Hi,

I just got a 2024 V8 110. I tried understanding why it didn't come with a roof raids, and the best the salesperson could come up with was that LR was afraid they'd tip over, and that they're prohibited from putting rails on them.

I've subsequently seen how the manual states "Zero" for the allowed roof load on the V8s.

Can anyone please confirm that roof rails can be put on at third party places and that it really is likely a safety concern if the car is driven too aggressively?

Thanks

 

I believe you are right on both accounts. The V8 is considered more of a performance vehicle and they don’t want you loading up the top due to roll over risk. I’ve seen a few people put the rails and rack up top, it can be done, but be mindful that it may void any warranty (if you have one).

 

Although it is somewhat unacceptable, the V8 does not support a roof load, not even a measly 20 kg limited load to carry skis. But I wonder one thing to which I have not got an answer: If the V8 admits, according to LR specifications, 300Kg of static load, why do they refuse to sell the rails? It could well be that I travel with trailer and want to spend a “static night” in the roof tent. Don't you think they should allow the rails to be installed for that purpose without affecting the vehicle warranties?
Regards

 

While you aren't technically allowed to have roof rails on the V8 trucks, you can still have the roof rails installed. The V8 is structurally identical to the rest of the lineup, so while it might not be rated to carry on the roof, you technically can. Plus, the new OCTA has roof rails and its a V8.

 

Thanks CincyRovers, therefore, if the Octa has them, the reason for not being able to mount them in the V8, the excuse of “excessive lateral grip” “cornering speed” etc. seems out of place and we can only think of a very poor job in the design or tuning of the suspension in these versions ..... may be so?

 

I wouldn't say the lateral grip excuse is necessarily a bad one. Keep in mind the V8 has an extra 120+ horsepower, so obviously that will affect the handling. The active anti-roll bars do a good job of mitigating body roll, but they aren't perfect. The 6D suspension in the OCTA completely mitigates body roll, so that might be why they are offering roof rails on the OCTA. That and the heaver duty tires.

 

I bought the roof rails for my V8 from PowerfulUK. I plan to install them in the next couple weeks once I have sometime on the weekend.

 

Thanks for the input, everyone. I went ahead and purchased the roof rails from Land Leaping. I will decide what I do from there after I install them.

 

My MY25 130 V8 was delivered with roof rails from factory despite not included in build sheet (build was MY24 but rolled over to 25).

 

I do this stuff for a living. It’s not poor tuning or design, it’s that Land Rover made the conscious decision to make the V8 more of a street performance SUV as evidenced by its stiffer suspension, larger wheels, higher top speed, and higher grip tires and that inherently limits roof load before you even start suspension tuning. Good suspension tuning cannot break physics, and the fact is that the roll-over risk is directly related to the lateral grip capacity of the tires and the height of the CG of the vehicle and the load it’s carrying. and the V8 is capable of much higher grip than the P300/400. There are two ways to mitigate this risk:

1. Increase roll stiffness (stiffer springs and bars)

2. reduce the drivers ability to generate yaw (slow the steering down and create more understeer)

#1 hurts ride quality and off-road capability significantly, and you can only reduce steering response so much before the car becomes cumbersome to drive and unmaneuverable.

So how does the Octa get around this? Its Kinetic suspension can adjust roll *stiffness* in near-real-time, as opposed to the P300/400/525 which can only adjust *damping* in real time. The ability to significantly increase stiffness to manage heavy roof loads during emergency situations opens up a lot of bandwidth to increase the trucks capability in all areas. Unfortunately that system is heavy, complex, expensive, and difficult to develop, install, and service, so it’s difficult to justify having such a system on more mainstream variants.