130 Station Wagon with side fold pop top build

We then headed over to Moreton Island for 10 days. Brisbane got a massive hail storm on our first night on the island. Luckily we only got heavy rain and winds. That is where this camper is great. Nice and dry and heaps of space for the kids to play inside, when they got cold running around in the rain.

It was also nice to meet a real person who read this thread. Unfortunately I didn't get their name, but it was nice to meet you, thanks.

We went and checked out the "wild" dolphin feeding at Tangalooma. The "wild" dolphins neatly line up in five rows to have a fish shoved in their mouth by hundreds of tourists. It is great spectacle for kids, with the dolphins frolicking about. Only resort guests get to feed the dolphins, but you can still watch for free from the jetty, where all the action is anyway. The show starts at dusk when they turn on the lights to signal the dolphins, which makes it a late one for little kiddies. We went twice.

We were fairly loaded on this trip starting out with food and drinks for 3 weeks, plus 215 litres of water, with the 100litre water bladder across the rear passenger floor. We use it for showering and to fill up an 80cm diameter kiddies pool for the kids to swim and soak in a bit of fresh water, after all the sand and salt. The 130 went awesome.

National Parks have closed off a lot of areas, and made it very tricky with the silly pre-booking of camp sites, but Moreton is still great.

On this trip, we hatched some plans to ship the 130 overseas...

Hi mate - are you still around Brisbane? Would love to catch up and compare your rig to my 130/Trayon.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ranga

Hi mate - are you still around Brisbane? Would love to catch up and compare your rig to my 130/Trayon.

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Hey Ranga - That would have been great, but we were there in Nov 2014. I put out an invitation in Post #148 hoping to meet up with members down there, but unfortunately there were no takers.

We and the 130 are now in Germany.

Hey Ranga, shame we couldn't meet up and directly compare your Trayon to my 130.

But I've been thinking about it, we had a Trayon on a 130 dual cab for about 18 months, so I'll make some comments from my point of view. We had a 1830 tapered model. I searched through my photos to try and find some comparison photos of the two.

Firstly, the Trayon's weigh about 390kg empty, and are 2.2m long. With my old 130 with the Trayon on, I had to put poly air bags inside the 330lb/in original outer springs to keep it level when travelling. The current 130 only has 300lb/in rear springs in it, so is a fair bit lighter. I didn't like how the 130 with the Trayon handled off camber 4WD tracks, as with the stiffer rear springs (compared to the front) when a rear wheel fell into a rut, it made the whole car drop to that side. It also felt like it had a high centre of gravity. I find this 130 drives quicker and more smoothly over rough uneven terrain.

Because the Trayon is square, being wider and higher than the car, head winds seemed to really knock the car around at highway speeds. The old 130 had an auto with a discovery 1.2 transfer case which certainly didn't help matters. On tight bush tracks with overhanging trees (like the one down to five rocks in Byfield NP) this also made for slow and careful driving. But this is probably true of most utes with canopies.

Inside the Trayon is wider 1.8m vs 1.4m. So the bed should be much wider, but the cut out for the door opening, which then becomes the bed, eats up a lot of useable space. The Trayon is shorter 2.2m vs 3.2m. I have two double beds when open, although one bed is only 1.6m long to allow for a living area (stand up caravan area). The canvas section in mine is higher at the sides. On the flip over fibreglass main bed, the height goes from 1.3m at the centre pole, to 1m at the side. On the kids bed the height goes from 1.2m, down to 0.8m. This height lets us sit up in bed, and the kids to stand (and run around).

The Trayon's living area is much more spacious with the extra width allowing space for a table between the bench seats. In mine we also have a double seat on either side, but no table between them as it is impractical with the rear entry door. When we need to sit inside, we mainly sit at the rear of the folded out roof section. With little kids is easy to clean spills off the painted fibreglass.

A great advantage of mine, is being able to access your gear from the front of the car without going outside when it's raining, muddy or there is a mosquito plague. Access to the front is somewhat comprised for adults at the moment, with the two gigantic child car seats making it narrower. But my kiddies find it fun jumping back and forth to get things.

The side opening steps and door on the Trayon means minimal dust entry, but means that when gaining access to the unit, you need space beside you, sometimes problematic when restocking while parked at the shops on a trip. The upright fridge in the Trayon, which is at the door, opens on the right which meant you need to really be inside the unit to access it. You also need to kneel right down to get things out.

