New Defender News

mpinco

Expedition Leader
I agree that the future is "Compact" for ICE vehicles.

I never really saw the Defender as a tow vehicle -- it's nice that it CAN tow, but I agree with you that if I needed to tow often I would be looking outside of JLR for that rig. .......

Actually I think the future of Compact is ICE, Hybrid and EV's. Weight is an issue for efficient ICE, becoming a significant issue for EV's.

My 2011 LR4 has been a great tow vehicles over the years. The 5.0V8 is plenty of power. The rear liftgate/dropgate wasn't an issue for access even with a TT attached. I replaced the factory tow hitch with the Rhino hitch (even JLR couldn't confidently give me towing limits). After several years of camping/towing, we had zero issues. We did discover the limits of wheelbase as the LR4 is relatively short at 114" and that travel trailer tongue weight is under-spec'd by manufacturers. They spec dry weight while the normal weight is wet, with propane, water, etc. The low JLR tongue capability becomes an issue relatively quickly.

The tow vehicle wheelbase becomes an issue for TT's above roughly 21-24'. Your suggestion on TT sector adopting more sophisticated frame/suspension design principles is interesting.

Over the years we have gone from tents to 19' to 23.75' TT's. Sometimes moving up from 18' TT's, back to pop-ups, then to tents, then to 19' TT and recently 23.75' TT. In all cases the TV became the exploratory vehicle for day trips while the TT was "base". A slight case of two-foot-itis over 40 years but I'm pretty sure we are done with those changes.

JLR has the design capability to support towing. Their product line choices mostly don't support a TT. The factory doesn't even offer towing mirrors. Where did I have to go for towing mirrors? Well Australia!

So full circle. LR's direction is smaller lighter models as they move to hybrid and EV's. You see that even with the RR that has lost a 1000 lbs and become less tow friendly. From a CAFE perspective JLR lacks a segment of vehicles that supports higher GVWR's. Maybe the move to add the D80 product line will enable them to add a higher GVWR product line.
 

DieselRanger

Well-known member
Last edited:

mpinco

Expedition Leader
During the last few years camping seems to morphed to a mix of weekenders, overlanders, campers and ....... homeless. Now we are going to have to deal with the work-from-"home" camper who needs connectivity. ...... Great
 

TexasTJ

Climbing Nerd
God 5G suck sooooo bad!!! None of our cars are going to because they are waiting to download the new software... :eek:
 

DieselRanger

Well-known member
God 5G suck sooooo bad!!! None of our cars are going to because they are waiting to download the new software... :eek:
Should be fairly quick on 5G as long as you're not parked right next to an NFL stadium on game day or something...it's my D5's 3G connection that takes forever for my SOTA updates to download. I tell it to pause until I pull into my garage and it connects to wifi. Or I turn on my phone's hotspot and let the car's wifi connect through that. But I force update checks well before I go out on trips so I don't have to deal with a bad or failed update right when I need something. Just one more thing to add to the list - oil, battery, brakes, coolant, software updates....
 

morrisdl

Adventurer
I suspect >2" subframe lift might require new drive shafts. They mention in the video trying +3" sub-frame lift and +1" rods for the next build.
 

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