Thread: Land Rover Engineer Requires Info

Originally Posted by ORC1

Hello All

I work in the Land Rover Off Road Capability team based at the design centre at Gaydon, Warwickshire, England. Part of this role is to ensure that LRs remain to be the best off road vehicles possible, I'm currently doing a "real" customer based study into usage and would like comments about our products. I'm mainly interested in current vehicles although I'm still keen to understand any historic issues you guys have.

Thanks for your help.
Lawrence

Lawrence

We've been waiting since 1969 for Land Rover to be interested in what we want.

• We want LR products that are reliable and not lemons, Check out this thread
• We want to keep our Defenders.
• It would be nice if they had a bit more shoulder room - make them wider like the Australian Army Parentie was widened.
• The front seats should be able to go to the rear a bit more.
• Would even like a flat floor where we could have a suspension seat.
• We loved our 3.9Litre Isuzu diesels, the others like the TD5 were too small for the long distances and heavy loads that we carry in our Defenders in Oz.
• TDV6 and or the TDV8 should be available as options in the Defender.
• The p38a diffs in the extreme and the 2007/8 Defender are giving problems for some people. Having the rear Salisbury available as an option would be good. (Better still return to them as standard.)

There's a start!

Cheers
Diana

Hi Lawrence,

Nobody buys a Defender to use as a suburban vehicle - not in Australia at least - and yet the Defender is sold new with highway tyres. All-terrain tyres should at least be standard - even an option.

The fuel tank on a Defender - 75 litres does not cut it - very frustrating.

And last but not least - buying a new vehicle and having to upgrade the headlights - solely for safety - is more than just frustrating.

Thanks for your interest. I daresay we will all be anticipating some good results out of this - but given the lack of interest from Land Rover over 60 years..........

Regards

welcome aboard lawrence, you might like to check out the d3 specific section and look in the technical section also.
i hope your visit here to this forum is helpful to you and your team.

Will be extremely happy to eat my words here,,,

we do have someone who could probably find out if this is a real post or not,,,,,

Lawrence,

A base-spec D3 with TR and air suspension, but without:

Leather
Climate air
Bizenon lights (or what ever they are)
Carpet and cloth trim/lining
That grained plastic on the wheel flares etc which is very hard to clean dirt from.
etc.

Basically a D3 as capable as one with TR but without the fruit.

Cheers.

ohh goody a landrover engineer....considering that out of the box you have about the most capable 4x4 out there the offroad nail has been well and truely hitits attention to detail things thats going to make the difference IMHO and most of it starts with stuff thats already been mentioned...



75l is a bit light on for fuel when you have the distances to go that we do down here but when that 75l is good for 600+ km its not too bad

the lights work but they could be better.

and now for some "what the hell is that about type questions"

the engine bay layout needs looking into, for something thats ment to be offroaded and you know is going to be forded why is the alternator lower than the ac compressor?

Diffs + axles are up to the job but you can purchase tougher aftermarket items that are sometimes cheaper than genuine originals.

why arent heavy duty recovery points standard fit out and designed into the chassis not something that we need to bolt in aftermarket?

the tyres... What the hell are those road bias general grabbers STILL doing on landrovers? .... ok so they are good on sand and the road but on gravel you might as well be trying to drive on an oil slick on an ice rink.

grease filled wheel bearings... whats with that action? and while we're on wheel bearings how the hell are you ment to do an emergancy repair on a set if you dont have a DTI and all of the spacers that are ment to go between the bearings to set the float when your using the stakenut?

ABS/TC sensors. Having to remove the hub to change them is a right PITA... its not hard to set them up so that you can pull them out through the back of the mounting plate.

Why cant we have a glavd chassis like the perentines?

That'll do for a start....

Are we sure this is not a wind up? Has a fishy smell too it. Maybe i'm just suspicious like pedro_the_ swift.

Stronger diffs and CVs.