My first landrover
Discussion
I've finally managed to save up enough to get myself a Land Rover. Hoping to use it for a bit of weekend green laning and off roading (I have a Puma as a daily) and will be doing repairs/maintenance myself to improve my mechanical skills.
My question is whether I would be daft to get one of these first out?
http://www.mod-sales.com/direct/vehicle/,25,/38643...
I appreciate its going to have led a hard life and will be tired, but is there anything in particular I should be aware of when purchasing an ex-military land rover?
Thanks in advance
MrH
My question is whether I would be daft to get one of these first out?
http://www.mod-sales.com/direct/vehicle/,25,/38643...
I appreciate its going to have led a hard life and will be tired, but is there anything in particular I should be aware of when purchasing an ex-military land rover?
Thanks in advance
MrH
MrHargreaves said:
I appreciate its going to have led a hard life and will be tired, but is there anything in particular I should be aware of when purchasing an ex-military land rover?
MrH
it may have had a hard life depends on where it was stationed, get something from the raf and its going to have a fairly light life by all accounts.MrH
having said that remember the military make sure they are all tip top condition mechanically, you may just get a poor paint job for your money.
I agree with the others. Ex military is ok. A mate who has done a couple of tours as a medic in the TA says they are better treated than my weekend toy. He tells me often giving a 90 an oil and filter change, along with a thorough maintenance check is handed out as light punishment to the raw recruits. He says his squad hack gets done every week invariably!
The only trouble is their ad says 'starting from' so they probably will have 'just sold' the only one they had at that price. Have a search on some forums for the pros and cons of N/A Diesels as opposed to 200TDi's, although an early 90/110 would probably be much easier to achieve on our budget than a later 200TDi Defender even if it wasn't ex-MOD.
jesta1865 said:
it may have had a hard life depends on where it was stationed, get something from the raf and its going to have a fairly light life by all accounts.
Bit of a myth really. Some of the ones we used to use on the flight got a right hammering. Short runs round camp, all sorts of weird POL and heavy tools chucked in the back, towing aircraft, pushing snow ploughs, sitting outside in crap weather....
Those will be at Wathams then. I recently went there when I bought a Sankey trailer and saw a lot of the Landrovers that were waiting disposal, they ranged from a few really nice ones complete with new tyres, to the absolutely knackered sheds, with bald tyre, leaning suspension and bent panels. Also look to see what it was used for as some of them had stuff fitted in the back of them, which now most of it will have been removed but leaving a bit of a mess. If you can get down there to look at a few and see what the stock number is (if they'll let you)
cpas said:
...and remember anything before the 200TDi (1990) is not a Defender!
I think Landrover carried on making Defenders with other engines besides Tdis for several years, including the 3.5/3.9 and 4.0 (in some markets) V8, the 2.5 petrol and 2.5 non turbo diesel. Obviously nearly everyone bought a Tdi, but military and some civilian vehicles built in the early 90's were not Tdis.I reckon condition is everything with a Land Rover, rather have a solid vehicle with the gutless 2.5 diesel than a ropey Tdi. There are some really horrific late 90's defenders about too, real replacement chassis and bulkhead candidates.
warch said:
cpas said:
...and remember anything before the 200TDi (1990) is not a Defender!
I think Landrover carried on making Defenders with other engines besides Tdis for several years, including the 3.5/3.9 and 4.0 (in some markets) V8, the 2.5 petrol and 2.5 non turbo diesel. Obviously nearly everyone bought a Tdi, but military and some civilian vehicles built in the early 90's were not Tdis.I reckon condition is everything with a Land Rover, rather have a solid vehicle with the gutless 2.5 diesel than a ropey Tdi. There are some really horrific late 90's defenders about too, real replacement chassis and bulkhead candidates.
. What I meant was that when the 200TDi came out was the first time they were called Defenders, but I can't remember the exact year. There are many out there advertised as Defenders which are 90s or 110s but not strictly Defenders. There were some subtly improvements to the Defenders and arguably the earlier ones are worth less but, as you say, condition is more important. Lots of earlier cars have replacement TDi engines but not all had power steering etc. cpas said:
warch said:
cpas said:
...and remember anything before the 200TDi (1990) is not a Defender!
