just playing up, my other half can sit in the back, and look after her... we are intending to just store a couple of holdalls full of clothes on the remainder of the back seat, which in an emergency could be stuffed in the front passenger seat footwell... I'm trying to avoid using a rood rack, but realistically its inevitable that I'll have to... We are gonig to the pyrenesse for two weeks in August, driving down through france and camping most nights... I know its not exactly 'cape-to-cape' but with a toddler it'll do me for now... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
protoprincess Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 I got a 3 door too - going to test my packing skills soon as it needs to carry stuff for Russia. Being nominated to carry, cook and nurture I have found that the best boxes are the plastic ones from the supermarkets - I prefer the shallow long ones - little wheels on them too. They stack nicely and as they are see through I know straight away what is in them. Cost ? - around £5.99 - £10.99 and ours lasted 3 Ladoga trips. They can be tied down and carry heavy stuff - Jez is using them for carrying spare parts and tools too. They also create a nice flat surface so you can sleep on them. Not worried about security, got a door lock and with the posibility of border police control - easier and faster you can unpack the better I think they might be ideal if you have a tot - the inbuild storage is little bit constraining IMHO, can be heavy and requires time to make it - I think that the wife will find it easier to take out a box with baby stuff and put it where you need (a.i. tent) it without having to rummage through to the bottom of he storage lockers. And as you getting rid of the nappies you can stack the boxes into each other but this is just a female talking - you might want to go for some more tech stuff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeagent Posted April 14, 2008 Author Share Posted April 14, 2008 thanks for the replies, i was never really intending on making a full-blown drawer system, but had planned to fit a shelf accross the loadspace with 4x Wolffe boxes underneath... giving us easy access to spares/tools/cooking gear/ first aid kit without having to unpack the whole boot.... I might stick with it and see what i can find from the 'really usefull' box range to go under the shelf, and stack the wolffe boxes on top.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
v8bertha Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 Really Useful boxes get my vote... We had 4 of them in the back of the Camel which gave us a nice level surface to sleep on if necessary. Big advantage of them is that you know you will be able to buy another one the same size in a years time, or just a new lid if you bust one. Seems to me that everytime I buy any boxe form B&Q or wherever and then decide I want another one they are completely diffferent, don't stack etc etc. Having had the pleasure of Really Useful boxes, I'd happily cough up the extra that they cost to have them next time. Dan B) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tacr2man Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 Priority One if you are carrying your child in row two and for yourselves as well is to get a load barrier fitted behind row two seat, as the seat retaining locks will not hold your toolboxes etc back in the case of accident. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeagent Posted April 14, 2008 Author Share Posted April 14, 2008 I've got a mesh dog guard bolted in top and bottom... its super strong and will keep whatever i stack in the boot well away from passengers. The plan is to have only soft items in the passenger compartment, and hard/sharp/heavy stuff behind the mesh load restraint... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmgemini Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 A dog guard is just that. a dog guard. Don't expect it to stop heavy stuff flying about. Get some Cargo Rail, clips and ratchet straps to stop everything moving about. mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeagent Posted April 14, 2008 Author Share Posted April 14, 2008 All items in the loadspace will be securely lashed down with ratchet straps, the mesh guard started out life as a dog guard but is now bolted top and bottom, and would hold back any boxes in event of an shunt... you can't really plan for a realy huge wipe-out, where the structure of the vehicle is severly deformed, but I will be doing all I can to ensure it all stays put if we do have a roll.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FridgeFreezer Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 Got my finger out an uploaded a pic of my super hi-tech setup (advanced cable-tie technology in use here): Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 I've done it in a five door. Shelves built from cheap ply and fixed to existing mounting points so as not to leave any holes when it was all removed again. I did remove the rear seats and built a vertical plywood bulkhead in the same place, which makes packing much easier. In front of the bulkead we had a box for spares (not easy to reach but hopefully not needed), fridge mounted centrally behind front seats (easy to reach whilst driving) and space either side for our clothes bags. First aid kit was strapped on top of spares box. Boxes were Action Packers from B&Q - these are excellent and proved to be completely impervious to Moroccan dust, which managed to get just about everywhere else! The tray in the roof sits on the trim surroundng the apline lights and is braced against the roof with some plastic pipe on threaded rods to stop it moving around and falling down. Great for lightweight stuff like coats, bedding and in our case, Thermorests. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil00001 Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 Camping Holiday 2007 South Holland, Sort of puts my packing to shame really, erm this is how you shouldnt do it unless you have 3 kids..... This year we will take a trailer...LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeagent Posted June 18, 2008 Author Share Posted June 18, 2008 Well, a quick update.. I went for a simple arrangement using 2 x 50 litre 'really useful' boxes, instead of drawers... one box contains a trolley jack, + tools, jump-leads etc, while the other has all our food in it... it works really well for us, as i can stack our Wolff boxes 3-high on top, and stand our folding camping chairs upright on top... best thing is it cost less than £50, including the boxes, and it only took about an hour to do! