new defender roadtested

[gwood]

just had a new defender delivered so i had to take it for a spin. drove very smooth and the 6 speed box made it quite liverly. was very impressed.

[thinfourth]

Sod the gearbox

Does the heater actually work for the first time ever in a defender?

[BLUETHUNDER]

And have you got elbow room?

[agent006]

Any chance of an off-roadtest?

[gwood]

its still the same defender just with a better interior/dashboard and seats. the engine and gearbox is better than the td5 and it has a bulge on the bonnet. apart from that its still the same land rover defender. the engine( transit ) was put in because it was the only engine available to meet new emission laws the td5 wouldnt be de tuned any further to meet the emissions.

[agent006]

True dat, but would be good to know if the engine suits the defender off road or if it's worse than the TD5.

[Arif110]

I just doubt how well an engine and gearbox designed for a van, will put up with the sorts of use which for any other vehicle's engine and gearbox would constitute ABuse. Tree-stump-pulling, type loads - which can certainly occur under quite innocuous-seeming off-road situations.

All it's done is shifted the weakest link from say a CV-joint - to the gearbox & engine now!!

Upgrading things like the diff and halfshafts will be completely pointless now, IMO - as they are no longer the weak links in the transmission.

Just my penny's-worth, anyhoo!

[agent006]

True enough, but it's an engine from a van that's designed to take getting on for 7.5 tonnes of stuff (4.5t LWB with full towing weight).