[Andrew and Karen Taylor moved from Aberdeen, Scotland to London. There, Andrew works for BP and Karen works for ENI, the Italian national oil company. Both are “travelers with a passion for British classic cars and Land Rovers.” With Andrew’s 40th birthday came the decision to celebrate by touring the world in a Land Rover. Here’s their first installment of their travels. –ed.]



Having too much time on your hands feels like a luxury; it can also prove extremely expensive. Well that’s my experience, so let me explain the situation.

In the winter of 2007 I visited family in Perth, Australia. I boarded the return flight home to the UK as a totally rational, slightly conservative, thirty-something quickly heading towards becoming a forty-something. Getting back to work remained my main priority at the time of take-off. By the mid point of the flight I had totally re-planned my life and its key drivers.

Upon stopping in Dubai to refuel, I duly disembarked but instead of heading off to buy the ubiquitous gold or latest electronic gadgetry, I found myself on a mission – to a store selling Land Rover magazines. As I hadn’t read one in years, the publication date would not matter. I needed a Land Rover fix.

Once ensconced in my seat the plan underwent further refinement (after all, this was a long flight). Buy a Land Rover, not your normal Defender 90 or 110, but a big 130, kit it out for expeditions and go travelling, maybe not now but sometime when I retire (which is at least 15 years away, if not longer given the current economic climate).

It all made perfect sense to me. However there was one fundamental flaw in the plan – convincing my long suffering wife. Would she do the usual, simply smile and say, “Yes dear, great idea, by the way what would you like for dinner?” Probably.

I landed the question, held my breath and waited and heard her say, “Great idea. Let’s do it! I’ve been thinking we should do something different with our lives.” Well, that’s when the panic set in.



The Defender 130 is a relatively rare vehicle in the UK. Most wind up with utility companies for hauling equipment across fields and rough terrain in order to gain access to power lines and the like. The 130 tag is actually a misnomer as the wheel base is 127”. Originally Land Rover Special vehicles built this model, by extending a 110 chassis up to 127”. Today enthusiasts still refer to early examples as “127s.” Also, the British military bought quite a few equipped with V8 engines and used them as gun carriages. Today Land Rover produces the 130 on the same production line as the other Defenders. It comes in two basic configurations, single cab or crew cab. Most purchasers of the crew cab prefer the High Capacity Pick Ups (HCPU).

We elected to look for a 130 HCPU Crew Cab with a retro-fitted rear hardtop. Soon we had spotted a pre-registered 130 for sale only 60 miles away from central London. After a quick blast down the motorway we arrived, only to find that the vehicle had been sold. Upon seeing our clear disappointment the salesman announced that they had ordered a 2008 130 with the new Puma engine as a demonstrator. This became our Land Rover, subsequently named “Doobie Doo.”

The Puma engine is a four cylinder turbo charged 2.4 liter diesel engine introduced in 2007 in order to meet European environmental legislation [see the Rovers North News, Fall 2007 –ed.]. “Doobie Doo” came equipped with practically every extra a 130 gets. Since it’s viewed as a workhorse, that’s not much – this means no leather, alloys or hi-fi upgrades on the options list. Within 15 minutes of entering the dealership we had bought our 130.

Although poorer and awaiting the delivery of our car for two months, we still had to carry out all the modifications. Trek Overland constructed the model of hardtop; to keep things simple we gave them the contract for all the work. This involved fabricating and colour coding the hard top, fitting a Howling Moon roof tent, shower cubicle and side awning, fitting front and rear roof racks, designing and fitting a pumped water system as well as an electrical system including audio/visual.

The side lockers house different equipment. One serves as a kitchen with power and water outlets, another as an electrical cupboard containing main hook up points, 1000 watt inverter, 12v and 240v power sockets, auxiliary battery charger and audio/visual outlet points. The remaining two lockers serve as storage. In the main rear area an Engel 45 fridge sits on runners; the rest is racked out for carrying tents and storage boxes. There are plenty of 12v outlets, too.

Optimistically, we took the Rover on a three-week shakedown trip to Spain. We returned with a long list of problems to be resolved, from the roof tent installed the wrong way round to a water system that leaked so badly that we could not use it. In true Land Rover style we just got on with it and returned the Land Rover to Trek Overland upon our return. Trek Overland corrected these problem but we were highly disappointed.



The biggest driving issue, uncovered in Spain, was an intermittent power loss. Once back in the UK we took the Land Rover to the nearest dealership. There, we loaded their loaner van with 80 bottles of Spain’s finest Rioja wine and returned back to central London. The dealer diagnosed the problem as a faulty turbo unit, which they duly changed out for us. After the repair the vehicle still felt off tune to me and subsequent investigations by another dealer tracked down the problem to a loose wire in a terminal block. This seems more likely to have been the root cause of the problem as the Puma engine has given great service in its original guise in Ford Transit vans throughout Europe.

So with the shakedown trip to Spain and the subsequent repairs, we’re planning our trip to the U.S., Canada, and then overseas again to New Zealand. Karen and I have sabbaticals from our work for a year and as I write this the Land Rover is being loaded out for shipping to Los Angeles.

As the old song says, “California here we come!” We’ll be updating our travels in future articles in the Rovers North News.

[Andrew and Karen Taylor will update their travels on their website, www.landrover130-adventures.com –ed]

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