As the saying goes “the more you know, the less you need” however, for most of us the more comfort you want, the more “stuff” you inevitably end up wanting to take with you. Making the most of the available space becomes a top priority, though one that must be balanced with comfort. For us our mantra has become “Storage is King”.
We could have turned the rear of the Land Rover into one big storage area but we would then lose the ability to use it a sleeping area when the weather turns too cold to sleep in the roof tent. Besides, if we did that we would probably lose the camper status of our Land Rover.
The trade off was that we would create a cupboard that would take up the left side of the Land Rover for the length and width of the wheel well. We divided the area into 9 storage areas of equal width giving each 3 units of storage, plus 3 for general storage. Under the “couch” is a 123 cm x 44 cm x 25 cm storage space, and behind the passenger seat a 60 cm x 95 cm x 38 cm storage area plus a small 25 cm x 90 cm divided into 2 storage areas one of which can be accessed when the mattress is lifted, the others via the rear passenger side door. Additionally we have, behind the drivers seat, our kitchen storage area which measures 45 cmx 65 cm x xx cm and is accessible from the passenger door behind the drivers seat.
The jury is still out on how well we will eventually use the space that is available to us. We do, however, have additional storage possibilities, but they come with their own challenges.
Storage Boxes
Zarges boxes they are pretty much the best storage boxes out there, rugged, durable, dust and water proof (up to IP 65) and come in a number of sizes that would fit perfectly on our roof rack. The only issue is which to buy and how to mount them on the roof. The “which to buy” question will be answered shortly and depends on the area and additional weight that we have available on the roof rack.
The “how to mount them” question is one that has been distracting me for some time. Apparently there just isn’t a way to securely fasten the boxes to the roof rack that also makes it difficult to simply climb up on the roof undo the strap and walk away with our box and its contents. Perhaps I’m being a bit paranoid but we want to be sure that we can leave the Defender alone for a few hours to hike or bike without worrying that someone is going to walk away with our stuff. I have been googling and seaching forums here in Germany, as well as adventure forums in the UK and the USA for the answers but just haven’t found any. I guess the only thing left for me to do is design something and have it custom made to suit our needs, patent it and then make a fortune selling it.
However much we chant “Storage is King” the amount of storage space is limited by the simple nature of the size of our Land Rover and the number of boxes we can pack onto the roof. We will have to be very choosing in prioritizing what we take with us and what stays behind.
I’m getting pretty tired of saying “almost finished”, but it is really almost finished. One could almost go so far as to say that we are currently experiencing the “old” 80/20 rule. 80% of the work on our Land Rover was completed relatively quickly and now the last 20% seems to take for ever! But thats no all, we don’t only have to complete work on the Land Rover we also have to start (rather late mind you) trimming our house hold down so that we have only a very small amount of stuff to put into storage. There are things in the basement that we so seldom use it doesn’t make much sense to go and hold onto them like pack rats.
