Why a Discovery 2?
Discovery 2 campers are certainly not common, but for us it seemed like a great compromise and perfect for what we wanted. So why a D2 and not a Defender, D1, van or other 4x4?
The Discovery 2 is considerably longer than the D1. So if you want to sleep inside, the D1 is not as good unless you're quite short. Although if you are taller than 6ft then you would struggle to stretch out in the back of our D2. As for other 4x4s, the discovery has several inches more headroom inside the the Land Cruiser or Shogun. While this is largely irrelevant for most people, we were planning to camp in our vehicle, so that extra space makes a huge difference. The Japanese alternatives are also more expensive and harder to find in the UK than the Discovery.
While a Defender probably would have been suitable for what we wanted, the value for money in the second hand market has declined substantially since production ended. It just wasn't possible to get anything decent for the money available. In addition, the main use for this vehicle was going to be long motorway drives on trips away from home. Comfort is not something the defender is famed for.
The biggest potential competitor was some kind of van. But the issue was with windsurf kit. If you truly want to cook, sleep and hang out in your van, it's difficult to carry much windsurf kit inside, due to its size. The obvious solution is a roof rack. We realised that if you are going to put some stuff on the roof, you might as well put it all on the roof. If you do that, then you can drive something that isn't a van... The other consideration was being able to drive off road. While not strictly necessary, it is useful and to be honest, a lot of fun. Yes, it is true you can buy vans with four wheel drive. But they are both expensive and rare. They also don't necessarily have the clearance or axle articulation of a purpose built 4x4. A little considered extra is that vans cost more on ferries and tolls as well as having lower speed limits. Which is irritating.
But perhaps the biggest reason we didn't get a van was that they are a bit boring. Everyone has a camper van, they're all very similar and we wanted something that would be a unique challenge in terms of design. Indeed we have never seen another Discovery set up as windsurf camper. Although admittedly it is quite a small niche!
We opted for a 2003 TD5 with the auto box. After a year and 12,000 miles on multiple trips, we are extremely happy with the car and it does everything we hoped for. It's brilliant on the motorway, comfortable to sleep, cook and chill out in. It is plenty capable off road even with the road tyres on it. If we magically now had more money, we can honestly say that we wouldn't change it for a defender or a 4x4 van. Success!