Build a Land Rover Discovery snorkel on the cheap!

Also see "Prepare your Land Rover for wading" and “Build a series 3 land rover snorkel from drainpipe!”.

Article and photographs kindly provided by Frank AKA Skibum346 from www.mud-club.com 

I’ve been planning a home made Land Rover snorkel for over 18 months now. Firstly for the 1984 Range Rover I had but that has sadly passed on (still looking for a home for the stripped chassis & body, gearbox & engine!). I bought a proper mushroom top last year at Billing for I think £20, a length of 68mm black drainpipe and a handful of angled joints at the local DIY store in preparation for it. Since getting Chugaboom, my 1990 V8 Discovery, The Snorkel plan has been resurrected.

Here are the parts required:

Mushroom Top 1
68mm Drainpipe 1
90° Bend 1
45° Bend 4
Flexi Pipe from Air Intake Valve on Range Rover 1984 (Part No.613519) 1
Flexi Pipe from Vauxhall (Scrap Yard) 1
Flexi Pipe from Citreon? (Scrap Yard) 1
Large Jubilee Clips 7
Marley Solvent Cement KS2 1
Flat Bracket 2
Angle Bracket 1
Edge Trim 1 Metre
Rivets 10 

It’s worth noting that the short lengths of pipe are useful for connecting bends. The bends do not joint together directly but with a little careful measuring and a few attempts at cutting a STRAIGHT cut I found that short pieces did the job. 

On the outside, working down from the mushroom top we have a 45° bend, a straight length, a piece of flexi intake pipe (left over from a planned rebuild on my old Classsic. It’s a new part through Land Rover Classic Parts… trouble is… they come in bags of ten… but I think the bag only cost me about £7… and I have 8 left!), a straight piece for along the wing and finally a 90° bend that once the wing is cut, will link up with the engine bay half. 

To support the snorkel I found a couple of brackets at the local DIY store (B&Q but I’m sure others have something similar) two flat ones about 100mm x 40mm that slot nicely behind the A pillar and still allow the door to operate unhindered. These will be used to support the top part of the snorkel. A single angle bracket will support the section along the wing. I’m not planning to drill into the pipe to fix, rather I’ll use jubilee clips in the hope they’ll be strong enough.

All of the drainpipe is cemented together with Marley Solvent Cement that essentially welds the plastic of each piece together providing a watertight seal. 

The step by step pictures of the build process as well as the finished result - a nice DIY Land rover discovery snorkel can be viewed below.  Click the thumbnails for a larger image.

Thanks again to Skibum346 for allowing me to use his text and photographs.  If you have any questions regarding DIY Discovery snorkels you can contact him through www.mud-club.com.  Its a damn good forum so worth joining anyway!