Thread: Broke my Defender...bugger

The engineer told me LR put fold zones in the chassis just behind the front spring turrets and just at the front of the trailing arm mounts, to protect the cabin area.. The amount of weight I carry on the back would have added to the impact on the rear.
I never swerve for animals either, where I work I would hit 3-6 deers,pigs or Roos a week, problem on this occasion was that it was a very highly crowned downhill loose gravel road and the buck deer was the biggest I've seen in the area, he was just on the left of the road, and the ute was already off centred on the right.. Braking, downhill with a creek at the bottom was a bit of a juggling act, and I had to try and line the ute up to cross the concrete culvert crossing at the bottom, which I did but the bank on the other side had the last say! No injuries and I was able to drive the ute home which was handy because I was well and truly out in the sticks with no phone coverage.

Just might have to slow down a bit Tim.

Cheers
KarlB

Interesting that you can buy chassis strengthening plates for the area just behind the front spring mounts and provided done by certified welder appears to be legal. Talking RRC/Disco1 from my experience.

http://www.lrautomotive.com.au/conte...d625.html#p304

and this is interesting

http://www.superiorengineering.com.a...ducts_id=21680

when I had an accident in my Defender, I took it to an expert LR Panel shop - and they are quite rare. But there was some damage on the chassis, and we discussed what would happen if the chassis needed replacign. Well apparently they can - and regularly do buy new chassis not just for Defenders - but for Range Rovers too. In fact there was a Range rover in the shop waiting on a new chassis - not to expensive either - but a 12 week wait to get one.

On a Defender he mentioned they were about $5k landed and then about 3 days work to swap. So I guess a rough guestimate would be 15k for a chassis swap at a proper Land Rover panel shop.

(of course I did not get a firm quote as it was an insurance job - and in the end they could easily repair the chassis. (In fact Land Rover have a specific chassis repair guide!)) the Defender it nearly unique in that it has a non heat treated chassis made out of mild steel, this means you can in fact weld it are a professional welder. Most other chassis are heat treated or hydroformed and cannot be welded..

Stuart

I had the 130 in to a panel shop today for a second inspection, and they are now looking to do a chassis swap, at least they are pricing it up, but they think this is the way they will go..not sure on the dollars but around a 3 week turn around once the new chassis has landed, which I thought was pretty good..

Theoretically, could you swap in the H.D version of the 130 chassis, presumably both versions are available.