The car… is it ‘tripworthy’?

Posted by efloow on February 23, 2015 in Background | 4 Comments

How do you make a Land Rover Discovery 4 (MY2014) ‘tripworthy’?  Everyone has anecdotes and experiences. The 4WD magazines and experts in the Alphabet shops all have differing opinions and ideas on what is necessary.  It seems the only truism is a bias towards parting with money.  I suspect the final fit is dependent on your needs are, what you plan to do with the car and hardest of all, staying within GVM!  Always challenging when you haven’t done it before! So we have read a lot, asked a lot, and realized on some of our practice trips what might make things easier and have ended up with a long list of modifications outlined below along with why we have done them. It will be interesting to see if our assumptions are correct or if we have over done it!

• Opposite Lock Bull bar: Bull bar seems essential for outback travel.  It certainly helped when a Toyota Yaris in Kangaroo Island reverse in front of us… poor Yaris
• Lone Ranger 104L secondary fuel tank: The Disco only has an 80L tank and at towing economy of 18 L per 100km we would be lucky to make 400km on a tank. We really did not want to carry Jerry cans of Diesel.
• Kaymar Rear Bar and single wheel carrier: The fuel tank displaced the spare from under the car and we needed somewhere to put it… hence the Kaymar rear bar.  It was really the only option, but a good one.
• Pioneer Platform Tray and Land Rover roof ladder: Room on the roof for bikes, spare tire carcasses and bits and pieces and a great viewing platform!
• Second battery with Redarc BCDC: Essential for all the accessories, compressor, radio, but mainly for the fridge (attachments for solar charging too)
• UHF radio and ariel: for communications…. or just to feel less lonely on the road
• Twin compressor: for the inevitable punctures and to tire pressure changes on different surfaces
• Lights on the bull bar, IPF 900XS 100W:  vanity – it looked naked without them!
• Safari Snorkel: not sure why we need this… cleaner air to the engine leading to better fuel economy?
• Tow Pro Brake management system: works a treat with the trailer.
• Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac 225/55R19:  Off road, more durable tyres.
• Clearview towing mirrors (to come soon)
• Drawer system and fridge slide (soon)