Land Rover ideas for Jeeps

[Jim K in PA]

A few weeks ago I posted about a Disco with built-in storage and a drawer fridge. I said that I thought drawer fridges were worth considering for expedition builds with built-in storage: https://expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/land-rover-ideas-for-jeeps.218029/post-3073863

I got one of Morris 4x4's regular marketing emails today and Dometic fridges were one of the things featured in the email. I noticed that they are now offering drawer fridges. I knew drawer fridges were generally less expensive than top load fridges, but in this email a 30-qt drawer fridge is 2/3 of the price of a 28-qt. top load.

I do think drawer fridges worth considering. If I hadn't gotten the two top-load fridges I have for nothing (Dometic gave them to me for shows and Trail Kitchen design use), I think I might have gone with a drawer fridge.

Neat idea for a drawer fridge, but I would caution anyone considering one to make sure there is adequate ventilation for heat exchange. As with a top load, the efficiency and therefore on-off cycle ratios depend on the ability to shed heat from the exchanger. It's challenging to keep adequate airflow for a top load fridge, and I imagine even more so for a drawer fridge. Low air flow will result in longer run times and therefore reduced battery only operation run time.

Just a thought.

 

[jscherb]

Neat idea for a drawer fridge, but I would caution anyone considering one to make sure there is adequate ventilation for heat exchange. As with a top load, the efficiency and therefore on-off cycle ratios depend on the ability to shed heat from the exchanger. It's challenging to keep adequate airflow for a top load fridge, and I imagine even more so for a drawer fridge. Low air flow will result in longer run times and therefore reduced battery only operation run time.

Just a thought.

Definitely a design consideration for any fridge being installed in cabinetwork in a vehicle. One thing about the drawer fridges that make them a bit easier to vent is that the mechanism is outside of the enclosure, which gives you more options for airflow. In some ways these fridges are easier to vent than a typical top-load fridge, which has the mechanism inside and small grilles on each side for airflow, so you have to keep those grille areas clear for airflow. This drawing is for an Engel drawer fridge, it shows the outside mechanism When I was designing the Trax Kitchen for Tentrax I had a lot of options for airflow because of this.

 

[jscherb]

I sewed a TJ/LJ version of the velcro dash panels this morning. These also require no fasteners or adhesive to attach securely to the dash. I made these in light gray because my LJ has the factory gray bezels. In some of the photos the fabric is still a bit stiff because it's right off the roll and the panel doesn't lie perfectly flat on the dash yet; as soon as the fabric relaxes it'll snug down to the dash.

I could have made the passenger side so that it drapes down over the front of the dash but I figured I'd keep it away from the airbag. The pouches are MOLLE pouches that I've temporarily put some self-stick Velcro on the back. A MOLLE version of this panel would also be easy to do.

I provided a hole in the driver's side so the VIN tag is still visible. Again the fabric needs to relax before it'll lay flat on the dash.

Stuck to the top of the instrument cluster is an Overland Outfitters Grab Bar Pocket, I added some self-stick velcro to the back of that so it would stick in place.

These were easy to make and they the attachment design worked out well, they're not going anywhere.

Still not sure what the best use of these (or the JK version) might be. If a good idea comes up, I'll sew a prototype pouch or whatever to see how useful the idea is. Or I could make MOLLE versions of either set to try them with available MOLLE stuff.

 

[Jim K in PA]

I'll take a set of those TJ/LJ covers in light khaki, please.

 

[jscherb]

I'll take a set of those TJ/LJ covers in light khaki, please.

The fabric is available in a color Sailrite calls beige (https://www.sailrite.com/Boat-Blanket-Fabric-Beige-72).

I've got a bunch of it on hand, I had to buy a minimum of a yard last year when I was working on something I called the "Tactical Tool Bag."

I lined the inside of the bag with the fabric so the bag could be configurable for multiple purposes:

The color of the fabric is closer to the photo above (and to the color in the video below) than it is to the first photo in this post, I took the first photo with my cell phone and the later photos last year with my Nikon.

I sewed the prototype with "pages" to hold tools; the pages were held in the bag with Velcro stuck this fabric on the inside of the bag:


Strange that the Tactical Tool Bag and its velcro should come up today because just yesterday I was talking with OO about their spring catalog and which new products they planned to put in it and they told me they were going to include the Tactical Tool Bag, so I guess it's goi‌ng into production. I haven't thought about that bag in a long time.

How does that color work for light khaki? The only other wide fabric velcro compatible loop fabric I've found is actually Velcro brand, and theirs is also called beige and it looks exactly like the fabric I have on hand. There may be other sources with a true "light khaki" but I haven't found them yet.

 

[Jim K in PA]

I honestly think the grey is closer than the beige to the nebulous "light khaki" panels in my '05. I was able to color match some half door interior panels with a combination of colors, but it was a challenge. I suspect the beige would bleach out pretty quickly from the UV exposure.

 

[jscherb]

I honestly think the grey is closer than the beige to the nebulous "light khaki" panels in my '05. I was able to color match some half door interior panels with a combination of colors, but it was a challenge. I suspect the beige would bleach out pretty quickly from the UV exposure.

Actually, it probably won't fade. The fabric is intended for outdoor and specifically marine use. This is from the description on the Sailrite web site (emphasis mine):

Boat Blanket Fabric is an extremely durable, protective Spectropile fabric. This solution-dyed non-woven, plush polyester has a soft outer surface that acts like the loop side of Velcro®. .... Boat Blanket is easy to sew and is tough: UV and chemical resistant, and colorfast to withstand marine and outdoor environments.

