Defender 90 Build - Wheels

The original Defender 90 NAS tornado wheels are a great representation of 90’s design. They are alloy, rather strong for their era, and look pretty decent. However for my build I wanted a black wheel that fit the bumble bee look. I also didn’t want alloy as I wanted a more utilitarian look and a more practical off-road wheel…so steel was the way to go. The original “wolf” military Landy wheel looks amazing but they are incredibly expensive, heavy, and a bit narrow. I found that Terrafirma makes a wolf like black steel wheel that is a touch wider to accommodate my wide pillow top tires.

I think they look the part, are stronger than the OEM tornado wheels, and allow me to store my tornado wheels to keep them near perfect for the next owner. I had already installed Terrafirma 30mm spacers but I quickly found out that the spacers can be seen on the new wheels which is not ideal so I will be changing out the spacers to black versions. Also the installer of the wheels put the weights on the outside which look, well terrible. So I will have to move those to the inside at some point. Finally, with the new wheels I had to get new black lugs which do away with the weird Landy lugs which have metal cosmetic caps (another addition to the OEM parts bin for the next owner). Overall I would highly recommend these wheels if you are looking for a military, utilitarian, clean black, steel look for your Defender.

Defender 90 Build - Dash Dock

Defenders don’t have a lot of space and the dash is very utilitarian. This makes it difficult to find a way to mount things like cell phones or GPS devices without doing damage to the dash. I wanted an easy way to mount a few things while keeping a utilitarian look but not do any damage to the dash. That led me to a Dash Dock designed specifically for defenders. It’s basically a bar that mounts to the dash using two existing screw holes and the ashtray in the center. Once in place you can use Ram Mounts to attach all sorts of gear. I have it set up to mount a cell phone, a Garmin Overland GPS device, a GoPro, and if needed two drink holders. The only damage done is to the ash tray where you drill one hole into the ash tray but I was ok with that as you can easily replace the ash tray with an OEM replacement.

Defender 90 Build - Seating

My truck came with the original OEM front seats but aftermarket rear side facing seats. The front seats where in rather good condition but the foam was getting compressed, the sliding mechanism was no longer smooth, and the plastic end cap was cracked. All in all, exactly what you would expect from a 1994 car. At first I was going to simply reupholster the seats but the cost of doing that was not that much cheaper than simply buying new seats. So I decided to replace the front seats with Exmoor factory spec seats. This would keep the original look while making the seats more comfortable. I decided to add Exmoor seat risers to give the driver and passenger a more comfortable seating position. The new seats also come with seat heaters which is a nice feature but not really necessary if you ask me given the truck runs warm due to the fact there is zero heat shielding from the engine bay.

The side facing seats are a classic option for Defenders but not very practical or safe. The passengers sit very high since the seats mount to the wheel wells and the seats only have lap belts so in an accident the passengers would most certainly get hurt. They were also not a factory option for a NAS due to US DOT regulations, so if you are going for a period correct build these seats do not match. The trucks came stock with no rear seat but you could get a rear bench as an option from the dealer. These benches are no longer made but many people who have them sell them in order to put in the side facing jump seats. Another option for rear seats on Defenders is to get modern bucket fold down seats by Exmoor. These are very functional and safer than the side facing seats but are not period correct so for my build they were not a contender.

I decided my kids were worth the money and effort to get a proper rear seat that was safe(ish) but would also be in the spirit of my build. I found an original bench seat a local Defender owner was selling. It was not in the best shape but it functioned and I figured I could refurbish it. My truck did not come with rear seat belt mounts or the bench brackets. The bench brackets that came with the bench I bought were bent and rusted so I bought a new set offered by Rovers North. I also bought OEM seat belts and mounts as well as a reupholstery kit from Exmoor to match the OEM fabric and to match the front seats.

Unfortunately my NAS truck has one unexplained oddity and that is the rear roll cage hoop. NAS Defenders originally were trucks which means the standard roll cage ended at the B pillar. That roll cage had some foam padding molded onto the metal bars. An option was to buy a safari roll cage which added the back half of the roll cage from the B pillar to the rear of the truck. That also had foam padding molded onto the bars. My truck has the original NAS padded roll cage to the B pillar along with the padded horizontal bars from the B pillar to the rear hoop, but the rear hoop itself is not padded. I have no record of why my truck does not have a padded rear hoop and what is even more perplexing is that the rear hoop fabrication looks factory. The seam, the mounts, the specs, the finish, everything looks too perfect to be a custom fabrication job. It looks factory yet is not since it does not have the padding and I don’t believe it ever had the padding. I have reached out to Safety Devices who is the manufacture of the roll cages and they said my rear hoop was not built by them (although I am not totally convinced as it looks like their work). Regardless, what this means is that my rear hoop did not have a seat belt mounting point for the shoulder strap so I had to get a mount fabricated.

I had a metal fabricator weld on bolt mounts to the rear roll cage (similar to the factory) as well as mount the seat belt mounts and bench mounts to the floor. I picked a metal fabricator that builds race cars and is certified as a roll cage builder to ensure the work was safe and adhered to standards. I then took apart the bench in order to refurbish some parts and re-weld some components. I then had an upholstery shop install the upholstery kit.

The end result is a truck with OEM seating that is period correct. My kids have a safer seating option in the rear and the front seats are much more comfortable. As with all projects like this it ended up being much more expensive than I anticipated due to all of the custom fabricated work needed for the rear bench. If you are looking for a quick, easy, and cheap option don’t do what I did. But if you are looking for a period correct, factory spec, stick to the spirit of the design, but have some safety for your passengers then my project hits the mark.

