On road my coil sprung 90 is fine, and the roads round here are pretty poor in places.

lt actually improved after a few hundred miles from new, initially it was somewhat harsh during light off road. But it improved after l had owned it a few weeks and done some mileage.

Not sure why this would happen.

 

I don't think dogpilot stated that air is more durable and reliable than coil, instead, air is not as non-durable and unreliable as many think/claim

 

Springs, shocks, bushings etc all wear in during early mileage.

 

I’ve seen a lot of comments from air suspension owners that unless they are in a remote area, there is a little chance of getting stranded if an air suspension component fail.

I was on vacation with my family in our range rover about 15 years ago when we had the air suspension fail in upstate New York. The nearest dealer was several hours away and was unwilling to stay open late on a Saturday for the RR to be towed into their dealership and repaired. We lost nearly 3 days of our vacation getting jacked around and that’s not something I expected from a premium brand.

First, let’s compare dealership coverage in the USA: 199 LR, 2414 Jeep, 1400 Toyota, 2965 Ford.

For those of us that will actually take our Defender on vacation road trips, we should be sober about access to dealerships or parts:

- Going to Colorado? 3 dealers in the state

- Going to Yellowstone? Nearest dealer is 284 miles away in Salt Lake.

- Going to the Grand Canyon? Nearest dealer is 162 miles away in Henderson Nevada.

- Mountain biking in Moab or visiting Arches National Park? Nearest dealer is 135 miles away in Colorado.

- Going to a popular beach destination like Destin, Florida? The nearest dealer is 99 miles away in Mobile, Alabama.

I could keep going, but you get the point.

The dealerships are located near urban areas to support for soccer moms driving Range Rovers —not adventure seekers driving Defenders.

For these reasons, I only caution all of us to not think we are driving a Toyota Tacoma or Ford Bronco where dealerships and parts are just around the corner.

🤛🏻

 

Good points here, but in North America if you want 5+2 seats, you will have to take air suspension and family pack with 3rd row climate and air cleaner etc.... That's quite a bit of $$$ too.

 

As a motorcyclists who has often toured the country on Italian bikes I think you and I have VERY different definitions of "stranded."

If I can't fix it, I can always rent a vehicle to continue my trip (broken LR) or one to haul it home (broken Italian bike).

As a long time Harley owner it sometimes gives me warm and fuzzys to travel on one and know there are so many dealers. Then again a friend left PA some years back on a new Harley bound for TX and it broke down on I95 by the time he'd only reached MD, on a Saturday afternoon. The local dealer was just closing and their service department didn't open again until Tuesday and the needed parts didn't arrive until Wednesday. My friend spent a lot of frustrating days alone in a hotel waiting for his new bike to be fixed.

​​​​​I guess I'm saying there are no guarantees and you make your own luck. And just because there is a large dealer network doesn't mean you won't need a plan B or self-sufficiency.

 

@Kev M
I think you misread my comments. It is not that we don’t need a “Plan B” — it’s that we want to minimize how often we need it.

 

I wouldn't have a clue about any difference in feel between the two. I doubt even if I had driven both types I'd be able to tell or appreciate any difference. I'm not much of a race-driver.

I've never had an air suspension equipped vehicle before my Defender. I don't notice anything different good or bad. I added TR2 via the towing pack to my build so that immediately means air. My preliminary measures told me I'd need air to fit in my garage with ski rack so knew I had to get it. I have 1/2" to spare. 1/4" with my KO2s. It's a squeaker even in access.


Tinkered with the garage door opener to get a bit more room after this shot.

The advantages to me are very much use-dependent.

For your setup, I'd be happy to have coils if it meant getting all the stuff I wanted like TR2. No access height to worry about if fitting bigger tires is also a bonus.

 

Very much agree on a large network of dealers doesn't mean you won't need a plan B. Ask the multiple Bronco owners who had fuel pump failures several miles off-road and had to abandon their vehicles on the trail for a day or two. There have also been other failures that left people stranded and waiting for days (or longer).

I learned a lot about having a plan B prepared when I took a solo trip on a 30-odd year old BMW motorcycle into northern Quebec in an area that did not have cell service (I think it does now, but this was 2007), and to say an unfixable breakdown would have been "inconvenient" is quite the understatement. This was on a road that I saw maybe 1 vehicle an hour (with me traveling at 60-70mph). So I prepared - had spares, skills, but also carried a satellite tracker/rescue signal device to cover me in the worst case. It's ALWAYS good to have a plan B. I took my Defender off-pavement in the Badlands with my wife and two dogs. A failure of the air suspension also would have been trouble, but I again had a satellite signalling device (Garmin), food, water, medical supplies, cold packs, and a shade awning I could have deployed until rescue arrived.

This is probably now way off-topic, but if you worry a lot about the air suspension, what keeps you from worrying about the engine, supercharger, 48-volt battery pack, or transmission? Might as well just stay home. Get what makes you happy, and assume there is always going to be risks, regardless.

 

LOL, and yet when my 14,000-mile JK dropped a valve seat into Cyl No. 6 and punched a hole in the side of the block on a mild trail outside of Moab, Jeep had to flatbed it 112 miles to Grand Junction, CO. Then they had to ship it back to me in Atlanta a month later with a new long block, but that's another story for another day.



And I'm not arguing with your broader point; just adding that some of those locations you're going to have a long haul to get to one of the other dealerships also, not just LR.

Cheers!