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on a journey with their Land Rover!!!
  
 
 
 
 
 

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Our car

updated 17 august 2006

Our car started life in 1986 as a Landrover 110 High Capacity Pick-Up.
What's a Landrover without a name? That's right.. a Landrover. Any way we decided to call ours Bogie. Why Bogie? Growing up in the North of England I used to build trolley's from planks of wood and wheels from old prams. We would use them to race down pit heaps. They would sometimes break half way down and usually fall to bits by the end of a day going up and down the heap. Being from the north of the Tyne I spoke (speak) Geordie, a North English dialect. The Geordie word for a trolley is a Bogie. A Bogie is made from all sorts of odds and end and not too hard to fix if it gets broke... Just like our Landrover 110.

Bogie has a 2.5 litre naturally asperated diesel engine, no electronics or complicated stuff that can break down, go wrong or fall off. Being a pick-up there's enough room in the back to sleep. The pick-up bay isn't too comfy and there'a good chance you'll get wet if it rains and maybe eaten by lions if they are passing by. The pick-up bay has been removed and replaced by a very compact camper unit. This is secured directly to the chassis and forms an intergral part of the car. All credit for the conversion from pick-up to camper goes to the previous owners Rob Melten and Natascha Ordelmans. Rob and Natascha travelled around Africa for over a year in 2004/05 after preparing the car. Sadly their website is no longer active.


Move the mouse cursor over the car to see how it has changed

The camper unit or living has been fitted with the following: Seating for 4 peolpe that can be converted into a double bed. The kitchen has 3 gas rings. There's a 40 litre compressor fridge with freezer. A sink with running water. A total storage capacity of 80 litres of drinkwater. One 40 litre tank directly linked to a filtersystem and 2 removable tanks of 20 litres each. The living has it's own independent 12 volt power supply. This is fed from a 200Ah semi-traction battery with a 90watt high capacity solar panel feeding a digital regulator that automaticaly charges and maintains both the household and the starter battery. Flouresent tubes and spot lights. A 400 Watt 12V to 220 V inverter. Loads of cupboards and storage space.

We've replaced or improved odds and ends on the car. I've replaced all the original rubberbushes with Polybushes. This was absolutely neccessary as the old ones were worn and would only have got worse. Removing the old bushes isn't the easiest of jobs as they are pressed in to place. Removing them means using a hydraulic press or like me a drill and alot of hammering. The new ones are fitted and easily removed without using special tools. Handy in the middel of nowhereDe nieuwe zijn zonder speciale gereedschap te plaatsen en verwijderen.
I've replaced the front and rear springs with extra heavy duty's. The car was sitting quite deep in the original heavy duty springs. The springs in combination with Koni HeavyTrack shock absorbers front and rear ensure that the car is more stable and a more comfortable ride.
Wev'e placed an extra box on the roofrack on the the place of the second reserve wheel. The box is for light and volumnous things. We've moved the second reserve wheel to the bullbar. It is secured to a bracket and rests on the bumber. It's in front of the radiator and slightly obstructs the air flow to the radiator. In real time the cool system is't impared. Ther is enough coling capacity. I am going to place an extra electric fan in front of the radiator. This will be temperature and manually switchable to give extra air through the radiator if needed.

Three weeks to departure and the car is almost ready. There is a repair to the steering box. I filled it with oil and it all leaked out again. Replacing the seal will probably help for a while but I've decided to go for a long term sollution and replace the steering box with a new one. While I'm at it I'm going to replace the steering and tracking rods with heavy duty new ones.

Here are a few pics of the conversion from HCPU to camper. (Thanks Rob)

Stripped

unit

painting