The folded over roof gives shade/shelter when camped on both units. The Trayon should be better due to the extra width, but the fold down steps eat up a lot of useable space, also the support poles are ? in from the outside edge. It does give you a covered entrance though. Mine is 40cm narrower, but longer, and has no obstructions with the poles being on the outside edge. The roof also shelters the left hand car doors on mine and so allows us to access gear etc in the rain. My wife has plans for a (camper trailer style) slide out kitchen from the rear passenger door.

The Trayon can be taken off the vehicle at the end of the trip, and lets you use the vehicle as a ute. Mine is a permanent camper and the inside is clogged up with cupboards etc, so not practical for carrying large items. The Trayon can also be taken off when camped somewhere for longer periods. We never did this as even with a 18v drill, I found it took over half an hour, and we like have all our stuff with us even when on a day trip (fridge, food, spare clothes etc). I guess this depends on personal preferences.

I still think the Trayon is great thing for 2 people, on a single cab ute, in a warm country. Plus you can simply buy one, put it on your ute and you're away. Trayon website: - Camper Trailers Sunshine Coast | Trayon Campers

Hope some of this helps,
Alan

Ok, I need to finish off the updates and some things I missed out.

On the left rear passenger door we put on Series 2 hinges. Defender doors when they open, they open upwards as they swing open. You can see this on one of the photos below, when early in the piece I accidentally folded over the roof with the front door open! The series 2 hinges allow the door to swing out without ?going up?. This is needed as when open, the folded out roof is only 10-15mm above the top of the door opening. Be careful when doing this mod as the door takes a wider arc at the hinge, so will stretch any wiring (my poor central locking wires!). I am yet to mod the front left door as I haven't worked out how to neatly mount the mirror to the Series 2 hinge.

I also put in an external light on the left hand side, between the rear windows. It is a water proof Hella marine light, that cost a lot, and a waterproof switch. I am not so happy with this light as it really needs to be angled downwards, or a reflector to stop it shining in my eyes, though the white roof does a good job of reflecting the light down wards.

Also a photo of one of the clear plastic vinyl sheets that velcros over the fly screen windows. This allows light into the camper during rainy days, and more recently on freezing cold ones. You can also see the extra fine ?no see um? fly screen mesh, we velcro this on in areas with tiny sand flys. The extra fine mesh tends to cut out a lot of breeze aswell, and is not as strong as the stuff sewn into the camper.

I also fitted a VDO mechanical temperature gauge, with the sender in the standard spot. I then experienced episodes of apparent overheating, where the temperature would run up to 115C on the gauge. This resulted in a a lot of anxious moments, burnt hands, a new heavy duty radiator, water pump, 3 new thermostats, and a squillion times bleeding and re bleeding the system. To cut a long and painful story short, I finally worked out that the gauge was only reading hot when the headlights were on. I should have worked this out earlier, but being a mechanical gauge I discounted electrical issues?

Anyways, removing the bulb from the VDO gauge fixed the "overheating issues". A couple of months after this, the capillary tube then must have sprung a leak, and the gauge stopped working, so I ditched the VDO and went back to the original gauge.

I then fitted a K-type thermocouple to a bolt in the bleed hole on top of the thermostat. This runs to an Auber instruments gauge. Thermocouple here - Thermocouple Sensors K Type With Washer | eBay Auber Instruments Automobile Multimeter for EGT, Boost, Red [SYL-1813R] - $49.50 : auberins.com, Temperature control solutions for home and industry

So now I have the best of both worlds, the original ?everything is ok? temperature gauge, and a gauge that shows what is actually going on. I have two other Auber gauges showing EGT, and boost pressure. They are joined by a volt meter like this one - 0 56'' LCD DC 3 2 30V RED LED Panel Digital Voltmeter Volt Meter With TWO Wires | eBay which is surprisingly accurate.

I also wanted to fit a TD5 (Hayman Reece RAA608) onwards towbar, as we need the rear step to get access to the rear of the car, and I also like how neat these look and they don't compromise clearance too much. No one could tell me if one would fit a 300tdi, if it had the same bolt pattern, or if it would fit around the fuel tank. After measuring a few pumas, I bought a second hand towbar (from the other end of the country of course!), which arrived the night before we left for Cape York. It fit perfectly. It is quite close around the fuel tank (around 10mm), and I had to drill a new hole in the side mounts under the rear cross member. It only weighs 9kg compared to around 17kg for the one that came off!.

I was happy with the left hand sill tank (which we use for water), and getting the car ready for overseas, I decided to remove the gas, and fit a second sill tank on the right for diesel. So ordered a matching right hand sill tank from Mulgo. The idea being that on extended remote trips, we would prefer to carry water inside the vehicle than diesel.

Running out of time, I got an exhaust shop to weld a Y into the original fuel filler, and bend up a 40mm pipe to get the fuel down to the tank. After speaking to the manager, and the bloke who was supposed to do the job, it ended up being Chinese whispers to the dill who actually did the job. So the Y ended up much further down the filler than I wanted. Lucky service station fuel filler nozzle's have a curve, and after some careful filing of the weld, the servo nozzle can slide in easily. The hole for the sill tank part of the Y filler is at the bottom of the main filler neck, so as to fit all this inside the rear seat box. The disadvantage of this, is that when using the pull out fuel filler extension, the fuel follows gravity and goes down the y into the sill tank, and not into the main tank.

The pipe from the filler to the tank was supposed to have gradual drop or fall the whole way to the tank, but they ended up bending it so it runs horizontal (parallel to the wheel arch box, just above the upper spring mount). A bit disappointing as they charged serious money.

The sections are joined together with two x 40mm x 45 degree silicone elbows. I took special care that the breather hose had a constant rise to join into the original breather high up. Once it was all hooked up, I was pleased to find that I can fill up the tank with full flow from the servo. The tank has a useable 83 litres. Giving me around 160 litres all up.

The fuel transfers into the original tank through a Facet E62-0002 fuel pump. The pump works well enough, but is quite loud, sounding like someone is tapping the chassis with a hammer! Before the transfer pump I have another defender fuel sedimenter NRC9708.

Both sill tanks have survived well. See photo of the 130 bellied on the world's smallest sand dune in Morocco. The moment I re-learned not to brake on the crest of sand dunes. We crossed many more dunes on this trip, but kept the power on to slide over the crests. The tanks didn't sustain any damage, or dint, but ended up quite shiny and polished ;)

Of course all the fuel capacity in the world doesn't help if you don't actually put any in! About 50km from Essaouira in Morocco we lost power going up a hill. We had only been stopped for about 20 seconds and I had just got out to have a look at what was going on when these friendly fellows stopped. After establishing that I needed "gas-oil", they offered to drive me to obtain some. There was already 7 of them in a Renault kangaroo (5 seater), so one climbed into the boot, so I could share the passenger seat with another fellow. They then drove me 15km back to a tiny village about 10km off the main road, and negotiated the filling of two used 5ltr oil containers with diesel, from a 44 at a welders shed. Then drove me back and poured the fuel in for me. All without me getting my hands dirty. They were happy to get a couple of photos, and wouldn't take any money from me. So I "accidentally" left some on the dash of their car.

I had a set of maxtrax I had bought for a double Simpson desert crossing we did 3 years ago. As we were by ourselves, I was concerned about going down on a clay pan, and my 100m of straps not being enough for the winch to get us out.

They were still unused, and I debated about selling them, or whether to take them with us overseas. I ended up thinking that if I didn't take them, and we actually needed them, it would be really annoying. So I looked at ways to mount them to the truck.

I looked online at various systems. The ones that fold down to make a table sound like a good idea, but you end up with a very bumpy table, which seems silly. I liked the style of these fixed GMB mounts, but not the price - GMB-MOUNT.de So I developed my own variation. I got an Aluminium place to bend up some 5mm flat bar (they didn't have 4mm). It needed a couple of bends to clear the side window rubbers and allow for the heads of the M10 button bolts. I wanted neat 45 degree bends, which they said "no problem", until I picked it up, and the bends were a lot shallower. Disappointment with the pros again!

Due to the shallower bends, the mounts ended up a few cm higher than planned on the car. Each mount is held on with four M6 bolts, with large washers on the inside of the car. I drilled and tapped holes for the 10mm bolts in the flat (bent?) bar, and screwed them in with Loctite. They also have a locking nut on the outside. With some plastic irrigation pipe and garden hose over the thread, the maxtrax slide on very snugly. They are held on with washers and wing nuts. The bolts have holes drilled in the ends, to take a lock or bits of bent wire to stop them unwinding over corrugations etc.

