Is anyone working on suspension mods that would give the defender more articulation and keep the wheels on the ground better? I know the OCTA boasts this but just curious if something aftermarket is on anyones radar.

 

There's nothing you can do about the articulation on the air suspension. Coil-sprung cars have even less articulation than air-sprung cars, and there are aftermarket coils you can get for better articulation.

Air-sprung Defenders have very good articulation - the axles are cross-linked to mimic a solid axle, so when one wheel is up in the air, it will force more air into the opposite wheel to try to keep it on the ground. Land Rover air suspension has been like this for decades, now.

Even though the articulation isn't as much as say a Bronco or Wrangler, you don't need to worry - as long as one wheel has grip, you won't get stuck. Wheels in the air is the modern LR way!

 

Having driven fully independent offroaders of different makes and models, I'm thoroughly convinced that with either lockers or an excellent traction control system like the Defender's - articulation is something that is very overrated when it comes to real world offroad capability in anything but extreme boulder crawling. As Cincy says, as long as one tire has *enough* traction, you're not getting stuck.

The biggest thing to keep in mind when faffing about with articulation on independent suspension is the CV angles. If you exceed those shafts' engineered limits, you'll be binding up those CV joints and causing no shortage of problems.

If you want some justification for putting fait in the Defender's traction control systems, just watch this video by TFL who put different makes and models of vehicles on their "3 wheel slip test" and see which one performs the best. Spoiler: Its the Defender.