Defender 90 Build - Binnacle Upgrade

Defenders are known to be tough off-roaders, but that doesn’t mean all of their parts are tough. Land Rover put too much plastic into these otherwise simple metal boxes. Now age that plastic nearly 30 years and you end up with cracked plastics pieces….especially around the dash. I have replaced a few of these plastic pieces over the last 1-2 years but the one that was always a bit intimidating was the binnacle (the gauge cluster for those who only speak American). My binnacle was in good shape compared to many Defenders but that still meant it was cracked. I could replace it with an OEM plastic piece but then you are simply going to have the same problem over time.

I found a metal replacement out of the UK that simply bolts into place. This way I solve the design problem, don’t run into future crack issues, but retain the ability to revert back to OEM stock. Its a theme of the truck….upgrade where it makes sense but don’t damage the truck in the process and always retain an easy way to revert back. The metal binnacle is made by Raptor Engineering and they also sell a metal binnacle mounting bracket which is a must as that mounting bracket is also plastic and actually the source of many cracks. For the end plate you can go with the OEM plastic, or Raptor also makes a metal end plate. I bought the end plate but ended up not using it as I had a hard time fitting it plus my plastic OEM piece was not broken. They also make a fantastic center dash console that is far superior to the OEM plastic one many people use, but installing this requires cutting so I passed on this upgrade. If you have a ROW Defender or don’t feel compelled to be able to revert back to stock Raptor’s center dash is the way to go if you want lots of space for switches and a modern stereo.

The first step in the project is to remove the original binnacle and gauges. There is a great video on Raptor’s website that walks you through this. Just remember to mark or take pictures of the wires before you unplug them so that you know how they plug back in. I found it easier to remove the steering wheel before taking apart the dash so you have space to work. You then install the mounting plate, then you move the gauges from the old binnacle to the new one. You then install the new binnacle. During this process you can decide to replace the bulbs of the gauges or upgrade the old bulbs to LED to make them brighter. I decided to keep the old bulbs so I have the original hard to read the gauge experience (keeping it real).

The end result is a binnacle of the exact same shape but in metal versus plastic. It looks great, wont break, and doesn’t take away your ability to go back to stock. I took my time during this project as I wanted to make sure it went smoothly plus I wanted to remove some abandon wires in my dash that came from an old set of fog lights that have since been removed. I can’t say enough about the quality of Raptor’s product, I highly recommend them.

Sprinter Build - Fan Fix

Our van has two Maxxfan Deluxe 7500k ceiling fans that have worked rather well…..until recently. As soon as we replaced our AGM battery to a Lithium battery one of our fans would shut down as soon as you tried to use it. We would get an alarm and a flashing green light from the fan and then it would go dead. After looking online I found others complaining about the “green light of death”. Turns out the fan can’t handle the voltage increase of a lithium which is usually in the high 13 to low 14 range compared to an AGM that is in the 12-13 range. Apparently Maxxfan’s don’t come with a voltage regulator built in and have a very tight tolerance on what voltage it will accept before it simply shuts itself down. This is a poor design choice by Maxxfan since many people are upgrading to Lithium batteries these days.

Some people online say you simply need to order a new control board for the fan which costs about $70. Others say you only need to do that if the board is fried and that many people with the green light of death don’t have a fried control board its just that you need to drop the voltage down. In order to bring the voltage down you need to install a voltage regulator or voltage step down device. A regulator will step up and step down the voltage to keep the output voltage at a set level. A step down simply makes the output no more than a set level. I decided to get a step down as my issue is not having too low of voltage. I was able to find an adjustable DC voltage step down circuit board for the correct amperage (10 amps) on Amazon for around $12.

This board is small enough to install it in the fan housing but I decided to install it by my fuse box as I have an easy space to access it in case I need to adjust it or remove it from my system. This also allows me to have the board in close proximity to the fuse controlling the power to the fan in case there was a short in the step down circuit board (this was bought on Amazon after all do you never know what the quality is). The setup is easy, simply have positive and negative coming out of the fuse box (with a fuse on the positive side) and going into the “input” side of the step down circuit board. Then have a positive and negative coming out of the “output” of the step down circuit board and connect that to your positive and negative of the ceiling fan. To set the voltage you have a voltage reader on the output of the board and then turn a small screw on the board and watch the voltage reading change until you get to the level you want, in my case around 12 volts.

Boom, no green light of death for the fan and I am back in business. I have not noticed any heat build up on the circuit but that is something you should monitor in the beginning. But considering it is dropping down only 1.5-2 volts on a 7-10 amp draw I would not expect much (if any) heat build up.

Defender 90 Build - Soft Top

I bought the D90 sight unseen which in the best of cases is risky, but when buying an old NAS is down right crazy. It all worked out in the end but I would not recommend this to anyone if you can help it. I had lots of pictures and I did a FaceTime call with the dealer down in LA so he could walk me through the car live. Even with all that there were a couple of surprises when the car showed up. The first surprise was that the rear hoop of the roll cage was not a NAS padded bar. Honestly, I should have noticed that from the photos and FaceTime so that one is on me. The rest of the cage is an original NAS but that one hoop is not the stock NAS bar. I reached out to the OEM manufacture (Safety Devices) and they don’t believe it was made by them however I am not convinced because it has the correct dimensions, fit, and finish…..basically it is too perfect of a match if you ask me. If this was made by someone other than Safety Devices I have to say they did a perfect job. The only real issue is that it does not have the NAS padding. The second surprise is that while the car ran it did not run very well. It was a classic example of prior owners not doing proactive service and a dealer doing just enough to sell the car. I have since done a lot of work to resolve this and now the car runs great (for a Defender). The last surprise was the soft top.

Badger soft top

The soft top that came with the truck is made by Badger Coachworks and is considered by many as superior to the standard replacement made by Exmoor. Mine was Badger’s gutter kit version II which is their nicest model. It uses the UK gutter kit versus the 5 stub bar to get a tighter seal around the front doors. The Badger was in decent shape (perhaps a 7 out of 10) but it did not fit all that well. There was a gap around the exterior roll cage, a gap around the driver door, and a gap above the rear tailgate. So while it was functional and looked good it was not overly water tight.

