New Defender

[VicW]

I saw my first new model Land Rover Defender today. It is huge and seems to be about the size of a Ford Transit, I don't see many of them being bought by our local farmers in Lincolnshire for farm work like a poorly sick farm animal going to the vets. The spare wheel is mounted on the back door and looks right for stealing or vandalising as it is not in a cover.

Vic.

[cornishpasty]

I have seen one too. Seems like another chelsea tractor, and definitely not a utility vehicle.

[Westy36]

I'm sure they will be very accomplished off road, but not a proper Defender. I can't see the armed forces using them. Ugly things too.



Mind you, JLR haven't done too well on the rear of the Disco 5 either! 

[Jocko]

Yes. Putting the spare wheel on the outside is not a great security feature.

[Westy36]

A mate of mine years ago had a SWB 2 1/4 petrol. I remember driving that. Nothing drives like an old landy.

[John Ratsey]

Yes. Putting the spare wheel on the outside is not a great security feature.

I would expect that there's a locking wheel nut on the new vehicle so it's at no greater risk than the other four wheels (assuming they have locking nuts).

Some (all?) of the old L/Rs had provision for a padlock to make sure that the spare(s) didn't go astray. Putting the spare on the bonnet used to ear out the bonnet hinges but that was preferable to wearing out the back door hinges which resulted in a lot of rattling and an increase in the dust penetrating the cabin although those very effective ventilation flaps under the windscreen would help keep that dust away.

The other place for the spare wheels was on the roof as shown on the attached photo from 1980/81.

[Jocko]

There is also a range of Landrover commercial vehicles including the Defender and Discovery.