New Defender towing

[A G]

I am looking at a new defender as a vehicle to tour Australia towing a 2 ton van. Whilst the dealers say they will walk away with that van, they make no comments if they can run with one. Wondering from existing owners.

1. How do they go towing this weight?

2. What sort of fuel consumption?

3. Problems I can expect from a new defender (Puma)

4. How do you go about services once out in the bush with limited dealers now left.

and any other information you can provide

[Blknight.aus]

it'll do alright but wont be uber fast.

it'll run between 12+15l/100km depending on your boot size

search the forum and you'll find threads covering this but to highlight a few
1. leaking vac pump
2. potential transmission problem
3. fuel system issues
4. front diff hitting the engine sump
5. brake lines + resivior chafing

plan your route so that you can get you mandated dealer servicings done at one of the dealers Australias big but its not so big that you can drive across it keeping near the main highways without being within cooee of somewhere that is a landys authorised service agent.

[PAT303]

My old ones tows OK,up hills it won't keep up with a V8 cruiser but it doesn't drink 20ltrs per hundred either.Don't worry about dealers,everyone in Kal goes to Ultra tune,it's an owner operator shop and the bloke who runs it gives better service and knows more than any dealer I've ever been too and you will get parts quicker for your LR than you will from tojo or nissan,I know that because I have three LR's at home and five tojo's at work,Toyota have a very limited store of parts at dealers so in the west most parts are a week ago in the east.You can get the puma chipped too and the retail price and running costs are alot cheaper than any jap 4wd. Pat

[PAT303]

All the above troubles are known and would not be an issue on a 09 vehicle. Pat

[dullbird]

have a look at the 07 defender sticky recalls and bulletins that will highlight some of the problems that have been found and delt with

[PAT303]

Honestly if we all believed the troubles non Land Rover owners claim none of us would be LR owners.I'm still waiting for my Defender and Disco to spontanously combust and they have 700,000k's between them. Pat

[BilboBoggles]

All of those issues no longer exist on the MY09 model. (I've got one and can confirm that.)

Only problem I've got is that the body panels on one side are not aligned properly. But that's a feature of the olde defenders too.

[camel_landy]

All the above troubles are known and would not be an issue on a 09 vehicle. Pat

+1...

M

[camel_landy]

Honestly if we all believed the troubles non Land Rover owners claim none of us would be LR owners.I'm still waiting for my Defender and Disco to spontanously combust and they have 700,000k's between them. Pat

Need to take comments from doom & gloom mongers with a pinch of salt...

Although the engineering guys do work VERY hard to make things perfect, you have to be realistic and expect one or two niggles.

M

[dullbird]

I think he is asking if there are any problems to look out for

So not sure why we got on to the whole people not owning landrovers crapping on about them....