DieselRanger
Well-known member
But have you tried on Social Media? Be polite but direct, be public, post on their social media accounts and set up alerts to know when they post so you can get in early in the thread. Tag all the hot buttons.
2020 Land Rover Defender is a Nightmare
- Thread starter permalux
- Start date
DieselRanger
Well-known member
I run those very tires on my 2017 Disco on
rougher/tougher trails than that in Colorado and they run just fine - they lined up head on to a square edged obstacle and practically floored it. That is, of course, the best way to intentionally blow a tire and get lots of click$.
If, on the other hand, you air down to the "light load" setting (34 front / 37 rear), approach obstacles slowly until you make contact, and then add power until you clear it, you won't get very many click$ because it will climb like a hero, just as New Defenders have done in a great many other videos.
On 60 series 20" tires you can safely air down to about 30psi before you risk a pinch flat or rim damage.
I've had sidewall damage on 70-series 17" load range E tries from hitting potholes at 40mph.
For the OP, it sucks that you got a bad one. I'd still rather take my chances on a modern Land Rover than a classic, and would choose a modern Land Rover over a modern Jeep any day.
Totally agree. I just did a fairly rough trail with a zillion rocks, many hidden in two foot puddles and bogs, ledges, and several rocky ledge climbs. Kept the Adventures up at 49 to see how they’d do and didn’t spin a wheel even once. The rear locker and electronic controls are so amazing on the Defender that it quietly walked over everything even when I just prayed and went for it thinking I’d never make it. I was prepared to air down to light load, but my LR instructor said it’s safer to leave it higher unless you need extra traction, but it never felt wanting. I did go super slow, and avoided any really sharp rocks I could see, but there were definitely some that were just as bad as the TFL rock. Guess I just wasn’t an idiot.
spikemd
Explorer
Sorry to hear about those issues. P300 or P400? but sounds like telematics module would be same in both. I have a P300 with over 20k miles and a few thousand of those offroad.
The stock 'offroad' tires are the biggest loads of crap I have ever driven on. Worst tires on the planet. I blew 2 in less than 2000 miles and my buddy has blown 4! Get rid of them asap.
I did have an issue with leaking front strut from day one. I've had enough rovers to know it shouldnt sag overnight especially when new. They changed it under warranty and no issues since. It was a common issue with a run of early Defenders and D5s. Rear side window/plate was coming off after miles of washboards which they also replaced.
I love my Defender and am very happy I purchased it. The best stock rover offroad and I've had p38, L322, Lr3, Lr4, old defender and now D5 (but havent driven it offroad yet).
The electronically locking rear differential is A MUST if you plan to offroad it. It acts like a fully locked rear when I was crawling over some rocks and steps in Death Valley. I works so much better than the previous rover models and wheels have almost no wheel spin when lifted. That being said, these trucks dont have much downtravel so don't expect 'flex'.
Hopefully, they get your truck back on the road. With 100? computers on board, something is bound to happend...
The stock 'offroad' tires are the biggest loads of crap I have ever driven on. Worst tires on the planet. I blew 2 in less than 2000 miles and my buddy has blown 4! Get rid of them asap.
I did have an issue with leaking front strut from day one. I've had enough rovers to know it shouldnt sag overnight especially when new. They changed it under warranty and no issues since. It was a common issue with a run of early Defenders and D5s. Rear side window/plate was coming off after miles of washboards which they also replaced.
I love my Defender and am very happy I purchased it. The best stock rover offroad and I've had p38, L322, Lr3, Lr4, old defender and now D5 (but havent driven it offroad yet).
The electronically locking rear differential is A MUST if you plan to offroad it. It acts like a fully locked rear when I was crawling over some rocks and steps in Death Valley. I works so much better than the previous rover models and wheels have almost no wheel spin when lifted. That being said, these trucks dont have much downtravel so don't expect 'flex'.
Hopefully, they get your truck back on the road. With 100? computers on board, something is bound to happend...
HUMMER/Expeditions
Well-known member
Hey defender fanboy can you explain to us what AT stands for on tires ??
I’ll educate you,
it stands for all terrain tire,
TFL took a vehicle that is (( off road vehicle)) with it’s all terrain tires to off road.
get outta here with that nonsense of blaming them.
I’ll educate you,
it stands for all terrain tire,
TFL took a vehicle that is (( off road vehicle)) with it’s all terrain tires to off road.
get outta here with that nonsense of blaming them.
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JackW
Explorer
The only issue I've had with mine was a very small leak in the coolant reservoir which was replaced by a newer design for that part by the dealer under warranty.
I just replaced the original Goodyear Wrangler tires with a set of BFG All Terrains in 265/70R18 for the peace of mind of stronger sidewalls but I did all of the trails at Uwharrie except for the big hill on Daniel back in the Spring.
