My mission :- To build the best overland camper ever.

Range rover under extreme cross axle in Wales

It started in 1981 with a custom-built camper for racing dirt bikes by Jim and Dot.

 

The Jones family has continued on for decades building better and better campers.

17 years of my family growing up with Merlin

After 17 years with Merlin our 4×4 overlander truck and having designed ,built and raced Dakar cars for 15 years I knew what was next.

The Breif :-

  1. It must be very very good off-road, no compromise, I didn’t want too get somewhere and be told the track is impassable or too narrow for my camper, diff locks , uprated everything, traction control, Land Rover Defender approach and departure angle etc etc,
  2. Simple , easy to fix and easy to source spare parts, using OEM available stuff for the critical items like engine and running gear
  3. A huge comfy bed, I am very big and I like to spend the morning lying in bed 🙂
  4. Be able to sit inside comfortable at night and for eating meals
  5. All equipment must be ale to be used with the bed down, ie toilet, fridge cooker and access to all storage
  6. For One person to be able to stay in bed while the second has full use downstairs
  7. NO wood, so now rot, the inside must be able to be washed out, all boxes sealed to keep any dust out
  8. Great insulation, A/c and good living area heater.
  9. Winch and full spares package, so we are self sufficient as much as possible;
  10. With all that spec , the base vehicle must weigh the same as the original Range Rover i.e. 2200kg
  11. And the max fully loaded weight with fuel water and 2 people must keep to the max gross weight of the Range Rover.
  12. No Budget restraint.  well it depends who’s asking. I started with 10K gbp and it grew to three times that.

Easy brief , how hard can it be 🙁

Follow the diary of the 4 year design and build :-> click here for the next episode