I'd always fancied one of these but ended up with Land Rovers for the last few years, however that all changed late last year.
I'd been browsing ebay and had had a look at a couple of L400's locally but they were quite rough and the tidier ones tended to be a good trek away or snapped up quick.
I spotted this one not too far away, in budget, looked tidy but had had a small bump on the front which turned out to be purely cosmetic, and best of all the guy would drive it home for me as long as I took him back to his house after.
It's an exceed model, 7 seater and on the whole everything works as it should. It's loads comfier than the defender was, similar on fuel overall (worse on back roads but better on long journeys) and has a heater that works well!
I've had it about 6 months so far and the biggest thing I've had to do so far is have the front seal done on the injector pump (a known problem but once done should out last the vehicle), anything else has been smaller stuff like replacing thermostat, a ball joint, a couple of anti roll bar links and fitting fresh tyres.
It's used daily, but the plan is to sleep in it when we go away too. I've spent a few nights in it so far, usually just folding the rear two rows of seats flat and putting a thermarest on top and its' worked quite well so far.
I've made some real simple thermal blinds out of some foil backed bubblewrap from B&Q (less than a tenner for enough to do nearly all the windows) but I've started making some roll down curtain/blinds that sandwich the insulation inside it - jury's still out on that design yet but they work OK. Might end up just making them out of material and then if it's really cold, use the foil ones individually.
Long term, the plan is to build a removable system that is used both for storage but have pull out sections to make a proper sleeping platform.
I'd like to keep it removable as I often use it like a van and can get a full size enduro bike inside it if I strap the front suspension down a few inches first.
No other pics as yet but will update when I do
Tue May 05, 2015 10:59 pm