I think Landrover carried on making Defenders with other engines besides Tdis for several years, including the 3.5/3.9 and 4.0 (in some markets) V8, the 2.5 petrol and 2.5 non turbo diesel. Obviously nearly everyone bought a Tdi, but military and some civilian vehicles built in the early 90's were not Tdis.I reckon condition is everything with a Land Rover, rather have a solid vehicle with the gutless 2.5 diesel than a ropey Tdi. There are some really horrific late 90's defenders about too, real replacement chassis and bulkhead candidates.
. What I meant was that when the 200TDi came out was the first time they were called Defenders, but I can't remember the exact year. There are many out there advertised as Defenders which are 90s or 110s but not strictly Defenders. There were some subtly improvements to the Defenders and arguably the earlier ones are worth less but, as you say, condition is more important. Lots of earlier cars have replacement TDi engines but not all had power steering etc. cpas said:
Sorry, I didn't word that quite correctly . What I meant was that when the 200TDi came out was the first time they were called Defenders, but I can't remember the exact year. There are many out there advertised as Defenders which are 90s or 110s but not strictly Defenders. There were some subtly improvements to the Defenders and arguably the earlier ones are worth less but, as you say, condition is more important. Lots of earlier cars have replacement TDi engines but not all had power steering etc.
Oh I see what you mean, sorry. Yeah you're absolutely right the later model name has wrongly been applied to the earlier (catchily titled) 90/110/127 model range, and is occasionally used to describe 'Series' models. . What I meant was that when the 200TDi came out was the first time they were called Defenders, but I can't remember the exact year. There are many out there advertised as Defenders which are 90s or 110s but not strictly Defenders. There were some subtly improvements to the Defenders and arguably the earlier ones are worth less but, as you say, condition is more important. Lots of earlier cars have replacement TDi engines but not all had power steering etc. I think the early Defenders were basically the same as the outgoing model, except for the sustitution of the old TD engined model with the Tdi. All the pre Defender 90's I've used had power steering, but I'm sure you're right that it wasn't standard. Landrover went upmarket in the 90s and designed lots of lifestyle type vehicles, my all time favourite being the County Hardtop with alpine windows and Rostyle wheels. The 300 Tdi got a different gearbox and clutch system.
warch said:
cpas said:
Sorry, I didn't word that quite correctly . What I meant was that when the 200TDi came out was the first time they were called Defenders, but I can't remember the exact year. There are many out there advertised as Defenders which are 90s or 110s but not strictly Defenders. There were some subtly improvements to the Defenders and arguably the earlier ones are worth less but, as you say, condition is more important. Lots of earlier cars have replacement TDi engines but not all had power steering etc.
Oh I see what you mean, sorry. Yeah you're absolutely right the later model name has wrongly been applied to the earlier (catchily titled) 90/110/127 model range, and is occasionally used to describe 'Series' models. . What I meant was that when the 200TDi came out was the first time they were called Defenders, but I can't remember the exact year. There are many out there advertised as Defenders which are 90s or 110s but not strictly Defenders. There were some subtly improvements to the Defenders and arguably the earlier ones are worth less but, as you say, condition is more important. Lots of earlier cars have replacement TDi engines but not all had power steering etc. I think the early Defenders were basically the same as the outgoing model, except for the sustitution of the old TD engined model with the Tdi. All the pre Defender 90's I've used had power steering, but I'm sure you're right that it wasn't standard. Landrover went upmarket in the 90s and designed lots of lifestyle type vehicles, my all time favourite being the County Hardtop with alpine windows and Rostyle wheels. The 300 Tdi got a different gearbox and clutch system.
cpas said:
There were a few subtle changes such as intermittent wipe, automatic glow plug timer, 'Ninety' became '90' and 'One Ten' became '110', push handles were also intruduced at some point on the doors, better steering wheel and all sorts of other stuff I can't think of.
Again I think these were introduced in the mid to late eighties. I always think the one piece doors were a great advance, the old floppy door tops are a pain in the arse, especially in windy rainy weather. MrHargreaves said:
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