Thread: What Defender models are available in Australia?

Originally Posted by juddy

so how many 90s do we think were imported, and how many 130s sold to date, or is that a hard ask!

I don't really have any idea, but the number of nineties would be fairly small, as they were only sold for a short time. Rather more 130s, I would think. As an indication, on a trip to Sydney over the weekend, I saw two Nineties, one in Lithgow, one in Sydney, about three 130s in Sydney, one in Mudgee and three or four on the road in the mountains, as against a total of perhaps a dozen to twenty 110s, all wagons.

In the mid nineties quite a few 130s were sold to organisations like Telstra and Railtrack, and most of these are still about, even if not with the original buyers.

John

I do remember selling several new 110 Cab Chassis at Alf Barbagallo, Perth in 1989-90 with the 3.9 engine.

Ive never heard of a 120, or indeed the chassis only variants. Most interesting.

If all goes to plan Sydney will soon have another 110DC TD5

Certainly all the replies make for interesting reading.

M<any thanks
Jon

Originally Posted by Yorkshire_Jon

Ive never heard of a 120, or indeed the chassis only variants. Most interesting.

If all goes to plan Sydney will soon have another 110DC TD5

Certainly all the replies make for interesting reading.

M<any thanks
Jon

The 120 was a local modification of the 110 chassis. It had an extra 10" welded into the chassis to make it a bit more competitive with the Landcruiser, which had the cab/chassis similarly extended (albeit in the factory) on the FJ45 from 104 to 121" at least as early as the mid sixties. This local initiative was almost certainly a forerunner for the 130 (whose wheelbase of 127 was set directly by the longest off the shelf prop shaft). Since Landrover Australia was already working on the 6x6 with a locally made chassis, this was not a big deal.

It was no doubt also encouraged by the fact that since the mid sixties the major demand for "utility" four wheel drives had become for a single cab ute with a dropside flat tray (I bought a 1961 2a 109 thus equipped in 1965) and while six foot trays were regularly fitted to 109s, the load centre was really a bit too far back, and the longer wheelbase allowed an even longer tray with a better position relative to the rear wheels.

Landrover had been selling the cab chassis for special customers since the Series 1, so this changed requirement was not a problem for the factory. The trays were locally built, either for the distributor, the dealer or occasionally the buyer built their own, although most were/are built by specialist body builders who also build trays for other truck makes of all sizes.

I have had thoughts about why things changed, and my view is that a major factor was the change in handling of rural supplies (and other) from hand loading to forklift, which is better suited to the dropside tray. I suspect that the major difference from the UK is that there there was/is a tendency to use a swb plus trailer, where this is less practical here with longer distances and often worse roads, especially since until recently many states restricted trailer weights to well below the manufacturer's figures.

John