New Defender News

[JackW]

Thank you again for the feedback. The Front Runner rack on my LR4 was quite loud, but the fairing I installed quieted it down considerably. I see one of your club members has the Front Runner rack on his Defender as well. I had a similar experience to Dogpilot, and the purchased separately, at considerable expense, Front Runner fairing did work well. I was curious whether a Land Rover designed rack would be quieter since presumably they could test it in their own wind tunnel or as part of their own Defender testing, but I suspect that there really is only so much one can do from a physics standpoint to get a reasonably quiet roof rack. I think that a front fairing is really the best bet, but I also find wind noise to be annoying and fatiguing more than most.

We are considering a small travel trailer, but it would probably be 2-4k lbs, so similar to your experience. That's helpful. I really would prefer my vehicles to either be fully internal combustion or fully electric at this point from a complexity and drivability experience, so it's good to know that the P300 would fit our needs in the future.

Look at small fiberglass trailers like a Scamp, Boler, Armadillo or a Snoozy. The forum at fiberglass RV.com has a lot of information. I have a German Eriba Puck I imported from the UK last year - it's 12' long and weighs around 1000 lbs.

 

[Dogpilot]

I got a call thursday from the LR dealer. He knows I want to order a new one. So he had one unit allocated that he could modify the order. I asked him, " so they have published the 2022 list of options?" "No, sadly they have not." So I really could order something I may not get and then miss out on items not featured in 2021 catalog. To make it worse, their website crashed yet again this week so the build your own function stopped working. That and the options that are populated on the website may or may not be available. Even if you call their own order desk, they cannot tell you what you can and cannot get.

It seems the automakers all are falling on their sword on new popular vehicles. Glance over to Ford and the new Bronco. It is a very lengthy list. It seems the Range Rover is going to have to solider on. I really sold the Defender 90 ST waaaay to early. It brought in an obscene amount of money, but it relegated the RR to the primary field vehicle, when the intent was to get the new 90. The universe again, laughs behind my back.

 

[ebrabaek]

This is obviously not an off road event but still pretty cool as Branson used the new defender to tow his space ship back to Port after the first paid human spaceflight. Actually this was a conformity flight......before the first paying customers are going..... still...
Pretty cool.

 

[A.J.M]

Front runners website shows various wind fairings of different widths.

find the width of the FR roof rack for the Defender and then get a fairing to match it.

My FR rack on my D3 was very loud.
The wind fairing for that made a huge difference to noise levels for the car.

 

[Carson G]

This is awesome.

https://www.topgear.com/node/308367

 

[T-Willy]

Where Defender's large wheels result in two sidewall failures leaving it stranded.

 

[Carson G]

Where Defender's large wheels result in two sidewall failures leaving it stranded.

Not surprised sharp rocks + heavy vehicle + weak tire = tire failure. They would’ve had a solid chance with 18’s and the OEM Duratrac option that they seem to not know about.

 

[Todd780]

They would’ve had a solid chance with 18’s and the OEM Duratrac option that they seem to not know about.

Or was that how Land Rover supplied the vehicle to them?

 

[spikemd]

I blew 2 OEM 'offroad' tires in less than 2k miles. They are crap. Have General X3s mud terrains on now, 265/70 18s. Much better.

 

[spikemd]

Pic of my Grabbers.

 

[Carson G]

Or was that how Land Rover supplied the vehicle to them?

I mean they bought it off the lot so it wasn’t a special order it’s just what LR had available for immediate delivery, had they known about the Duratrac’s they could’ve gotten them I’m sure. Although their dealer couldn’t handle the winch install so I’m not surprised they didn’t know about the other tire option.

 

[T-Willy]

I mean they bought it off the lot so it wasn’t a special order it’s just what LR had available for immediate delivery, had they known about the Duratrac’s they could’ve gotten them I’m sure. Although their dealer couldn’t handle the winch install so I’m not surprised they didn’t know about the other tire option.

The video states that they tested all of the trucks with their factory-supplied tires. They state Defender was shod with the most aggressive off-road tire option that was available from JLR when they bought it.

Regardless, that wheel is too large and tire profile too small for this sort of use. It begs exactly these problems.

 

[T-Willy]

Pic of my Grabbers.View attachment 673865

Much better.

 

[Carson G]

The video states that they tested all of the trucks with their factory-supplied tires. They state Defender was shod with the most aggressive off-road tire option that was available from JLR when they bought it.

Regardless, that wheel is too large and tire profile too small for this sort of use. It begs exactly these problems.

Even though Duratrac’s have been available since the beginning they just didn’t know about it. All you have to do when you order the vehicle is ask for the professional off road tire option which gets you Duratrac’s which are installed at the dealer prior to delivery. As far as I know every Defender and Discovery since the beginning to the current day has a MT or “professional” tire option. This is not the first time TFL has been misinformed. But yes I agree the 20” wheels with 32’s is not a great combination especially on a 6,000lb vehicle on a non LT tire.

 

[T-Willy]

Even though Duratrac’s have been available since the beginning they just didn’t know about it. All you have to do when you order the vehicle is ask for the professional off road tire option which gets you Duratrac’s which are installed at the dealer prior to delivery. As far as I know every Defender and Discovery since the beginning to the current day has a MT or “professional” tire option. This is not the first time TFL has been misinformed. But yes I agree the 20” wheels with 32’s is not a great combination especially on a 6,000lb vehicle on a non LT tire.

If that's true, I'd be careful pointing a misinformation finger at TFL. As you note, their understanding of options may reflect what they were told by the dealer (the same experts who cased their second Defender while installing a winch).