Which is better Off Road a D3/4 or a late model Defender? ... Puma 110

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Originally Posted by rar110

Im amazed LR has done this. LRs marketing Depts biggest Achilles heal is its reliability (old news) which every reviewer throws into their report.

So what does LR do, release a My2016 defender that is the pinnacle of that product? No. Revive the unreliability reputation with a 2 pinion diff and iffy gearbox, that LR has worked hard (ie spent millions) to rebuke with a world class product (not perfect by any means) like the D3, D4, Freelander, Evoque, RRS & RRV. Strategically, WTF?

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Yep.

Another bit from me;
Watching those vids from Murray (RIJIDIJ) on you tube of Isuzu Counties up the cape idling their way through some challenging terrain fully loaded etc and seeing vids of d3 and 4 taking on some gnarly rocks with a wheel 4ft in the air and the ETC working to get it over the obstacle just shows the amazing diversity of LR. These 2 vehicles are so different yet wear the same badge.

I think we are going to find it very hard to give you a satisfactory answer Terry.

Jc

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Originally Posted by rick130

Yep.

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Yep

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Originally Posted by justinc

Another bit from me;
Watching those vids from Murray (RIJIDIJ) on you tube of Isuzu Counties up the cape idling their way through some challenging terrain fully loaded etc and seeing vids of d3 and 4 taking on some gnarly rocks with a wheel 4ft in the air and the ETC working to get it over the obstacle just shows the amazing diversity of LR. These 2 vehicles are so different yet wear the same badge.

I think we are going to find it very hard to give you a satisfactory answer Terry.

Jc

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Actually I reckon it's going along just fine Justin, this is a discussion that is long overdue and much needed.

Thank you for taking part in this discussion and sharing your wealth of knowledge and experiences.

Keep it simple. Both out the showroom and onto serious offroad tracks the D4 will get damaged before the defender gets stuck.

Ergo the defender is better for extreme offroad.

Simple. Case closed.


That said, if you spend 90k on a 50k defender you're a mug.










Sent from my Nexus 5X using AULRO mobile app

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Originally Posted by manic

Keep it simple. Both out the showroom and onto serious offroad tracks the D4 will get damaged before the defender gets stuck.

Ergo the defender is better for extreme offroad.

Simple. Case closed.

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Really? Not my experience. And that was "straight off the showroom floor" (well, 2 months later).

Cheers

Gordon

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Originally Posted by rick130

Strongest or stiffest Gordon ?

Big difference.

Look at a truck chassis and they have the torsional rigidity of a wet noodle.
They aren't stiff, but they can cope easily with heavy loads as they are strong.

I can imagine the T5 chassis is immensely stiff and very strong, lots of FEA would have gone into it, the Deefer chassis was just a deeper section version of the RRC/Disco 1 chassis with stiffening plates added for the 130 which would have been drawn up on a big drawing board 35 years ago.
It's still pretty strong even though it's only about 2mm wall and probably much stronger than its Japanese competitors that use a much shallower box section.

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I never said the Defender chassis wasn't strong - it's one of the best in its class. I simply made the factual statement that the D4's is stronger, in reply to a statement that the Defender's was.

Cheers

Gordon

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Originally Posted by manic

Keep it simple. Both out the showroom and onto serious offroad tracks the D4 will get damaged before the defender gets stuck.

Ergo the defender is better for extreme offroad.

Simple. Case closed.

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I wouldn't take that as read, not sure that is actually the case. The Defender does have the edge with ground clearance, but the traction control systems in the Disco are awesome and it is no slouch on clearance either. I am constantly amazed by what the Disco can crawl over without grounding, particularly if you have Llams or rods and can manually go to extended mode.

Before i get blasted, this is my 2 cents.

I know you said to compare both in standard form, but lets face it......you've bought into the greatest 4wd badge on earth and want to go bush.

The discovery offers excellent capability out of the box......but thats it. Theres not really much room for improvement due to its sophisticated setup.

The defender offers the best starting point to build the best 4wd possible.

If i had 10k to spend on both the defender would out pwrform the disco everday of the week. All this whilst easier to maintain and cheaper too.

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Originally Posted by 1nando

Before i get blasted, this is my 2 cents.

I know you said to compare both in standard form, but lets face it......you've bought into the greatest 4wd badge on earth and want to go bush.

The discovery offers excellent capability out of the box......but thats it. Theres not really much room for improvement due to its sophisticated setup.

The defender offers the best starting point to build the best 4wd possible.

If i had 10k to spend on both the defender would out pwrform the disco everday of the week. All this whilst easier to maintain and cheaper too.

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I would be interesting to see that done. One person start with a standard Disco and the other with a standard Defender. Give the defender up to $10k to spend, and allow the Disco up to $2k to upgrade tyres and add Llams and a compressor bash plate. Then take them both off road for a week on a range of terrains, and have drivers swap half way through and then allow them to choose either one at the end. It would be interesting to see the results both in terms of performance and preference of the drivers. I'm still betting that there wouldn't be a huge difference in performance and that from a comfort perspective most would choose the Disco.