Charlie's Overland Preparation

Although Charlie is a part of Land Rover history, like all Landy's he has a job to do! With George and Bertha's job's being playing in the mud, Charlie's job is twofold, to get Dan to work and back everyday and to take us to the out of the way places we want to visit. We've been careful with any modifactions attempting to avoid any lasting effects on Charlie should we ever want to put him back to 'Camel standard', thus, unlike Bertha and George, most are bolt on bits (although carefully researched bolt on mind!).

Mecahnically we've kept Charlie as standard as possible to avoid running into probelms sourcing bits in 'far off lands'. Luckily for us 'standard' includes Safety Devices roll cage, duel tanks, roof lights, spot lights, winch, snorkle, bush-wires, worklight, spade, axe and shovel!

Rock Sliders
This was the first addition to Charlie and brought to help protect the body work when off-roading. Jen bought them as a birthday pressy for Dan (he's so spoilt!!). The sliders were purchased from Brooklyn 4x4 in Southampton who supply all manner of bits from all manner of suppliers. We got the Britpart rock sliders which to be quite honest are rubbish! We chose them because they were the only ones available at that time, it seemed like there was a national shortage of Defender 110 rock sliders, but we thought they'd be ok. After taking off the bottom sill plate and offering up the slider, we found that the brackets were in the wrong place, so had to grind them off and re-weld them in the correct position.

Radiator/Intercooler
Allisport supplied the uprated intercooler and radiator, a package that altogether cost a small fortune! However, if like me you appreciate well made things, then you'll love Allisport products. Before fitting the radiator I left it in the living room at home so I could drool over it!
The upgraded intercooler was installed at the Malvern LRO show in 2006. We decided to install this modification because as anyone who drives a 300TDi 110 will know, these vehicles aren't exactly quick. The intercooler provides a little bit extra power which makes a huge difference when going up hills or towing a big trailer.
The radiator that we fitted is bigger than the standard item it replaced, and is more efficiant. The reason for selecting the larger rad is that we want to visit some hot places that can be pretty inhospitable. We need to be sure that Charlie wont overheat.

Roof Tent
Our rooftent is a MyWay 1.6m Canvas. We spent many a weary day trudging around Land Rover show looking at rooftents and trying to decide which best suited our requirements. We so nearly bust the bank and bought a Howling Moon which truely is a magnificent tent, but at the last minute heard about MyWay and went to investigate. Paul runs the UK distribution of the tents and is a jolly fine chap.
We decided on the Myway because it met the 2 main criteria. We wanted something that was low profile, that would not sit too much higher that the roof rack and one that was light. The MyWay fulfills both of these and has several other features. The tent doors open downwards instead of the traditional upwards. The draw strings on the inside pull the tent sides in when putting it away. And most importantly, it has a large vent in the ceiling and fly sheet separate from the canvas which allows the tent to breathe and stops it from condensating. This is a problem associated with canvas tents as many owners of other tents will testify

Roofrack Modification
Camel purists... look away now! In order to have the roof tent as low as possible on the roof rack and still be able to use, a section of the roof rack had to be removed. This involved taking an angle grinder to it and using the removed section to make a hinged rectangle.

Awning
One of the most important things to have when in hot climates, other than water is shade. The awning we have is a Howling Moon item and fixes to the roofrack. It takes less than a minute to set up, but can be a bit fiddly to put away. Ideally we would have brought the Hannibal awning which folds in and has no upright legs, but the additional cost over the Howling Moon was too much considering the Howling Moon is also an excellent awning.

Fridge
Engle 32 litre There's alot of choices when it comes to expedition fridges, we wanted something robust, large enough for a bottle of drink and more importantly, effiecient and effective in it's operation. The Engle fridges have an excellent reputation and after alot of research we considered it ideal for our needs, even on freezer all night it will use less power than one Defender headlight. The specifications are here and it has been perfect in all our trips so far, parked up at the Eastnor Land Rover show for 3 days with the fridge on full the Camel started without an issue. One other factor is the room inside, big enough to stand up a 2 litre bottle of drink and easily takes all our food for a good week.

