I bought a late-model Disco 1, V8 auto (I'm in the US) and gave it a try. It has a 1.5" lift and 245 mud tires, otherwise stock LE. I wanted to evaluate it for possibly upgrading it to serious, dedicated off road capability. I'm at the point now where I either invest quite a few thousand to upgrade it or sell it and try something else.

Off road it does ok but overall the vehicle is not that good. I'm comparing it to my late-model GM truck. While the truck is much longer wheelbase, heavier and with less articulation (3/4 ton), the GM has far better build quality, better reliability, literally *double* the brute strength, significantly more ground clearance without being top heavy, and close the the same approach and departure angles (it suffers a little in break-over angle due to the wheelbase).

The Land Rover's best attribute is the short wheelbase. The frame and suspension design is good but the shortness of the wheelbase actually requires the better articulation to handle terrain the relatively stiff truck does simply because it's long. Over twisting gullies, the Land Rover has to articulate with crossed axles whereas the truck just spans it (it helps that the truck has a locker in the rear). The Land Rover has inferior ground clearance but the short wheelbase makes up for this.

The Land Rover's drivetrain is unimpressive. To upgrade, I'm looking at new driveshafts, new carriers, new ring and pinions, lockers, new 24 spline axles, etc. The GM came stock with everythng built to haul 22,500lb GCVWR - from the Allison 5 speed transmission, the transfercase, the driveshafts, the GM 14 bolt, 8 lug wheels etc. The engine is also 340HP and 455ft. lbs of torque. The power itself is useless on the trail but a drivetrain built for that with the same torque multiplication factors is more confidence inspiring than one where I'm reading that I have to upgrade everything.

The build quality on the Land Rover is abysmal. It's no wonder they dropped the name "Discovery" because it's synonymous with "crap" in the market. I pity the fools that paid luxury car prices for these things when they were new. They're respectable offroaders but as a luxury car they're absolute crap. The list of things wrong with mine, both repaired and still broken would fill pages and pages. My GM truck by comparison has thirty-thousand additional miles (140,000) and is near perfect. It's had four minor things break in it's lifetime. You can inspect any detail and it is perfect. On the Land Rover, the more I look, the more I find broken or non-functional. I'm talking about everything from door latches, to switches, lights, sensors, pumps, linkages, hoses, to major items like transmissions, break controllers, steering boxes etc. This isn't a blanket statement about GM quality. I've had 6 or 7 of them over my lifetime and some of them were pretty bad. The truck I have now is the only one that has stayed perfect with so little help.

So the GM truck has some physical limitations in size and weight that I can't overcome by upgrading. That's why I bought the Land Rover. However, now that it's time to decide whether to invest in upgrading the Discovery, I'm a little reluctant. All quality issues aside, it just doesn't seem all that capable by comparison to a truck. I would need both lockers and more articulation to really make it decisive. That's a lot to invest in what is otherwise a crappy station wagon.

What do you think?

 

Um well I can say that you may have a not so well taken care of disco, but to say that a full size gmc is way more off-road capable is imo just silly. Sure a truck can plow through the mud better but for trail riding there is no comparison, a stock disco will do as good or better off-road than any other stock vehicle. Of course there are weak components and they require maintenance, but name a trail rig that doesn't.

 

So...what is "late model" mean? To me, a late model car is anything less than 40 years old...

 

If I had thousands to 'invest'...I'd dump it in my Disco and have a blast! I find the Disco1 an awesome ride and great offroad. Not the best, but when comparing stock to stock, the Disco is way up there. As for modified, I'm sure it would outperform most vehicles with the same modifications.

 

The Disco is a '98 and the GM truck is newer but with more miles. On the road, there's no comparison. The truck is 10 times better. Admittedly it was ten times more expensive.

But I didn't buy the Disco for the road. It's strictly for the trail, although I would try to keep it legal. The problem I see is I drive them over the same trails, the same technical obstacles, the same hills, and the Disco is not blowing me away. The truck can be tricky because of the size, but in the end it goes through -- and yeah, when the mud and snow come back, given equal tires and lockers, the truck wins. So what is so great about the Land Rover? I'm not trying to antagonize... I need to be convinced before I drop about 4 or 5 grand on upgrading it because if I'm going to resell, now is the time not after. Obviously I bought it because it should be good. This one has almost no rust at all (California car), all the broken things have been fixed other than minor interior panels, paint defects, a door lock etc.

