Special Branch
A unique 110 with an extended chassis, drop-down sides and tipper body especially designed for a tree surgeon
Once upon a time, if you wanted a go-anywhere 4x4 workhorse the choice was simple: it had to be a Land Rover. In its standard form, be it an early Series or a later Ninety, One Ten, 127 or a Defender, it would do most jobs. But if you needed that Land Rover to do a specific task then the men down at Solihull had a solution – Special Vehicles.
With their slogan ‘The Possibilities are Endless’ the men at Special Vehicles would take a new Land Rover off the Solihull production line and into a shed at the back of the factory. They would then convert it into one of many specialist options available, or make something bespoke to meet the unique requirements of the customer.
Sadly, with no more Defenders coming off the production line, that option is no longer available. Today, if you want a special vehicle you need to find someone willing and able to do the conversion for you – and this is just what happened when tree surgeon Chris Willis went shopping for a rather special Land Rover. Chris, who runs CW Ground Services, needed a Land Rover that could replace his current Defender 90 and the tipping trailer that he used to deliver cut logs to customers.
He thought a Defender 130 Double Cab with a tipping back body would be suitable, but finding one both in good condition and at the right sort of price was impossible. He also worried that a 130 wheelbase was a little bit too long.
He then looked a few 110s fitted with tipper back bodies, but realised the back body overhang was too much and just a bit too short for his needs.
Eventually – and with a hint of desperation – he contacted a new company, K2 Design and Fabrication, and asked whether they could meet his exacting requirements.
He told them he needed a tipping body capable of carrying the loads he normally delivered, with extra space in the cab for secure storage of equipment like a chainsaw.
As he already had a Defender Td5 110 hard top, he felt it would be a good starting point. So did Dominic King, boss of K2 Design and Fabrication. And after several discussions the design features of the conversion were agreed and the project got underway.
The main features would be an extended cab with a hydraulic tipping back body, but the biggest modification would be the length of the chassis and wheelbase. The Defender 110 was too short for the size of the tipping back body and a Defender 130 too long, so it was decided to stretch the 110’s existing chassis to a wheelbase of 120 inches, which would also increase the vehicle’s stability.
First job was to modify the 110’s cab area, with most of the hard top back body removed. The cut would be from behind the seat bulkhead, leaving more body in place than a standard truck cab – what’s known as a king cab. The bulkhead was also removed, giving more interior space. A new rear section was then fabricated and folded into shape to join up with what remained of the sides and roof of the
“The end result is a very versatile vehicle”
original 110 hard top. The additional area behind the seats offered room for the safe storage of tools and equipment.
The exterior sides of the body behind the doors were also modified to allow for in-house designed and fabricated external storage compartments to be fitted on both sides. One was solely for storage while the other housed the hydraulic controls for operating the tipping body.
The extended chassis was CAD designed and drawn and then fabricated. This involved a reverse-engineered rear chassis section, with changes being made in the rear crossmember to accommodate a rear winch mount. The chassis rails were extended by ten inches, to achieve the necessary 120 inch wheelbase. New spring mounts were created, and made adjustable, to change the ride height if needed, too. And because of the extra chassis length, extra-long heavy-duty rear radius arms were fabricated by K2 from 50 x 5 mm DOM tubing.
The standard Defender Td5 exhaust was no longer long enough, so K2 designed, fabricated and fitted a custom stainless steel system. A new extended propshaft was also needed, and was made locally by a propshaft specialist.
With the Defender 120 rolling chassis complete, all that was now missing was the tipper body. This was again CAD-designed and built in-house by K2 with an aluminium floor, drop-down sides and tailgate. The tipper body was attached with a fabricated rotating hinge at the rear and by the hydraulic ram at the front onto a steel frame, which was mounted on to the now extended Defender chassis.
The end result is a very versatile vehicle and just like the Special Vehicles projects of the past, it’s the ideal solution made to meet the customer’s specific needs and requirements.