Building The LR3: From Weekend Warrior to Expedition Rig

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Outfitting our home away from home was as exciting as it was stressful - it was the first tangible outcome of the decision to make the Pan-American expedition happen, but it was crunch time with 8 weeks until departure.

About 12 months into Andy’s 18-month Visa in the USA as a Land Rover technician, the LR3 drove into the shop and it turned out it needed a new transmission. The owner decided he was better off selling it. Andy jumped at it. It was a steal and he knew he could do the swap himself. Now coming to a close on his Visa, it was adequately equipped for weekend warrioring, but it was hardly ready for 20,000+ miles of off-the-grid living.

Naturally, the bulk of the parts made it to us about three weeks before departure which meant long hours and late nights ahead - not to mention the laundry list of installs. The team at CARRS4x4, a local shop in Huntington Beach, came to the rescue, opening up their doors, rolling up their sleeves and diving head first into the project with us. The build team was made up of Abrham, Andy and two other Land Rover technicians that Andy worked with, Daniel and Chris, who all four poured their hearts and souls into build. We truly wouldn’t of been able to pull this off to the degree that we did, in the amount of time that we did, without this wave of support. Within 8 weeks we went from two weekend-ready vehicles to two expedition-ready vehicles complete with roof tents, gear cases, roof racks, new tires and wheels, light upgrades, dual battery systems, rock sliders, refrigerators - the list goes on.

We’d like to give a huge thank you to the team at CARRS4x4 for opening up their garage to us and for all of their help with the build out - a lot of blood, sweat and beers went into this beaut.

Here’s a look at the LR3 specs!

EXTERIOR