In the process of building out the rear of my new defender and thought I'd share some photos. Hopefully they will help others out.

I was a little disappointed with the rear storage space in the new defender compared to my LR4, so I had to get creative. I'd seen the under floor foam block in person and figured there was lots of space being wasted, but didn't want to pull one out at the dealership. There is a lot of room in the under floor compartment with the foam box out and many pre-tapped M6 bolt holes in the floor. So, I made a simple plywood platform that bolts to these existing holes to give myself a nice flat surface to work off of (there are studs, raised sections, etc. on the floor itself).





Having made platform, which is one inch off the floor, I placed my second battery (UB121000) and ARB twin compressor with 1-gallon tank on the platform. It fit very well and would have been a good way to mount them, but there was still a lot of space leftover. I had a two-drawer system in my LR4, so I would need somewhere to store all my stuff. Given the narrowness of the rear opening, drawers wouldn't be a good option with a fridge.





So, I did some measuring and came up with a 10.5" deep. 11" wide, and 27" long under-floor storage box. The box has a small rise in the back to clear an existing bracket. The box was easy enough to make, but replacing the floor itself was a bit trickier (unless you have a adjustable jigsaw). The edges of the floor are tapered.




For material, I used 12mm finished maple plywood. It is about the same weight as the plastic floor and didn't collapse when I climbed on it to tie down the fridge. Another useful bit of information, is the P300 has a few holes in the floor that could be used for battery cables, diff breather, etc. I still need to tackle the wiring and figure out how to run battery cables from the main battery to my redarc charger (and cables to the roof for a solar panel). I could easily run battery cables from the engine compartment and under the vehicle, but that is a lot of wire (especially when the main battery is only about 3ft from the second). Looks like I'll be pulling some trim. There are some cable channels that run under the seats, but I haven't figured out where they go yet. It would have been way too convenient if one of them led to the main battery compartment.




Thats a lot to read, but hopefully someone finds some useful info. Keep in mind that I'm not a carpenter, so it isn't perfect. I'll post more pics/info as the build progresses.

 

Very nice work, that is expert level carpentry.

 

That’s awesome! Great work.

 

This may be a dumb question but does the second row fold completely flat?

 

Yes, they fold flat. The lower part of the seats fold up and allow the seat backs to fold flat.

 

I figured they would just wanted to be sure, thanks

 

How did you end up setting the compressor up? It looks like it is covered now by the fridge, do you have an access point where you are able to hook your compressor hose? BTW this is awesome and thank you for sharing.

 

Has anyone with the third row seats attempted to remove them? I'm thinking I'd make something up like this and reinstall the seats when we need them in the future - second child, etc.

Lovely work!

 

I have the portable arb twin that came in a carrying case and it has a nice bracket/plate that the on switch and the connector mount to. So, i'm planning to use that and mount it in the left rear corner of the hidden compartment. I will have to open the lid to access it, but thats not an issue since the air hose and inflator will be in there. I'm waiting on some longer air hoses and a few fittings. I attached a pic of it just sitting in place (ignore all the junk).

 

Thank you for sharing, I have the same ARB. No joke, you should sell plans for this as it is clean all the way around.