Finally got to the magical 2000 mile marker so that I can really give the Defender a proper go at a local rocky off-road park. I'll leave my impressions as quick bullet points:

The Good

• The Terrain Response 1 system is vastly superior to the Terrain Response system in my L320 Range Rover Sport. Granted I do have the rear locker on the Defender, but the computer reacts so much faster than the L320 - with barely a slip before it reroutes power accordingly. With the L320, it would take seconds to get sorted
• Off-road cameras in the front and under the mirrors are brilliant - can really place the tires exactly where they need to be
• 4x4i screen is much more useful than the archaic screen on the L320, especially showing wheel slip and angles
• P300 has great low-end torque, throttle and transmission mapping much better than the L320
• The approach and departure angles are very good. Also nice that Land Rover uses rubber for the lower front valance versus plastic
• Ride quality over rocky and rutted terrain is very smooth on coils, good rebound on the shocks
• The stock Goodyear Wrangler All Terrains. After seeing/hearing numerous horror stories on how weak these tires are - I was shocked how well they worked for me. Aired down to 37psi, no issues at all. I even brought the spare from my L320 thinking that I would get a handful of flats.

The Bad

• Breakover angle is atrocious, with the tires being pushed outwards to the front and rear bumpers - making the middle of the car long and awkward. I was scraping the felt/foam belly on moderate terrain. I saw a Subaru Outback Wilderness scraping less than me. The belly hangs really low, looks like a good 3" down from the rocker sill. Had to stack rocks on all but the smallest of ledges. My L320 on 2.5" rods at off-road height had clearance for days (and heavy steel frame bars versus felt/foam). Yes, I'm second-guessing myself not getting the air suspension
• Turning radius, it's a big car that feels bigger because of the 3 point turns I had to execute on the trail. Looks like it's a 21' radius versus 19' in the L320.
• It's wide, had to tuck in the mirrors and thread the needle on technical parts of the trail. But tucking them in made the offroad mirror cameras useless

The neutral

• No wheel travel, this isn't necessarily a bad thing as even my L320 would thrive when lifting wheels.
• Bad sightlines over the bulging hood when climbing, but the cameras combat this
• Anyone feel like they were going to snap all the plastic clips when removing the plastic under shield for the tow hook?

And now, pics:




getting a good belly rub

 

Junkie: thanks for posting. I have a P300 110 S on order, due in July. It currently is ordered with stock coils and I am on the fence about air. I have a month or so yet to add it to the order.
Would you add it, based on your experience? I am here back east, not too many rock crawls, mostly WVA mud and such, but we do plan on going "out west".for some camping trips.
Andy

 

@gb_junkie Great Pictures. Love the airborne-wheels. Looks like a great day.

I agree, the camera tech off-road is fantastic. Like having a spotter.

 

Great review, great pics. I have an air sprung L663 but very interested in the coil trucks!

for this --> "Also nice that Land Rover uses rubber for the lower front valance versus plastic"... you just mean the little lip that hangs down ?

 

@Drednot I went back and forth on air versus coils for weeks before settling on coils - I think a coil lift kit would serve me right for my needs. @sarek is the only one making coil lift kits for the new Defender as far as I know. I've had air on my L320 and it's been a love/hate relationship. When it works, it's fantastic. But when it fails, it makes your life miserable. I will say that even the air suspension on my L320 was superior to the system I had on my Disco II. So I would imagine the new Defender is even better. Haven't really heard of many issues with air. But time will tell.

@nashvegas yes, the little rubber lips that protrude from the bottom of the front bumper end caps - not sure what they're called. But on my L320, they were plastic and got banged up really easily. Ended up ripping them off after my first off-road trip with that car.

 

Nice review. I haven’t had mine off-road, but I love the coil springs in my P400 110 SE in all of the driving that I have done. We have air on our 2007 L322 HSE and we had to replace the left front at 75,000 miles. Bad thing is it leaves the vehicle aired down all the way around just from one being bad. I had air on my previous 2016 L405 Supercharged. It was always adjusting itself, a lot of times for no reason but especially at stoplights. The stealership checked on it and it was “no issues found”. My wife’s 2014 L405 Supercharged does not have that issue that we’ve noticed, but I don’t drive that one all that often.

