WMIK Rear Pannier

[telwyn]

Thought you guys would get a kick out of this. Found a WMIK Rear Pannier on Ebay.uk and am going to install it on my Lightweight. Almost cost more to ship to the US than the Pannier itself cost, but like most of us, this rover thing is a slight addiction.

Will take a bit of modification as it's a snap for a Defender, but not perfect on the Lightweight. Good news is that it DOES fit. I just need to modify the bolting hardware.

Other projects on my list for the Lightweight ahead of this, but the teaser pics are fun.

[Bertha]

Neat, but what is it used for?

[telwyn]

Does it need a use??

They are used on the back of the WMIK Rovers in Iraq and Afghanistan as simply another place to store gear. It also swings open (not down) as a tailgate to allow access to the rear.

Here's a couple pictures of the pannier in use on an actual Ricardo WMIK Rover:

http://adrianstomcat.co.uk/Military/WMIK1-15.JPG

http://adrianstomcat.co.uk/Military/Wmik3-06.jpg

http://adrianstomcat.co.uk/Military/Wmik3-08.jpg

Clearly not original to the Lightweight, but I'm not doing a model restoration.

[KingSlug]

The WMIK Rear Pannier is also known to destory the rear body of rovers. The MOD did do a fix where a brace went from the inner corners to the wheel wells to the floors to try and prevent the back body from ripping apart. I think there also was a couple braces put along the bottom to press up on the pannier when in the closed position.

All in all it was an ok idea if you are the MOD and can replace you rovers at will, but for a single rover owner if you offroad or place any real amount of weight in it, you risk destorying your rear body. And LW bodies aren't easy to come by here in the USA.

Jared

[spacemutt]

I can get Genuine WMIK grilles.

[telwyn]

Thx for passing that along - I've heard it definitely can put a lot of stress on the rear frame and body. Finishing up some mods on my m416 trailer before I tackle this. We'll see how it goes.