Updated June 2026 to reflect final electrical system specs.
Building a truck from the ground up means making a lot of decisions. Some are easy — like the color. Others, like the type of windows and how functional they needed to be, meant hours of YouTube videos. And some you just leave to the experts who’ve done this sort of thing over and over again.
This post is about the mechanical, electrical, and exterior side of the build — the stuff that determines whether the truck can actually get us where we want to go and back again. The interior gets its own post, because there’s just as much to say about that.
Our starting point wasn’t a spec sheet. It was a question: what are we actually hoping to do with this vehicle? The answer: mostly overlanding — traveling around the world on whatever roads exist. It was not going to become our daily driver. It also wasn’t going to be an RV with all the creature comforts that one could pack in. Yes, this would be our home on wheels, but with both of us on the taller side, I didn’t see us hanging out inside all the time. We needed to be able to spend as much time outside the truck as in it. Everything we decided stemmed from that.
The Engine: Choosing the TD5
Engine choice in the Defender world is a whole conversation with different options to choose from. We were choosing between two: the 300TDi and the TD5.
The 300TDi is older and mechanically simpler. Purists love it for exactly that reason — you can work on it with basic tools almost anywhere in the world. The TD5 came after. It was the last engine Land Rover fully designed and developed in-house. It comes with more power, better performance and a more modern feel on the road. The trade-off is complexity: it has an electronic management system that requires more specialized equipment to troubleshoot.
We did our research, read the forums and learned that each engine has its own devoted fanbase. In the end we went with the TD5. With all the extra weight, we decided that having more power would make a difference. And honestly, knowing it was the last engine Land Rover built themselves felt like the right fit for what we were doing.
The TD5 does have a known weakness. Early versions used plastic dowels to locate the cylinder head on the engine block. These dowels have been known to degrade or break, allowing the head to shift and leading to coolant loss and overheating. Not something you want to discover in the middle of nowhere.
LR Defender SA, our build team based in South Africa, is replacing them with metal dowels — essentially the fix Land Rover themselves eventually moved to. Small change, big difference in reliability. And it’s not just the engine that’s getting fully re-engineered and rebuilt, but also the transmission and transfer case. The team will also put in an upgraded intercooler and turbo, and a remapped ECU.
Built to Handle Anything
We had many discussions about what could go wrong. Not in a pessimistic way — more in a “we’d rather be prepared than stranded” way. We’ll be carrying full recovery gear, and many of the components we opted for tend to be standard in the overlanding world.
The underside of the truck is fully protected: bash plates, a front steering guard, because remote terrain means rocks and ruts and things you don’t see until you’re already over them. Rock sliders and door sill protection guard the sides. A full wraparound brush bar covers the front, with guide wires and front limb risers for pushing through dense brush.
A winch is going on the front (spec still being finalized), and we’ll be carrying traction boards — basically portable recovery ramps you slide under a wheel when you’re stuck in mud or sand. A Detroit rear locker forces both rear wheels to turn together for maximum traction when grip gets scarce. It’s one of those things you hope you never need and are very glad to have when you do. A full-size matching spare sits on a rear carrier, with a NAS rear access step making it easier to get in and out of the back when the truck is loaded up.
Going the Distance — Literally
Remote travel means being self-sufficient, and range is a big part of that.
The truck gets an extended range fuel tank, plus jerry can mounts and lockable brackets for additional spare fuel on the exterior. The combination should give us serious range between fill-ups — which matters a lot in places where fuel stations are few and far between.
We also added a dust snorkel — the vortex/cyclone system. It does two things: raises the air intake so it doesn’t pull in water during a river crossing, and uses a cyclone-style filter to knock out dust and debris before it even reaches the engine’s air filter. For the kind of terrain we’re planning, it’s a straightforward call.
On tires: we went with BFG All-Terrains in a 265 width on steel modular rims. They’re a well-regarded choice in the overlanding community — capable on mixed terrain, durable enough for long distances, and not so aggressive that they become a liability on pavement.
Power on the Road
Our experience overlanding so far hasn’t required anything more than what a portable power station like a Jackery with solar panels can handle so we relied on our build team – Johan, Uli and Chris – to guide us in this area. We’re usually not out for that many days, we sleep in a tent and we don’t power a lot – just my husband’s CPAP machine, and our devices.
The kind of overlanding we plan to do in this truck, however, runs on a lot of electricity. In addition to the CPAP overnight and our devices, we’ll have a fridge, laptops, and interior lights. You can’t run any of that off the starter battery without eventually leaving yourself stranded, and you can’t count on plugging in at a campsite when you’re camping somewhere that doesn’t have one.
The answer is the EcoFlow DELTA 2 Max — a portable power station that serves as dedicated house battery, completely separate from the starter battery. It charges from the alternator via an EcoFlow 800W alternator charger while we’re driving and from solar panels on the Frontrunner roof rack when we’re parked. The fact that this system is portable is a bonus — we can take it away from the vehicle if needed, which gives us flexibility at a campsite and a level of redundancy on remote stretches.
The truck also gets a full LED package — headlights, front and rear taillights, roof-mounted driving lights, and rear work lights. USB and 12V ports are distributed throughout the vehicle, including inside the AluCab roof tent compartment.
The Exterior: Details That Matter
Some of these were practical decisions. Some were personal. Most were both.
The AluCab Icarus rooftop tent is probably the most dramatic choice we made. It replaces the original roof of the Defender entirely. Folded down, it’s hard to even tell it’s a tent. Open, you’ve got a full sleeping space up top. And here’s the thing we didn’t fully appreciate until we thought it through: with the AluCab fitted, you can actually stand up inside the vehicle. That changes the feel of the interior completely. More on that in the next post.
A 270-degree Ostrich side awning extends out from the vehicle to create a shaded living space outside — something we’ll use constantly. The Frontrunner roof rack handles storage and carries the solar panels.
We spent a lot of time thinking about the windows. In the end we opted for a gullwing window on one side to allow for light and airflow, but that could also do double duty as a table mount and traction board holder. No window on the other side (or one that would effectively be covered up). Both decisions came down to how we wanted to actually use the space — more on that in the next post.
For color, we went with Corris Grey. It sits somewhere between silver and slate — understated on a working vehicle but not an afterthought. The arch spats are matched to the body rather than going black, which pulls the whole look together.
We also opted for Zinctec-coated steel-skinned doors instead of the older aluminum-skinned versions. Steel is heavier, but more durable. Checker plate covers the front wing tops and door sills.
Next Up: The Interior
The exterior gets the truck there. The interior is where we actually live.
That’s next.
Featured image courtesy of LR Defender SA