Thread: to camper or not...

I know this is mostly specific to the P38 but I reckon this is a general chat topic. I could have posted under technical but this is not necessarily a technical topic but an opinion piece (well asking for anyway) but! mods, feel free...

Anyway, I have been looking into making my P38 as campable as possible. The chinese flu has buggered the planning somewhat but that does not mean I have given up on my world travel ideas. I have been "fighting" with vehicle weight and comfort for quite some time now for those who have seen my posts throughout the years. Let us start with comfort.

We have been (the missus and me) camping out of a soft shell rooftop tent for 5 years now.

Pros

• the space. Those things are actually quite roomy.
• speed of setup. It takes less than 5 minutes to set it up
• of the ground gives a (false?) sense of security
• relatively light
• wonderful all round views (except the rear)
• very airy when it needs to be
• privacy when we use the bottom zip on extension

Cons

• though light, weight is up high
• increased fuel consumption
• extra bottom tent and poles and such to carry inside the vehicle

Those are just the bullet points. We have used the tent in -27c when traveling to the north cape and it was quite comfortable with a petroleum heater and an extra blanket but, the most important pro is also its most important con. It is a perfect tent to travel the oz outbakc in summer or to use in the african bush. Sleep in a fairly airy and breezy tent and wake up to a magnificent sunrise, perhaps even surrounded by wildlife if you are lucky. That same benefit also becomes a downside in south east asia when it's almost constantly wet or in patagonia where the wind does not let down. The rtt becomes a damp, moldy and noisy nuisance.

Couple that to the range rovers max carrying capacity of around 780kg (let's say 800) and I was starting to look around at alternatives. To make an easy bullet point list again, these in my opinion are the options (towing is not an option imho, I'll get into that later)

• hard shell rtt
  
  • less space and comfort than a soft shell
  • MUCH faster to put away
  • less chance of mold
  • probably a lot more wind proof
  • less visibility
  • HEAVY
  
  
• pop top roof conversion
  
  • life inside vehicle
  • "ultimate" comfort
  • more weight on top but less than a hard shell I reckon
  • expensive
  • limited vehicle choice, and with that
  • less comfortable to drive
  
  
• 4x4 van of some sort
  
  • no need for conversion
  • all weight down low
  • "big" and not very 4wd capable
  • even less comfortable to drive potentially

Of those three options, the pop top roof conversion seems to tick the most boxes since it allows one to use a very capable 4x4 as the basis for the vehicle and then simple make a cross between the venerable camper van and the (hard shell) roof top tent with (almost) none of the downsides of the other options. The only real downside I can see is that there really seem to be only two vehicles that will allow for the amount of space a van has; the troopy and a converted 130.

Putting everything back into perspective once again I found that the 110 is smaller than a troopy but not by much, you miss the most in the width of the vehicle. Also, the leaf springs in the back of the 70 series are not very appealing in terms of ride quality and the spring that hangs below the axle that will be the first thing to catch on anything. So it's back to the defender then. If the 110 is a bit small-ish, the 130 could be an option but the huge turning radius and breakover angle could be problematic. I know of the frenchy/oz couple doing a world trip in a 130 with a jack off camper, I find it somewhat appealing but I am not sure on that setup. Also, I do not really need a double cab. I have seen a company in OZ that has done a pop top roof conversion of a 130, turning it into a 130 van first and adding the roof later. I think there is a lot of space in there but again, the vehicle might become a tad too big.

When I thought about these variables I decided to make a bit of a list with things like dimensions turning circle, weight, gvm, etc. To my surprise the difference in weight carrying capacity between a range rover and a 110 is "only" 200kg or thereabouts. A 130 can't really take THAT much more than a 110 and the troopy wins out hands down with almost 500K more than a P38 iirc.

The thing is, the P38 doesn't lend itself to chopping up the roof for a pop top conversion due the the raked rear. To no ones surprise I guess there is this guy from Blighty who actually did what I had been pondering about for months Range Rover Overland camper build diary : part 1 - BeaDy

Now, far be it for me to steal the guys exact design but it is close to what I would do and seeing as he managed to keep the weight of the vehicle within spec and keep it comfortable and reliable... I am quite intrigued by this whole idea.

The way I see it, a P38 is a really comfortable way of traveling, much more comfortable than a troopy or defender I reckon and if I keep using the P38 as is I would certainly need to look into towing a small trailer for some of the heavier stuff. That is all fine and well but like the rtt, it only works in say OZ because in most other parts of the world that thing becomes a hindrance.

So here is one for the campfire chat; did I miss anything? Would you put the hacksaw into your (P38 or whatever)? There is no returning from there!

Cheers!
-P

That series landrover looks a bit... off with that nose Other than that, nice build!

I never considered a dormobile style roof, judging by the pictures on that ad I think it would also work quite well but somehow the whole world seems to go for the lenght-wise pop-up. Not entirely sure why but it is certainly easier to construct.

Anyway, I have been looking around a bit more and I remembered where I saw those fixed pictures. Not the prettiest example but here you go: Rover 130 scroll down to the "Schachtelhubdach" almost at the bottom of the page. There is also this french guy (I believe) who did a 110 with a lifting roof or should I say, lifting station part The entire rear end was duplicated and lifted up vertically creating a room the size of the 110 station part anyway with solid walls. There was also a vid on youtube of it, gotit Couple's own Paris-Dakar using Land Rover transformer-camper - YouTube

Apart from the heavy stuff maybe I find it... has something. Driving it looks fine, lifted it looks a bit weird but something like this on the back of the chopped P38 could also be an option.

Decisions decisions

Cheers,
-P