Defender recently passed its MOT so happy with that. Even so I am going to remove the defunct BOGE unit from the rear suspension. I replaced the soft 110 CSW spring for heavy duty ones many moons ago but never got around to removing the BOGE unit mostly because I didn't have a replacement A frame from a non BOGE landrover to swap it with. The ball joint bracket on the Aframe with the BOGE unit fitted has an extra appendage for the BOGE mounting so woud need cutting off or it should fail an MOT for a missing suspension component (I never fancied cutting it off like some do).
The white whale donor vehicle has supplied me with a standard A frame ball joint bracket. Once I removed that from the whale it was much fun with help of neighbour to extract the old ball joint from its bracket housing. 6 tonne press and a wee bit of heat (and drama) and it was out.

From a-frame project

I purchased rather cheaply a new ball joint from xmod and it turned out to be a genuine landrover part at a quarter of the price. I actually ordered ANR1799 but got sent the older superseded part number version (NTC9932) which is just the same except it has the addition of rubber boot retainer plate it seems. I guess they changed to sprung ring retained boot as part of a cost cutting.
Fitting it into the bracket was rather a lot easier with just needing the use of the vice and tighten the flange bolts to pull the joint home fully. Lots of anti-seize copper grease was used to hopefully help any future replacement.

From a-frame project

From a-frame project

The Defender 110 County Station Wagon is often fitted with softer rear springs and a Boge self levelling unit fitted between the A-frame ball joint bracket and the chassis.
The idea was to give a softer more comfortable ride to the 12 seater vehicle. When loaded the Boge unit 'pumps up' itself increase the ride height, the pump action is fed from driving the vehicle and bumps in road surface create the pumping action. Often you will see a 110 county looking low and saggy at the rear whilst stationary and after a few miles driving the rear end would have risen to a more acceptable height. That's the theory but the boge SLU fail and then the softer than normal rear springs suffer the full abuse ending up with a wallowing saggy bummed truck.
Because a new SLU is pretty pricey the common solution is to instead remove it and replace the rear springs with those from a 110 commercial either standard or heavy duty variety. With the SLU removed it leaves a mounting horn on the A-frame ball joint bracket which should incur an MOT failure due to a missing suspension component that was factory fitted. So the modification involves either cutting off that part of the bracket or replacing the bracket from a non boge a-frame.

From a-frame project

Now that my small trailer has been sold off and the caravan chassis trailer has been cut up the lack of trailer gap has been filled with a FV2381 MKIII 750 kg cargo trailer aka 'Sankey Widetrack Trailer' although this one is made by Universal Engineering Company.
The MKIII widetrack trailers boast a drop down tailgate, hydraulic disc brakes, Repositioned handbrake (to allow land-rover door to be opened!) with consideration for the attachment of a brake-away cable, Heavy duty jockey wheel which has a swing away mount for stowing, and a tendency to rust between the wheel arch and tub.

Mine was fresh from MOD action tender and was in pretty good nick for a 10 year old trailer. Flaked paint and a slight bow in the rail of tub where the trailers where stacked piggy back style on the lorry, all the furniture was present and the mechanicals all working and showing sign of recent servicing (new brake hoses for instance).
I have since wired into the junction a standard 7 pin towing plug and cable (the MOD 12 pin is still present too), replaced all the 24volt bulb to 12volt equivalents.

12 Pin MOD Plug Pinout:

A and H: SPARE
B: Left hand stop
C: Convoy
D and L: Earth
E: tail and number plate light
F: Fog lamps
J: right hand stop light
K: Aux positive
M: Left hand indicator
N: right hand indicator

To cross wire to a standard plug:

Yellow 1 to M Left hand indicator
Blue 2 to F fog lights
White 3 to D Earth
Green 4 to N right hand indicator
Brown 5 to E tail and number plate light
Red 6 to B and J Left hand stop right hand stop light
Black 7 to E tail and number plate light

Painted inside the tub with etch primer and metal-cote black topcoat. Painted the outside of tub in NATO black. Waxoyled the entire underside and any other nooks that needed doing. Swapped the 650 tyres for 750's. Fitted a new breakaway cable.
Hopefully the trailer will last a good few years more without much attention.