Considering a Defender 110 to replace my old Cayenne but need to figure out how to haul my longboard. In the Cayenne I remove the front headrest, tumble the rear seats and slide it in. At the dealer I wasn't able to figure out how to remove the headrest but found a procedure online where you remove the back seat cover and unclip it. Has anyone successfully removed the front headrests?

Loading onto the roof isn't ideal and I don't like to shove it up the middle as it blocks visibility. We can drive on the beach so the Defender would get some offroading in soft sand. Thanks

Mark

 

How long are your boards? Our longest boards are South Bay's 8' Verve and 7' 7" elefante. I haven't found that the sliding the boards up the middle blocks visibility, unless you're talking about the passenger side, sideview mirror. I can use the rearview with no problem. But if we have the boot full of ice chests, etc., we lower the front seats and fold down the rear headrests, then slide the boards over the front head rests (we're both kind of short, so the boards extend over our heads) and strap them up so they don't move while we're driving. No rearview mirror though, we turn on the tow camera, even though it's not recommended

I had an 8' 8" that we could squeeze in if it rode on the dashboard, by reclining the front passenger seat, and having the passenger sits behind the driver. Anything longer than that you'll need cross bars.

 

Appreciate the input. 9'1 and 7'10. Sounds like I better bring them to try, maybe I can pop the rear headrest, recline the front seat and angle down into the foot well. They fit into a Macan loaner so I wasn't worried about length but I probably should be.

Mark

 

Took the boards to Pensacola Beach, they fit in the car fine, but this was the first trip with the boards and our new dog. He hated having the boards over his head, and we couldn't split the seats (when the windows are up, he likes to walk to the boot and look out the rear window). The wife was really concerned about his comfort on longer surf trips, So we decided to add crossbars or a roof rack. When we had our 2021, I was looking into the low-profile modular roof rack, it was $1200 total. The prices came down, $700 for rack and $200 for the crossbar so I decided to pull the trigger. Went to Lucky 8 to order, but remembered the rack was made by Bad *** Tents, they had a 20% coupon up, so I got both pieces for $770.

https://badasstents.com/product/2020...ts-90-110-130/

Now I have to decide on a ladder or some side steps ( I hear the mess with the wade sensor, though - can't have that).

I'll send you some pics once I install --- or more likely, let my dealer install

 

We put our windsurfer on the roof rack. That's one of the advantages of the Defender. You have all that room on the roof to put stuff. Then you put a ladder on the side so you can pop up there and tie it off.
We put the board inside once and it was miserable riding around with a board down the middle along with a boom, mast and 3 sails. Next time we took it I put it all on the roof and saved the inside room for the humans and the dog.

 

I went back to the dealer and they confirmed both front and rear headrests are no easy to remove. I was looking at the cargo area in photos and will bring my longest board to try a new idea where I attach a bar to the rear grab handles on the B pillar and tumble the back row. If the front seat can go low enough reclined I might be able to slide the board up high and out of the pat of visibility. Thanks for the input, glad I'm not the only one who doesn't want to drive a truck, van (had a sprinter) or Prius to the beach.

Mark