Land Rover Dormobile Cabinet
& water storage

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626 style sheet steel wardrobe

Wardrobe cabinet  with seat
picture goes here

The 626 style Land Rover Dormobile came standard with a steel wardrobe cabinet and a top hinged flip up side facing seat.  The wardrobe is  23-1/2 inches wide and 45 inches tall.

The inside of the metal cabinet is completely open except for a hanger bar at the top.  The inside of the door comes standard with a plywood backed vanity mirror.

The wardrobe cabinet, like the kitchen cabinet and spice rack is finished with silver hammerite paint.

There is a steel shelf welded to the outside right (rear door facing) side.  This shelf  is for the upper water bottle. There are two bevel edged horizontal wood strips  that are mounted on the side of the cabinet along side each of the two water bottles to keep the bottles from rubbing the paint off the wardrobe.

 

The wardrobe seat folded out for cooking

Left: Standard fitment fold up seat.

Right: Extra cost optional chemical toilet

Note that the cut out hole in the wardrobe is the same size for each item.

Dormobile Toilet

Here is a picture of the vanity mirror that is standard fitment on the inside of the wardrobe door.

The mirror is 9 inches high and 10-1/2" wide and it mounted to a 1/4 inch thick sheet of plywood with the metal brackets as shown.  The plywood is affixed to the door with four short screws.

Note the wood rack below the mirror is a non-Dormobile add on I installed in 1998 as a place to keep toiletries handy for fast access.  I have a second one sitting below the first so I can keep four items handy.

Here is a rear view of the wardrobe with the sheet metal back panel removed.Since the potty or flip up seat is higher than the Land Rover's side bench there is an internal cover for that area as can be seen near the bottom.   The space enclosed by the flip up seat is great for storing tall cerial boxes.

You can see the two rear cross braces.  The upper one has holes for mounting  to the Land Rover's walls (see the next picture below).  This is the upper wardrobe mount.

Dormobile cabinet side

This picture of a cabinet on its side shows the wood slats that protect the cabinet finish from the plastic water bottles.  You can also see the welded on shelf for the top bottle.  The'L' channel bolts to the back of the hard top.  The straps are for retaining the bottles.

 

Dormobile wardrobe top mounts
1966 Land Rover Dormobile right rear interior

 

Dormobile hangers

This picture shows the wardrobe's built in hanger rod along with 3 of the special hangers

Here is  close up of a Land Rover Dormobile hanger.  They are plastic coated steel and come colour coded to help you know whose clothes are whose.

Note the undersize top hook which nicely fits the small diameter wardrobe hanger rod.

Land Rover Dormobile hanger

 

Standard top hinged seat: (Pictures of the optional toilet are on their own page)


Fold up seat/step in lowered position. Seat measures 21-1/4" by 13-3/4" and is held in place by two hinges each set in 1-1/2 inches from the outside edge. The 1 inch dia hole centered 2 inches from the bottom is used as a finger hold to lift the seat.

 


With the seat lifted up, you can see the seat frame which is an 'L' channel 1" high and 1/2" across the base. The frame is 18-1/4" long, 11-1/4" wide and is spot welded centered side to side under the seat top. The frame edge sits 1-1/2" from the hinged side of the top.

 


A view of the seat/step underside with the legs extended. The top ends of the legs are rounded. The tops of the mounted legs are slightly wider than the bottom. The bottom edges of the seat top are also rounded


Dormobile seat/step in the upright position sits upon two 1/2" dia steel tube 'U' shaped legs. Each leg is 13-3/4" long and 10-1/2" wide at the base. The ends are flattened at the last 1-1/4" for attachment to the base frame. The seat takes up all the space between the wardrobe frame members.

 


Here is a view of a seat leg rivet and one of the two nylon bottom latches. The nylon friction latch keeps the seat from swinging in the stowed position whilst off roading. The base of the catch is screwed to the floor. This nylon latch is also used for the kitchen cabinet broiler door.

Bottom left wardrobe mount and latch for wardrobe swing down seat.   The wood block sets the height to match the latch  on the seat.  There is one latch on each side of the swing down seat base.  See the pictures above.

 

 


This is a close up of a standard Dormobile hinge used to hold the door in position and throughout Dormobile furniture construction. It is chrome plated steel 1-1/2" wide at the hinge pin and 3/4" wide. It is held in place by pop rivets. A standard 626 Land Rover interior uses 11 of these hinges.

Left: Chrome plated latch assembly used on both the ward robe cabinet and the lower cooker door.

One was pop riveted to the top of the door as shown and a second was pop riveted to the bottom of the door.

A standard configuration 626 Land Rover Dormobile uses 4 of these latches.  The optional chemical toilet uses a fifth.

 

The photos below show the inside of the Middleton/Britt 1969 NADA Land Rover Dormobile. The interior cabinets are unusual because they are wood with formica laminate. They mimic the sheet metal cabinets that are commonly found in Dormobiles and were said to be installed at the factory. The stove looks like a standard Martin Walter item but the stainless steel sink and water faucet are not. Dormobile conversions could be custom fabricated pre the owner's specifications and some. like this one were.

