First timer - Dream come true

[fitchaj]

G'day guys,

So I have bought myself a 2009 Defender 130 with all the bells and whistles, which has been a long time dream for me.

I posted a thread on here about a week ago with the story behind this defender. The old owner spent 3 years and THOUSANDS of dollars getting it ready for the Cape and a trip Broome. However, he sadly passed away before he and his wife could go on the trip.

He has done a lot of work to this thing as you can see from the pics.

Cheers!

P.S I hope you guys don't get sick of all the questions I will throwing your way with regards to my new rig.

[juddy]

A good buy you have there. The last owner must have wanted to save some cash, ditching the hd rims for older range rover rims that are not designed for the 130 is not a good idea.

[fitchaj]

More pics

[fitchaj]

A good buy you have there. The last owner must have wanted to save some cash, ditching the hd rims for older range rover rims that are not designed for the 130 is not a good idea.

Could you please elaborate on this issue? You're dealing with a complete rookie (to defenders).

Cheers

[juddy]

130's were never factory fitted with alloy rims, you can fit them and drive around all day without issues, but they were fitted for a reason. 130 rims have a high load rating, compaired to alloy and standard steel rims.

Offen called a wolf rim, the heavy duty rim is standard fit on most British army land rovers, the older version was a one ton rim.

You can buy rated alloys for the 130 from a number of manufactures.

The cheaper hd/ wolf rims that some people sell are Chinese sourced, most of the military spec hd rims are made in Spain for land rover.

[juddy]

G'day guys,

So I have bought myself a 2009 Defender 130 with all the bells and whistles, which has been a long time dream for me.


P.S I hope you guys don't get sick of all the questions I will throwing your way with regards to my new rig.

Where's your spare wheel live?

[fitchaj]

Where's your spare wheel live?

It has a swing away arm for the spare wheel

[LoveB]

get some wolfs on there! or ZU's!

nice rig. perhaps to honour the guy who's done it up you should continue the trip for him...

[Blade74]

Agree that a trip in his honor would be awesome.

Finish what he started.

[POD]

Looks like a great vehicle Fitchaj, I was admiring it in your previous thread about the second snorkel. I'm also a long-time dreamer and only recent owner of a 130, have had opportunity to use it for a couple of trips and they are fantastic. Yours doesn't strike me as a vehicle that was set up with a view to doing things the cheap & nasty way. I have mixed thoughts about the alloy rims; probably not an issue at all unless you will be operating the vehicle close to GVM, i.e. 1.5 tonne payload, which I would think unlikely for most private users. However, may also be something that an insurer could use as a get-out-of-claim-free card.
Did you figure out what the second snorkel is all about?