{"id":340928,"date":"2025-12-12T20:41:41","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T20:41:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/our-land-rover-camper-build-gimli-the-defender\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T20:41:41","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T20:41:41","slug":"our-land-rover-camper-build-gimli-the-defender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=340928","title":{"rendered":"Our Land Rover Camper Build – Gimli The Defender"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Meet Gimli, our family\u2019s Land Rover Defender overlanding camper. Gimli has had an interesting life and, since 2018, has been part of our family and has seen A LOT of changes. Here\u2019s his story!<\/p>\n

Why Did We Build A Land Rover Camper?<\/h2>\n

Our decision to build a Land Rover Campervan began on our family gap year in 2017-2018. As much as we love taking public transportation when we travel, we felt a real sense of freedom each time we rented a vehicle. We were free to go where we wanted, when we wanted, without being bound to a schedule (which was often unpredictable in many parts of the world!).\u00a0<\/p>\n

We weren\u2019t long into that trip when I told Randy I wanted a VW Campervan. His response was a resounding \u201chell no\u201d!! Then we met someone randomly in Guangzhou airport who was en route to pick up a Land Cruiser in Australia. That was a little more palatable to Randy, but it didn\u2019t quite stick. Finally, months later, we were in Tikal, Guatemala and met a couple from Brazil overlanding in a Land Rover Defender Camper with a rooftop tent. Randy was sold.<\/p>\n

We came home from our family gap year with the seed planted for another epic adventure. Although, this time, it wouldn\u2019t be all at once. And this time, we\u2019d have our own wheels.<\/p>\n

Why a Land Rover Defender 110 Camper?<\/h2>\n

I don\u2019t know exactly when we decided we wanted to travel overland around the whole world. It seems like that was always the plan, like it was the obvious thing to do! I\u2019m sure it wasn\u2019t, but as soon as we started seriously researching overlanding vehicles, the whole world was part of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When we started researching, we looked at almost every vehicle option available. I wanted a bed that didn\u2019t fold (so no rooftop tent for me!!), and Randy wanted something that was easy to fix anywhere in the world, since the whole world was part of the plan! We both wanted decent off-road capability, knowing we\u2019ll need it in Africa and across Asia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The final decision was narrowed down to a Toyota Land Cruiser Troopy and a Land Rover Defender. Both vehicles met all our requirements. One could argue that the Land Cruiser is more reliable and, therefore would require less fixing. However, parts are more difficult to find and more expensive. The deciding factor was that the Troopy is only available with 2 doors. Since there will be 4 of us travelling inside for the first decade (or so), a 2-door vehicle simply was not an option.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, a Defender Camper it would be.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Once we decided on which vehicle we wanted, we had to find one to buy!<\/p>\n

Finding, Buying and Importing our Land Rover Defender Van<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Land Rover Defenders were never sold in Canada. Canadian law dictates that a vehicle originally sold outside Canada or the USA must be 15 years or older to import. By then, it\u2019s considered a classic car and isn\u2019t bound to Canadian safety or emissions standards.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Randy scoured the internet for something exactly 15 years old (a 2003 at the time) with low kilometres. He and Kacela even took a trip to Europe and looked at several Defenders in Germany.\u00a0\u00a0Eventually, he found our Defender online, located at a dealer in Italy. It had 92,500km and had been used as a forest fire protection vehicle. It appeared to be in good shape, and the price was reasonable.\u00a0(See before & after below!)<\/p>\n

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We used a translator to help us negotiate and fill out the paperwork.\u00a0\u00a0Without ever having set eyes on the vehicle, we decided to go ahead with the purchase. Our banker was very uncomfortable about sending a relatively large wire to Italy, to an unknown company, for an unconfirmed asset, but we did it anyway!<\/p>\n

We bought our Defender in November 2018. The next hurdle was arranging shipping and importing it to Canada. Long story short, the vehicle finally arrived at our house on April 16, 2019. It was a complicated process, and we learned a number of things along the way! Hopefully I\u2019ll get a post up about that at some point in the near future!<\/p>\n

Our Land Rover Defender Camper Conversion<\/strong><\/h2>\n

We started the interior\/camper design with the bed. This was my non-negotiable item. I wanted a bed that didn\u2019t fold, and we found the perfect solution in the AluCab Icarus Roof Conversion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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AluCab Icarus Pros:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n