Finally had a slack day. The airplane is off at the paint shop for a strip and paint, so the hanger will be empty for a while. This was the first day in months that the hanger was not a certified USDA meat storage facility. I wanted to do some fitting on the expedition rack, since I had been putting the tent on the Front Runner Slimline II. I sold the Front Runner, since having two racks is a bit eccentric. I wanted to work out if I needed extra fitment articles. The Front Runner needed a riser assembly and a crossbar set to mount on it. I had felt that the Yakima Skyrise I have would work on it without extra gizmos to adapt. Sure enough it does fit, actually quite well, right over the CG of the car. It does leave enough on the tail area to mount some RotoPax Fuel or water packs and even stack a Pelican 1720 on top for long stuff. I have way too many of those, they seem to give them to us to store 'Longish Gizmos" we seemed to need in troubled spots overseas. The Yakima mounting system allows me to shift it back and forth about 6" from where I mounted it. I may still make a faring to deflect the seemingly endless stream of bugs that like to commit suicide on the tent. Now it is all ready to plop on top of the 90 when I get back from South Africa in May. Have an interesting project in Nevada to go on site for, right as I get back from SA. So it is back to living on top of the world again for a month or two. Last year after two months living in a RTT, I was dying to sleep someplace I didn't need to climb down a ladder, in the dark, just to pee.

A few shots to show how it fits to the rack, just not on the vehicle yet. I save that for just before I leave to the field.

 

Quick question for you, have you driven a tight canyon road with all that junk up top ?

I have and found the roof rack weight to be a problem on its own. When I removed it the 90 felt more car like than a high center of gravity 4x4..

I gave mine away.

 

No not yet, but totally in agreement with you. I did it with the Range Rover and it became...let's say, squirrelly. That was a car designed for performance. The Defender has a very high CG and subject to body roll on its own, without even a handful of feathers on top. Old Defenders and Series the CG was pretty much on the frame, the rest of the body being of little consequence from its soda can like construction and materials. Naturally, in response to many, many regulations, the new Defender has A pillars like a sprinter's thighs and the rest of that structure going aft is equally heavy. This is the case with pretty much all vehicles today, except apparently Ford F250's, which turns out have virtually no structure and collapse easily according to new filings by the DOT.

So all this is good for rollover, but not so much so in body roll. I do know this will adversely affect the handling, and as you say, even the naked rack does as well. One of the many reasons mine lives in the hanger until needed. To be honest, for my purposes, I can go slower in corners. It is not like my previous field vehicles were known for their sports car like handling. Many things are a trade off. The Defender is a pretty good wheel barrow, but you would not use it as a chafing dish. Could I get something that handled better, with the same utility. Possibly, but they absolutely ruined the new Range Rover and I have had personal extreme bad luck with Land Cruisers. Compromise. If you look in the background, you see my Wipair 3450 floats. Kind of heavy, handle ok in the water. The alternative is Areocet's new carbon fibre offering. Oh they handle better in the water are much lighter kind of $$$$. The big thing, the Wipairs are durable the Aerocet's are kind of a potato chip and not too terribly repairable. Docks, floating debris, jet skis and just bad luck beaching, damages floats. Fact of life. So I live with the limitations with them, just like the Defender