Marmalade the Land Rover
My Land Rover is a diesel 170 hardtop, called ``Marmalade''.
He does most of his miles getting me around the place, to work and
so on, but also we sometimes go green laning
and sometimes camping.
The name
Marmalade got his name from a
conversation with a friend in which we agreed that with things you
don't buy often (such as marmalade) it's worth going for a good
one.
In my very first attempt at extending my calligraphy to include
signwriting, I painted his name along the front of the bonnet.
Modifications
Land Rover owners generally customize their vehicles to some
extent. I've done quite a bit of this, starting with a rewiring of the
internal lighting, fitting of a storage box and coat hooks.
Here I list some of the most useful ones:
- Rear proximity mirror
- This is over the rear door, pointing down to the towing
bracket, enabling me to reverse right up to things without
hitting them. I reckon I can stop with under an inch to spare
without risk of hitting whatever I'm parking next to.
- Internal lighting
- Now as well as the lighting in the load area, I've also
installed some MR11 LEDs, as map-reading lights, and a
number-plate light in each footwell and one behind the front
seats, for finding dropped tools etc when working at night.
- Soundproofing
- I've lined the ceiling with sound-deadening felt and carpet --
this makes quite a difference as otherwise the roof acts as a
sounding-board for the engine and road noise.
- Eberspächer heater
- This warms the engine before I start it (and can demist the
windscreen too).
- Rooftop tent
- I also got the roofrack extended partway over the bonnet to
keep a useful amount of open space on the rack. I used the
heater out of an old Mini to blow hot air into the tent, getting
its heat from the Eberspächer.
- Extra lights
- I've fitted a variety of extra lights, controlled mostly from
a home-made switch panel in the cab ceiling.
- Spotlights just under the front of the roof rack
- Here they're out of the way of branches and rivers.
- Aimable lights on the roofrack
- These can be pointed by reaching out of the window ---
useful for looking for housenumbers, and many other
things.
- Second battery
- With two batteries, you can risk running one down while
camping, and still have the other fresh and ready to start the
vehicle in the morning.
- Wing and bonnet guards
- It's convenient to be able to climb up the front, as well as
using the ladder which was originally at the back of the
roof-rack, but this bent the panels slightly, so I fitted some tread plate there
- Longer chassis body, and extra axle
- I stretched
Marmalade by rebuilding on a longer chassis, as a six-wheeler.
- Side steps
- These fold up out of the way as needed.