The vehicle

Meet DINO

A 1990s Defender 110 with a 200Tdi under the bonnet, “One life, live it” across the back window, and enough kit on the roof to live out of for the best part of a year.

Most of the build happened on driveways and in spare evenings before we left. DINO was never shiny, but he was ready, and he carried us the whole way. The notes below are exactly as we wrote them at the time.

DINO, the Land Rover Defender 110
DINO loaded and ready

The specs

Vehicle
1990s Land Rover Defender 110
Engine
200Tdi diesel
Name
DINO
Motto
“One life, live it”
Tyres
BFG ATs, going tubeless, two spares
Job
Carry two people and everything they own to Australia

How he was built

Tyres

Endless debate on tyres, and from what we can see it would be a choice between tubed and tubeless, All Terrain (AT) or Mud Terrain (MT). We currently have BFG ATs on the back and a couple of Pirellis on the front. These have plenty enough wear to last until we leave, but before we go we will replace them with either all BFGs or Michelin XZYs. Ollie has already bought six 2nd hand XZYs to play with. One thing we have decided upon is going tubeless. These seem to cause less issues, and can even take a tube in an emergency. We will be carry two spares, one on the back and one on the roof, so hopefully shouldn't have too many issues.

Awning

The awning is home made and works a treat. To pack and unpack it takes Ollie about the same amount of time as Jenny takes with the rooftent, perhaps 5 minutes. That means that with the correct motivation (rain!) camp can be made, with the kettle boiling, within five minutes of arrival. Usually there is plenty of essential faffing that must be done first. The awning is water proof and thus works equally well in protecting from sun as rain. It stores rolled up attached to the length of the vehicle.

Hasps and locks

We love locks! Well we certainly hope they will keep us happy on our long trip, and hence have had these hasps and locks added to our other security set up. You can actually see the other two locks as well. We hope that as well as acting as good security they also act as a deterrent as well. Note we had to use the long neck padlocks to fit through the hasps.

Getting DINO ready

17 photos from the welding and the shake-down · see more in the gallery →