Category: Car and Camper

Land Rover Discovery 2

This is our Land Rover Discovery II. It’s a 2000 manual Td5 with over 410,000 km’s on the clock.

The only modification is air helpers in the rear springs from Air Bag Man. Generally they’re run at about 8psi with the car lightly loaded but when we are towing the camper over rough roads they’re at about 35psi as the camper tow ball weight is around 130 kg which drags the back down a bit especially when the car is loaded with our stuff as well.

We’ve never had a show stopper but we’ve been close.  When we were between Marla SA and Coober Pedy SA fifth gear started to disintegrate. We made it home though and have since recovered from the anxiety.

The only other major failure was the head which suffered a cracked injector socket allowing fuel to leak into the oil which required a new head. This again, wasn’t a show stopper although it did provide a few “nervy” moments.

Apart from the gearbox and the head and sundry oil leaks (it is a Land Rover after all) the only other issue was the alternator which was a bear to replace with the fan in place (don’t ask). All in all pretty damn good for a 19 year old car with more than 400,000km’s on the clock.

One thing that I did get, on the advice of many on aulro.com, was a nanocom which is a diagnostic tool specifically for Land Rovers. Standard OBD II readers are of no use if you have a Td5. The nanocom has more than paid for itself.

Here’s a couple of photos of the D2 with, and without, camper in the outback where we love being.

In outback NSW between White Cliffs and Ivanhoe.

Towing the camper on the Oodnadatta Track.

Just a few more pics and stuff.

This is our car which tows our camper around the country side. It’s a very nearly standard 2000 Land Rover Discovery II Td5 diesel manual.  The only additions are Airbag Man air helpers in the rear springs and a centre diff lock linkage. It’s also got an Anderson plug and an aux battery in the rear. It’s done over 400,000km’s and has never “failed to proceed” apart from stoppages caused by sundry flat tyres.

The mighty D2 at Oodnadatta.

Our camper is a Balance Trailers forward fold. This has a couple of modifications though. The original electrics were mostly gutted apart from the wiring. The battery, solar regulator, mains charge and the DC-DC charger is now all Victron. The battery is a Victron 300Ah LiFePO4 which lets us camp off grid for as long as we like provided we get a couple of sunny days / week. We use an Engel fridge which has stood up to considerable hardship – vibration and bouncing as well as about ten days of over 40Deg C temperatures. We have 100 Litres of water as well as two 4.5kg gas bottles. It also carries two 20 litre jerry cans of fuel.

Yes, it is a bit heavy at nearly 2,000kg loaded and ready to go but the old Disco tows it along nicely at around 95kph getting about 13 to 14 litres / 100km.

The camper set up in the front yard prior to a trip.

And finally, this is what the Birdsville track can do to a wheel and tyre. That was a five puncture day so the puncture gods were NOT happy with me. And yes, we were travelling slowly (30-50kph) and the tyres were at a low pressure (about 25psi).  Outback travel decrees that there are rocks with your name on them and if you hit one of them you WILL end up with a puncture no matter what you’ve done to mitigate the risk.

One down three to go…:-(