The rear left hand side, showing the stove unit. The right hand wardrobe cabinet.

The right hand cabinet is much taller and wider than the standard sheet metal cabinet. Look at the right side of the cabinet-- It extends to the rear wall of the vehicle, eliminating the area where the water bottles would normally go. Inside the cabinet are several shelves, providing more organized storage space than the regular sheet metal cabinet illustrated below.

 

Water bottles:

The plastic water bottles  usually grow brittle and crack with age so are often missing out of Land Rover Dormobiles. Some owners of Dormobiles go to great lengths to find original Dormobile accessories.  With Water bottles it is important to realize that Martian Walter purchased their accessories ready made from other companies.  It was more a matter of what was offered at any time at a good price than having an exact style.

There is no one single correct bottle shape and fitting.   They changed over time and possibly if another supplier offered a sale. You will see a number of variations in the pictures on this page.   Use the pictures below as a reference and if you are going to actually use your Dormobile for camping, you might be better off with new bottles that look approximately like the pictures than old ones than one that are identical to the pictures and cracks the first time you try to use them full.

Both 3 gallon and five gallon water bottles were available.  Some Dormobiles had two three gallon, some two five gallon and some with a three gallon bottle at top and a five gallon at the bottom.  It is possible that the three gallon size was offered for people who would have trouble lifting full five gallon bottles.  One bottle came with a spigot mounted on the lower end and one came without a spicket.  Some bottles had red lids and some had the white translucent lid.

Here are some water bottle pictures:

Land Rover water bottle with valve
Side view of lower water bottle with spout.

Diagonal view of a Land Rover Dormobile water bottle
Diagonal view

Top of a Dormobile water bottle
Water bottle top

Here is a close up of the valve that is fitted to one of the Land Rover Dormobile water containers.  Usually the bottles are identical except this valve is attached to one.  The container with the valve is intended for bottom storage.  The top bottle is usually fitted with a pour spout camp.

Land Rover Dormobilr water bottle spout

Here is a picture of the pour spout attached to the top water bottle.  The spout comes in three pieces, the cap, a removable spout and a disk that mounts in place of the spout to keep the water in place.

Spout for Dormobile water bottle
Dormobilr warer bottle spout top view

Looking down inside the spout you can see an air channel for smother pouring.

Here is the underside of the water bottle cap  with the spout removed and a blocking cap in place. 

Underside of water bottle cap

 

water bottles.

This photo shows the water bottles in place. Earlier Land Rover Dormobiles came with a two gallon upper bottle and a five gallon lower bottle with spout.  Later Land Rover Dormobiles came with  two 3 gallon bottles, one with a drain spout. Some 1970's Land Rover Dormobiles had only a single water bottle with the space above it converted to additional storage.   All the bottles were made of a food grade white translucent plastic. There appear to have been variations in the bottles as different molds were used to make them over time.  They may also have been sourced from multiple venders.

The lower bottle sat on the side bench and the upper bottle sat on a steel shelf welded to the side of the wardrobe. For each water bottle there are two horizontal wood spacers screwed into the side of the wardrobe to keep the bottles from rubbing the paint off.  The edges of the wood spacers are beveled.

White cotton straps with steel buckles held the bottles into place.

When the Dormobile is equipped with a refrigerator the shelf for the top bottle is secured to the back and side of the roof sides.

Dormie interior, seats regular position.
Picture showing location of original water bottles.

Lower water storage area in a 1960's Land Rover Dormobile showing the mounting straps and wood  slats.  The wood slats keep the bottle from rubbing the paint off the wardrobe.

These two pictures show the top water bottle mount.  The rubber pad is an owner add on. The steel platform that the water bottle rests on  is welded to the side of the wardrobe.  The 'L' channel is bolted to the rear of the Land Rover

There are close ups of the securing strap hardware lower on this page.

Land Rover Dormobile top water bottle mount

Dormobile top water can mount

 

 


Newer water bottle support on a 1972 Land Rover Dormobile

This picture shows the newer design water bottle mounting rack.  The water bottles are boxed in providing better back end support for the upper bottle shelf and there is a metal brace added to the outside to help keep the bottles in place if they are not strapped down.

Note: the four screw heads that hold the mirror in place on the inside of the wardrobe door are plainly visible in the picture.  The lock hasp is an owner add on.

 

This wardrobe is in a 1974 Land Rover Dormobile. Notice the water bottle area on the right side.  The bottom is open for a single water bottle.  The top is extra storage space.

Series III wardrobe

 

 

Water bottle attachment straps

Each water bottle was held in place by a 1-1/4 inch wide white cotton strap.  The side with the buckle is 12 inches long.  The buckle is galvanized steel and is held onto the cotton strap by 2 rivets.

The strap is anchored to the side of the wardrobe cabinet by a single pop rivet and pop rivet washer through an aluminium end piece.

The aluminium end piece is 1-1/4 X 2 inches folded into a 'U' shape over the end of the strap.  The end piece on the strap that came on my Dormobile kit is painted with Silver Hammerite.

 

 

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Copyright 1996, 2004 by John Hess, 2005 by TeriAnn Wakeman and John Hess         All rights reserved