Water tank and purification system
The water tank we fitted to Charlie is a 58litre plastic tank supplied by BOAB. Jen spent an age on the phone to a bloke there who was more than willing to offer all the help and advise we needed, without pushing the hard sell. They were able to supply a tank that had pretty much the smae footprint as the fridge, which is ideal is we wanted the water tank mounted underneith the fridge between the 2 rear seats. The tank itself actually sits in a metal framework that I made to support the weight of the fridge. The top of the frame is chequer plated and the fridge slidelock is fixed to that. We also purchased the water purifier and pump which BOAB pre assembled and labelled for us so it was near on impossible to plumb it all up wrong! You can just about make out the pump mounted behind the fridge. The purifier is in the rear and the shower hear is on the rear door. The switch to perate the pump is mounted just inside the rear door on the left hand rope box.

Storage
We tried so many different methods of storing stuff in Charlie Camel on our trips away, most based around the plastic stack'n'store type boxes you can buy in B&Q. However, the main disadvantage here is that if you want another box the same size sometime later, you are generally stuffed and end up having to buy something a completely different size. Thanks god for "Really Useful Boxes" then! These are a range of plastic boxes in various sizes that all fit together and you can but spares for at a later date. They also come in a range a nasty colours :-) With the two rope boxes set up over the rear wheel boxes, and the Mobile Storage Systems drawer fixed to the floor, we managed to find a combination of 4 ReallyUsefulBoxes that fit perfectly. They are easily removable, strong and durable. They are the perfect solution for us. As the picture shows, the boxes are strapped down with a luggage net so they wont move around.

We also have a luggage net in the roof that allows us to quickly stash things like coats out of the way.

We have removed the rear seats altogether now. This has provided more space in the rear for things like bags. A false floor has also been added for 2 reasons, 1) it allows us to soash the fold up table easily and 2) it means we have a level base for our clothes bags.

The real clever bit about the whole storage system is that if we take the top dog guard section out (3 bolts), we have a level area to sleep should things get too bad for the tent. It's a bit cramped, but for emergencies it works providing Dan doesn't drink too much beer before going to bed!!

Window Guards

CB

Swing-away Wheel Carrier

Split Charge/Batteries
The principle of split charging is simple, you have one battery that provides power to the engine and starter motor and another battery for all the accessories. Then you have a devise that allows both batteries to be charged, but that also stops any huge discharges from one battery affecting the other. But there are so many ways of achieving this and its difficuly to know whats the best option. When the Camel 110's were built they had 2 batteries that were connected together to provide enough power for extended periods of winching. The downside of this is that if one battery becomes knackered, it will draw power from the other battery, effectively flattening it.

We eventually decided on a mixed pair of Deka Intimidator batteries. These use Absorbed Glass Matting technology, or AGM for short. Unlike normal lead acid batteries they can be deep cycled (discharging and charging many times) without having too much of an adverse affect on the battery's life. With Lead acid batteries, the more times you flatten it, the less charge it will hold. And unlike deep cycle batteries, they will also provide the Cold Cranking Amps needed to start a cold diesel engine on a winters morning. The largest of the 2 batteries provides power to the vehicle and starter. It also provides the power to the winch as this is how the vehicle would originally have been wired. One day I will get around to changing this though. The second small battery provides power to all the accessories like the fridge, water pump and internal lighting. It also provides power to 4 sockets at the front of the vehicle and 4 in the rear. The 2 batteries fit snuggly under the passenger seat.

Now, to get the charging sorted we went for a Voltage Sensitive Relay. This senses when the altenator is kicking out more than 13.7volts. At that point it allows power to flow into both batteries. If the voltage drops below this voltage, it will only allow the main battery to charge. In theory this means that the main starting battery should always have enough power to start the engine.

Left Hand Drive head lights
They are headlights that point the other way! Normally when we go abroard, we just stick some blac tape on the headlights so that the beam pattern isn't pointing on the direction of cars coming the other way. By the end of our trips its normally on its last legs. So while at Sodbury Sort out in April 2007 we stumbled accross a pair of left hand drive lights in amongst a load of stuff with the Camel Club members. What a good Idea :-) We fitted them the day we loaded Charlie into the container at Felixstowe.

Eberspacer Water heater

Ongoing Maintenance: An inordinate amount of work has also gone into preparing Charlie for 4 1/2 months away from home, the ongoing maintenance schedule has been stepped up to include a full 'front to back' service of anything that is likley to go wrong. The pre-overland trip preparation work done includes: