Defender 110 TD5 Van - Daily Life

My Landy is a 2000 TD5 Land Rover Defender 110 Van. It comes with a BMW derived 2.5L turbo diesel engine. I've owned this truck since 2017. 

All of its life, it has been a working vehicle. I've been told that it was originally ordered as a pair of vehicles for an estate in Scotland. After it came out of the Solihull Land Rover factory, it had a few modifications done to it. They added the snorkel, raised the suspension on a 2 inch lift, put in a wooden bulkhead, a stainless steel custom exhaust system, all round black checker plate body protection, side bars, headlight protectors, a roof mounted air vent, some orange hazard lights and a light for searching for stock at night. 

When I got it, the orange lights had been removed, but the rest remained. I removed the search light, which left a gaping hole in the roof, so I fixed another piece of checker plate over the really badly cut hole and that was about it.

Over time though, it's had around £8k worth of upgrades, changes and development. The biggest of this was a galvanised chassis. I also put in a refurbed R380 gearbox and the LT230 transfer box. The rear axle was exchanged after the oil filler nut dropped into the diff pan at 50mph, that was a good skid on a wet road at night! The wheels were changed to new 16 inch steel ones, a tow bar was added and I replaced the damaged drivers seat base. The shock absorbers were also knackered and leaking, so that was a session in the yard learning how not to kill myself removing springs! I also had to have a hole in the bulkhead welded for an MOT in the third year of ownership. 

Landy's that are used heavily, as mine is, require an amount of maintenance. Luckily, in the UK, parts are readily available, so a part of my ownership has seen quite a few things replaced. All of the steering system is new, the oil cooler, radiator, water pump and hoses are new. A mechanic has just replaced the bearings in the rear axle and I installed new CV joints, half shafts and front wheel bearings in the front axle. Rear half shafts will be next and these need to be heavy duty ones for both the fitted Salisbury axle and the planned trip.

Things like oil changes, fuel filters, oil & air filters are changed every 8000 ish miles. The truck does around 15k miles every year, often across fields and hillsides that are wet or covered in animal poo. It is often filled with stone being moved around work sites or towing trailers. So wear and tear is a normal part of its daily life. Prop shaft UJ's and wheel bearings seem to be a bi-annual replacement, so there are always refurb kits in the cupboard. 

As I've come to the decision to use it for the trip, so the needs of the truck are changing. The trip to Tunisia early in 2025 saw around 8000 miles across motorways, A roads, rough, narrow mountain trails, river crossings and big sand dunes. This gave me an insight into the needs for the back of the truck. 

I did almost no changes to the Landy for Tunisia, (other than a foldable table on the back door), so the back had a bunch of plastic boxes for storage of spares, food etc. I slept on a thermarest air mattress every night and used a head torch to read with once parked up. That worked OK for a short six week trip, but it would become annoying for longer periods.

It also identified areas for improvement around the truck. A steering guard is a must. Protecting the front steering bars when you drop into a river or cross rocky hillsides seems a no brainer. Adding recovery eyes to the front end the same, and I would really like a sump guard as I damaged the oil filler bolt on a rock crossing a river one time. I'm not fussed about a winch on the front, but I did order sand boards and a Hi Lift jack for the trip so I had some kind or recovery stuff on hand. 

I plan to raise the tow bar so it doesn't drag as I caught it a few times in the desert and in rivers. That is a horrible sound, scraping metal on rock!

I also want a roofrack, another spare wheel and some jerry cans to increase range sometimes. I've been buying and fitting these slowly as budget/time allows.   

The ideas for a very minimalist camper have distilled down to a wooden base padded bed, some shelving for plastic tubs, so interior lighting and some basic electrics, including a split charger and secondary battery. I'll also fit some aircraft load safety bars and some kind of netting or straps for when I'm crossing harder ground, to stop stuff bouncing around a lot. 

I can't wait to get started now that I have the basics of a plan. Time and money are the next factors!

In the Beginning...

For a few years now, I've wanted to travel around the world. Work has taken me to around 50+ countries already over a number of years, so it would be nice to add to that number as my working life is now coming to a close. This blog is about those travels in my Land Rover Defender 110. 

My original plan was to do this as a motorbike based trip. I've bought several models and types over the years, then rode around Europe and North Africa on multiple trips. During those trips, I also learnt about repairs and what works and doesn't work. This led me to change from riding purely road bikes to riding bikes that were capable of travelling on more varied terrain. 

In the UK, green laning is a pretty big past time. I travelled using motorbikes that are small, light and usually have knobbly tyres. Green lanes are old roads that have no sealed surface on them. Often, they have crushed stone or grass as a surface. They also travel to the places that have been forgotten by modern road builders. Passing through small villages, high mountains, past tiny churches, crossing rivers using stone fords. They vary so much and they always provide an immense amount of entertainment and interest as you travel. 

In a very busy and over populated UK, these roads are now small in number, whereas across the rest of the world, they are often the normal road type. Tarmac roads are a sign of a wealthy country and these days, a lot of them have become heavily policed with cameras, tolls and and ever increasing volume of vehicles. That doesn't really fit in with my plans that well. I like to visit the places less populated, less developed, less travelled and generally just less of mankind's influence I guess. 

The Land Rover Defender concept crept into my thinking over time. I've driven several 4x4 models over the years. Toyota pick ups across Omani deserts, Mahindra in the Himalayas, various Russian unnamed home made projects in various countries and even a few 4x4 vans/lorries. I fell in love with the idea of a Mercedes G Wagon van, but I couldn't afford one in the UK and they are very hard to find. So, when my work changed to a more localised type of work, (Drystone walling in Cumbria), I found a Defender 110 van with 140k miles on it, that had been an estate vehicle in Scotland since its original registration. 

That Landy has since done around 120k+ miles since I bought it and is a bit like 'Triggers Broom'. (i.e. its a great broom, only 7 handles and 6 heads replaced, but it still my broom!). The 110 went for it's first MOT after I bought it in the summer of 2017. The poor tester started checking the chassis with a hammer and got from the rear end to the gearbox, when he failed it outright! He called me to say it needed a new chassis and there was no point looking at anything else until that was sorted. Since then, it's had most of it replaced except for body panels and the engine!

I've gone backwards and forwards over the decision about what to travel in/on for months now. A recent trip to Sardinia, Sicily and Tunisia in the Landy reminded me about the ease of travelling on four wheels compared to two. 

Motorbikes require a lot of attention whilst riding. It's easy to get caught out. There is no weather protection, little carrying capacity and you go through tyres quickly on rough terrain. The sense of freedom however is much greater. Being outside in the elements brings you closer to that sense of freedom. Whilst on a bike, you're aware of the changes in road surface, the conditions and temperature. Smells come to you from everywhere, you can feel the wind on your body. Any movement around you is detected quickly. You're much more involved with your senses. You can also hide more easily in the mountains and remote places as your footprint is much smaller. 

Being in any metal box removes a lot of that feeling and de-sensitises the driver to what happening around them. You trade comfort and the ability to carry more stuff for the loss of that sense of freedom. You also lose capability in where you can get to. 4x4 are heavier, they have greater limitations in terms of terrain they can travel through and how they get there. When they go wrong, they are more complicated to fix. But, they do go further in terms of fuel range and because you can carry more food/water, you can be self sufficient for longer periods.

As with everything in life, there is a trade off. My preference would always be to travel on two wheels. But after playing in the Sahara and on a trip through some wilder Mongolian areas, I realised that some of the places I want to go, I simply couldn't carry the required amount of fuel, food and water to get as far as I want to go. The other aspect of things is that I'm planning to do a solo trip, so having somewhere solid to shelter when needed offers a respite you don't find on two wheels. So, the Landy started to look a better option. 

Once I finally made the decision, the rest was a matter of sorting costs and planning the camper build. As I get into the build of the Landy, I'll write up some of my thoughts and decisions for what I end up with. No doubt, things will change over time, but it's making the start that counts. 

I've watched loads of films about how folk have kitted out a camper style version of the Landy back. I'm happy with a minimalist approach in general, so it'll be basic. I want somewhere to sleep, store food/water/spares/tools etc and it must be easy to move about at border crossings etc. (Entering Tunisia, I had to empty everything out of the back onto the ground for inspection). 

Anyway, that's enough for this post. Now it's time to start this project...