You seem to have missed the point here. A Landrover does not a mobile home make. How are they supposed to live in a Landrover comfortably for 19 months?
My dad had a custom-made LR and two people could very comfortably live out of it for any length of time. It even had a water tank with a heated shower head if you were feeling lavish.
The tent was on the roof so it should have been safe from most animals:
I wish, but no - it was a replica made by a specialist LR garage in Poland. My dad bought it for an expedition to Kazakhstan in 2014, but unfortunately, cancer had other plans. I've inherited the LR but sold it shortly after because I had no use for it.
No, I know what it looks like. A hyena will hop up onto the bonnet of that landrover and sniff / gnaw at the canvas up front, and if there's something inside it wants good luck.
Hiding a 12ga inside a car bodywork is easy peasy lemon squeezy and slugs from that reliably put down grizzly bears, which are I believe the toughest land predator currently in existence.
Trying to cross international borders legally with a firearm for self-defense is really difficult if not impossible. If you talk to Overlanders or international ocean cruisers, almost none of them carry weapons. Trying to sneak or bribe your way across a border with a weapon is a pretty serious crime.