Those are real lookers guys. Nice! I'll try to post some pics of mine late next week.

 

Good news on the horizon - my D90/300 has been sitting in Baltimore since June 1 awaiting some kind of engine certification. It was released on Wednesday, arrived at the dealer yesterday and they are delivering tomorrow at 10:30am. Have faith!

 

drcoop - nice, but where’s your Expedition rack?

 

Its at the dealership, but I talked my sales associate into allowing me to install it with his help, saving dealer labor charges! With YouTube (primarily Powerful UK), I somehow convinced him that I could show him how to install a roof rack, thus saving a bit of overpriced dealer labor. We’ll see how it goes

 

Looking good guys.

 

The 2022 X5 order guide is out and only the base radio is still available, so it looks like we will order another Defender. Estimated return time of the optional Harmon Kardon radio in the X5 is 9 to 12 months. After having two 2013 LR4's for the past 8 years I was hoping to add some variety to the family motor pool. But, just can't live with clock radio sound quality in a $75K vehicle. And for whatever reason, replacing the X5 base system with an aftermarket sound system voids the warranty. Demonstrates how integrated today's infotainment systems are.

Anyway, nice to see that Defender orders are still moving along with all the options still available. Only dilemma is the offroad pack...not sure if we really need 2 Defenders with offroad tires and torque vectoring. Odd that the torque vectoring is only available in the offroad pack since I have read it helps on-road cornering and handling.

 

We have two 2021 110SE's and one has the off road pack and one not, that also has the 22" rims. I see no real difference even in mild off road use, nor any significant difference in the ride either. Having the rear locker is nice but i don't think it's absolutely essential. Having said that I did see a comparison with the locker and not, and while it appeared to have a slight advantage, both vehicles climbed the terrain just fine.

 

Which only proves that the terrain in question wasn’t terrain that required a locking rear differential.

6 years ago I had a nicely built Wrangler with a Limited Slip rear diff. It did just fine on all the terrain my buddy’s Rubicon with lockers could climb. Until one day we came to terrain that I couldn’t climb and he just crawled up without an ounce of drama. I was at the locker store on Monday.

That said... I realize the electronical gimcrackery on the Defender is advanced well beyond that of the JK Wrangler, and much of that is designed to mimic the function of a mechanical locker. So the type of terrain that a locked 110 will climb but an unlocked one won’t climb might be pretty thin these days. I’ll be interested (assuming you can manually prevent the locker from turning on) to experiment on some tough sandy or gravelly hills with both modes — full electronics but unlocked, and full electronics while locked — and learn just what sort of terrain demands the lockers.

 

And by the way, my 110 is sitting at the dealer waiting to get in for PDI. I don’t have time to get it the rest of the day, so I’m picking it up Monday morning. So glad I didn’t have a trip planned where I’m leaving tomorrow and can’t take it. I’ll actually be taking a 2.5 hour trip to NC Thursday so it should be broken in a bit by then.

For the record, I placed my order 3/25, locked 4/25, with a scheduled build date of 5/7. It was built early and shipped to Southampton by 5/5, where it sat for a month, finally shipped in June and arrived at Brunswick on 6/20 or so, after a stop in Baltimore. Since it was at the dealer yesterday, and it’s just their inability to get it PDI’d that keeps me from having it today, we’ll say that was 3/25 to 6/27 start to finish.

 

Everything working as expected - about 2 hours configuring everything.