Land Rover Defender 130 - Wolf (Pulse Ambulance)): The Beginning

24th November 2016

This Blog has been created to record our ownership of our Land Rover 130 (Wolf) which we purchased as a “project” vehicle in November 2016. The Land Rover is a Pulse ambulance. The body is a fourth generation ambulance body developed by Marshall Aviation in Cambridge. It is mounted on a military specification Land Rover Defender 130 – Wolf.

Showing her best side

The Land Rover Defender (Wolf) was the name given to the Military Only specification XD Defender (eXtra Duty) developed by Land Rover to fulfil the MOD’s requirement for a TUL / TUM (Transport Utility Light / Transport Utility Medium ) vehicle in 1986

http://marshallgroup.co.uk/about-marshall/first-100-years

So why have we bought a Land Rover?

Before going any further I should probably clarify “we”. It is probably best to read “I” instead of “we“ as Kathleen could quite easily live without another Project in our lives and allowed me to buy the Land Rover as my “hobby”.

Yet again I appreciate having such a tolerant wife who has let me do these things with little complaint. Although a reluctant participant in the "project", Kathleen will however enthusiastically join me to travel in it once it is finished.

We have bought a Land Rover to convert it into an overland vehicle, which we can use to travel in when time allows.

Our current vehicle, a Toyota Landcruiser (our 5th Landcruiser) is a very capable vehicle, fast enough for motorway travel, more torque than you would ever need and fitted with our Maggiolina roof tent it forms a good base vehicle for overland travel.

Despite all its pluses, it has a number of downsides however when it comes to overland travel.

The lack of internal space means that all living is outside. Ideal when you are in the temperate of Africa or a warm climate such as found around the Mediterranean and in mainland Europe, but not so ideal if you are in wet, non-temperate Scotland.
The vehicle size dictates that everything is carried in boxes, not a problem if you are travelling every day, but a bit of a pain if you are staying in one place for a week as you tend to want to get to things more regularly.·
The vehicle size does restrict what you can take with you as there is not a lot of space for carrying water, fuel etc.
Toilet facilities are limited (non-existent)!

Ideally we wanted a larger vehicle, one that would not only be capable of going everywhere we wanted to go, but one that would address the few short comings of our Landcruiser. In a vehicle we were looking for:-

· Somewhere we could live and sleep in if the weather was cold or wet,
· Increased and easily accessible storage,
· Good off road capabilities
· Not too large as we wanted to be able to park it in towns and cities
· Not too expensive to run
· Easy to maintain with spare parts available throughout the world.
· The ability to lock it and leave it secure
· Strong build – i.e. it would not break
· A vehicle that we could adapt to suit our own requirements.

Choosing a vehicle

For the last 30 years or so I have driven Land Rovers and other 4 x 4 vehicles on the site roads associated with numerous large construction projects and on unmade roads in a number of third world countries. At one point I was a partner in a Land Rover hire business which ran a small fleet of Land Rover Defenders 90, 110, 30 and Discoveries, so I am well aware of their ruggedness and capabilities. Despite this exposure to Land Rovers my own preference has always been Toyotas as although arguably not as good off road as a Land Rover they still deal easily with most off road conditions and their on road performance is far superior to the basic Land Rover Defender.

Unfortunately Toyota does not make the vehicle that ticked all our boxes and only after many months if not years of procrastination did I finally decide that the vehicle that we were looking for was a Land Rover Pulse. Having seen one still in use as an ambulance when we were in Namibia in 2015, it was obvious what potential the ambulance body offered for conversion.

As I have already mentioned the Defender (Wolf) on which the Pulse is built, is the basically an upgraded Land Rover Defender, developed by Land Rover to provide a much stronger and more reliable vehicle to meet the needs of the Military. The 300 tdi engine was retained in preference to the newer TD5 found in civilian Land Rovers of the same age as it was felt that the simpler 300 tdi without the more complex electronics of the TD5 would be easier to maintain in the field.

The Wolf also features a redesigned rear axle using stronger internals, hubs and outer casing, making it the strongest Land Rover axle ever.

The chassis was not galvanised partly to save cost and partly to alleviate health and safety concerns regarding the cyanide gas that is given off when galvanised steel is welded – this is a slightly spurious argument I would have thought as welding galvanised metal is not normally considered to be a big issue providing the metal is suitable prepared and H&S precautions taken i.e. do not breath in the fumes! The chassis on all Wolfs were however sprayed internally with Dinitrol rust proofing.

The chassis is considerably different in design to the standard Defender chassis even though it looks similar. The side walls are standard, most of the rest is bespoke. The additional rear load bed mounting was to take increased weights as the standard chassis kept punching big dents in the rear floor.

Having bought the Land Rover unseen on an MOD action site our purchase is perhaps a bit of a leap in to the unknown. The pictures that I have seen of it and the very brief description given about it highlights the fact that a lot of work is going to be required before it takes to the road again. On the plus side we own what must be one of the cheapest to buy Pulse Ambulances in civilian hands.

The work that can easily be identified from the listing photos includes:-

· Repairing or replacing the seized engine
· Replacing the rear cross member and dealing with any other chassis issues
· Replacing the missing windscreen
· Repairing / replacing both doors
· Repairing the steering that does not work
· Sorting the obvious body issues
· Dealing with whatever water damage has been caused due to the windscreen being missing.
· Repairing or replacing the bulkhead

Of course there will be numerous other jobs to be tackled and I am under no illusion that this will be a quick fix up and go. On the bright side however we have a blank canvas and over the next two years hopefully we can build a pretty decent overland vehicle.

I have arranged for the Land Rover to be collected from its current location just north of London on the 28th of November and delivered to our house the next day. Frustratingly I will not see the Land Rover until Christmas as I am currently working overseas and I am not home again until then. Hopefully Kathleen will manage to take a few more pictures when it is delivered next week.