Home
Route
Country Information
Vehicle Details
Equipment
Diary
Photo Gallery
Lessons Learned
Statistics

Lundazi (UK) Limited

Vehicle Details

Vehicle for hire.

If you're thinking of doing a trip across Africa, or indeed anywhere else, and would like to hire a vehicle rather than buy then we can help.  As you can see from the information below and elsewhere on this site our vehicle is fully tried and tested (of course one can never guarantee that things won't go wrong but that's all part of the adventure).  We'll do all we can to help you get away with a vehicle that you can treat as your own but without the expense of building one yourself.

If you'd like further details please contact us at robandac@racafrica.co.uk

So why "Billy"? 

We spent a long time trying to think of cool names or African names for our 110 Defender, but in the end they all seemed a bit pretentious, and there was an old friend of ours that was not up to making the journey, so we decided to take his spirit along by naming the Land Rover after him...

Why a Land Rover 110 200TDi Defender

Well, we wanted a large vehicle that was up to the heavy mileage, rough terrain, and was big enough to fit all our stuff in.  But, the main benefit of a diesel Land Rover is that they are pretty common in Africa, so any problems that we have on the way (and we are expecting a few!), and we should be able to get the parts without too much hardship.

More about Billy

We went for diesel as it is easy to get everywhere and should be a bit cheaper to run than a petrol engine.  We went for a 200TDi engine as they are good engines but with limited electronics, so we should be able to fix whatever goes wrong (with suitable sized hammer).    The vehicle we bought already had 151 000 miles on the clock, but with a full service history and no known problems (other than a slight touch of rust in the front doors).  So, we haven't had to do much other than a cam belt change and a service before heading off.

When we bought Billy it had 12 seats.  So the first job was to remove the centre front seat and replace it with a lockable cubby box (which also houses the radio).  Next we removed the rear bench seats and replaced them with a neat wooden structure with a drawer, a few secret holes, and a good base for securing the compressor for the diff locks, the CD player, the inverter, and various other bits and bobs.

Billy was then fitted with:

bulletOld Man Emu suspension
bulletChequer plate on bonnet and wings (no self respecting Land Rover should leave home without some)
bulletFront and rear ARB diff locks with air line for tyre inflation
bulletExtended range 48 litre fuel tank
bulletMantec swing away wheel carrier
bulletA bar (that is, a front protection thing, as opposed to a rather fetching cocktail cabinet!)
bulletFront and rear light guards
bulletMantec Snorkel
bulletFull length Brownchurch roof rack and ladder
bulletExtra spare wheel on bonnet
bulletDriving lights on the front and four spotlights on roof rack
bulletRear worklamp
bulletUnderfloor protection (QT diff guards, Rebel steering guard)
bulletSand waffles mounted over the rear windows (rather fine home grown design!)
bulletAdditional fan on the dash
bulletHome made fly screens on all windows
bulletRock sliders
bulletBush wires (home made with parts from B&Q)
bulletNew doors (with a tad less rust!)
bulletRear window guards
bulletFloor safe
bulletWooden drawer and cabinets in rear to house tool chest, CD player, compressor etc. (home made)
bulletVarious other bits and bobs to make it look good... sorry, I mean, important equipment that we can't live without (!)
bulletAnd finally, a nodding scooby doo on the dashboard to keep us company!

Billy was then packed into a crate and shipped to South Africa.  I hope he arrives in such a good state....

Top