I tour this incredible vehicle that I first encountered in Sudan, and that is going in a shipping container in two weeks to explore Africa even more!
Welcome back everyone to another episode of the road shows me my name’s dan and on today’s episode it’s time to have a look at another overland ride this one is extra special i actually saw it for the first time in africa now here i am in australia camping with the owners at their place this is a 1995 land rover defender 130 it’s already been around africa once
Two weeks from now they’re shipping it back to do it all over again you want to learn more about this vehicle stick around there is so much to see on this one so there is a lot of info here on this vehicle guys not just the vehicle but the owners as well and the trip they’ve been on the trip they’re about to go on i have a lot to tell you guys about sorry if i
Jump around and i’m grinning like an idiot because this is so exciting so these guys tony and ruth they are australian they live here in australia they bought this thing 25 years ago and they shipped it over to africa and unbeknownst to me they actually drove the same route that i did all the way around africa they started in the uk all the way down the west coast
All the way back up the east coast and i was in front of them by about a year i took three years to do the trip they took two and so we met up right in the last weeks of the trip i actually met them in sudan and then in ethiopia sorry egypt we met up again we camped together the final night of wild camping actually in africa was with these guys with this vehicle
And with my africa jeep so this vehicle absolutely is up to the task it did two years all the way around africa through 35 countries and they loved it so much they’ve been here in australia during covert they got stuck here blah blah now in two weeks they’re getting it ready it goes back in a shipping container they’re shipping it to south africa they’re going
To spend another two years in africa roaming everywhere that they really want to see more of and get deeper into it with the same vehicle they took last time so in terms of a vehicle that can really do it this is it land rover defender 130. we’ll start at the front and we’ll walk all the way around i’ll show you all the features this thing does have the 300 tdi
Engine so that’s the two and a half liter turbo diesel four-cylinder i think tony was saying from factory it has about 110 horsepower or something he does have a variable geometry turbo on it he’s beefed up the intercooler he’s beefed up the radiator a few other bits and pieces it’s probably 130 or 140 horsepower not a speed demon but clearly reliable clearly up
To the challenge great thing about this engine is it’s mechanically injected diesel there are no computers in here of any kind so that’s the engine and you as you can imagine for a land rover it’s got the big integrated front bull bar we’ve got a winch tucked in here which tony did say they used a few times in africa and that he’s really happy to have made a big
Difference a little bit of bar work here to try and protect these fenders at the front which obviously have gotten a bit of a workout and then down the side you can see they’ve actually got some zebra graphics on this thing and these guys on facebook they call themselves robin roving zebra i’ll throw a link down in the description so if you want to follow along
And tony just told me a great story they were going to spruce it up for their second lap of africa and so they went into a place and said oh you know can you print out new graphics and stick them on and make it all look you know new and fancy they got quoted 1 600 to do that and tony thought about it for a minute he said hang on a minute i’d rather spend that on
Diesel in the tank now my trip can be longer there’s no reason to put new graphics on it so they left it alone this is exactly how it went around africa last time and this is how it’s going to go around this time on the back here they’ve got an aluminium or aluminum canopy and so this thing’s really great because obviously it’s the highest security version of my
Canvas canopy that i have on the gladiator back there and so you know these doors they’re all completely locking to keep all of your stuff safe and on the inside they have chairs tables camping gear they’ve got a little coleman single burner stove exactly the same one that i took around africa they’re going to use it again because it’s so good dave got a really
Good water filtration system here and in the back tucked right down low here you can just see this edge of it there’s a tank here and it goes all the way across with a divider in the middle 70 liters on this side is for fresh drinking water 70 liters on the other side is additional diesel on top of the factory 70 litre diesel tank so their range in this thing is
About 1200 kilometers tony said and then on the roof too they have a few jerry cans which they said they really only used in africa when they were in countries that had shortages so they would load up and then they could do like 1500 kilometers you know self-contained with the diesel that they’ve got on board and that was plenty enough for them while we’re around