Door alignment issues

I tried hard to resolve these issues but the top must have shrunk over the years making small gaps larger over time. I almost bought a hard top to replace the soft top but determined my front door alignment issues (more on that in a bit) would prevent a good fit with a hard top. I then thought I would simply order a new Badger but that company is run by a guy back east who seems to be extremely backed up all the time and would never return my emails or calls. So I decided to get a brand new Exmoor and take it back to the original top configuration. That meant I would also get a 5 stub bar and remove my gutter kit (at least that is what I thought).

The quality of the Exmoor’s soft top is great and I can’t say the Badger uses better materials. I like the side windows of the Exmoor better and I like that the Exmoor can use the 5 stub bar or the gutter kit. I first installed the Exmoor using the 5 stub bar but I found the fit around the doors a bit weak. Also, there is very little adjustment you can do to get a tighter fit with the 5 stub bar. I then switched back to the gutter kit but took them apart and replaced all the hardware. This allowed me to use spacers and washers to make small adjustments in the frame which resulted in a much tighter fit around the front doors.

I have the normal Defender door alignment issue where that side panels don’t perfectly match up to the doors. This is normal and doesn’t impact how the door functions. After a lot of research I found that the solution requires adjusting the bulkhead which is a big project so I am going to live with it until the day comes that I pull the motor to rebuild it. The larger issue I have is that the driver door (the top half actually) sits too far away from the gutter kit. I am not sure if this is because the top half of the door is warped or my body panels are off. But with the spacers and washers added to the gutter kit I was able to pull the gutter kit out to meet up with the door and I have an excellent fit now. The Exmoor fits nearly perfect around the external roll cage bars whereas the Badger had gaps.

Exmoor tight fit

The only remaining issue is the gap above the tailgate. That I can not resolve this with the Exmoor or Badger soft top. For some reason my soft top rear retaining bar is about 3/4 - 1 inch higher than the mounting points. At first I thought it was because my rear hoop is not an original NAS, but I measured a friend’s NAS and it is the same height. Also the soft top fits the side and rear channels perfectly so the gap is just with the rear retaining bar. It doesn’t create a visible gap but it means the retainer bar in the rear can not mount properly. The solution is to create a block or riser for the retaining bar mounting points to bring the mounts up 3/4 - 1 inch. I have not done this yet as the retaining bar is not critical and often gets in the way if you ask me.

Overall my Exmoor fits significantly better than the Badger and I like the original design and features more than the Badger. I will keep the Badger and put it in my spare parts bin in case I ever need a backup soft top. With this new soft top I will give up on the hard top idea because I just don’t think I can get it to fit with my front doors without significant adjustments…..plus the soft top NAS tends to have a higher resell value than the hard top NAS. Let’s be honest, living in CA there is only one way to go and that is with a soft top.

Sprinter Build - Battery Monitor

When I bought my Trail Kitchens power and water cabinet it came with a very nice Balmar SG200 battery monitor. This uses a shunt to measure all the input and output power consumption to give you various readings on the status of your battery. But over the last 2 years I have made many changes to my electrical system such as a bluetooth controlled lithium battery and a bluetooth controlled DC-DC charger. This meant that I didn’t need many of the features of the Balmar. All I really needed was a simple display showing me the basic info about my battery for those times when I am not using the battery and charger app.

I decided to go with a Renogy 500 amp shunt battery monitor. Its a simple design, easy to install, and doesn’t complicate my system yet it does everything I need it to do. I rarely downgrade my gear but sometimes it is better to have simple gear that does only what you need it to do versus having gear with all the bells and whistles yet falls sort on some of the basics. In the case of the Balmar where it fell sort for me was that to see all of the stats you care about you need to flip through various screens versus the Renogy that shows all the important stats on a single screen.

Defender 90 Build - Locking Storage

The Defender is not known for its storage, hell it only has one compartment to put anything in. I already fixed up the cubby box to make it functional again and I used the seat boxes for things like electrical gear and an air compressor. For trip gear I figured I would use soft bags tossed in the back but after a few day trips I realized I didn’t love my recovery gear or tools shifting around back there. I looked around and finally came across Mobile Storage Systems out of the UK. Like the name implies, they specialize in metal storage solutions for Land Rovers.

I decided to try out their wheel well locking storage boxes, of which they make a couple different sizes. My goal was to get as large of ones as I could to maximize the dead space above the wheel wells. As you may recall I removed the jump seats (as they are death traps) and installed an OEM bench which left the wheels wells open. Mobile Storage Systems makes a large box, a large box that fits around the fuel filler, and a small box. I determined I would get one large box for the driver side and a small box for the passenger. I did this because the fuel filler large box would not allow me to retain my rear speakers and Mobile Storage Systems said a normal large box would not fit on the passenger side of a NAS due to the smaller space between the fuel filler and the cross bars.

Once the large and micro boxes came I test fit them and found out that you can mount a large box on either side of a NAS but just barely. So I ordered a second large box and will sell the micro. With this storage capacity I will be able to permanently store my recovery gear and a set of tools. I also found that for the passengers in the back these boxes act as nice arm rests.

The install is straight forward. Each box has 6 bolts that go through the top of the wheel wells. I previously had bolt holes in the wheel well for the jump seats so while I was here drilling the appropriate holes for the storage boxes I filled all the unused holes with JB Weld. The lesson I learned is to make your wheel well holes larger than you need so that you can have some minor movement in order to line up the other bolts.

