Building an Off-Road Camper
Building a Two Story House
Roof Top Tent and Solar Panel
Fast forward to February 2026, and the mechanical issues are reducing (slightly anyway), and the interior cupboards are nearly complete. The electrics and the water system are all installed, and it is now time to put the 'cherry on top of the cake' and put a roof-top tent on top of the Landy Rover.
The three roof bars are rated to 120kg each, however I have no idea what weight rating the Land Rover sides are and what the roof gutters can support, but I guess there is one way to find out, so I went hunting for a decent roof top tent, which was light enough to not cause too many issues to the 66 year old Land Rover and I settled for the San Hima Kalbarri Gen 2 Roof Top Tent Hardshell, which weighs in at 74kg. I then installed a 200w solar panel on the roof bars on the tent, which added another 6kg, so 80kg all up on the top of the Land Rover.
Now, I had my first challenge, the Landy Rover was now far too tall to get into the shed, so I had to remove the roller door, Cut-Out the cross member at the front and weld it back on higher up to allow the 2.35m car to get back into the shed. That then meant that new doors had to be made, but that was a challenge for later.
Shopping List
3 x Bosco heavy duty roof bars
1 x San Hima Kalbarri Gen 2 Roof Top Tent Hardshell.
1 x Kings 270° awning and 3 mounting brackets (These needed a bit of angle grinding to fit under the tent)
1 x San Hima toilet / shower tent
1 x King 200w solar panel.
Lots of cable and Anderson plugs
Drilling a hole in the Land Rover roof - Eeek - and a waterproof cable juntion box
After managing to get 74kg up onto the roof, the tent secures with simple brackets and screw knobs, which doesn't seem like they would be strong enough, but it the tent is compressed into the rubber strips on the roof bars, so that should help.
With the tent installed and the tent roof bars installed, the 200w solar panel was simply screwed in place, a cable was fed through a new 10mm hole in the roof and a solar junction box was siliconed into place, which is hopefully water proof (I guess I will find out).
Building an Off-Road Camper
Building an Extension on The House
270 ° Awning
Next up and now into late February 2026, it was time to add an extension onto the two story house and add an awning. For this, I purchased a King 270° awning, mainly because it was relatively cheap because the roof top tent had emptied the bank account a bit.
The brackets for this are simple 90° brackets that bolt onto the roof bars and under the roof top tent, so I needed to take an angle grinder to the brackets to shane off 5mm from each one, so it would fit under the tent.
This awning is on the cheaper end of ones available, however is an excellent awning (so far anyway). To add a bit of lighting, self-adhesive LED strips were purchased from 'good old' AliExpress, and these simply connect to a USB battery power supply, and they add a wonderful mosquito-free yellow light.
Ensuite Bathroom
Now into March 2026, the San Hima fold out shower tent arrived and this is excellent quality, just like the roof top tent. It arrive with its own brackets that simply bolt into the roof bars on the other side of the vehicle, although it is a bit tight with the tent ladder that is now located on this side due to the 270 degree awning being on the passenger side of the Landy Rover.
The San Hima Ensuite tent is 210mm high, so I had to invert the 90° brackets so they were 'upside down' due to the height of the Landy Rover and the big tyres I fitted and the extra suspension height the army installed when she went off to the Vietnam War in 1960.
The San Hima ensuite tent has its own LED light bar that simply runs off of a USB battery power supply, so I purchased (from good old ALI Express again) some inline USB switches, so the light could be turned on and off instead of unplugging it each time. My only complaint is that it is a white light, and moths and all bugs from within a 2km radius love it!
The chemical toilet can simply be lifted out of the cabinet in the back of the Landy Rover and placed into the tent. I am also investigating a gas-powered shower to see if that can be installed in the tent too.
Gallery
Photos of Our Two Story House
Camper Project Guide
Explore More of the Off-Road Camper Build
We didn't just build the roof top setup! Check out the other technical guides detailing how we engineered this Series 2 Land Rover from a shell into a custom overland camper van.