2007 Land Rover LR3 HSE Build, a little at a time.

[Red Rover]

Hi everyone,

I had just signed up as a member and found the build threads. What a great site this is. I can't wait to get started reading all there is to know here.

Anyway, I wanted to have a place to start my build thread for my beloved Red Rover. Unfortunately it's not as far along as I'd like yet. My wife and I decided to sell our house and quit our jobs last year to travel the country a bit. The rover had to sit parked for awhile because we needed a trailer much larger than the rover would tow. We ended up buying a pickup and a toy hauler to haul our motorcycles around in while we visited all the great areas that we could find. That being said, the rover sat in a garage the entire time we were gone.

After six months of roaming around we decided to call our journey complete. The end was bitter sweet however I knew being reunited with my rover was soon.

I bought the LR3 with the intention of building it into a capable overlanding rig. I'm an avid hunter/fisherman and I love being outdoors so the concept of overlanding intrigued me.



So there's basically a stock Rimini Red LR3. In the above picture, it's sporting a 2" lift via the GAP IID Tool. For those of you not familiar, the IID Tool is an ODB2 interface specific to Land Rovers. This tool can log into the various computers of the LR3 and you can manipulate a plethora of settings, including the air suspension. I had raised the suspension to get an idea of sway because the day after this picture was taken, I added 275/65r18 BFG KO2's.

To me, it looks so much better than the old factory size tires, (255/55r18). The truck came with 19" wheels when new, but thankfully the previous owner swapped them out for the 18". As you may know, finding AT or MT tires for a 19" wheel can be a chore. All fine and good, except the original owner neglected to replace the full size spare while he/she was at it. So I have been stuck with a 19" wheel for a spare for quite some time. The good news, as many LR3/4 owners would have guessed by now, having a full size spare is indicative of having the HD version. I looked visually and with my IID Tool and sure enough, I have the HD version. Happy dance. The HD version basically includes an electronic rear locker.

So I did some poking around on Craigslist and eventually found a matching wheel for $75. I thought that was a steal so I grabbed it. It is now sporting a brand new KO2 as well.

Speaking of Craigslist, I get bored sitting around the house so I'm usually on there finding the next best deal. Boy did I find it. I found an ARB Bull Bar bumper that's basically brand new for my truck. Any guesses on the price? I got it for $60. I had to drive well into the night to get it, but it was absolutely worth it. There is a tiny dent on the lower portion of the bumper. I figure I'll be doing worse than that down the road, so I couldn't pass that up.

I recently got the bumper so I'm waiting to install it until I can find a decent winch to put on it.

So, this is the beginning of my build thread. I'm hoping to keep momentum going while I build it, but you know how that goes. Money dictates this for sure. If I'm quiet, it's because I'm saving for the next big step.

Thanks for viewing. I can't wait to see how my Red Rover turns out.

PS, KO2's obviously are not good mud tires. That hole snuck up on me. It definitely looked more solid than it was.

 

[Red Rover]

Just scored a great condition Warn XP 9000 winch to put in the new bumper. :)

 

[Red Rover]

It's been a while and I've been able to get some stuff done on my Rover so I thought it was time for an update.

I finally found a nice Warn XP9000 winch to put in my ARB bumper. I spent a Saturday installing the winch and the bumper. It was a chore but not to bad. If you have an LR3, just a word of note, there aren't a lot of ground spots on the left side of an LR3. I found ground studs buried under a bit of stuff and used that for the ground spot for my winch.

I also had an idea a little while back about on board air for the Rover. I opted for the ARB single compressor due to size and how it fits where I wanted to put it. As you can see in the picture, it's a great fit. It was very easy to install. It took about 2.5 minutes to air from 10psi to 40psi on my 275/65r18's. That's quick enough for me. I intend to put together a small air tank for tools but I don't see that as being a necessity yet.