Two we’ll have a look of course bf goodrich all-terrain tyres tony said they actually bought these particular ones in kenya when they were most of the way down in africa they’ve still got about half of their tread life these are 235 85 16s these are the tyres for africa every land rover every land cruiser that is the size they’re running you want to talk about a
Common tyre size that you will get no matter where you are on the planet two three five eighty five sixteen that’s the one you wanna run if you’ve got 16 inch rims i don’t run them on my jeep because i can’t fit 16 inch rims on the jeep they have upgraded the suspension all around really just to carry the weight tony said they’ve had a few issues here and there
Land rovers are a bit famous for it they can spit their springs out basically at full droop the spring there’s nothing to contain it and it will actually fall out and so on this particular one he’s kind of got this strap system and he’s toyed around with a few different shocks and a few different spring combinations over the years to get that right but he’s pretty
Happy it’s really dialed now up on the roof you can see too they’ve got a howling moon rooftop tent so i guess howling moon is one of like the old school rooftop tent brands and they just work they did what did what did tony just tell me 720 nights or something in that thing in africa and obviously they’re really happy with it because they’re going with it again
It works that well one addition they’ve added this time is they now have a quick pitch shower enclosure so actually it was just out drying in the sun but this is just kind of your square enclosure that has four walls so you can stand there and have a shower in privacy they said last time in africa it was a little bit hard when ruth wanted to have a shower all the
Locals are just standing around staring and so you know it kind of gets a bit awkward they do also have a hot water system in this so there is a heat exchanger plumbed into a 40 liter tank in the back that is plumbed into the radiator of the engine so when the engines running water circulates all the way back to that heat exchanger which heats up the water tank then
You have a tank full of nice hot water for showering or for dishes or whatever so one of these outlets is the hot water and one of these outlets is straight off the air compressor so really really handy to have hot water like that something that i’m jealous of and that i will want in a future vehicle and what i really love about this vehicle too i said it’s from
1995 and remember it’s a land rover this is what the interior looks like so talk about going back in time you want to just talk about bare bones essentials i don’t think there’s any soft touch surfaces here i don’t think any of this was really designed to be gentle to your elbow this is about as raw as it gets in terms of just a functional practical vehicle you
Can see they’ve got all their most used items including their little koala bear they’ve got all their most used items up here where they need them handy to reach because this is what you actually need if you want to drive around the world you don’t need all the gadgets that are for sale you don’t need all the expensive bolt-ons you need solid dependable reliable
Simple and it works is just the model of this vehicle and absolutely incredible to know that they’re about to go and have two more years of adventures in africa it’s blowing my mind actually we’ve been telling all these fun stories about you know our time over there it’s really fun to reminisce but also makes me a bit jealous at the same time and uh another great
Story that tony just told me we’re about to drive up to cape york to the northern tip of australia and there’s some really great four wheel driving and river crossings and all that they crossed a river in this thing and got it stuck in the middle of the river this is before they ever took it to africa and the river was flowing so hard that it was pushing the car
Downstream so they opened both front doors and the river was flowing through the driver’s compartment so tony said he was sitting in the driver’s seat and water was flowing over the egt gauge so the river was flowing at that depth the engine kept running it never stalled they managed to get it out eventually let it dry out and they’ve been driving it ever since he
Said it was two years later the radio came back to life and it’s been working ever since other than having to dry out everything that was in the compartment everything that was in the rear the vehicle just never stopped working even after being that submerged in water that to me is just incredible i think about you know what would my modern computer control jeep
Do if i ever did something like that to it that would not be good i guarantee you and you can see they’ve upgraded the lighting on the front here as well just a basic single spot in the front and then a couple up nice and high as tony said they try to avoid driving in the dark as much as possible but sometimes when you don’t have a choice it’s what you have to do
