Landrover Defender 110 - Camper Upgrade

So a year ago I bought a Landrover Defender 110, it has been a great vehicle for going to the beach, taking my bike to the local mountain bike track and generally a fun vehicle to take on a bit of a trip.

So what way could I make it better, well we decided to  to make a camper in the back of it. This is not for long camping trips, as we are already well set up for multi-day camping, but for short long weekend trips. 

As there is only two of us, so we removed the back seats to allow for a fully flat bed to be constructed. These seats will remain out of the vehicle even when the Landy isn't being used as a camper. The length of the area when clear is about 2m long by about 1.3 m wide, this is definitely a comfortable width for both my wife and I to sleep well.

I made the floor bed at the height of the wheel arch space. This allowed for a minimum amount of materials to be used for the bed construction. I made the bed space of two rectangles essentially. They were both made of 19mm plywood from the local timber supplier. I used two sheets which was about $140 NZD. The thicker ply allowed me to build just one support down the middle of central box. See picture below.

I weigh quite a bit  but the ply handled it well and will definitely last. The uprights are glued and screwed to the to panel. With the overall height of the box being flush with the wheel arches. 

My wife sewed some curtains which have been attached using curtain wire and eye and hook fixings to the interior lining. The curtains have a whole bunch of NZ destinations as the primary styling of the material which makes our Landy look like it belongs on the roads. 

We had a spare 4x4 camper mat that we bought a few years back for camping which was too bulky for taking in our car but it fits well into the Landy and we will use it now for our Landy camper.

So this is the final product, we will be testing it out over a long weekend in Feb we are driving Molesworth Station in the South Island.