How to fit a Land Rover Defender Dog Guard
I have just purchased a Land Rover Defender dog guard off ebay to fit to my 110.
My 110 has the half height bulkhead, so finding the right dog guard is very easy. Generally there are 2 types – a half height guard which fits to the bulkhead or full height which goes from the floor to the ceiling.
I wanted a dog guard for a number of reasons:
- It secures the back area of the van from the cab
- You can mount things on the dog guard
- In the event of an accident, anything in the back of the landy won’t fly forward into the cab
Here’s how I installed it.
Fitting the dog guard is a pretty straight forward job – it just involves drilling some holes into the bulkhead to fix the guard in place.
For this job you will need:
1: The first thing you want to do is fit the guard into place so you can mark where you need to drill the holes.
2: Mark the holes to be drilled with a punch, or if you don’t have a punch just straight forward pencil or marker pen should do the trick.
3: Start with a small drill bit (2 or 3mm) to drill pilot holes on your marks.
4: Then use a slightly bigger drill bit to open out the hole. Continue doing this until the hole is the correct size for the bolt you are fitting – in my case 9mm.
5: Once all the holes are drilled out to the correct diameter, you are ready to install the guard.
On my guard the mounting feet can be removed and bolted into place first.
6: All you now have to do is do up the bolts that will hold the guard in place. My bolts were 13mm.
7: When the feet are in place and nice and secure, fit the guard using the 2 wheeled knobs – shown in the photo below.
That’s all there is to it really! There are a few different types of dog guards available, and the way to fit them may vary – but the guide above will get you started.
I have now mounted my fire extinguisher on the dog guard, and will be fitting a first aid kit to it soon as well.
I’m trying to do the same thing and look to have a similar dog guard, however I can’t see how you can fasten the nuts to the bolts that push into the newly-drilled holes on the bulk head. How did you fix them in?
If i remember correctly, there are cut out sections in the bulkhead section where you can stick your finger through to locate the nuts onto the bolts, or the bulkhead was a “U” section – will need to check my current Defender to be sure!