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!