We had worked hard on a Kickstarter campaign for our second book (Travel the Planet Overland) and had made the decision to invest the profits from the campaign in the build of a camper which could transport us around the world for at least the next decade, the cost of the camper would eventually be recouped as we would no longer have to rely on campsites and could work and live comfortably, thus becoming more productive.

 

It took almost a year of hard work, planning and design before I finally gave the project the green light. This was to be no ordinary camper - it had to be light and strong, able to go where Defender’s should while accommodating four adults comfortably. My son Keelan had grown to be a bull and the back seat of a Defender was designed for Hobbits not large boned Africans. The decision was made to remove everything from the front doors back and to build a pod with seating for the kids, to do this we would need to design the pod with a large walk through opening between the cab and the pod which would allow us to travel normally without locking the kids in a sealed box and we would be able to access the front seat while camping, important if we needed to escape hostility or potential threats while on some secluded beach. The walk through was an engineering challenge though, as we had to calculate the flex along the length of the chassis and design and build a partially suspended subframe, rigid yet flexible and we had to design a bulkhead which would mate the pod to the cab. A miscalculation could ultimately destroy the camper if the flexibility of the chassis under full articulation was not dissipated sufficiently through the subframe.

 

The interior would be modular (allowing for modifications as our needs demand, as the kids grow they will want to follow their own dreams) and lightweight, built on a frame of aluminum. We would have to work as we travel and needed a solar system which would be complimented by a dual battery with split charging system and a trickle charge option from shore power (I wrote our third book, Overlanding the Americas - La Lucha, sitting in the camper as snow fell on our campsite in Italy and I wrote this article while camping on a Black Sea beach in Turkey, the pod is our home and office). For the kitchen we sourced an outstanding fridge freezer unit from Snomaster (the 60 litre BD/C 60 Classic with low voltage cut off and a solar powered remote control), a dual gas burner stove complimented by a Coleman collapsible oven and a basin mated to 100 liters of house water. Each occupant also needed a full size bed to sleep in and the solution was to build a bunk bed within a security frame, the lower bunk formed by the joining of the two rear seats, and the top bunk available when the roof was lifted horizontally. A large storage box along the one wall would double as a bed and the back cushions would become a bed in the walkway. Jessica and Luisa would share a bed if we were unable to lift the roof while free camping in a city or questionable areas.

To increase the living space and reduce body roll we decided to have no storage cupboards above window height and we would install five large windows for maximum light and air flow. A large rear door would open horizontally and allow us to extend our living area to the outdoors. When camping in a city we could lock down the vehicle and sleep inside discretely and inconspicuously, but when we were on the beach or in the mountains we could pop the top, open all the windows and doors and have a panoramic view of our surroundings.

 

Blood, Sweat, Tears and Glory.

​

In December 2016 we stood in Southern Florida and watched as a new friend piloted a forklift and removed a large wooden box from the back of an eighteen wheeler. A German owned company, Total Composites, had agreed to supply us with the camper panels, windows, adhesives and sundry in exchange for exposure as they had just established a North American branch (they are ecstatic with the outcome as the rebuild video has had almost a million views on YouTube).

Time was of the essence though as the panels arrived a month behind schedule and Luisa had booked the flights from Boston to the United Kingdom and she had booked the shipping of the Landy from Miami to Southampton. We had 42 days to complete the entire build, about 142 days short of the time I needed.

 

Deconstructing our beloved Defender was heart breaking, she had faithfully transported us across three continents and we adored every inch of her. We began by removing the rear doors and seat box, then the roof and the rear tub, all of which were cleaned and prepared for a buyer Luisa had found on the internet ( the parts sold for $8000 which was $4000 less than the purchase price of the entire vehicle back in 2009. The sale of the parts covered almost half of the rebuild budget). We now had a bare chassis up to the B pillar and to achieve that we only had to cut the two two inch wide sills, Defenders really are the Mechano of the automotive world.

 

Our friend and host Ron, taught Keelan and I to weld while we were waiting for the panels to arrive from China and with the chassis exposed we could now begin manufacturing the subframe. The work area was not a fully equipped workshop but it had a level concrete floor and a plastic covered frame and Ron had any tool we might need. A large industrial fan helped us to stay cool through the heat of a Floridian winter and a Yeti cooler full of ice kept us refreshed during the 15 hour work days, NPR or one of the local stations on the radio. At the end of the day me and my new friend Pepper, who had bitten me when we first met, sat and shared a few beers as the sun set, planning the next days work. In bed by ten exhausted and up at five, working as the sun rose over the orange plantations. Luisa would work night and day, sourcing materials and parts while designing the horizontally lifting roof and water and electrical layout and taking care of all logistics and book sales. Keelan was my back, doing the heavy lifting and the maths and helping with the on the spot decisions, designs and fabrication.

Shayne, an Australian whose red 130 had been proclaimed by Outside magazine to be the best overland Defender, offered his help and advice and found himself wiring the camper. He also offered eight boxes of nuts and bolts, a few boxes of odds and sods and tools which he used to build his own vehicles and which he offered to us to use as we needed. Ah, the simple pure pleasure of a metric measuring tape. And Jesus, the general manager of Ron’s business, was always there when we needed a tool or an extra hand or a good idea. Often Jesus would force us to stop working to join his family for a cold Modelo and a few plates of delicious food.

 

We used 1”x 2” steel for the subframe, 2”x2” would be very heavy and too rigid, allowing no flex at all. Keelan and I cut the steel to lengths and began to weld on top of a large metal table in one of Ron’s massive greenhouses, sweat dripping down our backs. With the frame welded and structural gussets added for extra strength we took an angle grinder to the uglier welds, scrubbed the frame with a metal brush and painted the clean frame with four coats of rust inhibitive primer and four coats of rust inhibitive top coat, gloss black. We used the same steel to weld a safety cage which would surround the rear seating and provide a base for a bunk bed and the two inward facing rear seats.

 

The bulkhead which mated the pod to cab came next. I had stumbled across a German build on the internet while researching build options a year earlier. Mario had built a pod very similar to what ours became but there were a a few significant differences; our roof is a horizontal pop up, we have a large rear door and large windows while he has a small side door and relatively small windows and he welded an aluminum frame for the walls of his camper while we used panels joined with extrusions. I learned two things from Mario; first that you can build an overland camper in your driveway and secondly he had devised a way to connect the pod to the cab using brackets and a mating surface made of marine ply. He also very kindly provided detailed photographs and advice when I asked for clarification - Waltzing Matilda, you are the man.

 

Another source of information was Jose Luis from Urocamper, a man who had his hands full building excellent campers all day long and STILL took the time to reach out and offer advice! We communicated mostly through hastily drawn layouts and ideas. At the time of Covid 19 in Spain he closed his camper works and turned all energy and efforts to manufacturing face masks for health workers. Jose Luis is a dude. If you ever chat to him tell him we say hi!

ULRICH DOLDE!

A huge thank you to our friend Ulrich Dolde who was in the process of publishing his excellent camper build bible as we started our build. He very kindly sent us a PDF of the book to help us out. The book is an excellent source of information and we highly recommend that you invest in a copy if you are planning your own build.