The 4 cylinder P300 with the locking diffs and all terrain progress control works great off road (the 4 cylinder has 4.11 differential gearing instead of the 3.54 of the sixes). I'm very pleased with the truck.
I just replaced the original Goodyear Wrangler tires with a set of BFG All Terrains in 265/70R18 for the peace of mind of stronger sidewalls but I did all of the trails at Uwharrie except for the big hill on Daniel back in the Spring.
The 4 cylinder P300 with the locking diffs and all terrain progress control works great off road (the 4 cylinder has 4.11 differential gearing instead of the 3.54 of the sixes). I'm very pleased with the truck.
Attachments
Correus
Adventurer
You mean "All Terrain" don't you?
HUMMER/Expeditions
Well-known member
Voice texting does it ?
for the most part defender is reliable vehicle, one of our group guys has it over 2 years now.
no issues, off road all the time as well.
I personally drive it, and it’s enjoyable.
There is no new reliable vehicle, as simple as that.
for the most part defender is reliable vehicle, one of our group guys has it over 2 years now.
no issues, off road all the time as well.
I personally drive it, and it’s enjoyable.
There is no new reliable vehicle, as simple as that.
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DieselRanger
Well-known member
They drove it like idiots and blew a tire. Land Rover runs OEM street tires on stock vehicles at Poison Spider and Hell's Revenge, and they're not dragging vehicles off the route. It's pretty simple, really - as slow as possible, as fast as necessary.
That eight-inch rock is well within the capability of those tires. I have used them in their various incarnations on multiple vehicles all across Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Utah on obstacles larger and more complicated than that and have never had an issue. But if I lined up three feet from a square edge obstacle and ran at it, sure, I'd probably blow one, too.
Great example - here's my D5 at the upper trailhead at Yankee Boy Basin. See the green jeep? Driver rear tire was hissing air from a cut in the shoulder right between two tread blocks. Those tires were MTs. And if you look closely, at the upper-upper trailhead, there's a Toyota Hiace 4x4 (or something like that) on skinny little tires that I assumed were ATs, since I'm not aware of any MTs or better that could fit those little roller skates it rides on. Couldn't tell if they had any flats but they seemed to be enjoying themselves so I am guessing no.
If you aren't a great driver, sure, more meat on your rims will mitigate poor line choice, ham fists, and lead feet. And if you want click$ on a video featuring a vehicle people love to hate, there's no better way to do it than to blow a tire on a simple obstacle. The hard part, which they failed at, is doing it so that it doesn't *look* like you're trying to do it.
Victory_Overland
Explorer
Big Bear two weeks ago; who wore it better????? One of us took the road less traveled! I do like how he/she parked it in 'Off-Road Height," though........
click$? ******?
You forgot to obfuscate the plate of an innocent bystander.
ChasingOurTrunks
Well-known member
I have a question -- I don't doubt there are a lot of happy defender owners out there, but this is not mileage I'd consider as evidence of something working reliably necessarily Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the new defender and was keen on one for a good while, but I think our expectations ought to be a bit higher of a brand new vehicle in terms of how many trouble free miles we can reasonable see, and I'm wondering what other data/stories are out there? The ND has been out for a while now; what is the high end of mileage on the ones in people's hands (some must be pushing 50k?), and does anyone know what the owners journey for those has been like?
And to be clear, I'm not saying your vehicle won't reach that bar and I hope you have 100,000+ trouble free miles, but that is where I would start to say that we've got a solid counterpoint to the issues that folks have been having on otherwise new vehicles. It's still a very new vehicle model, and for stuff like this, it truly is a "time (or mileage) will tell" situation -- The OP isn't the only one who has had trouble, and there does seem to be a frequency of problems with the new Defender that has not been seen on, say, the new 300 Series, or the new Nissan Frontiers. But if for every random sit-down/failure, there was a car pushing high miles in hard use, it would inform the reality a bit differently.
@permalux , did the vehicle give any warning that it was going to malfunction? Any codes or hints in terms of performance? What I'm really asking -- Could you have gone and parked in the middle of nowhere and awoken to a dead rig, and thus been stranded?
As an aside, I seem to be getting Deja Vu on this thread a bit and I think the last one made it to over 100 pages before it was nuked. I'm seriously interested in learning about people's experience with the New Defender and discussing it's reliability in the context of remote area travel, so if this thread could stay calm (and, if it does that, unlocked) that'd be swell. I'm also thinking of our friendly neighborhood mods who have to spend a ton of time cleaning up threads like this in lieu of locking them if they get out of hand, so let's save them the work and keep the discussion chill. It's just a car, after all.
Regcabguy
Oil eater.
The rappers and the Kardashians love them.