Sprinter Build - Grille Lights and Switches

A while back I wired up a light bar and area lights to a Trigger Controller (blog post here). At that time I thought I was doing myself a favor to use the Trigger Controller as it would prevent me having to wire in relays and switches…..something I was not overly familiar with at that time. The Trigger Controller is app enabled and comes with a wireless switch block to control the lights. At that time I completed the installation of the light bar and area lights but only mounted the grille lights into position, I didn’t actually wire them in yet (due to time). Everything worked great but over time I noticed some weaknesses of the Trigger Controller.

The first is that it is not easily expandable since you either buy a 4 switch system or a 6 switch system but to expand means buying a whole new system. The second is that their wireless switch block….sucks. The LED lights of the switch are weak, the switch block is not that attractive, and the batteries run down rather quickly. More importantly, once the batteries run down the switch acts odd and on more than one occasion once I turned on the lights I could not turn them off unless I went into the app. But the biggest issue I have found with the Trigger Controller is that the circuits can only handle lower amps. On a 4 Trigger Controller only two circuits can handle 30 amps and the other two circuits can handle only 10 amps. Finding lights that take 10 amps or less is not easy. You can add a relay to a circuit to up the amps but that sort of defeats the whole point of having the Trigger Controller. You might as well have total control and flexibility and wire up relays. More on that in a second as you can guess what I had to do :)

I lived with their wireless switch block for awhile but eventually I was tired of it, so I bought their hard wired switch kit. This is a wire loom that you can add to your Trigger Controller that allows you to then use traditional switches. By doing this you can ditch the wireless switch block all together. Seeing that I like and trust MGI Speedware for my custom wiring needs I went with their 4 aviation style switch panel. I then had the joy of cutting a hole in my headliner to mount the switch panel and to route the wires to the Trigger Controller which I installed under the front driver seat in the electrical box.

While I was deep into this project I decided to finally wire up the grille lights. I went with the Rigid 360 6” lights that have an amber background. I did this for a few different reasons. The first is that these lights can be wired on two circuits (one for the main light and one for the backlight). This means that the amp rating on each circuit is rather low and based on the documentation from Rigid it would be below 10 amps on each circuit (at least that is what I thought). I was also hopeful that the amber backlight could be used as fog lights while the main lights could be used as offroad driving lights. As it turns out the amber is not bright enough to be effective fog lights. The amber looks good but it is not bright enough. The main light is very bright and a wonderful offroad light with a retro style, but the amp rating documented is the nominal load not the startup load. I found that my 10 amp circuit could not handle the load and thus it blew a fuse. The fix for that is…..you guessed it, wire in a 30 amp relay. If I am going to do that I might as well upgrade the grille lights to the Baja Design LP6 or LP9 which are amazing lights.

So all in all I would recommend the Trigger Controller only to those that have limited switch needs, who don’t feel comfortable wiring switches and relays, and who don’t need to power higher load circuits. If I could do it again I would skip it. If you like the idea of a controller that has most of the wiring done for you check out the SPOD system as it is a more powerful system. Given my Defender project I am not comfortable wiring relays and switches so my preference is to buy a custom relay panel from MGI Speedware and have total flexibility. I like the Rigid 360 lights for their retro look but for my needs I like the Baja Design LP9s better. So once I add a relay to my grille wiring loom I will jump over to the BD LP9s and join the many Sprinters who use those. In conclusion I would say you get what you pay for. The Trigger Controller is inexpensive for what it is but has many limitations and overall I spent more time than it was worth making it work for my rig. But with that said it does work great now and their customer support is excellent.

Defender 90 Build - Air Compressor

I decided early on that I wanted onboard air for the Defender. I wanted this for airing up after a day on the trails but also in case I ended up with air lockers (more on that later). My original plan was to simply put a Viair compressor like I have in the van but once I started looking into the ARB compressors I was sold. They are small, they have a couple of difference sizes, they can power air lockers, and they come with a nice wiring harness. Initially I was interested in ARB’s larger compressor but the size held me back. I ended up going with their most popular compressor the CKMA12. It can handle tire inflation easily but it also has some ports to add solenoids for two air lockers. I also liked how flexible it was for the installation. You can twist the mini air tank and compressor body to get it to fit just about anywhere.

Defenders are short on space, but there is one area that just about every Defender owner installs an air compressor and that is under the passenger seat. Both of the front seats sit on a metal box which makes it rather easy to hide some gear. The driver seat has the car battery and I went and filled the rest of that space with an aux power tray. If you are interested in that project read more here. The passenger seat box holds the OEM jack but is largely empty. In 95-97 NAS (yes I know 96 was not a real year for Defender NAS imports) the passenger seat box also holds some OEM wiring, but in my 94 there was none so I had the entire space to play with. I decided to mount the air compressor there, bolted it to the floor and wired the switch to my switch panel I created on my center cubby box. I then ran an air line out of the box under the car up to the front bumper where I installed a quick disconnect for easy tire inflation. I will be able to add more air lines later for the lockers.

While it is easy to simply have a portable air compressor for tire inflation I am happy I spent the time and money to get a permanent onboard air setup. The hardest part was figuring out where I wanted to run all the electrical and air lines, other than that it is a quick and easy install. And for you Jeep people, it is even easier because ARB makes mounting brackets specific to your truck (as always Defender owners have to do it the hard way).

Defender 90 Build - Rock Sliders and Skid Plate

Our Defender, like all Defenders, had the terrible OEM side steps that were rusted thru, ugly, and useless to protect the Defender. So we took them off, removed the painted body panel under the door frame and installed proper rock sliders. We wanted a set that would protect the body of the truck, would act as a jack point, fit the 90’s style of the truck, and have tree guards to act as side steps. We went with Rovers North’s version because they were available plus these things are burly. They bolt into the frame using existing mounting points so there is no damage to the body.