Why is the 3 link better than a GM IFS?

I hear a lot of people say Land Rovers (Discovery) has incredible off road capability, is better than other trail vehicles like Jeeps and trucks and Toyotas and so on, but what is it that makes it better? What is it that makes this platform the one to invest in instead of something else?

 

After reading this it sounds as though you already made up your mind. It appears to me the only reason you posted in the first place was to put down the Disco and boost up your GM truck. If you like your truck that much stick with it, and if you have this much reserve about your Disco your better off selling it to someone who appreciates Discos because this is a vehicle that takes a love for it and not for the light hearted. It will cause you much grief but also that much enjoyment. For me I knew the problems with the vehicle and what I was potentially getting into but love the Discovery line and jumped at the chance to own one. But this vehicle is not for everyone thats for sure. And please dont take my post as being disrespectful to you or being mean or negative in any way, just giving my opinion and aspect of what you wrote.

 

I like full-size rigs, and I love my disco's. Fullsize pick-ups are work horses. They will out-haul and out carry a midsize suv any day.

But you're last paragraph sums up why I 'wheel a Disco- a full size would not fit on a third of the trails I ride. At least not without some major body sculpting. Heck, even my disco has its share of tree marks.

 

I agree that the British could have done a better job at build quality as far as the bells and whistles go but it seems they got it right when it came to the 4x4 off-road aspect of the Discovery 1. Look at the "legendary" Jeep CJ series jeeps...........they have been built and wheeled for ALOT of years and jeeps have been on a many famous trails in the world. Now the CJ has a notoriosly weak frame, ****ty axles, crappy tranny linkage etc etc etc but yet its a legendary off-road vehicle. Point is that you have to make a jeep off-road worthy, they have weaknesses, EVERYTHING has weaknesses. UNLESS your buying a $100,000 SPECIFIC BUILT Off-road rig your going to have to "Up-grade" anything you buy. Disco has a fully boxed frame and you get almost zero frame flex, coils are amazing on all 4 corners, the tranny and transfer case are damn near bullet proof, T-case has a good LOW range, visibility is good, wheelbase is near perfect for off-road use. BAD points that **** me off about LR is weak axles, motor is pretty doggy and has head gasket issues, electrical issues, low BODY ground clearance............I say BODY because the axles themselves are a low profile axle and the UNDERAXLE clearance is good and just gets better with bigger tires. A Discovery on 31's has the same UNDERAXLE clearance as a jeep on 33's does. The BODY sitting so low is what hinders off-road mostly. SO in order to combat this you gotta lift them up and go with bigger tires which is harder to do with weak axle issues. This is all coming froma guy that has built alot of FULLSIZE GM's. Sure, is it easier to take a K5 blazer, toss on some 1 ton axles, Weld the rear axle, toss on some 6" springs, cut the fenders and run 42-44" tires and have one hell of an off-road rig?..............sure it is, I've done it. Honestly for my money and time and I wanted a billy bad-*** off-road truck to tackle deep mud, deep water, and big rocks where you need lots of clearance and you wanted EASY parts availability and strength for big HP, TORQUE and BIG TIRES then yes build a GM. If you want a nice riding(see coils) unique, comfy rig then build a Discovery, but you WILL need to do more work on a Disco to make it as strong as you are looking for. If your looking for a truck that can take you alot of places but nots meant to CRUSH every trail you encounter then go with the disco. In my opinion Disco's were not/never meant to be MONSTERS off-road. They do well however, I just went wheeling Saturday....it was a 1 ton chevy on 42's, a 78 Bronco on 38's, a 1 ton ford on 35's and little Ol me on 245 75 R16's..........I went everywhere they did, took everyline they did, every mud hole they hit I hit. On more than one occasion I made a steep off-camber climb first shot when they all had to stop and have another run at it. Will my Disco go places my 78 K5 can go?.....NO it wont, but its not meant to either.

 

BTW, not to stir the pot(like I ever do that haha) but if you have to ask WHY 3 LINK IS BETTER THAN IFS then you sir dont know anything about Off-roading. Really?, your talking about "building and investing thousands in making an off-road truck and dont see how a disco is good" but you dont even know what a 3 link suspension is? You think IFS is good for off-road??........maybe for high speed Baja racing its better but for trail running with rocks and off-camber situations its not good. Im not so sure you really have a grasp of what true off-roading is and whats good for it.

 

Based on your post, I think you should stick with your GM.