The Land Rover Defender has always been a dream of mine (that’s Peter). After traveling on KTM dirt bikes for over a century and the decision to add another member to the family (Joiz the blogging dog), the time was right. Our 2012 Defender Station Wagon has already taken us from Switzerland to the most southwestern point of Europe (near Sagres/Portugal)  and as far North as Lødingen/Norway. Since September 2017 we’ve added another 60.000 Kms exploring Central and Eastern Europe and Northern Africa.  We experienced sudden losses of power when driving in Spain and Morocco which caused some encounters with towing services in Spain and Germany. After replacing the cylinder head some of these problems disappeared but in the end we decided to go for a new engine. In May 2021 we “upgraded” our setup with the purchase of an offroad camper trailer. The Hero Ranger is build in Denmark and convinced us with it’s high quality and versatility.

Matschig Mike (this is what we call him) has gone through modifications some of which are listed below:

Battery: IBS Auxiliary Battery System with a 92Ah Banner Running Bull battery all by overlandtechnics

Solar Power: Goal Zero Yeti400 Lithium and Goal Zero Nomad 100 Solar Panel

Light: Nolden LED-Headlights, Philipps LED-Daytime running lights (from Nakatanenga)

240 Watt LTPRTZ DR-X Lightbar

Heating: Webasto Air Top 2000 air heater (4ward4x4.com)

Winch:  Superwinch Tigershark 9500 (4ward4x4.com)

Bumper:  Engage4x4 tubular bumper (4ward4x4.com)

Drawer-System: Schmidt-Fahrzeugbau dog cage and drawer system

Rooftop Tent: James Baroud Space XXL from Dachzelte-Karlsruhe

Trailer: Hero Camper Ranger, Columbus Edition