Next was to get a skid plate to protect the front steering and suspension components. Again we went with Rovers North. It is an easy bolt on design and the skid plate can come off with just a few bolts. The brackets are steel while the plate is thick aluminum.

These are both great additions to the truck that offer excellent protection while keeping the look of the truck intact.

Sprinter Build - Let’s Talk Toilets

I have been surprised how often someone asks me about how we take care of business on our backcountry trips. So this post is to talk about our experience (without too many gross details) and how we ended up finding a solution that worked for our needs.

First off there is a wide range of options you can explore. You can go old school and dig a pit, but that takes time and in many areas this is not allowed. On the other end of the spectrum you can have a black water holding tank and a permanent bathroom built into your van, but this requires maintenance, spending time at dump stations, and winterizing the holding tank. You then have the solutions in the middle like a bucket (not kidding) and the ever popular cassette toilet. These solutions are portable, temporarily hold the waste, inexpensive, and you can dump at a dump station or any permanent toilet. By far the most common solution is the cassette toilet.

Out of all of these options my family was not going to dig a pit every time. I was not willing to deal with the permanent toilet as I didn’t want that feature permanently built into the floor plan. This is because we take lots of different kind of trips and some don’t require a toilet so a permanent bathroom in the van would be a waste of space. I also didn’t want the extra maintenance of the holding take and I especially didn’t want to be driving around with frozen human waste in the winter. The bucket options is just nasty so that left the cassette toilet which we did try. This is a good option as you can do your business in the van or move it outside when you are at camp, everything is contained in one nice package (fresh water to flush and a small holding tank), and it only costs a couple hundred for a nice model. But in the end we hated it. Even with holding tank chemicals to break down the waste and cut down on the smell……the smell was always present. And when you are driving through Utah in summer and its 90+ degrees in the van that smell can be powerful. Also when it is time to dump out the portable holding tank we ran into issues. I will spare you the details but let’s just say it is easy but not the most enjoyable experience. But given all the other options we knew about the cassette toilet was still the best option for us….until a friend of mine told me about the Wrappon Green Toilet.

The Wrappon does not really fall into any of the toilet options I have gone over. This thing has created a new toilet category “heat sealed disposable waste packets”. So what the hell is that? Glad you asked. This is a Japanese electric portable toilet that was originally designed for crane operators. It is a 19x19x19 metal box that you sit on, do your business, drop in some powder that turns your urine into gel, and then press a button to heat seal your waste in an air tight packet which you simply throw away in the trash. The way this works is that in the middle of the metal box is a long plastic bag, a motor to unroll a part of that bag to collect your waste, a heat element to close off and seal part of the bag to create a packet, and then the packet drops out the bottom for you to collect.

Because the packets are air tight there is NO SMELL. We had a family of four in Death Valley for 4 days where we used the Wrappon extensively and simply put the waste packets in our van trash can and we never noticed any smell. No joke this thing works. And since it is portable you can use it in the van or put it outside at a campsite; all you need is a power source. There are three ways to power this bad boy (120v power plug, 12v cigarette lighter plug, or a battery pack). The battery pack they sell for the Wrappon is super expensive but you can rig your own battery pack if you have basic 12v electrical skills, or you can do what we did and simply get a small Goal Zero 150 power station and use the 12v cigarette plug. Doing it this way means we can use the toilet in the van and outside with the Goal Zero with the same power plug to keep things simple.

In my eyes the Wrappon is the best of all worlds. It is portable, it is easy, it does not smell, and the maintenance is low. But it does have two draw backs, the first being price. This thing is over $800 compared to a cassette toilet that ranges from $150-$300. So I would call this a camping luxury item. The second draw back is that there is a possibility for a packet to not get a perfect heat seal. This happens for us about 1 out of every 5 times we use it. I have two theories on why this happens. The first is that the 12v doesn’t provide quite enough consistent power to the heating element to get a perfect seal. The second theory is that as you drive the van is bouncing around and the plastic bag in the Wrappon gets misaligned with the heating element. What ever the reason sometimes the seal will not be perfect and you end up with a small leak of your waste on the floor. But before you freak out keep in the mind we are talking about a small leak (like pin hole). Sounds bad I know but the fix is easy. The Wrappon comes with an align tool so if you are worried about a leak you simply realign the bag when you get to your campsite. For added protection we simply put a small plastic container under the Wrappon where the packets come out just in case there is a small leak. But honestly this is not that big of a deal as it is rare, easy to fix, and the leak is very small when it happens. It’s a small price to pay for the overwhelming benefits (at least in my family’s eyes). I do think Wrappon should address this as I am not the only person this has happened to.

To make this toilet even more useful we built a wooden cabinet around it in the van so that we can sit on it as a stool but easily remove the Wrappon when we want to put it outside. We also got a pop-up bathroom tent that we can setup outside if we are camping near other people and want some privacy but don’t want to do your business in the van. I am the first to say this is a luxury item but honestly after using the Wrappon with the family I can’t imagine ever going back to a cassette toilet.

Defender 90 Build - Hi-Lift Jack Mount

Hi-Lift Jacks, so functional yet so dangerous. But hey, if you are going to drive a car that has zero safety standards might as well pair it with a jack that could kill you. In all seriousness the Hi-Lift Jack (or Farm Jack) are wonderful jacks so long as you know how to use them. They can lift or pry as well as act as a manual winch. The problem with them is that they are huge. If you have a Jeep you have a ton of aftermarket mounting options to pick from. But if you have a Defender (especially a soft top) your options are limited.

At Cerrone’s (a local mechanic shop that specializes in Land Rovers and Defenders) I saw a Defender with a brilliant solution. Mount it to the aux mounting points on the ARB bumper. All you need to do is go to a hardware store and find parts to makeshift the mounts. I designed mine with long bolts, some washers, wing nuts, and large spacers that are actually bushings.