The wife and I took the truck out last weekend just to explore a bit since we are new to our area in Morton, Washington. I use the GAIA GPS app to locate roads and for tracking. We were about 3 hours into our trip and about a mile and a half to go before hitting blacktop again and there's a giant sink hole in the trail that is impassible. If any of you know the Washington area, going around is usually not an option here. It's pretty thick in a lot of places. So we couldn't finish up our route we had planned, so back the way we came in. All in all, it was a good day.

The rover has had worn wheel bearings and I knew they were getting to the point of needing to be replaced. After our great outing, my passenger side bearing was starting to squeak a bit so off to the shop it went. Typically I would do that sort of work myself, but time wasn't on my side. The money I had put aside for a roof rack went to new wheel bearings so she'll have to sit as is for a bit while I build up the account for the Rover.

I'll chime in again once I get some more work done on the truck. Thanks for viewing.

 

[Stoked]

Looks great with the ARB bumper! And a heck of a price too!

 

[SandlapperOverland]

Have you splurged on the roof rack yet?

 

[Red Rover]

I haven’t yet. I think the roof rack will be next on my list.

 

[m_lars]

Why on earth did you not buy a Toyota!? Land Rovers are the most unreliable piece of...

Just kidding, I’ve got an LR3 as well. Nothing beats them as a double duty rig! Comfortable as a luxury rig on the daily commute, extremely capable off road. I’ve put 23k on mine in the last 10 months.

(I may need to take a break from here, the Toyota guys are getting to me)

 

[Raul betanc]

It's looking good. I've had my 05 LR3 for only a few months and have not had a chance to get her off the pavement yet. Thus far I've put over 4k miles and I gotta say that it's a comfortable ride. Keep up the posts coming, I'm curious to see what else you do to your rig.

 

[m_lars]

If your interested in a budget friendly roof rack that (I think) still looks ok, check out this write up I did on mine.

https://landroverforums.com/forum/lr3-28/diy-frontrunner-style-roof-rack-90792/

It cost me maybe a couple hundred bucks and a few days time.

 

[Red Rover]

I've been racking up the highway miles lately and haven't had much time off road. We also have a newish Ford Escape and I gotta say, I like the ride much better on my old LR3.

m_lars, that's a great idea on a budget roof rack. I may consider doing something like that. I cant figure out how these manufactures can justify the prices of these racks. They sure seem very expensive to me for what is there.

I did add a CB radio to the truck over the weekend. I had an old Cobra 25 sitting around so I installed that for a temporary solution. I have been eyeing the Uniden CMX760. I like how you can hide the bulk of it as there isn't a lot of room to install a regular sized CB in the truck. I'm also going to add a quick disconnect to the antenna so I can take it off when I'm just out and about. I ended up installing the antenna using one of the antenna holes on the ARB bumper. After adjusting the SWR I ended up with 1:3 at channel one, and 1:1 on channel 40. Not to shabby I'd say. I did take some time to grind off a decent ground on the underside of the bumper though.

 

[SandlapperOverland]

How many miles did your LR3 have on it when you bought it?

 

[Red Rover]

I've had it almost two years to the day. It had 138,000 miles on it when I bought it. It sat for most of last year but I made up for lost time so far this year. It's at 177,000 miles now. I've replaced the brakes once and they are due again. I've also replaced the air compressor from the old Hitachi one that was very tired to the newer AMK compressor. It seems to be working just fine now. There are little things that need attention but I've been very happy about reliability so far. They seem to get a bad wrap in that department, but I've driven mine from Oregon/Washington to Idaho several times without issues. As a matter of fact, I went to Idaho in September and averaged 20mpg with the new tires. I was surprised for sure. I'm usually in the 17-18 range.

 

[m_lars]

There are little things that need attention but I've been very happy about reliability so far. They seem to get a bad wrap in that department.

I agree with this statement 100%. Land Rover is the brand everyone else loves to rip on. Life’s too short to drive a boring vehicle. I’ve put nearly 25,000 miles on mine this year. There was some neglected maintenance when I got mine, so I’ve put some money into catching up with that, but it’s been great. I’ve make 3 trips from Utah to Minnesota this year (1100 miles one way) and it’s been superb. Hard to beat the on road comfort and off road prowess.