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FridgeFreezer Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 Very neat - I've found the Really Useful boxes to be excellent, I've broken a couple but when you stick a 20T bottle jack in a plastic box and then bounce it about off-road with insufficient restraints, that'll happen All the sensibly packed ones have survived remarkably well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclebill1 Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 Hi, did it last year in a D1, your packing seems to have enough ideas, only thing I'll add is I had a couple of waffle boards with me, never used them in the sand, but they were a godsend for cooking, one vertical in the sand, couple of bars through them to support the horizontal one to the back bumper, two burner petrol stove absolutely brilliant, I recommend the sainsburys hot chicken curry and batchelors express rice, raw onion opptional. On a totally different note I made up a box of spares to take and as it happens never used one of them, two rear light bulbs and change of air filter, anyway as a thought I was wondering about if there was a market or an inter forum rental possibility for spares for such a trip, it not a problem for me as I'll probably use what I took as spares over time, but there will probably be people out there that just want spares for a longish trip but don't want to go out and buy them all. Thoughts people. Cheers Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeagent Posted June 19, 2008 Author Share Posted June 19, 2008 On a totally different note I made up a box of spares to take and as it happens never used one of them, two rear light bulbs and change of air filter, anyway as a thought I was wondering about if there was a market or an inter forum rental possibility for spares for such a trip, it not a problem for me as I'll probably use what I took as spares over time, but there will probably be people out there that just want spares for a longish trip but don't want to go out and buy them all.Thoughts people. Cheers Bill I keep quite a few spares 'in stock' anyway, as the disco is currently my only car (hopefully not for much longer ) ive been making up a Wolff box of trip spares, which i can just throw in the back when we go away... just bits like wheel bearings/UJs/water pump, etc... Keith Gott used to do 'sale or return' spares for expeditions years ago (my Dad did it a couple of times) but not sure if they still do it... I do know that other small indepenant places might do you a similar deal... i'm travelling with 4-5 other landrovers down o the Pyrenesse this summer, so we've planned who is taking what spares so as not to duplicate too much... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mo Murphy Posted June 19, 2008 Share Posted June 19, 2008 I've done it in a five door. Shelves built from cheap ply and fixed to existing mounting points so as not to leave any holes when it was all removed again. I did remove the rear seats and built a vertical plywood bulkhead in the same place, which makes packing much easier. In front of the bulkead we had a box for spares (not easy to reach but hopefully not needed), fridge mounted centrally behind front seats (easy to reach whilst driving) and space either side for our clothes bags. First aid kit was strapped on top of spares box. Boxes were Action Packers from B&Q - these are excellent and proved to be completely impervious to Moroccan dust, which managed to get just about everywhere else! The tray in the roof sits on the trim surroundng the apline lights and is braced against the roof with some plastic pipe on threaded rods to stop it moving around and falling down. Great for lightweight stuff like coats, bedding and in our case, Thermorests. Darren, That's a very simple and well organised set-up there, very impressive. Mo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Posted June 24, 2008 Share Posted June 24, 2008 Thanks Mo. I'm just about to start planning a similar set-up for my wifes' DII for a trip later in the year. The rear seat will stay in place this time (although the rear folding seats will come out) but the longer boot space should make up for it in terms of flexibility. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Posted June 24, 2008 Share Posted June 24, 2008 Darren, if you do a similar thing in the roof with the shelf, I would be really interested to see some more pictures of it. Cheers Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Posted June 25, 2008 Share Posted June 25, 2008 Yeah, definitely. It'll be a slightly different arrangement this time though as I plan to fit a dog guard first, which will provide a convenient mounting point (the DII dog guard mounting is much more substantial than that for a DI). I've also got an idea that I can use the mounting points for the fold down headrests too, as they will also be removed, but I haven't looked into that in any detail yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grizzly Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 take a look at mine discovery. i made it in my eyes a true overlander mvg Alex http://www.lr-discovery.nl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamparks Posted February 5, 2013 Share Posted February 5, 2013 Rear_loading.JPGThe tray in the roof sits on the trim surroundng the apline lights and is braced against the roof with some plastic pipe on threaded rods to stop it moving around and falling down. Great for lightweight stuff like coats, bedding and in our case, Thermorests. Inside_shelf.JPG I'm Really interested in this roof shelf idea. I know this post is fairly old but am wondering if you are able to provide more details/photos about how to is fitted or if anyone else has constructed something similar. I'm not sure how it is supported from the roof (presumable to stop it sagging) It looks like there are some threaded rods but I can't work out how they attach at the roof end. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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