Thread: Won’t be retro...

Originally Posted by strangy

Rumour has it Prince Phillip will be receiving a new Defender to replace his rolled Landy.
So should see some real pics much sooner than expected.

Haha

Originally Posted by strangy

Rumour has it Prince Phillip will be receiving a new Defender to replace his rolled Landy.
So should see some real pics much sooner than expected.

Amazing he survived at 97 tbh

He already recieved the replacement. Freelander 2 in Black.

Blackrangie mate...I'm not sure where to start with your post about insurance...if you are content to think that dropping rim size and increasing tyre size on a vehicle with anti slew control will never cause problems with insurance honouring your policy...wel...I recommend you go get some legal advice. I have seen insurers refuse to pay out in a number of areas of modifications. You have a duty to tell and insurer anything that might reasonably relate to the risk insured (underwriting issues) and if a modification from stock could reasonably be said to have contributed to an accident you would have to then prove the mod, on balance, did not do so....now when you are talking anti-slew tech and say a rollover mid corner that gets murky very quickly.

Cheers

Originally Posted by ozscott

It's not the rubber (pattern) as such, nor the rims (materials) as LR make excellent rims with great lipping that keeps tyres on at low pressure. Its the size of the calipers that dictate the minimum rim size. Also, these days most insurers would be very reluctant to insure a significant change of rim size that saw a large increase in rubber (handling changes and possible issues with stability programs.etc). So unless it was say a 17 (16's better but new Deefer's brake diameters.are simple.not going to allow that) inch rim and overall diameter of at least 31 inch from the factory it will be compromised. If LR did provide that as a base model option or delete option for upper spec it would send the right message and get a lot more interest from die hard offroaders.

Cheers

PS. In my estimation over 90 percent of Defender, D2 with factory 16's have kept the stock 16 inch rims and simply increased tyre size.

Rim size is a non issue these days, you can get decent size tyres to fit just about any rim, even our patrol came out with 18" rims and 33" tyres from the factory, and that thing has huge brakes.

Originally Posted by scarry

I can't work out why they focus on this off road capability so much.

A bit more effort in quality control and reliability surely would help the company more.(they wouldn't want a repeat of the last Defender model run,as an example),but we won't go there

I am pretty sure with their current target market,few,i bet less than 5% would be interested in off road capability.

That could change slightly for new Defender buyers.

Quality of build had to improve,or they wouldn't be around today.

They could take a few lessons from nissan re their driveline reliability.

Originally Posted by blackrangie

Never heard of anyone being knocked back for insurance on rim size change or infact anyone being knocked back for insurance.

Insurers will generally insure most things, will they pay out? that's another thing. If law of state says you can't rim drop even with engineering that's news to me.
2 out of 6 of my mates that have or had fenders have stock wheels but tyres upgraded the rest wheels and tyres, I would say the same would be the case at most LR shows and all the offroad cars that go through shops like LRA, BOR, DPL

Let's not forget Ultra 4 desert trucks run 17 and some even 18+ inch wheels, it's tire size that matters

As per pics is a non issue currently and by the looks definitely not with the fender.

Again the point was of JLRs focus not that they get wheel sizes right from the factory.

Generally people don't care if they need to change wheels and tires when they buy a new 4x4, if your going to use it properly off-road, that's the first thing most people do along with a small lift.

Generally people change their wheels for offroad use? Jump on the Show us your D2 thread and look at how many D2's keep their excellent stock alloys and just add better rubber. I have like many D2 owners used the stock rims on hard offroad conditions and never considered changing them. Cheers

Originally Posted by Vern

Rim size is a non issue these days, you can get decent size tyres to fit just about any rim, even our patrol came out with 18" rims and 33" tyres from the factory, and that thing has huge brakes.

Vern it is an issue if you have 20 inch tyres and cant increase the height of the rubber much, legally, to compensate....its about not being able to air down and preserve decent rim to rock distance and not having that ability to turn your tyre into a Caterpillar track on the beach or to deform and grip to a rock. There really is no doubt that a 31x 16 inch off road tyre will give the vehicle much better offroad ability (whether it has 4 wheel traction control, no ETC and open diffs, lockers etc) than a 31's on a 20 inch rim.

Cheers

Originally Posted by ozscott

Vern it is an issue if you have 20 inch tyres and cant increase the height of the rubber much, legally, to compensate....its about not being able to air down and preserve decent rim to rock distance and not having that ability to turn your tyre into a Caterpillar track on the beach or to deform and grip to a rock. There really is no doubt that a 31x 16 inch off road tyre will give the vehicle much better offroad ability (whether it has 4 wheel traction control, no ETC and open diffs, lockers etc) than a 31's on a 20 inch rim.

Cheers

Plenty of patrol guys running 35" tyres on 20" rims. As i said, lots of tyre choices these days, as long as it fits in the wheel arch.