Preparing for Nordic Winter
 

Morning All,

I will be heading to Nordkapp via Latvia, Estonia and Finland in January 2026. Over the coming year I want to start making modifications to our vehicle (300tdi 110 Defender with Alucab style roof) to prepare it for this journey.

My main concern is starting and running the engine, the main habitation side is less of a worry. So to that end I am thinking of the following:

• Fitting diesel powered coolant preheater (looks like you can modify ones from D3s' to work

• Changing to a thinner more temperature stable oil (I have been advised Shell Rotella T6 5W-30 synthetic)

• Changing out EP90 to synthetic 75W-90

• Changing out both leisure and starter batteries to AGM from lead acid

• I have been planning on fitting a spot light bar to the roof for a while, but I will do this and fit standard halogen lights so the heat will melt any snow (the rest of my lights are non heated LEDs)

• Change the coolant & brake fluid

• Fit a radiator muffler (I have fitted a full width inter-cooler, so not 100% sure how this will work out on the road)

• We have a diesel heater fitted, but just making sure its serviced and working

Habitation wise I think we are fairly set, but I want to improve on some of the insulation and possibly look at insulating the canvas of the Alucab. I think the intention will to have the roof up to 'live' but to sleep we will sleep downstairs with the roof closed.

I am really looking for advice please, anyone who has done a similar trip or trips where the temperature has been similar.

Diesels are very common here and you are unlikely to get into any trouble until you are way up in the north of Finland. If you have decent glow plugs and use winter diesel fuel, you'll mostly be fine. Changing out the battery is a good idea if you are not confident in your own.

Do you have a block heater? Plugs for electric block heaters are pretty common in northern Finland and Norway, would be nice if you can take advantage of the existing infrastructure.

Thank you for getting back, I have been to Alta in December last year and the weather was different to what I expected -20 one day, and about +4 the next, I (probably wrongly) assumed it would just be constantly cold!

I don't have a block heater, I was going to fit a diesel coolant pre-heater (I can use it anywhere then). Are places like campsites likely to have charging for block heaters?

If you've been planning to get a diesel-powered block heater anyway, I guess that gives you a lot more flexibility for wild camping, so a better choice in that sense. But running even a small diesel-powered heater all through the night is obviously not very eco-friendly (and mains electricity in Norway is mostly clean hydro).

Campsites will have electricity hookups so obviously compatible with block heaters.

I'd pay more attention to insulating the interior if you want to wild-camp and sleep in the car. Any kind of block heater, good fresh oil and a good battery should be enough to get you by.

Maybe invest in a dedicated lithium starter pack as a backup if your main battery does give up. Cheap insurance - I've got one that can start a car easily, is small, and loses pretty much no charge over time.

In January to March 2018 I made an overland trip from Magadan to Moscow, trying as much as possible to stick to winter roads / ice roads / frozen rivers etc. That went through some seriously cold places, though there was a bit of a (relatively speaking) warm spell and I didn't get temperatures any lower than about -45°C. You can read a quick trip report on this great site:

https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hu...n-kolyma-95144

My car was petrol and a Toyota, so I don't have experience with diesel gelling or how a Land Rover might behave in serious cold. Felicity Aston did a similar Russia trip with Land Rovers and told me most of the expedition's problems were down to the vehicle(s). But they got temperatures down to -50°C which is frankly too cold for diesels.

In my experience, a temperature of around -25°C is the lower limit of vehicle design for cold, below which extra preparations are useful. I blanked off the radiator almost completely below this temperature, ran an engine blanket and double windscreens to prevent icing (all common winter stuff in the coldest parts of Russia). If I was camping out in the wild below -30°C I would keep the engine running overnight, with a CO alarm in the car. The vehicle's own heater worked fine (with the engine on of course) down to about -30°C; below that I had an air heater running in the cabin (which I had put extra insulation in). Obviously, with the engine off, the air heater was on all the time. I'm not familiar with the Nordic winter but I feel like it won't go below -25°C for long periods.

So, your preparations sound good to me; I ran with fully synthetic transmission and driveline oils (75W-90) and had no issues. Below -40°C I could feel the DOT5 brake fluid start to stiffen in the brake and clutch, but didn't have issues. I ran a 2:1 coolant which was good down to something like -57°C. I had AGM starter (under the bonnet) and leisure (in the cabin) batteries on a split charge system, no issues with that. In the engine I ran Petro Canada 0W-20 and noticed no change in (usually zero) oil consumption or noise in the engine. I would be careful with blocking your radiator unless it is very cold - just make sure your thermostat works. Also, the coolant type heater may not be great for keeping warm with the engine off, as it will require running (I imagine) the vehicle's main/starter battery to power the heater fan. Camping in those temperatures without heating would IMO be miserable and frankly unhygienic.

Happy to discuss further.

EO