As I said "I've been told"... I think it was a thread on here where someone said the airbags are pretty straight bolt in/bolt out without the need for a spring compressor or disconnecting and dropping half the suspension to get a coil in.

As for complexity etc whatever, that's simply part of the game on a vehicle this modern with this many features. A few more sensors means little in the grand scheme of things.

 

Off topic question. @sarek Thanks again for all the great info. I wanted to ask about using the rear suspension as a jacking point. Is that the rear wishbone? I may have the name wrong. I'm not very well versed in this stuff. Is it a safe and secure jacking point? I suspect it is from seeing how beefy the area is but would like to know your thoughts.

Sorry for the derail OP

 

(read, understood, compressed for brevity)

All fair. I already had a simple and ostensibly reliable vehicle (which gave me more problems than a pretty complex German car 15 years its senior in the same time frame), and now I am willing to take a calculated risk (cue: "but boy, am I bad at math") and try something different. I already have a workshop to deal with these things, and knowing what goes (rubber doesn't like this heat at all) will allow me to focus when I'll be doing maintenance.

"There are two kinds of pilots: those that had an engine failure on a single engine plane, and those that haven't had it *yet*"

Search this thread for "some of them the hard way". Sure you can't foresee everything, but being stranded is cost of doing business. Have to be ready, or you die, that simple.

All in all, if I don't like it - I'm not going to be married to it, another Jeep will take its place... though wait, not Jeep, I will not wait 6 months for parts.

Not that I have unlimited funds, but the difference about a decently configured Jeep and new Defender is at least $30k, so that's small potatoes in comparison, and if I wanted something cheap, I'd be elsewhere. Money is not everything, my parents taught me that we're too poor to buy cheap.

I like the phrase I heard in one of the reviews - "A typical Land Rover failure: a system that does absolutely nothing when in order, and annoys immensely when broken"

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Thanks for the warning, will know what to watch for.

 

By the way, @sarek , is this your design here - Defender L663 110 Aluminum Rock Sliders? Sleek