Now I have a permanent home for the jack and it doesn’t take any cargo space. Problem solved and onto the next Defender problem.

Defender 90 Build - Winch & Hella Lights

When I bought the D90 it had an ARB front bumper that is highly sought after. The ARB is an all steel bumper with marker lights, mounts for driving/fog lights, winch mount, license plate mount, recovery points, and event some aux mounts for more lights or radio antennas. So while my Defender had the perfect bumper it was not optioned with a winch or working driving/fog lights. Frankly it looked a little sad….

I decided to ditch the extra large non-working Hella lights, but they did inspire me to keep a retro look. So I bought slightly smaller Hella incandescent lights as they fit the vintage of the car. I picked up a pair of Hella 4000 compact lights which act as great offroad driving lights. Given I had recently created a power tray with relays and fuses for just this kind of modification the wiring was easy. I placed the switch in my recently modified cubby box which is where all of my aux switches will live.

Next came the winch. I decided to get a Warn VR EVO 8-s (8k lb capacity) winch. I went with a synthetic line which is less retro but more practical and safe. What I love about this winch is that it can be mounted at just about any degree which is handle since the only way to mount this to the ARB is by rotating the housing 90 degrees. It also can have its control box separated from the winch body which is required once you mount it rotated. The wired remote can also be wireless which is great so that you can stand even further away during the recovery.

The biggest challenge was to find an easy way to mount the control box separated from the body….luckily Vice Design creates a wiring kit for this winch that allows you to mount the control box just about anywhere. I decided to mount the box right above the winch. This keeps an authentic look while fitting the ARB nicely. I replaced the line hook with a Factor55 FlatLink E (not very retro but a lot safer). My only regret is that I wish I had upgraded to the 10k winch (male ego at work here).

Defender 90 Build - Cubby Box

Anyone that has owned a Defender knows there is limited storage space. The original cubby box was a decent design as it has a place for the radio, locked storage, and 2 cup holders….but they deteriorate over time and there are no OEM replacement parts. There are a few aftermarket options which are nice but I wanted to try to restore my original cubby box. The lock no longer has a key, the strike plate is misaligned so the lock can’t engage, and the plastic trim for the radio mount is cracked all over.

I also wanted to make some changes to make it more useful for my needs. I want to add some switches for air compressor, lights, etc. There are some OEM and aftermarket solutions for this but none worked for my 94. The reason is that in 94 the AC unit put a switch in the center dash right where you could put an aftermarket or OEM radio mount. This was changed in 95. I also didn’t want to damage my dash in anyway. Another option is to hijack the ash tray and put a Mudd switch panel there but I am using that spot for a Rovers North phone mount.

That led me to my plan of removing the radio from the cubby box and use that space in the cubby box for a switch panel. I would then get a headless radio unit so that I could install it in a hidden location and simply stream music from my iPhone. I also wanted the option to install a two way radio system for when I am off roading with friends. To accomplish all of this I bought a Mudd subwoofer cage that mounts under the cubby box. Rather than using the cage for a subwoofer I would mount the headless radio and two way radio there which happens to be where all the wires go anyway.

With that as the plan I started out by installing the Mudd subwoofer cage which was easy enough. I had to grind out a small piece of metal to pass through the OEM radio wiring harness. I also had to raise the cage off the floor of the car a bit by stacking some metal washers to make space for the wires. Next I took apart the cubby box and started gluing the plastic trim back together and then hit it with some black paint. Not a pro job but good enough. The original cubby boxes had some wood risers nailed into the bottom which are normally not noticeable but once you raise it up by the Mudd cage all of a sudden those risers were an eyesore. So I removed the risers to bring the cubby box flush to the cage. The cage rises the cubby box by about 4 inches which makes the cubby box more comfortable as an armrest.

I then spent some time bending and positioning the strike plate so that the lock mechanism would engage properly. After many attempts I finally got it. Next I took the lock mechanism to a locksmith who rekeyed the lock so that it would function properly. Now I have a working lock for the cubby box albeit not overly secure….any child could simply rip these lids off the hinge. For me I just wanted the damn thing to work properly.

For the stereo I tried a couple different headless radio solutions. The first was the Memphis Car Audio. That had a volume issue so I ditched that. I then tried a small Kicker amp with an MTX bluetooth module which worked well but the MTX had a lot of interference in the sound. I tried a few things to reduce that interference but I could not get rid of it and realized it is just the inefficiency of the design…..so I ditched it. I ended up keeping the Kicker amp and simply plugging in my iPhone to the RCA hookups of the amp. That eliminated the interference and gave me great volume control. To make it a bit easier to control the songs and volume while driving I got a bluetooth remote that mounts to the steering wheel. I then replaced the marine grade speakers with more responsive speakers by Kicker.

For the switch panel to hold the Carling switches in the cubby box I went with a custom solution by Mudd. The final result is a working locking cubby box that is more comfortable as an armrest since it is raised and I have a hidden radio solution with 6 switches to power my accessories over time. All while keeping the original 90’s look with no damage to the truck.

All in all this was a much bigger project than I had thought. The amount of reworking I had to do to get the system working properly while keeping the original look was a PITA. But I am happy with it.

Defender 90 Build - Electrical

Before we add aux equipment to the D90 we wanted to create an electrical panel designed to fit our needs while not taxing the OEM fuse box or electrical system. This meant adding an aux fuse box and some relays that are wired into the battery without going through the OEM system. This will allow us to add some switches to aux gear and upgrade the stereo system. Since this is an off-roader and run about we don’t need a full overlander system…..for that we have the Sprinter Adventure Wagon. So for the D90 we planned to add some off-road bumper lights, winch, air compressor, upgraded stereo, and enough open slots for future roof rack lights, seat heaters and 1-2 other things.

