WARREN

Hi Joseph Thanks for the compliment

It was a bit of both. Since I only had one spare wheel bracket <brand new @ the scrap-yard for R150>  ----  Hehehe and could not afford mistakes, I thought the modification through very carefully & made a lot of measurements before starting, especially taking into consideration: - The space & distances of the spare wheel, how to remove & re fit it, heights & distance from the rear axle (which impacts on down force)

Also made sure that the weight involved is less than 80 – 100Kg – IE same as that for a caravan ETC

Essentially, I cut up the attachments for the supplied swing out bracket that comes with the luggage box which was totally inadequate and welded them onto the round spare-wheel mount face plate, fabricated a spring loaded latch in a different place,

 The second (top) mounting point I simply reversed the bracket that bolts onto the rim of the spare wheel & attached it with a piece of 20mm threaded rod through the Landy’s spare wheel to the Landrover spare wheel mount on the rear door, and used a 20mm ring eye as a nut. --- Nice & secure.

As I mentioned it’s only for bulky but lightweight stuff like briquettes/ my dishwashing arrangement,/  my battle tank suit that I use when it’s cold / spare rope for the awning that kind of thing --- Bear in mind, I’ve removed all the seats from the inside so there is actually little or no weight increase

 STATIC CAMPING WITH THE LUGGAGE BOX (LEFT)

 Moving along.

These evolutions costa-plenty, and up to now, I did not really want to spend the bucks until I was convinced that my new direction was the right way to go for me, and are a logical result of my trials in the mountains of the Eastern Cape and the wild country in the Drakensberg conservatory, where I stealth-camped and boon-docked--- All of which is in preparation for when I throw in the towel at work.

I also know from trials done as Aasvoelkranz (with you fellas) & Bloekompoort, my rig copes also very well with Static camping  --------  So now it’s time to spend the bucks

 In search of space..

The next evolution (remember I’m working backwards in time) is my bathroom / shower / toilet / get-changed – cubicle.

The one I made myself using shade-net hooked onto a pull-out frame worked OK – but to be honest, a bit of a pain to hook it up & peg it  and  way oversized. 1.8M Long  * 1.0 M wide.

I’ve replaced this with a cubical that I bought from Tentco, it is quite adequate at  1*1M

The big things here are

it folds up into it’s own bag, and the whole thing is mounted o the side of the roof rack --- So I don’t have to stow the bulky piece of shade-net,& need half the number pegs

It’s pretty much instant – unzip it falls down flip-flop the supports and its ready

The engineering challenge with this evolution is that to position it central to the bracket for my solar bag shower, It closes up half the rear passenger door, so I would not be able to directly access my fridge freezer. Also I  did not want to have to walk around the cubicle between my kitchen at the back and my freezer ---

To overcome this, I actually mounted it on the pull-out bracket that I made for my own version of the cubicle, and by pulling it out 1Mfirst then dropping it,  I have straight-line path between my freezer & my kitchen and it does not foul the door

Strange, working that out took weeks of thinking --- So simple a solution – Jaaa jong ek weet --- Daar’s so hele klomp wat hier gepos en se ek nie al my varkies  inni hok het

 

THE ONE I MADE USING SHADENET

 

WHAT I REPLACED IT WITH

Without a doubt, The group of gear that contributes the most to weight is recovery gear.

I travel solo, so I travel with a lot of it - I'm OK with that, --------- Always been self reliant..

SO LET'S TALK WINCH: -  Why don't I have a winch?

I had a 1000Lb Warn on both my previous vehicles, and the only time I effected a recovery with it was to recover some other dude --- Who nogal got cocky with me about "how he wanted to be recovered" -----

NE!  I"ve done the training, I've got the experience, I've got the gear I'm the one that's not stuck, and he's telling me how to get him out the crap ----

Told him straight "It's my way or you can find someone else"---

Anyhow,

Although My 90 Defender had every bell and whistle, and seemed to be the perfict platform, after 5 or so years I had to acknowledge that being a shorty, it was not the right platform for me, so I swopped it for the Discovery.

The Disco did not have a winch mount front bumper, so, given the history of the use of my winch I opted to forgo having a winch.

Investigating the cost to mount one came up around the R50 000.00 mark EEK!!!-- the cost of the bullbar / winc & fitting both -- NE! I'm not going to fit one --- I'll make some other plan.

So there already was a huge saving in weight.

SHACKLES

Reciently, I've been changing out my bow shackles for "Soft shackles"

They are made from plasma rope -

This saves a huge amount of weight.

In a recovery situation, given 2 bridels at each end of the tow belt, this comes up to six shackles at the very least --- So there is a big saving in weight -- Also with a bow shackle you are limited by the size of the shackle, with a soft shackle you can join 2 together to make one big shackle.

Unfortunately a 17Ton soft shackle comes in at R500 each --- Multiply that by 8  NE ! R4 000 for shackles.

But they are much much safer in the event of the tow belt / rope breaking under strain

JUST SOME PICS FOR THOSE WHO DON'T KNOW WHAT A SOFT SHACKLE IS

EXAMPLE OF A SOFT SHACKLE

 

EXAMPLE OF A UNIQUE WAY OF ATTACHING POSSIBLE ONLY WITH A SOFT SHACKLE

 

TRACK MATS

For many years I've had the "rubber strip"type track mats, and it's a piece of gear I've ofen used, both for myself and for other dudes --- Yes I'm actually a helpful person, and will spend time hepling where I can ---

Anyhow, they are heavy, and very space hungry, so just reciently I've changed them out with a set of "grip & go's" --- never used them but I don't see that they would net be as effective as the ones I've got

They are about 1/3 the weight & about 1/5 the weight.

Now this is important, as I keep them in a trommel on my roofrack <The last thing you want on a rainy day is to have to chuck muddy track mats into your living space> so It's had a huge impact on the weight I keep on my roof rack

 

RUBBER STRIP TYPE TRACK MATS

 

GRAB & GO TRACK MATS

 

 

Still on the cards: -  (But I'll keep you guys updated

12v LED Strip lighting <upgrade>

A mini scooter ------ like this -- Remember the bicycle? yeah well, allthough the idea is still strong, that's not the right thing --- Travelling alone, If I have a problem far from help -----

weighs 25Kg ----- Pick 'em up for aroound R4000 second hand / R12K new ---- Still debating

Then I think I'm done --- My convoluted journey to getting the ultimate camping set up FOR ME is complete.

 

 

Don't laugh --- It's a serious piece of equipment ---

 

I was introduced to "soft shackles" on more than one recovery course -- You get different strengths of them, and it's good practice to use rigging where the soft shackle is the weakest thing in the whole rigging, If things go wrong, and the rigging breaks, It's not anything expensive, and it gives you the opportunity to re-asses the force needed to effect the recovery before there is major damage ---

For EG you might want to involve two recovering vehicles before you strip your entire underbelly out of your own vehicle.

The ones I got / will be adding to are officilly rated at  17 TON <metric>