It's a really nice fabric.

I've been driving around with the panels on my dash, hoping inspiration strikes. I see how the panels would be useful for sticking random Velcro-backed pouches, but is there a "killer app" for these panels? Something that makes them really useful and worthwhile? If anyone has any great ideas let me know. Maybe inspiration will strike, I've got a 5 hour each-way round trip to JFK airport this weekend and I'll be looking over these panels the entire time .

 

[jscherb]

Evidence that it's not going to fade, I found the photos I was looking for... when Robert came up with the Patriot Spare Cover idea, I sewed him one out of Cordura nylon fabric I had on hand. I also had polyester webbing on hand and I ordered the Boat Blanket for the project. Here's what it looked like shortly after installation:

Two years later, he was moving into NYC and wasn't going to need the Jeep anymore, so he sold it to Carvana (at a several thousand dollar profit!). This photo was taken when Carvana picked up the Jeep. Notice how badly the nylon faded but the Boat Blanket and the polyester webbing look like new.

I didn't mind him selling the spare cover with the Jeep because it was so faded, but if you followed the progress of his Jeep (I posted a lot about it when he had it), you may notice I didn't let him sell it with the factory hardtop I converted to modular, that's been sitting in the basement here since he sold the Jeep, waiting for a new use.

 

[jscherb]

I got an email today from Land Rover Monthly magazine, they were promoting the Camping Awards 2023 awarded by their sister magazine Camping. Awards are made in a bunch of categories and you can visit the site to see them all: https://www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/camping/information/official-camping-awards. I haven't looked at all the categories yet, if you find something interesting there post about it here.

I found the roof top tent awards interesting - two of the three awards went to inflatable tents. The top award went to the Quechua MH900 Inflatable Roof Top Tent. It's a French company and I don't think their products are available here.

The second place award was the Crua Aer Maxx roof tent, a "manually erected roof tent... more traditional style", also I don't think available here.

And third place was another inflatable, this one from Dometic, called the TRT120E Ocean 12V roof tent. That one I would guess is available here because it's from Dometic.

I found it interested that two out of the three were inflatable. Maybe Europe is ahead of us with RTTs because inflatables haven't really gotten much traction here yet.

 

[Paddler Ed]

Quechua MH900 Inflatable Roof Top Tent. It's a French company and I don't think their products are available here.

Quechua is an own brand of Decathlon Stores - a French sport and outdoor retailer (https://decathlon.com.au/pages/about-decathlon) with 1,600 stores in 52 countries around the world. They do everything from climbing gear to bikes to soccer boots to fishing rods, backpacking to car camping gear. I've used their stuff for over 20 years in one form or another, and always head into one when near to one to see what they have (they now have a few stores in Australia as well as Europe and the UK and many others)

 

[jscherb]

This item was in the most recent issue of Land Rover Owner:

My immediate response: Wow! That's a lot of sand in the cyclonic filter that the regular air filter doesn't have to deal with.

I see a lot of snorkel products for Wranglers, but very few offer a cyclonic prefilter. I guess there aren't too many places in the U.S. where a cyclonic prefilter would be truly useful, but every time I get off an Easter Jeep Safari trail at Moab I open the windows and turn the HVAC blower on high as soon as I get on the highway to blow the dust out of the HVAC system, and I usually change the air filter after I get home from the trip, so places like Moab probably would be a good place for a prefilter.

I don't like that pretty much all of the snorkel products on the market require that you cut holes in the Jeep sheet metal, so I did some work on a prefilter/snorkel idea for the TJ a few years ago that would not require cutting any of the external sheet metal - I created a mold for a cowl panel that included a provision for mounting a cyclonic prefilter. The new fiberglass panel compared to the stock panel:

Testing it on my pickup:

The air intake gets routed through the firewall and there's ductwork integrated into the bottom of the new cowl panel to channel the air through the firewall. It worked very well, but since I don't drive my Jeeps into dusty areas like Moab more than once a year I didn't permanently install that panel and a prefilter on either of my '06's.

About a half dozen of the cowl panels escaped into the wild, two years ago a forum friend borrowed the molds and had a bunch made for himself and a few friends but other than that I haven't done anything else with the molds.

 

[jscherb]

This isn't specifically a Land Rover idea, but it was in a recent issue of Land Rover Owner and I think it's a very creative way to have a grille that takes up almost no storage space:

The web site: https://www.thebushcraftstore.co.uk/uco-grilliput-duo-portable-grill-29060-p.asp.

The company also sells a collapsible "fire bowl" to build the fire in:

https://www.thebushcraftstore.co.uk/uco-grilliput-firebowl-29050-p.asp

 

[jscherb]

The latest issue of Land Rover Owner has an article on the Ineos Grenadier. I think Ineos has really done a nice job in designing a proper successor to the Defender. And every time I see photos of the Grenadier dash I am reminded of the Wrangler's trend towards a dash that would look right at home in a minivan. This photo was part of the article:

I found some more detailed photos online. The center stack:

The overhead panel. Note the extra switches at the top for accessories. Try finding space in most Wrangler dashes for that many accessory switches.

The 4WD controls:

All of the above appear to be in separate aircraft-style panels that can be removed for servicing or adding more switches or other devices. Don't you just love the Wrangler's minivan-style dash even more after seeing these photos? NO!

 

[shays4me]

If the ineos is successful it will be a serious contender for my next wagon when it’s time to let the jku go.

 

[douglastic]

Loving that stubby intake, very Hummer H1!