The first decision was where to put this gear as Defenders are short on space. The battery box under the driver seat had enough space and made the wiring clean and accessible. The driver seat simply lifts up and you can easily access the battery box in seconds. We didn’t want to simply throw gear in the battery box so we built a wood panel that is bolted to the metal wall of the battery box and then mounted all the aux electrical gear to that wood panel. This allows us to build and wire everything outside of the truck and then simply bolt the whole panel in.

We wanted to make it as clean as possible with as few wires as possible with plenty of protection for the battery and systems. The relay systems were built by MGI Speedware who offers extremely nice car electrical components. The fuse box is made by Blue Sea. Here is what the panel includes:

• positive power distribution block that hooks up to the battery

• relay control box with 4 relays, this also has an inline fuse for the unit and dedicated fused for each relay

• a dedicated relay for the air compressor due to the high load, this also has its own inline fuse

• a fuse box with 6 slots that are all individually fused and the unit has its own inline fuse as well

• a negative distribution block that grounds to the chassis

The relay control block will allow us to hook up switches for the bumper lights, future roof lights and seat heaters while giving us a couple slots to tap into in the future as needed. The single relay for the air compressor is designed for high load motors. The fuse box will give power to the stereo amp and any other future gear we can think of.

Because we like clean wiring, we decided to install battery terminal distribution blocks so that we don’t need to stack up connectors on the battery terminals. We found a great solution with SDHQ who makes solid block battery terminal distributors where you can easily bolt on multiple connectors. This way we can have the winch, the OEM systems, and the aux panel all wired directly to the battery terminal but on separate mounting points.

In the end I will admit this was a bit overkill to add a few aux equipment. But The goal was to do it once and for it to be ready for any future needs.

Sprinter Build - Winch

Not that long ago I told a friend of mine that the winch is the last thing I would do to my van. I was not saying I WOULDN’T put a winch on the van….I was saying it was something I would do when I finished everything else first. So I guess the fact that I just got a winch put on the van means I am coming to an end of this build and yes that is exactly what that means. Thank god. I have really enjoyed this build but its been 16 months working on this van, it has cost a ton of money, countless hours in the garage, and it is time to work on the Defender now.

A winch is not needed for most van owners. They look cool but honestly most people who own a van say something like, “I put it on but I hope to never use it”. When I talk to van owners most never take their van off-road to the degree where they risk getting stuck. Because of that a winch is really not needed for 95% of van owners. We however do like to go miles off-road with the van and we have already had a couple situations where we almost got stuck. We also have aspirations to take out the van plus Defender on trips off-road where the van acts as basecamp and the Defender acts as our runaround. So I feel it is important to be able to self rescue…..thus time to get a winch.

Most people put on a big metal bumper in the front and then mount their winch to that. There are some great ones out there but I don’t really see the point. To me they seem to be mostly about the looks. Also some of these add a lot of weight and disable or complicate the use of MB’s various sensors (parking, lane departure, active cruise control). Also some of these bumpers cost over $2k….for a look. We decided to go with a winch mount from Van Compass. This is a steel mount that you install under the MB plastic bumper that gives the front end added strength to support a winch plus it gives you two recovery points. It doesn’t change the look of the van too much, it is likely stronger than most of the metal bumpers out there, it does not impact ANY of the MB sensors, and it cost less than half of some of the metal bumpers.

We then decided to go with a Warn VR EVO 12-s winch. This is a 12k synthetic rope winch with a lower AMP draw. There are a few other 12k winches from Warn that have a bit more power and features but for the money we felt the VR EVO 12-s was a good fit for our van. Let’s be real, even with all the work we have done to this van it can’t get into too gnarly of a situation as it is just too heavy, too under powered, and too long to do real off-roading.

One last thing. If you plan on adding a winch to your Sprinter go ahead and buy extra long power cables as the ones that come with winches are WAY TOO SHORT. You will need 12-14 feet if you plan on wiring the winch all the way back to the main van battery in the cabin under the driver floor. You should wire the winch directly to the battery without any couplers and you should get large gauge wires (I used 2 gauge but the larger the better). Some people will put a terminal block in the engine bay and run the winch to that. The problem with this is that most terminal blocks are rated to 200 AMPs and a winch can pull up to 400 AMPs. Another thing you will have to deal with is that Sprinters don’t have a dedicated attachment bolt on the negative to connect your cable. What I did was modify the OEM negative cable so that I could sandwich the winch cable between the main mount and bolt. This requires some dremeling but its easy.

Public Service Announcement…..if you plan on owning a winch also plan on taking a recovery class. Don’t think it is as simple as knowing how to turn on the winch. There is some knowledge, skill, and practice needed in order to do a proper and safe recovery. I would also reconsider simply taking a recovery course from your local off-road club. While that might be totally fine it is unclear how knowledgable the club members really are since they are most likely not a professional recovery crew. If you are in the Bay Area consider taking a class from The Driving Company who is a professional organization that trains fire and police departments as well as search and rescue crews on proper off-roading and recovery techniques.

Sprinter Build - Custom Woodwork

We are getting to the end of the build!!!! Now that all the big stuff is done it was time to do some minor clean up by getting some custom woodwork complete. The first was to finally install the Adventure Wagon fuse box in a permanent location, an inset wooden box (in bamboo) in the wall panel behind the driver seat.

Next was to redo our coat hook board in matching bamboo.

We also wanted a permanent place for our Wrappon Green toilet so we built a bamboo box around the toilet that acts as a seat when the lid is closed. It also has a door in the front to access the deposits :) We also ran power to the box so that the Wrappon was on its own circuit. That also meant we could install an Aux USB charging port behind the captain chair.

And while we were at it, we decided to make a trash bin out of bamboo as well to make everything match. It also gives our dog a way to climb up to the bed, sort of like a doggy ladder.

