SERIES IIA CAMPER TRAILER
PHILLIP WEISS, FISHING ESTATE MANAGER, COLDSTREAM, SCOTLAND
You have a Series IIA called Henry, right? Four and half years ago, I bought a 1971 Series IIA as a restoration project (Henry). It’s only five months older than me; some might say it’s in better condition than me after recent and ongoing health challenges. I am happy to report that we finished Project Henry last year.
Why make a trailer that looks like Henry? One night Lou, my beloved other half, who now can identify any Series Land Rover from 2000 metres away just by the smell of its exhaust, showed me something she had found on ebay. Someone had bolted a Defender 110 rear tub on a trailer chassis and then put an Ifor Williams canopy on top of it. This got our creative brain juices bubbling and we decided to do something similar.
How does one begin a project like this? Henry was on bricks at the time. We saw and bought a camper trailer that we thought would be perfect for the project and so we purchased it for £300 – half the price of Henry! We named the trailer Baby Henry and it was parked up on the drive and there it stood for four years, neglected and unloved, while Henry got all the love, money and attention.
When did you progress the trailer project? We had seen many ideas of what a Land
Rover camper trailer should look like but we had our own vision. We wanted it to be the ultimate recycling project. Baby Henry had to look just like Henry, warts and all. Plus we wanted to use parts I had left over from restoring Henry and any other parts I did buy, had to be cheap and off a Series if possible. I started working on Baby Henry in July 2019, the first bit was easy, stripping it all down. Now I had a blank canvas.
Was it easy finding parts and bits?
There are plenty of parts available where we live. There is Alistair at Lauder Land Rovers, Ben at Engine 710 in Edinburgh and then my good friend Martin is excellent at finding bits. Plus he is useful with a welder and knows more than most about Land Rovers.
Lou found us a Defender 110 roof on Facebook for a bargain £50, and this included the sides! As this was a Series project and not a Defender one I hacked about two feet off the back of the roof. Baby Henry was going to be a 120 inch Land Rover. It was not planned but worked. This was followed a Defender window screen frame, two old Defender doors, two old Series III wings , bonnet and rotten front grille plus some new steel sheet.
What was your strategy?
I now had all the parts I needed. I decided to construct the trailer as you would a ship, so laid down the keel plate and bolted this in place. Those that know me will testify that I have a thing about nuts and bolts; I used hundreds over the build. I cut the wings down to size, also the doors and bonnet. Any challenges?
You cannot get hold of good secondhand bulkheads, so I made one myself , Bob at DMI folded the edges for me, and surprisingly it was millimetre-perfect. I then approached Martin to do the initial welding; three weeks later the keel (base) plate was welded and secure.
What about the interior?
Lou worked her magic with it as she used to be a fashion designer at M&S. So she made special Land Rover curtains, duvet covers, pillows and furnishings. Last Winter Baby Henry was bolted together and in the spring of this year he was taken out of the shed and into the sunlight. The rear tub was converted and in went a double bed and storage space. Just after the first lockdown ended Baby Henry was ready for some prototype testing. Sadly due to all that is going on he has not been to a show yet! Hopefully that will all change soon.