The Land Rover Appreciation Group.

[Baldbloke]

[emoji23] exactly. I gave up on those jalopy’s years ago. Land rovers are great for enthusiasts but if you want a reliable work vehicle look elsewhere.

[emoji3]
Depends on who rebuilt it.

I bought a very second hand 300 TDI from my work which had been my work vehicle for 10 years.
A rear chassis, some wheel bearings, brakes and brake pipes, and a thorough going over and it didn’t miss a beat for six years until the replacement chassis rotted out again.

One thing I really value about earlier Defenders is their simplicity. No abs, no airbags, and the simplistic ECU.
All my other vehicles, although packed with tech, are an absolute nightmare for reliability purely because of the shit that supposedly is required nowadays.
If I could remove all the electronic shit so I just had to concentrate on the mechanicals life would be a bit better.

I’ll be fitting a longer replacement section to my Defender so I’ve got one vehicle I can rely on again. meanwhile it’s being used by friends kids to learn how to drive in our fields[emoji3]

[lux]

[emoji3]
Depends on who rebuilt it.

I bought a very second hand 300 TDI from my work which had been my work vehicle for 10 years.
A rear chassis, some wheel bearings, brakes and brake pipes, and a thorough going over and it didn’t miss a beat for six years until the replacement chassis rotted out again.

One thing I really value about earlier Defenders is their simplicity. No abs, no airbags, and the simplistic ECU.
All my other vehicles, although packed with tech, are an absolute nightmare for reliability purely because of the shit that supposedly is required nowadays.
If I could remove all the electronic shit so I just had to concentrate on the mechanicals life would be a bit better.

I’ll be fitting a longer replacement section to my Defender so I’ve got one vehicle I can rely on again. meanwhile it’s being used by friends kids to learn how to drive in our fields[emoji3]

Wow, how come the replacement chassis rotted out in 6 years. ?

[maybelateron]

Having owned a Land Rover Series 2, 3, 110 station wagon (with Mazda 3.5 intercooled conversion back in 1991) and two Disco 2 TD5's, and never had a Hilux/L200, DMax etc I still like the stick I have seen in a HiLux, saying "one life, don't waste it mending land Rovers"

 

The appeal to me of the series LR's is the basic simplicity I can fix. It cost me about £7k to do a thorough rebuild of the series 3, including galvanised chassis and all of drive train rebuilt, full diy rewire , doors. pto winch and shaft refurb. She will hold her value. The appeal of the TD5 Disco is it is good for heavy towing, and doesn't have the reliability issues of the Disco 3/4. If my Disco needs replacing I will just look for a low milage TD5 Disco, it is such good value compared to the crazy hysteria induced prices for late Defenders.

 

Mind you, I still like the Hilux...

[billpierce]

I get that defenders hold their value well, but think this is also the case for the well know jap alternatives. You wont find a 80 series or older landcruiser cheap or an older Nissan patrol. They hold their value extremely well. And the pickup versions are insane money, so much so it's probably financially viable to cut the back off one and build a tipping back yourself.

Saw a amazing lwb foutrack pickup the other day, didnt even know they existed

[difflock]

I pop the Steyr Puch into 4WD Low to manuover on concrete or bitmac, "technically" a no-no because no centre diff.

But a few meters of back/forward driving in Low is not going to wind the transmission up.

I also ran the Lightweight/air portable Series III in 4WD on the road, BUT, the speeds I was driving at on wet/muddy leaf strewn rural Scottish roads, I was not going to get the transmission wound up, since there was often enough a tyre with insufficient traction/or "spinning", so as to unwind the transmission.

Horses for courses.

[Dbikeguy]

I’m going defender route mainly because what i want doesn’t exist and the simplicity of the defender allows me to make it.
110 single cab but extended by 1ft for tool storage. custom back poss tipping, but not the huge things you see out there that will be overweight if half full.
Easy to fix (i can weld and have the kit) 300tdi till i can afford something fancier to chuck in there. Depending on diesels taxation i may go petrol/lpg

[Baldbloke]

11 hours ago, lux said:

Wow, how come the replacement chassis rotted out in 6 years. ?

It was just a part replacement.  Rear Cross Member with extensions. A bit of mud off the field added to the ridiculous amount of winter salt they put down up here and six years isn't too bad for some crap modern mild steel without any galvanise. 

 

Since the front end isn't too bad I may buy the longer one in thicker steel + galvanise to see if I can get a decade out of it next time. The ones I've been looking at are long enough to include the rearmost top spring mounts.

Edited June 9, 2019 by Baldbloke

[j warwick]

I can never get my head around people rating land rovers. Personally I think there uncomfortable and most of all totally unreliable.

[openspaceman]

Do any of you aficionados know if fitting a series 3 gearbox and transfer into a series 2 is straightforward.

 

I can see an obvious difference that  makes me think the series two bellhousing will need to be kept but are the gearbox bolts and size of the first motion shaft the same?

[htb]

As you said change bellhousing. The swap is normally the other way round series 2 gearbox into a series 3 as its supposed to be stronger