They’ve obviously got a rear awning on the side awning here a nice howling moon safari and at the back here they’ve got a few things that are just functional and they work of course they’ve got a handy fire extinguisher i should have known that before i even saw it up here though in this sliding rack they’ve got a couple of different table setups so there’s a
Little one here that’s only a couple of feet square and you can just pull that out really quickly and it hooks on the side of the vehicle here and here and so they love just making a cup of tea or whatever at lunch time and that just makes it really quick and easy to get that out also a couple of chairs right there but then further in there’s a much bigger table
And as tony said you know if you’re camping somewhere for a couple of days you pull out the big table because then you really set up and you know that’s what you want to be doing they’ve got a solar panel tucked up in there now that’s a new addition for this lap of africa they didn’t have one last time so you can see this vehicle is ready to go proven to be able
To go around africa now it’s going around africa again absolutely mind-blowing and now that i sort of i’ve said a lot about the vehicle which is obviously incredible i really feel the need to talk a little bit about the owners as well and the trip they’re going on so people assume you know we must be rich to drive around the world like this well i want to tell
You that tony is a diesel mechanic and ruth is a beautician and she used to be a dental hygienist or a dental assistant so these aren’t rich people they didn’t inherit a ton of money they don’t have trust funds they’re not millionaires they just work really really hard for years and years they save every penny they can they put aside as much money as they possibly
Can and that buys them some time off work and it buys them the ability to go and have these adventures which i think is incredible i find that really inspiring and the other thing that i think needs to be mentioned is lots of people online have always said like you know oh i was just lucky to get through africa unscathed or you know i barely made it out alive or
You know violence or danger or all of that well this is a really great example ruth and tony have been there they did exactly the same thing i did they went through the congo nigeria sedan all of it 35 countries over two years and they enjoyed it so much and they felt so happy and so safe they’re signing up to go and do it all again voluntarily they want to go
And do it again so if you were ever wondering how safe did we feel while we were in africa or how dangerous was it these guys are going to do it again by choice they loved it it was that incredible so don’t take my word for it take their word for it they’re the ones going to do it all over again that’s how incredible the adventures are and how amazing you can just
Get so wild and so remote and you’re not afraid for your life it isn’t like that and anyone who says it is like that i honestly don’t think has ever really been there or they’re just reading whatever in the news so find people who’ve really done it seek them out and get their advice get their information because that’s how you’re gonna find out what is it really
Like to go and have adventures like this also just for fun fascinating comparing it to the gladiator the wheelbase on the gladiator is actually 137 inches long so the gladiator has a longer wheelbase although the rear tray in the gladiator is only five feet long in the defender i think it’s about six feet so the tray winds up longer even though it has a shorter
Wheelbase obviously the defender has a way higher payload i think it’s about double of the gladiator they burn about the same amount of fuel roughly speaking about 12 liters per hundred although i would think in deep sand and stuff being a turbo diesel the defender would do a lot better um creature comforts wise the defender does actually have air conditioning
That was something that obviously got to work out in africa and will do again but you can imagine you know noise vibration and harshness i don’t even know if these guys are on the same scale if you could even measure them with the same measuring instruments in terms of noisy rattly smelly vibrations raw driving experience versus so smooth that sometimes i have to
Actually look at the tack to see if the engine’s even running sometimes i don’t even know if it’s running or not so evolution could you say or just vastly different vehicles what are we talking 25 years old and one year old this is how much engineering has come along how much things have changed but most importantly it’s about the adventures that they enable and
The places that these vehicles can take you that’s what gets me so excited about this one and so as i said ruth and tony they are on facebook roving zebra there’s a link in the description check them out and follow them they are about to go and have mind-blowing adventures in africa something you’ve ever dreamed about they’re about to go and do it in real time
You’ll be able to follow them and see what they get up to so i hope you’ve enjoyed checking out this amazing vehicle until next time there will be more overland rides coming up on the road shows me have fun out there
Transcribed from video
Land Rover Defender 130 – AFRICA SPECIAL – Overland Rides By The Road Chose Me
