Thread: Gear change up to 5th in Defender?

From what I understand, which is very little, 5th in the R380 box is very weak and should not be used while towing or going uphill.

Having said that I use 5th alot cause the gearing with the V8 diesel is a little low so I'm usually in 5th around 70-80k hill or no hill and the gearbox seems to be fine.

I still try to treat it with kit gloves though generally cause Landies just love to break stuff at the worst times, those times usually being when I don't have the money to fix 'em. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img] ops:

My rule of thumb is look at the gearing.

Any overdrive gears shouldn't be used until you reach 80. Hence in any 5spd vehicle I generally do not change up to 5th until I get to around 80. In my 5spd auto Freelander I only use 5th once I hit freeways or the like.

I also only use 5th for steady cruise, if I want to accelerate or overtake I drop back to 4th (or 2nd if I really want to get moving [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img] ) and then once I am finished I change back to 5th.