0 Cleaning up an ex-NATO Defender

This week we are wrapping up some modifications to an ex-NATO Defender 90. If you’ve looked inside one of these Army truck you know they are pretty bare. We decided to fix this one up a bit.

If you’re looking for a truck for serious off-roading, the military Defenders have a number of advantages over their civilian counterparts. First of all, they are almost all diesel powered. Second, they have heavier frames and more rugged chassis components. Finally, they are more basic and there’s less to strip off or damage in rough country.



We’ve decided to make the particular truck a bit nicer to drive while still retaining its Army character. To start, we stripped out the basic Army seats and repaired some minor corrosion in the floor. After welding up the damage we treated everything with WaxOyl.

Army truck are all bare metal inside. We fitted the rubber seat box cover and floor mats from a civilian D90. Those rubber bits improve the appearance a lot, and they give a quieter ride too. We changed the rubber boots over the shift and brake levers at the same time.

Then came the big upgrade. We fitted a pair of leather/cloth Exmoor seats with lumbar supports and seat heaters. In between we installed a Tuffy box for lockable storage. The Tuffy box even has space for a cup holder in front – a useful feature the Army guys never thought of.

We wired the seat heaters to switches on the front of the box.



Next we added some tunes. We fitted the latest Alpine head unit, with an iPod control built in. For speakers we rigged a Jeep-style overhead console that also gave interior lights. Sweet.





The final touch was a pair of inner door panels from Rovers North. These panels include inside door pulls – a real treat.



Here at Robison Service we’re proud to be known for our custom work on Land Rover vehicles. Visit our main website here, or stop by to see us the next time you’re in Springfield, MA.

Detail: Cleaning up an ex-NATO Defender

0 Land Rover Defenders at play

I thought I'd change direction for a moment and show you one of the machines our company ( J E Robison Service )builds. We're known for customizing Land Rovers for folks who want to take them to serious rough country, and expeditions, and adventures.

We get work like this shipped to us from all over the eastern United States.

This is a Land Rover Defender 90 that we built last summer for a fellow in Virginia.

In this photo Jeff ( one of our Rover techs ) has just driven up a knee-high rock ledge and he's climbing the slope at a steep angle.







Here are Jeff and Dominick from our Land Rover shop crossing a small stream on the trail.

All the equipment on the front - the high lift jack, the winch, skid plates, and such were fabricated or fitted in our shop.

This truck started life as a 1995 Defender, and it's gotten a 300TDI motor, a new frame, custom skid plates and guards, custom bumpers front and rear, Safarigard stage III suspension, ARB lockers front and rear, crawler transfer box, bigger tires, a 2-inch lift, air conditioning, CB radio, onboard refrigerator, and much more.








In this photo you can see the incredible range of suspension motion in a modified Land Rover. Look at the front axle, which is twisted in a direction opposite the rear.

This truck's been prepared to run out west, in the rock and sand of the desert. Those two cans on the back will carry drinking water. We've moved the spare tire to the floor inside.

The custom bumper is clearly visible. It can take the weight of the truck should the vehicle drop onto a large rock.

The box below the bumper is the armor for the fuel tank.



Here's another front view. The snorkel for the diesel air intake is visible. This Defender has the 300TDI motor.

The cables from roof to front bar are to deflect limbs that might otherwise smack the windshield.

Detail: Land Rover Defenders at play

0 Land Rovers in the woods

We do quite a bit of work on Land Rovers here at Robison Service, and we drive them too. My friend Dave Rifken owns this ex-military D90 that you see in the woods near where we live.

Dave and I have hosted several Land Rover club events - and we are planning to do another later in May or early in June.

The picture above shows a rocy section of the Rattlesnake Gutter trail in Leverett.

It’s a fairly stock NATO truck with left hand drive. It’s powered by the Rover 2.5 diesel and runs on the standard Michelin XZL military tires, which are very good in most situations.We’ve fitted a custom bumper and Superwinch with synthetic cable, custom sliders, snorkel and other mechanical accessories. You can see the skid pans in this shot.

Inside there’s satellite radio and some extra sound deadening but it’s still pretty plain. These Army trucks didn't have any sound deadening at all. Dynamat and a set of civilian rubber mats make for a big improvement, and they don't cause any problems unless you regularly submerge the truck in deep water.

The little diesel actually get over 20 miles per gallon on the road, making this truck quite economical to run.

Dave drives this truck almost every day.

Here we’ve stopped by an old mill dam. The dam and foundation are hard to see in this shot from downstream. I crossed the stream and took the next photo from above.

The area where we live was littered with little mills in the middle 1800s. Most all have vanished back ito the woods now.

Dave and I have very similar trucks – in fact we bought them at the same time. Mine is a soft top, though, and it’s still painted in the NATO camo color. We painted Dave’s truck the flat grey you see a while back.

In this photo my son Cubby is driving up a snowy track last winter.

My truck has a Safarigard Stage II suspension, and it does not have the skid plates, as you can see here.

The next photos show some of our earlier Land Rover adventures. In this next shot, a line of Rovers makes its way through a rainy Vermont forest at Baystate Rover's fall outing. Once again, Cubby is driving my truck, which is second in line behind Alan Elliot's red Classic.

Here Main Rover enthusiast Bob Vail watches a line of trucks pass in the fog:

In this shot Richard Reavey crests a small hill in his Tonka. This is an old series truck that we fitted with portal axles and huge tires, making a supremely capable rig. This truck was on the cover of Land Rover Enthusiast last January.

Look for more of my Land Rover writings online and in magazines like Land Rover Lifestyle and the Rover News.

Detail: Land Rovers in the woods