Land Rover Discovery 4 3.0 SDV6 HSE - Our Trusty Camel, Expedition 4×4, Our Home & Office on wheels named “Tariq”
For someone, it might be surprising choice of vehicle, but for us, it is the best one. Relatively compact SUV with enough interior space, comfortable, and with reasonable payload, built on strong frame (IBF), but most importantly with great off road capability (permanent 4wd, low range gearing, lockable centre diff, great traction control with terrain response, good wading depth etc.), rated front and rear recovery points and all of that from factory! Plus, for us Discovery 4 is the last LR with true Land Rover DNA and spirit of adventure.
Therefore, there was no need to upgrade anything (like on other vehicles to make them drivable and livable). As we believe with any modern & capable vehicle the biggest limitation is that part behind the steering wheel - driver.
We are trying to keep all main parts as stock as possible (engine & drivetrain, suspension etc.) to mitigate risk of unnecesary wear & tear or even failure of parts affected by “upgrades”.
But as everybody who travels with/in their car we wanted to have our stuff organised and easily accessible, plus increase the possible time we can spent in more remote places and still be completely self sufficient as in general we travel on our own without any support.
Down below ▼ you can find what we have built, added/removed and modified.
(Tariq - “Morning star” / “He, who knocks at the door” - symbolize adventurous spirit, always pushing forward.)
“Stop chasing the ultimate go-anywhere car, build the Best car for YOU.”
Building any vehicle for long distance travel/living in & out of the vehicle can be difficult and for someone a pretty daunting experience, especially if it is your first time.
That’s why it is so important to plan ahead and make sure you know exactly what you really need/want, and what must be incorporated into the project. To be honest, you should know that way before you even choose the vehicle, as there's nothing worse, than realizing that your vehicle can’t do what you are expecting from it, or having to compromise on things that are too important for you.
We believe there is nothing like “The Best / Ultimate / Go-Anywhere” overland vehicle, because everything is a compromise and everyone is different. A vehicle built for rock crawling would be terrible on the road, a large heavy truck carrying everything will be difficult and risky to drive in dunes and very difficult to self recover in case of getting stuck. So there must be a balance between type of use, style of travelling, weight-carrying capacity and overall weight, size, number of seats, sleeping arrangement, off-road ability versus on-road performance, and what you will actually fit in the car. What you can do is tweak and balance the vehicle exactly for you - and don’t compare your car to others - they probably travel differently, have different hobbies etc., and it could be uncomfortable for you to use their car and vice versa.
To help you with the process, below ▼ is our list of upgrades and our point of view and reasoning behind every modification we did on our car. As we said earlier, this is not a unicorn between overland cars, but it is the best working setup for us.
