Land Rover Defender.

[chris8472]

you forgot diff guards and a fuel tank guard i fitted roof spots so if you drive through deep water at night you dont blow your driving lights and you going to need a split charger if its a 200 or 300 tdi a second altarnator thats what i got fitted to my disco as if one fails you can link the second altanator to run the car

How could i forget the Diff and fuel tank Guards. Silly boy. lol. I like your idea of a second alternator. Hadn't thought of that.

gwin lewis 4x4 do the second altornator braket and belt it fits where the air con conpresser goes don't forget a wading kit if you fiting a snorkel

[ORAC1]

A few other things to think about if you plan using your LR in the wilds:

Split battery charge system, allows you to run accessories without flattening the main battery.

Solar panel and charger, saves you having to start the engine to charge the batteries.

Water tank and filtration system, sink with tap and electric pump are nice.

Winch, useful for getting you and others out of a jam, also useful for pulling obstacles out of the way like trees and other cars.

There are great LR expedition websites with hundreds of other ideas.
Orac

[spindrift]

Id forget the roof tent to be honest. They use those out in Africa and the likes to keep safe from the lions, tigers and bears oh my! Instead maybe look at getting an army 9' by 9' they have a sock that fits over the back of the vehicle so you can use the inside of the vehicle as well. I loved those things and did many an exercise living in them on the hilltops of Salisbury plain. Toasty warm to

[tigs]

just seen a 1974 Land Rover series 3 stationwagon diesel up for sale near to me , discribed as having a defender look for £1500 im guessing its like the one here http://fourbyfours.com/html/land_rover_series.html top picture , does anyone know if its worth the money or too cheep? i have had my defender from new and have no idea about the cost of them second hand

[metatron]

just seen a 1974 Land Rover series 3 stationwagon diesel up for sale near to me , discribed as having a defender look for £1500 im guessing its like the one here http://fourbyfours.com/html/land_rover_series.html top picture , does anyone know if its worth the money or too cheep? i have had my defender from new and have no idea about the cost of them second hand

I've owned a series 3, horrible to drive anywhere but off road, extremely slow but mechanically very simple. They rust a lot, if the thing is clean and runs well and you want a off roader only, their okay. If you want something you can use on the road as well buy something Japanese.

You will want to find a good land rover breaker as there the only real place to find parts at reasonable prices. You can sometimes find beat up land rover defender 90's for under 2k, their need work but you will learn.

[Dr_zoidberg]

Regarding Landrover Defender series diesels. I have heard bad things about the diesel engines in the older models. That they were very underpowered and much heavier than the petrol engines making the vehicle unbalanced and liable to becoming bogged down. The top speed for the diesel is about 45mph. You might get another 10mph with an overdrive. But it will struggle if heavily laden or towing something.

I've heard good things about the petrols. The engines were quite simple. Easy to maintain. The carburettor is a thirsty but simple and reliable design and you can get about 55mph. They're also lighter than the diesels. There's also a common mod to disengage the front wheels from the drive if you don't need them in the urban jungle.

Personally I have considered buying a diesel even with these problems. If the SHTF (fuel crisis, economic crisis etc.) the UK's petrol supply will be depleted within weeks. While the older more primitive diesel engines can burn different kinds of oil that other people will be unable to use. Apparently modern diesels are quite sensitive to other kinds of fuel because they use much higher pressure injection.

On the plus side mechanically defenders they are extremely simple. It would be far easier to source spare parts for one in an economic collapse than a modern Japanese 4x4. I'm looking into buying a classic myself. Although I think I'd keep it off road somewhere just in case I needed it. My budget wouldn't stretch to running one at the moment.

[unsure]

series land rovers have a free wheeling hub option , you just turn the centre nut to lock or unlock . defenders don`t and can`t have the same option as they rely on front wheel drive .

i don`t know about the older 2.5 na desiels , but the 200 and 300 tdi engines will run on just about any oil , veg oil right the way through to hydrolic oil , this you can find in just about anything with some sort of hydrolic system , transit tipper too a forklift truck . if you think about the things that use hydrolic systems you`ve no shortage of usable fuel .

given the equipment you can use old engine oil , you need to remove all the swarfe from it first .
just an idea , if you want to keep a truck just in case , then look at a discovery , about a 3rd the price of a defender and as easy to work on .

[tigs]

thanks for the info guys , i have a lot of thinking to do , i run my defender on biodiesel with no problem , mind you its and older model and have heard the new diesel models are trashed after running them on bio diesel after as little as 10,000 miles , i was thinking thats 74 series 3 would have very little electronics in it if any making it an ideal SHTF vehicle , was planning on modernizing it as much as i could with out elctronic any way ,so any resteration is not a problem, i was just worried about the price of £1500 , is it a bargin ? is it too much ? that sort of thing

[unsure]

sounds reasonable to me , depending on the engine is got in it . you might want to swap it for a 200tdi .thats a comman engine swap , however you might find it hard to get hold of a decent low milage one .

[90.]

Hi tigs, £1500 is about right for a clean S3 CSW with a long mot in my neck of the woods, the engine should be strong & smoke free when idling, although slow revving a 2.25 diesel will pull all day and should cruise at 50mph.

It will run on svo, bio & filtered wvo and if you can afford it diesel, fuel consumption anywhere from high teens to high twenties, as for the petrol you are better off with a V8 petrol than the 2.25 petrol better mpg & more power;)
both petrol and diesel are simple engines the diesel will run without a battery once started, they use a stop cable to stop the engine once running - forget trying to start one with the starting handle or a push start.! they have huge compression ratios.

gearbox should be precise the gear lever should not roll about..! and should not crunch in gear as the S3 has an all synromesh gearbox

parts are very cheap and all parts are available but variable quality, a friend built a S3 CSW completely from off the shelf parts to advertise their parts business, join a club for info if you buy a series LR.

if you don't mind a bit of work they are easy to work on with minimal tools & are a cheap-ish classic car.
get rid of any non S3 parts that make it look like a 90 they will kill the value unless you really like the way it looks.
fit parabolic springs for an almost 90/110 ride.

regards
90.