List of things to do to take Defender on long road trips

Someone asked me recently how I have the confidence (courage, really) to take a rare, 24-year old, hard-to-repair-in-the-field vehicle on 14,000-mile road trips.   Excellent question. While I never made a list before, I have subconsciously been following some rules of thumb to bolster that confidence. So, I sat down and made a list of the things I am or should be doing to bolster that confidence, and below is that list.  In looking over this list,  have to say that I can give myself an A in most categories, but not all. The proof that I must be doing something right is illustrated by my continuing to take these trips and making it home, with the Defender. The proof also is in the stack of invoices I have showing all the work (and money) I have put into it over the years.

 

Guide for long-life and hassle-free road trips for Defender

At home: Find reliable mechanic who knows Defenders; believes that there is a solution for every problem; and can provide remote "help desk" assistance on the road.

At home: Maintain journal of problems and fixes for recall when needed

At home: Maintain log of when parts were replaced

At home: Maintain Pre-trip Checklist

At home: Maintain vehicle regularly: replace parts needing replacing or anticipated to fail

At home: Prepare and update Pre-trip Checklist

At home: Prepare and update Spare Parts list

At home: Treat Defender well: service regularly (oil and filter change), use best gas and oil.

Before trip: Have mechanic check out thoroughly

Before trip: Run down Pre-trip checklist

Before trip Take: Take container of spare parts, e.g, those likely to fail or difficult to get.

Before trip Take: Take Defender Workshop Manual (and Parts Manual)

Before trip Take: Take recovery equipment

Before trip Take: Take satellite phone.

Before trip Take:  Take Adequate tools and repair kit

Before trip: List worst-case scenarios and prepare logistically, financially and mentally for  them

Before trip: Prepare Daily Defender Checklist for use on the road

Before trip: Replace parts likely to fail or take them as spare parts.

Before trip: Run down Pre-trip Checklist.

Before trip:  Consider replacing hoses, belts, plugs, tires, windshield wipers, etc.

Before trip:  Get two emergency towing auto insurance companies just in case

On the Road: Be prepared for the Defender to break down in even the most remote places and have to have it towed. And then, be prepared to (A) stay until the Defender is back on the road;  (B) have to ship the Defender back home or to some distant garage, (C) leave it where it is until you can return to retrieve it, or (D) abandon (sell) it where it broke down and get home some other way.

On the Road: Go through On the Road Daily Checklist every day

On the Road: Have Defender serviced on schedule and treat it well (gas)

 

 

 

 

 

Index and summary of the trip

I am just getting around to preparing a chronological index for this OTR9 blog and then the summary of the trip. I hope to have the index finished by early next week. The index will be in chronological order starting from the first day of the trip, instead of the reverse chronological order that the blog now appears in.

I also hope to get around to writing up my six expeditions in Alaska and Russia in the 90s, and reconstructed blogs for the first three road trips in 2000, 2001, and 2002.

Finally, I hope to start some serious planning for a trip this year starting next week. My ambitious self tells me that I should do a trip that encompasses the outline of all my trips, that is, from DC to the end of the road in Labrador, across Canada to the Arctic Ocean in Canada and then in Alaska, and then back home again by way of the West Coast, the southwestern states, and finally the southeastern states, which I have not yet visited. I set out to do something like this once before in 2011, but my plans got interrupted so we had to head back home. That having been said, the rational me says that that would probably be overdoing it, and so I will probably settle for something less ambitious but more rational. Of course, what I would really like to do is to head back to Russia to take that long-postponed road trip across Siberia from Vladivostok to Saint Petersburg, but under the present circumstances, I don't think that would be a good idea. I hate torture.

Ed