Excellent video - enjoy


Defender acquitted itself pretty well

 

I think this is a really useful, fair and effective test. Neither exciting nor dramatic, but useful.

The JLR products both performed very confidently and damaged the course less than any other brand.

The Ford Raptor benefitted (I think) by having a common 4WD system developmental lineage with the JLR products.

The Toyotas struggled -- a negative surprise. Nissan was upper, mid-pack IMO -- did a lot of track damage.

The G Wagon with its old school diffs tore up the track without them on and worked as one would expect with all three diffs locked.

 

Thanks for the link. Been watching this channel for 6-8 months waiting for them to get their hands on a Defender. Not disappointed by the performance either. The 'Range' was pretty impressive too with street tires on. JLR well done. The G I've seen dominate in some other vids on this channel. It's definitely formidable. LC, personally I'll pass, styling looks like a big old Forrester. I'll leave that one for Scotty Kilmer or someone who wants to deliver maple syrup. I know it holds its resale value but ugh...

 

Typical soulless Toyota and four YEARS to get one.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.mot...long-wait/amp/

 

While I do appreciate their no frills approach to testing the vehicles, I am disappointed in the decision to begin each run without any 4wd gears or options engaged. The hill is clearly steep and rutted. A better test would have been to start in low range with the diffs locked and the electronic options engaged. This would have given a more accurate assessment of their capabilities as opposed to getting stuck/hung up first and then engaging the 4wd options. Standard mode, or regular daily driving mode, is meant for regular driving. Not climbing steep rutted hills. I enjoy the video don’t get me wrong.

 

I noticed that with the Defender, when they went to “combat” mode, the graphic said something like: Low Range, Full height suspension, Rock Mode

When they did the G63 the graphic said: All 3 Diffs locked, etc.

Just made me wonder if they were testing a D400 without rear mechanical locker, or if they didn’t mention it because it comes on automatically in Rock mode?

 

Looks like a Defender X P400, which should come standard with electronic rear lockers (although that's a different market, so who knows for sure.) Can't really lock the optional rear diff manually on the Defender, unless you have the Advanced Off-road pack and dig deep into the Configurable TR options, which they didn't do in that video. The diff engages automatically in every terrain response mode as demanded by the traction control system, and is especially sensitive in rock crawl mode. It certainly behaved like a locking diff was present in that video, although the traction control of the new Defender is so advanced that I doubt the absence of rear lockers would have made much of a difference on that hill.

 

Is that so? I thought it actually permanently locked it in 4Lo/Rock. But honestly I haven’t paid attention when using it — every time I look at the icon it’s locked, so I just assumed it was permanently locked in that mode.

 

I think the idea of running them up the obstacles twice, once without things like lo-range or lockers engaged is to compare and contrast what these things can do and why.

Call the first run the control group in a way. That way you see the difference the additional (sometimes optional) equipment makes.

Though perhaps one of the differences that makes the Land Rovers function so well is that even in standard mode they engage some of that gear (the locking diffs on the Defender and the strength of their traction control programming).

 

That is the problem with the old G Wagon technology -- you either are driving on the street or in fully, locked up combat mode -- there is no continuous gradation of capability to match the conditions -- other than locking one differential at a time (locking all three was really overkill). The approach is really hard on trails -- one could really see the G Wagon in street mode make a mess of it. Then with all lockers fully on, one or more wheels is always being dragged along making the vehicle yaw and stutter and digging out gulleys of dirt.

Of course, the simplicity is to be valued. If one's survival is dependent on the equipment holding up, old school wins out. If I own the property on which I am driving, the progressive traction nature of the new technology makes a lot more sense.