Defender electrical revamp - Pt 1

[@philhealey449]

It's a brave step exposing your electrics to the armchair experts ! My inspiration has long been the military conduit approach recalled from my sadly departed Austin Champs, which contrasted starkly against my old Defender's miserably thin, water-susceptible chaotically organized OEM efforts and my enduring Series One which retains a mix of perished VIR verdigris infested 1956 copper and supplementary household twin and earth bravely trying to keep the lights on. My limited overland experience has taught me hard lessons that (1) nylon spiral wrap is the best defence against chafing (2) even Blue Ocean's superb DC circuit breaker panels (the antithesis of previously inherited old school stop / go bullet fuses) must go as high as possible above prospective water immersion (3) Ohm's law is fine at home and in Lode Lane or Stuttgart design offices, but physical robustness of cable sizing must override it. (4) Field repairs needed due to lapses in the preceding steps benefit from clear labeling, supplies of wire, and carrying duplicated elements including spare flasher relays . (5) KISS principle rules supreme: if it's not there it can't break.

[@defendermodsandtravels]

Look I am highly qualified in certain fields but am an amateur in auto electrics. I couldn't give a monkeys if the armchair experts rip into me and display their superior knowledge but at least I have gone out there and done it and have been able to do field repairs when it has gone wrong. However we are now getting to the stage where the wiring I have installed is rather better than the original stuff. I am sure there are many vehicles which are several notches above mine but they may actually be over engineered and over specified. I could give a long discourse on "fitness for purpose".

[@philhealey449]

@@defendermodsandtravels Looking forward to your output, already suspecting I'm unlikely to be ripping !

[@defendermodsandtravels]

@@royblackburn1163 Right, I know where to turn if I need advice. My forrmal qualifications are in Civil, Structural and Mechanical but having risen through the ranks in the oil industry I had to acquire a working knowledge of all of the engineering disciplines on my projects (e.g. Process, Piping, Electrical, C&I, Reliability etc. etc.). Later in my career that extended to Geophysics and Reservoir Engineering. In the end you become a jack of all trades and master of none. Not having come up through any iof the trades ( and I know Project Directors who started on the tools) it meant that when I started working on the Defender I was starting from scratch and learned by my mistakes.

[@defendermodsandtravels]

@@philhealey449 BTW you should think about capturing some of your experiences in a video, maybe.

[@philhealey449]

@@defendermodsandtravels My efforts capturing battling Icelandic blizzards, deep river crossings and F Roads with a Sony Actioncam have mainly produced dire jumping unfocused rubbish. I've now acquired a DJI Osmo for when we are allowed to resume having fun and I should really work on a heavy duty airbag DSLR mount. Yes I should get out of the armchair and put up my own travel videos. In my defence however, feel free to have a look at my Kaphi Kapa Nepalese coffee antics on YT which has a lot of my footage and team member Sachindra's struggling Suzuki Maruti battling some viscious tracks. I'd hoped to be back in Nepal this year taking in the enormity of it all, condemning the cable anchorages in tiny suspension bridges but still walking across them and getting on with coffee planting. Just spent the morning moving our Hong Kong coffee roastery . Hoody Blot! BTW I've claimed your axle failure analysis videos as CPD. Rgds, Phil.

[@adelarsen9776]

I suggest employing the services of a qualified engineer..... "Every weld is an engineering failure"

[@defendermodsandtravels]

I'll explain that comment. I come from the world of competitively tendered fixed priced contracts and that's in my DNA. Speaking as a structural engineer myself nothing annoyed me more than to see lazy engineers who had designed the structure with unnecessary welds - I could literally see our profit goiong down the drain. I much preferred neat, tidy and minimal structures with few welds.

[@adelarsen9776]

@@defendermodsandtravels And rightly so.