Thread: electronic park brake for defenders and series vehicles

Originally Posted by Captain_Rightfoot

Personally - I would think that if you don't have the strength or the ability to operate the handbrake that you're probably going to be struggling to operate the rest of the car controls, and that you might want to make better car choices.

Originally Posted by loanrangie

Exactly, last vehicle you would want is an old Defender.

I disagree.

you get shot in the left shoulder joint, as a result you loose 75% of your mobility and about 70% of your strength in that joint. this gives you just enough reach to get to a modified gear shift lever but not the hand brake. Steering you can still do right handed and have power steering fitted if you need to

other than the gear shift, hand brake and steering (and lets be honest its not hard to retrofit an auto if you really need to) what other primary controls of the vehicle are you doing with your left hand? (and if you want to go the american route, just swap the shot shoulder)

Personally if I ever get a partial upper body disability a defender stlye landy is what Im going to be going for, Any vehicle I'd pick would need mods anyway so why not get something that is easy?

If anyone is going to install an EPB in a classic defender - put it somewhere that a passenger in the vehicle can reach it in case the driver suffers some kind of medical episode. The standard handbrake location in a classic defender fits that bill.

For an example of where NOT to place an EPB.... Look at the placement of the EPB in the L663 Defender! For a passenger to get to it they are going to have to pop the unconscious driver's seatbelt, open the driver's door, shove the driver out of the moving vehicle, remove their own seatbelt, and then try to reach the EPB full in the knowledge that to apply the EPB one must PUSH it, not pull it (the action to release the brake!)

Like to see LR push out a "software update" that fixes this little design disaster. (How I see it).

Have only had the L663 about 6weeks. As I use it I keep a mental tally of points that pop into my mind for or against the L663 vs the 2013 TDCi DCPU that I gave up for the L663. So far the scores are pretty even. But this one (the location of the EPG ) should be worth bonus points in favour of the TDCi,