Another video of the Defender being used in the "exception" category for what its sole design was "not" designed for and doing pretty damn good. Remember it's bone stock with factory configured tires; not lifted or anything outside of its design and still being compared to a Jeep on rock-climbing and not the other 99% of global travel.
I did 1600 (Odometer 131,684; 08LR3) miles starting on Friday til late last night; short story Oceanside to Sacramento, to Redding, to Yosemite, to Sacramento, to Tahoe, to Mammoth Lakes, to Death Valley, to Alabama Hills and Whitney Corridor, Red Rock (the Cali one), back to Oceanside. Of those 1600 miles, (solo trip with a lady friend so route smartness was of key concern since we were planned solo vehicle, long distance and off-cell grid the vast majority), almost 500 of those miles were off-road from sand, mountain roads, firebreaks, a tad of mild rock crawling, and a ton of high and low desert unimproved roads; every stop had a off-trek excursion via overland travel to the next stop via Gaia maps. For those of us Southwestern based folks, we understand how far you can go without touching tarmac in the Sierras and Eastern Sierra Corridor and those are hard miles to make time off-pavement. For those freeway cruising miles in between, 15.3MPG on 17" KM2's in creature 08 Land Rover comfort with the cruise at 72mph/2100rpm and normal conversation tones inside the vehicle and second row seat NL 52l fridge/freezer chilling the drinks and snacks. Off-road; generally in auto shift and 3-4 gear cruising the desert trails and if low-range 2-3 gear for the occasional 1st gear on the critical steep climbs, rocks, and decent. Ran across a few kitted out LR3/4 up north; can only imagine its the NCLR crew but for the most part it was just a good crowd of all flavors all around doing overlanding; living it, not just taking a rock-crawling excursion for a few miles but actually traveling long ranges in vehicles designed to do so in a wide-variety of environments, climates, and terrain. I can cruise comfortably on the freeway at about 75mph with decent mileage and comfort and 40mph off-road on washboards no problem and then go as slow as technical terrain is needed; the point is there is far more to overlanding than rock-crawling so yeah; I'll digress on all these comparative videos.
I will say, minor setback in Tahoe with a water pump fail; but not the Genuine LR, the replacement Delco I put in long ago and didn't make it anywhere near as far as the original LR spec WP did. I keep a spare alternator and water pump stowed tightly with the fan wrench inside the back panels; are these JLR specificities related to potential overlanding breakdowns; I think not. 1.5 hour set-back (takes longer to bleed the system then change the pump) and back on the road and to the trail and to 9000' above Tahoe Ridge for some epic camping and solo spot. Sub-sea-level of for bit in Death Valley (F-its hot) and then up to 10.5k at Lone Pine Lake in the Mt. Whitney Corridor for some adventure running.
My biggest complaint as always in my LR3 is:............RANGE; it takes planning when I have to carry one or two Jerries and plan my routes so tightly around fuel and I feel the new Defender is going to be the same! I'll digress, my LR3 and the Old and New Defender are not rock-crawler designed like a Rubicon; but out of the box they are pretty close when the "NO MOD" rules are in play. For the rest of the 99% of the overland categories that the Defender and my LR3 were designed for; try and keep up! I have more money in off-grid complete sustainability in my vehicle than I do modifications for performance; tires are all that was needed and I can go to some pretty gnarly spots with a bone stock LR.
Happy trails all you RAGERS who need to see that Defender fail on the rocks and your solid axles and 37's to be off-road..........the rest of us will see it succeed in every other area.
On that note, parked next to this young kid and his lady in their Gladiator in Palmdale on the home stretch after Red Rock. We parked around the same time, exited our vehicles and the kid looked at me and said "Damn, that Rover is sweet.....can't wait to get my lift and my tires so I can go places like this and have it all dirty, my buddies won't let me go til I get all my mods done." I replied to him "thanks man, that's an awesome compliment but you don't need any of that stuff to take your lady out to many of the places we just went to and show her a great time". I gave him my paper Eastern Sierra trails map with a ton of roads he can travel with great spots to cut his teeth on that are safe if he's out alone and welcomed him to the community." His peers were making him feel he couldn't come until his Jeep was up to par and he's telling me places I know any unmodified Jeep or Subaru could drive 10/10 times. Tell me that is not the norm, making a young kid believe he needs $10k in mods to hang on the trails and it's all around; the Internet Expo Pros and haters telling people all this profound knowledge and backing it up with absolutely no substance. Gave him my card and told him about the portal so hopefully he's logging on and getting some good info from other great members that can be backed up with facts and relevance and not emotional projection over vehicle names.
Which one is overlanding all about................??????????
