Thread: The New Defender

I always make sure the bottom door seals leak so that water can get in and out.

Originally Posted by johntins

Quite right, although I'm not sure the Station Wagon came here. Or, for that matter, the Wagoneer on any regular basis. The FJ45 came here for sure. It was a revelation, although the mob still bought LRs. Quite a lot of people back then held a distrust for the Japanese. Funny that it didn't stop sales of VWs at the time..

I believe that the Wagoneer had the first electric tailgate window I had ever seen, and I spent much time with Rolls Royce cars in those days ( there's a story there ), and few had electric windows anywhere.

Interestingly, I am familiar with one Jeep stationwagon that was in Australia in the sixties. Fitted with special equipment, it was left hand drive - which hints at how many were around!

I had an FJ45V Stationwagon as my company car in 1965-6 in the Simpson Desert. In my view it was not a patch on the other FJ45s and FJ40s we had (all brand new). It was the roughest riding vehicle I have ever travelled in, and is the only vehicle I have ever had break completely through all leaves on a spring, on a single bump. The bodywork fell to pieces. Even from brand new, the rear seat folded whenever you hit a bump. The excessive overhang at the back meant that load distribution was very poor, and with no tiedowns, your load bounced on the floor every bump, rapidly reducing it to look like a ploughed field. The huge tailgate provided an inviting platform to sit or stand on, but was not strong enough for the typical Australian to do so - bent hinge mounts then meant difficulty closing the tailgate and soon resulted in it falling off.

Steering, as on other Landcruisers at the time used a very badly engineered steering relay that rapidly produced excessive free play, helped by attaching the drag link to the track rod, so that the first bit of movement on the steering simply rotated the track rod to the limit of the tie rod ends. The three speed gearbox and high geared low range compared to Landrovers and Patrols were significant disadvantages. The carburettor gave a lot of problems, and failure of the voltage regulator, giving overcharging was common.

On the other hand, the higher power was a definite advantage compared to Landrovers. And, except for the wandering steering, it drove very well on the road - I ran it in driving from Brisbane to Alice Springs (from just west of Camooweal without a windscreen - like almost every vehicle at the time it was toughened glass, and no replacement available before Alice).

Originally Posted by ozscott

Only LR enthusiasts will be arguing...the rest of the world has a fair bit less care factor. Many of my mates couldn't give 2 hoots and would not consider an LR product. I just hope the LR hype machine starts making better adverts for the new car and also i hope the big mags do some serious proving drives soon and it gets a good write up. That will go some way to restoring the Defender brand more widely. However for most non LR peops the proof will be in the aged pudding. Many eill want to see it in service for a few years. I hope the sales are good for LR's sake and for enthusiasts' sake.

Cheers

If LR did thorough R&N and the defender proves to be reliable it will be a absolute success. Many of my mates won't consider a LR product and LR has no one to blame other than themselves for this!
If people start using them for purpose and they're as tough and well built as LR are claiming then the sales will be excellent, if stories of " poor this and that" start to surface then LR will end up a irrelevant vehcile manufacturer. The brands reputation will be measured on the back of this vehicle, that's why they took their time making it IMO.

Time is the greatest judge of quality and reliability!

Originally Posted by ozscott

Yep I wondered if you would say that. But how does that work....pretty bloody carefully and a last resort. Carpet anyone? And accidentally letting in too much would be a disaster. Now way I would be opening the door in a metre of water.

Cheers

Why not say it yourself then? As mentioned above the only carpet ive seen is the optional mats, which nobody would have in at the cape. The interior is extremely 4x4 friendly, more than i expected.
900mm is a safe max height, we all know that. As per the D5 it is known you can go deeper, engineers have confirmed if you start to float in the new defender, crack the doors to add some weight, and off ya go.
You would only let in too much water if you entered water too deep in the first place, which is driver error, which wade sensing would alert you to.

IP67 is 1m for 30mins.

900mm wading is impressive

Lets be real here, the new defenders wading specs are untouchable by any of its competitors in AU, something to be proud of imo.

Beats

LC200 by 21.5cm
Patrol by 20cm
Gwagon by 20cm
Jeep JL by 14cm

Originally Posted by ozscott

Only LR enthusiasts will be arguing...the rest of the world has a fair bit less care factor. Many of my mates couldn't give 2 hoots and would not consider an LR product. I just hope the LR hype machine starts making better adverts for the new car and also i hope the big mags do some serious proving drives soon and it gets a good write up. That will go some way to restoring the Defender brand more widely. However for most non LR peops the proof will be in the aged pudding. Many eill want to see it in service for a few years. I hope the sales are good for LR's sake and for enthusiasts' sake.

Cheers

When people start seeing them on the road the real marketing will begin. They are going to really stand out imo

Originally Posted by Red90

I always make sure the bottom door seals leak so that water can get in and out.

Thats not optional in an old defender is it? Certainly isn't in my RRC

Originally Posted by blackrangie

When people start seeing them on the road the real marketing will begin. They are going to really stand out imo

They will stand out alright.

Cheers

Having been in over a metre I am not keen to do it again. Too much can go wrong especially if you have snapping handbags around. But of course the 900mm is impressive as a figure and a safety margin.

Cheers