Well, 51 years of originality will soon be at an end..

[RMS]

No, I think your post is in the spirit of the original post - "originality or not?"

Just a couple of notes from me:

Noise.
Patrick's Carawagon is remarkably quiet - 200TDi but a LOT of interior soundproofing involving some thick floor soundproofing/matting from a Disco donor and rubber faced closed cell foam (actually very expensive antistatic bench matting, surplus to requirements ).
Rubber backed closed cell matting over the gearbox under the tunnel (helps a lot with gearbox noise).
Disco engine mounts and the bulkhead soundproofing pad from the Disco.
Stick-on matting ('lead' flashing) stuck to the inside of the doors and then door cards fitted.

We can carry out a normal conversation at 60mph without raised voices - anyone is welcome to come for a ride to see just how good you can get it.

Gearing.
S3 gearboxes in both our Carawagons, so no double declutching required
As Alex says, 3.54 diffs means a lot more changing down into 2nd is required


Agree that if you want good lighting and to run a compressor fridge (and laptop/DVD player etc.) you need a leisure battery and split charging.
A decent (60W/120W) solar panel is also useful to keep the leisure battery topped up if you stay in the same place for more than a couple of days.

Heater - a real luxury, but once you've got a blown hot air heater fitted, you will wonder how you managed without on those winter (and Spring, Autumn and even some Summer) camps

All food for thought - I agree with the idea of developing your vehicle to make it more useful, comfortable and economical as you see fit

Cheers,
Robin.

[overlander]

Being totally truthful and I think Robin will be along to back me up regarding Patrick's*, the noise from the 200Tdi in my Carawagon was not excessive due to two obvious reasons. Firstly I had a cyl head blanket (which are not always a good fit depending on various factors ie it wouldn't work well with Mick's 'cos he had some plumbing running along the top of his cyl head (although he did have some stuff which didn't stick to the underside of his bonnet as it should have done) AND I nabbed a lot of the insulating material from my Disco donor and fitted it on the bulkhead, floor, footwells and covering the gearbox tunnel. Made a world of difference compared with a bare metal floor. Res ipsa loquita.

Performance, noise level, comfort, perfectly adequate, I did two consecutive 1000km a day drives, solo on the way back from Maroc

cheers

J

* - he already did

[DanC]

Can you fit an engine blanket to a 2.25 petrol, just wondering about the rocker breather??? Would be an idea otherwise, might cut out a little bit of noise although it isn't the worst aspect of the vehicle..... I think a bit of soundproofing is a good thing, most noise in mine is probably exhaust, although it is all solid it might benefit from a bit of exhaust paste at the many joints!!

[Jabbawocky]

Firstly I had a cyl head blanket (which are not always a good fit depending on various factors ie it wouldn't work well with Mick's 'cos he had some plumbing running along the top of his cyl head

John. Your getting confused in your old age. That is the 200tdi in my 88". Barney is a 300tdi and has the cover as standard. When I said my tdi was noisy, I was comparing it to the 6 pot petrol I removed, not against the 200tdi tractor engine you all have fitted.

As for the sound proofing falling off the bonnet, that was when we went to Switzerland. Noisekiller were very apologetic and supplied a complete replacement kit without question. That has never come off. They said they had had a bad batch.

I have plenty of sound proofing and at 60mph I cannot here the engine at all. The howl from the roof rack drowns it out.

Mick

[overlander]

So many Landies in your yard Mick, so little time.... but admittedly I do get easily confused these days Bob....

John H

Must get a move on and travel before I completely unravel.