And hell, since the power tools are out….might as well convert this service panel to a door with hinges for easy access to the water system mechanics.

Lastly, and a bit less exciting, I rewired the electrical hot water system to trigger off the camper battery system versus the van system. This has a pro and con. The pro is that we don’t need to turn on the van to run the hot water as it can run off of the camper van. The con is that it takes a ton of power and thus can drain the camper battery quickly (within a few hours) if you forget about it. To prevent that, I have it on its own kill switch plus I wired an indicator light as a reminder for when it is on. When we are using a lot of hot water and getting a bit nervous about our battery levels we can switch over to our propane hot water system. I also installed a water tank monitor system which works pretty well. It does give fault readings if things like wires get too close to the sensors on the tank. But overall it gives us enough of a reading to know if it is time to refill.

A big thank you to Kamper Vans in Reno for getting all the CNC work done with the wood.

Defender 90 Build - Suspension

Defenders are very capable trucks off-road but there is always a bit more performance you can squeeze out with the right mods. When I bought this truck it came with stock OEM suspension and wheels but very wrong tires. The ride was ok but adjustments were needed. It was clear the prior owner didn’t know how to match the right tires for this truck or set up the suspension properly.

Since I needed to replace the tires anyway I might as well get slightly larger. I decided to go with 305/70/16 BFG KO2 All Terrain. I also knew I wanted a winch and that means more weight on the front which means some adjustments are needed to ensure the truck doesn’t nose dive. For the wheels I was torn on what to do. I really like Hutchinson Rock Monster bead lock wheels but they cost a small fortune so I decided to keep the stock wheels for now. I might powder coat them matte black if I decide not to buy the Rock Monsters. But let’s be real…..I will end up with the Rock Monsters at some point. DOT legal bead locks designed for military applications? Who could resist that?

All of that meant we needed the following suspension upgrades:

• 30mm wheel spacers

• OEM HD springs

• Old Man Emu shocks

• Old Man Emu steering stabilizer

• 1” spring spacer in the front to prevent nose dive when the winch is put on

Now the truck looks proper (in my eyes) and performs much better on-road and off-road.

UPDATE:

After driving around with this setup I decided to remove the front and rear sway bars. What I found was that the springs and shocks are stiff enough to give me the stability I need on the road so the sway bars were not as important. Also by removing them I will get better articulation off-road. This mod is not for everyone because you are removing a safety feature to some degree. But for how I use this truck this seemed like an acceptable tradeoff.

Defender 90 Build - The Plan

Full restoration, partial restoration, full on modification? What direction to take a car project can be a difficult decision. This D90 is mostly stock but there are a few things that are not original that can not be put back to the factory spec. For instance, the car has been resprayed AA Yellow which is the correct OEM color of this car but it is clearly not original. It has inward facing rear seats which is very Defender….but this configuration was not available with NAS Defenders. So these were clearly added on at some point. This car either came with no rear seats or it had a bench at one point but it has since been lost. This is fixable but with considerable effort and cost due to the lack of seat belt mounting points. That brings us to the biggest non-original element of the car and that is the rear roll cage bar.

NAS Defenders had their roll cage encased in a foam/rubber padding. This padding is not removable and is actually molded onto the roll cage. Only NAS versions had this done to the roll cage and since there are not that many NASes created (since they only were manufactured from 94-97) no one is offering replacement parts. Safety Devices who is the worlds largest roll cage manufacturer for Defenders offers all configurations except the padded NAS version. That means if you are missing any parts or need a replacement roll cage for a NAS you only have two options: 1) you find a NAS junker and pull the parts from that car but this is rare and often the parts are of poor quality or 2) you switch to a non-NAS roll cage.

My truck has the original NAS roll cage on all bars except one bar, the rear hoop. I don’t know what happened as there is no record or evidence of an accident. My best guess is that there was some damage to the rear hoop or the padding started to rip (which is common) and the prior owner decided to replace the hoop with a non-NAS. Another possibility is that this NAS truck only had a front section roll cage and no rear seating (fastback style) but at some point the prior owner wanted rear seating, put in the inward facing seats, and found some NAS and some non-NAS roll cage parts to create a mismatched full cage. Either way, me finding a NAS cage in good shape that I can buy to put my cage back to full original is going to be hard if not impossible.

Because of that non-NAS rear hoop, putting an original rear bench will be expensive, but I am going to do it anyway. The inward facing seats I have now are cool but impractical and not stock. I have found an original NAS bench that needs to be refurbished. I will get new foam inserts and an upholstery kit as well as strip and paint the metal frame of the bench. This will get me a period correct stock rear seat that I can mount. As for the seat belt mounts I will either need to weld on mounting tabs to the rear hoop (which is actually possible since my rear hoop doesn’t have the NAS padding….hello silver lining) or I will mount a four point harness to the floor of the truck.

The last non stock thing on the truck is the bumper. Right now it has a period correct ARB safari bumper versus the original bumper. Mounted to the ARB bumper are some Hella Rallye 2000 off-road lights. This is a great bumper but not the look I am going for. This bumper was designed to accommodate a traditional steel cable winch and as you can see the bumper has a lot of protection….but changes the look of the truck. I have decided to change this bumper out with a Terrafirma Pro Taper bumper which is a more streamlined steel bumper that more easily accepts modern winches. This means we will no longer have grille lights but it also means the boxy Defender front of the car will be more prominent.

Everything else is stock and can easily be maintained or refurbished as needed. But all of this is a long way of saying I don’t think this is a full restoration candidate to be locked away in the garage and babied. I think keeping the spirit of the original truck is key, keeping most of it stock is desirable, but doing some modifications should be considered. Those modifications should be bolt-on whenever possible, tastefully done, and done with a purpose of increasing safety or increasing fun. So with that in mind I move on to building out the project list.