The mounts work well, with no wind noise, or vibration etc over corrugations. They are quick to remove with just the 4 wing nuts, but still secure with a lock. The window they block is where the fridge is, and so possibly provide some shade for that area, when the roof is not folded over?

Finally, I sewed up a white vinyl bag for the maxtrax, as I wasn't keen on having fluro orange things hanging on the side of the car.

They are still unused...

Before the last year Cape, I also replaced the front springs with King springs RRRS-02, which from memory are 230lb/in spring rate and 415/405mm free length, which with the RBC100111 spring isolators give a front bump stop clearance of about 12cm. The original 130 front springs have a rate of NRC9448/NRC9449 225lbs/in and 388/376mm free lengths.

The rears are still the Terrafirma TF19 that the 130 came with when I bought it. These are 300lb/in with 435mm free length. This combination gave the car a very level ride when loaded. But because of the way the Defender front wheel arches are mounted higher than the rear arches (up to the body curve), it often looked like the car was down at the back. So after the Moreton Island trip, I measured the rear springs and they had sagged 25mm down to around 410mm free length. I had some 25mm solid aluminium spacers made up to go under the rear spring lower coil seat. After this I had around 13cm at the rear bump stops. The car rides fantastic, nice and smooth and compliant. One day I might get something like a set of Dobinsons C51-019, which is supposed to have a 320lbs rate and 440mm free length.

The shocks are still the Terrafirma TF018 and TF019 shocks that the car came with. I have been relatively happy with them, but of course I'd love a set of the big Koni's. The shock bushes were a bit tired though. These shocks take a much larger bush than the original Land Rover ones, so I replaced the inner bushes (closest to shock) with genuine Toyota rubber bushes TO9094801004 at $6 per bush! On the outer part of the pin end, I have Super Pro SPF0740K bushes. The idea being the rubber on the insides allows for compression, giving a smooth ride, and also allows for the shock pin to flex, and urethane on the outer ends is longer lasting, and keeps everything from flogging out. This has worked really well.

I also fitted a 100Amp alternator AMR5425G. They are fair bit bigger in size than the standard 65Amp ones. Due to the smaller puller size you also need a slightly smaller 7PK 1580 belt.

I also finally did something about the persistent (but invisible) coolant leak I'd had since I'd owned the car, and so changed the head gasket with a new Turners performance head.

I also had the windows tinted professionally ? 35% fronts, 18% rear passenger doors, and 5% for the back and side windows. I'm really happy with the shade of the tint. You can't see in the back of the car, but it is easy to see out of.

The air intake for the webasto diesel heater is at the rear near the fuel tank. I put a bung in the intake during travel, to stop dusting the system. One day, the webasto wouldn't start up. It just kept going through its cycle and shutting down again. After about 5 cycles I finally worked out I'd forgotten to pull out the bung! The last photo shows the resultant exhaust smoke.

We wanted an outdoor table to make use of the covered area on the left side of the car.

Looking through the left over bits from the conversion, I decided to use the remaining bit of Series 3 floor, as it is light and strong. This gives a table approx 34cm x 84cm. I rounded the front edge to reduce knocks, and stopped it flexing along the long front edge by riveting on a length of 25mm pipe, as that's what I had lying about. "Hooks" made of 3mm angle hook onto saddles riveted onto the side of the car. Two straps are riveted to the front edge of the table. These then clip into saddles on the maxtrax holders.

It works great. Setup takes seconds and gives a stable table, sheltered from the sun and rain. There are no legs for the kids to knock, and is quite strong easily supporting our full camp oven.

I had planned on having it permanently mounted, with some sort of fold down action, but ran out of time to work this out. Keeping it inside keeps it clean(er), but unfortunately the gigantic kids car seats, and their triangulated third anchor point mean it can't slide down between the rear seat and bulkhead to join the shower tent etc, so it is stored on the rear passengers floor.

I plan on putting more saddles on the right side of the car, so we can put the table there for lunch time stops when that side is in the shade, to avoid the sun and wind.

It is one of our favourite mods and is used each day when travelling.