Thread: New Member - Don't know anything about Defenders - Questions

Originally Posted by Tote

Nope, It has traction control. The climb in question I may have made it up if I had been in second instead of low but the point is the discos on the trip and my previous D3 walked up there with no worries. As we were in a convoy and I was in the middle I didn't have a chance to try more than a couple of approaches and I have since learnt a bit more about how to drive the Defender 's traction control when we were at Solihull earlier this year. Showing the instructor that picture and asking how it could be done better resulted in a very educational couple of hours in a 110.

Regards,
Tote

Writeup?

Originally Posted by LRJim

What cars have you previously owned?
If your worried about dust getting in your doors then can you really handle a defender? Or any land rover? Dust in your doors is the least of your worries, hope you have a crappy looking driveway. 6 months of having any land rover and it will look like a Dalmatian.
Can you handle a set of spanners and constantly getting on your back?
Getting a wet head or groin?
Having no safety features?
Don't forget all these awesome parts of owning a LR.

No safety features except all.wheel drive, low COG for a big 4wd, and the crumple zones (read...the other vehicle that has the misfortune to have a head on with a Deefer).
Cheers

Originally Posted by martnH

Many of us name our defenders
Mine is named BenBen

an example of when you ask your 3 year old daughter what you should name the car. Or is it so good you had to name it twice?

Originally Posted by ozscott

No safety features except all.wheel drive, low COG for a big 4wd, and the crumple zones (read...the other vehicle that has the misfortune to have a head on with a Deefer).
Cheers

Yeah I was gonna edit it out but I think hed want something with all the pillows and sensors lol

The front axle of a Wrangler will easily outflex a Deefer.

The Deefer can be improved, my old girl could max out 10" travel shocks pretty easily but you need to know what you're doing, it takes a bit of fiddling.
Just the problem of radius arms plus panhard vs a four link plus panhard.
Radius arma tend to bind up when articulating.
Lockers fix this!

The rear end of a Deefer articulates too easily in comparison, so most of us actually restrict it a little to balance flex.
I used to run 11" travel shocks in the rear but you can get huge flex out of the back end. It looks impressive but it's unbalanced and unstable IMO.

The 110/130 Defender is a goods carrying/work vehicle and that's how the suspension is setup from the factory.
A 130 can legally carry 1300kg!
The chassis is more than strong enough to cope. The rear diff in post '02 models isn't up to snuff, IMO.
The t/case in very late model ones is sub standard thanks to Land Rover cost cutting, but it can be rebuilt into a very strong unit.

Early 110's had really soft rear springs, softish fronts and a load leveler to keep the rear end up.
They rode like and flexed like an old Range Rover.

The lack of sealing isn't just the doors, there are bloody holes everywhere, unsealed joints, silly stuff like felt instead of flocked rubber for Bailey channel in sliding windows, the list goes on.
You need to be aware of this and go in with your eyes open.
If you can't cope or don't want to spend ridiculous hours trying to weatherproof the inside, walk away now.

Originally Posted by MLD

an example of when you ask your 3 year old daughter what you should name the car. Or is it so good you had to name it twice?

Name it after my dog haha.

I could never bring myself to name mine, it was always "the Landy" or "the Defender"
It just didn't seem right......

To the OP - have you driven either/both yet? Might be a pretty easy decision once you do - either way.