Back story
Before the HCPU tub is removed from the 130, Trevor makes a few improvements
Iwill always think of my Defender 130 as the Lockdown Land Rover. While the build had been in the planning phase back in 2019, it was during the first Covid lockdown that I carried out most of the work to get the machine together. I’d already gathered virtually all of the parts needed and now I had the time to put it all together. I was ably assisted by my son, Tristan, who was home from medical school because all of his clinical placements had been cancelled. Tristan and I actually did quite a lot of spannering together in my workshop during those long, strange weeks, on various Land Rover projects.
The plan for the 130 had always been that the truck will be a drop-side tipper. However, during lockdown the Coachworks – that I had lined up to build the new tipper body onto the chassis-cab – was ‘closed until further notice’.
It was for this reason that we fitted an HCPU (High Capacity Pick-up) tub to the 130 as a temporary measure, until a tipper body could be built. Those who know me will be familiar with the concept that my ‘temporary’ can sometimes last ages – in this case more than two years.
The HCPU tub had been borrowed from another project – the very project that I’m covering in the Technical section of LRM right now – the build of a Td5 110 HCPU. So the time has come for the 130 to finally become a tipper, in order the HCPU build can progress properly.
Very soon the tub will be unbolted and de-wired and lifted off the Land Rover. The toolbox and cubby box, which filled the gap between the cab and the tub, will also be removed and the chassis-cab sent off to have the tipper body built on.
The HCPU tub, which is destined for the Defender 110 Td5, is a very good, straight example. But there is an irritating issue with it, one that I wanted to solve before it was removed from the 130. I would like to have the option to fit a set of hood sticks and a canvas canopy over the load bed, but the front section would not slot into the tub. In a previous life something had been fitted in the holes at either side of the front of the HCPU tub and stuck there – and subsequently cut off flush with the top of the tub. As a result, my front headboard hoop would not fit into place.
With the help of my welder-fabricator friend, Robert Kiss, a pair of steel plates (to bolt onto the front of the HCPU tub) were fashioned, to which the headboard hoop could be welded. The most troubling aspect of the job was taking the angle grinder to an expensive headboard. But, in the absence of any better ideas, this is what we did and the resulting bolt-on headboard has worked out extremely well.
Of course, with the headboard now successfully fitted to the tub, I couldn’t resist assembling the rest of the hoop set – even though it will all soon be removed again to transplant the HCPU tub.
One other missing feature from the HCPU tub, which I want for the Defender 110, is a proper spare wheel bracket. This has been absent from the tub ever since I acquired it and the 130 has been driven for two years without a spare wheel.
To my surprise, I managed to find an HCPU spare wheel bracket with an online seller for less than £90 delivered to my door, which I snapped up without hesitation. Now to take it all apart again…