This brightly coloured Land Rover Defender 110 has been in over the last week. Our mechanic was on hand and fitted a new anti roll bar. This was done before the vehicle had its waxoyl treatment checked and quite thoroughly topped up so that the customers transport doesn't start to rust. At the rear of the vehicle the customer supplied an aftermarket swingaway wheel carrier which our team fitted. Having a few issues with seized bolts this took a little longer than expected but the wheel carrier went on without too many problems. 

The eagle eyed of your might have seen that there has also been a Maggiolina Airlander+ hard shell roof tent fitted too. The customer had a Patriot Products roof rack already fitted. With the slats going the length of the vehicle, the same as the mounting channels on the tent we had a few options for the customer. When the tent was sat centrally on the rack the mounting channels laid in the centre of some of the slats this meant that we could not use brackets to wrap around some of the cross beams on the rack. This meant one option was to place the tent slightly to one side. This would look a little peculiar but would solve the issue without causing any damage to tent or rack. A second option would be to drill the rack. If we measured and marked out the rack carefully, we could drill holes through the tent and bolt the tent through the racks slats. This would allow the tent to be central on the rack. This is the option that the customer chose. 

Measuring out 8 holes, 4 on either side at 625mm apart. With the 2 holes in each corner and using the flat bar brackets provided plus some extras we supplied we fastened the tent down on to the rack. As with fitting any roof tent, especially with hard shell tents fastening the bolts isn't as easy as you'd expect. With little manoeuvre room for your arms, tightening the bolts is quite strenuous. However the main problem when tightening the bolts is that the channels within the tent are too deep. What I mean is theres probably 15mm of room above the head of the bolt with nothing stopping the bolt from lifting upwards. So as you are trying to place a nut on the bottom of the bolt, its moving up and away from you. This after some time can get frustrating. If the manufacturers of the tents left less room within the mounting channel this would make installation of hard shell tents both quicker and easier. 

Please take a look at the images below. If you would like a similar job doing please contact us on +44(0)1751 430 693 or email info@trekoverland.com.