 

I also ordered the Defender with coils. I test drove a 110 with air suspension and didn't really like the "disconnected feel" compared to a coil-spring vehicle. That's my opinion.

I've also experienced driving a Range Rover while the air suspension failed while accelerating to speed on a highway on-ramp. That was one of the scarier experiences I've ever had in a vehicle. It completely lost its equilibrium and the body roll/sway was shocking.

I'm also very interested in the coil springs from Sarek.

 

Your first mod would be:https://landroverforums.com/forum/20...35/#post769400

Airing down to 37psi is still very high in my opinion

Have fun with it !

 

Some feedback to the OP. JLR did decide to limit the rear coil sprung suspension travel substantially vs the air. It is not completely clear why. There is a huge bump stop built into the center of the coil and also a huge one on the rear shock shaft under the dust boot. Turns out that the shock is the major limiting factor on the rear travel. Fully extended, the rear shock travel to contact with the bump stop is 2.5 inches! Now the bump stop will compress, but still..... So as i was wanting to gain back all of the rear travel (which jlr states is 12 inches on the rear), i moved forward on installing longer travel Bilstein shocks on the rear (keep in mind, i went with long shocks since i have a subframe lift, so i went with a 4 inch longer shock). I also shortened the coil spring bump stops a bout an inch. Needless to say, i am more than happy with the results! Wow! The photo above shows how much rear flex I have now. Massive improvement off road by simply keeping the wheels on the ground more often. Road manners feel similar to stock. I also towed a discovery 2 to an event in Maine 12 hours away and did not notice any real loss of stability (i do always use a WD Hitch).

In short, if you actively use your coiler off road, i would definitely look into replacement rear shocks. As mentioned above, i have developed a approx. 2 inch set of lift coils that have the same feel as the stock ones ( i had the stock ones tested). This will give a coil sprung truck a major improvement off road. One benefit of coils is that compared to an air sprung with 2 inch lift rod, the coiler doesnt seem to compromise ride quality. I believe it has to do with the ability to engineer spring rates and loads based on testing vs air bags which are just that, baloons. As you blow up a baloon, it gets bigger but also firmer. Air suspension relies heavily on electronic dampening to control this. Jlr does an amazing job wih air suspension and it has some great benefits. I think stock or a one inch lift rod is good. I believe 2 inch lift rod is quite a compromise in ride quality.

The other elephant in the room is the fact that the d110 has a 119 inch wheelbase. That is longer than an l322 lr3 and any of the discos. Your breakover is a major hurdle. Even with air. You can raise the vehicle to try to avoid it, but at that point, especially with lift rods, you are so extended on the suspension, there is not much travel left. Heavy duty rock sliders are a must on a 110 in any setup. You need a lot of lift and a very large tire like Steve Burt at Land Rover Denver with 5 inch subframe lift on 37s. (No lift rods. You can ask him why). That truck doesn't smash up the bottom.bottom. Here is also my shameless plug for the D90. 100 inch wheelbase and 500lbs lighter. The 90 needs a 2 inch lift and 33s. Sliders are optinal. Lol. I know most will not buy into the 90, but it is the right choice for the trails imo.

I know there will be some that disagree with me, and that is ok. This is just my 1st hand experience with the vehicle, mechanical knowledge, and off road experience. So please bear in mind, this is just my opinion.

 

@sarek - thanks for commenting. Rewatching videos of my truck climbing easy hills - I was lifting tires left and right, much more so than my L320. Are the Bilstein shocks a direct fit? Does removing the rear sway bar help any?

I totally would have gone with the 90, but with young ones on the horizon - we needed the extra doors/space. The wheelbase is almost a foot longer than what I'm used to with the L320. You are correct, the ride of my jacked-up air sprung L320 is very rough and unrefined compared to the coils.

But after the Defender's lackluster off-road experience, I might just continue building up my L320 to be the "rock crawler". Seems like I'd have to invest thousands in the Defender to just get it on par with my L320.