Hello,
I joined because I am thinking of a Land Rover as my next vehicle.
I am looking at either a Disco or a LR3. I am here for research to learn about these trucks and to see if they would be a good fit.

I live in NE Utah. I drive about 10-15k miles a year with about a third of those off road or cross country. I am not into big lifted trucks, but need a capable vehicle. I have always been interested in Land Rovers, just never owned one.

Thanks in advance for any and all help!

 

Welcome

 

Welcome! I've had all three, D1, D2, and LR3. They'd all be good for what you're talking about, but they all have their pluses and minuses.

If you are wanting bigger tires and easier, cheaper modifications stick with the discos. If you want to stay mostly stock, and are ok with higher prices, go LR3. Stock vs stock the LR3 will walk all over the others whether you're talking about off-road abilities, reliability, MPG, and especially power.

 

Do you drive primarily alone or with other vehicles?

By driving alone, there is a significant limit on the difficulty of the terrain you can practically attempt. The vehicle's capabilities limit it, the options you have for recovery or rescue limit it, and the circumstances further limit what you should be willing to risk because you have no example to follow or warn you. For all these reasons, traveling in a group allows you to take far greater risks and push your vehicle closer and more frequently over its limitations.

If you do or will regularly travel in a group, it makes sense to consider what the other people in the group are driving. There are two reasons to consider it. First, there is to some degree a conventional wisdom among the group experienced in your area. While they may not have tried everything, even collectively, they still have some sound ideas about what works and what does not work. Second, there is a matter of compatibility. For example, if they all have 37's and cages, the LR3 won't be compatible.

If you primarily drive alone, you are less likely or you will take longer to develop driving skills that are necessary to make the most use of additional capabilities of the vehicle. As such, the limits of those capabilities should be of less concern to you. Traveling alone, your driving will rarely approach the limits of the stock vehicle.

I used to believe that having "excess" capability was a safety factor for traveling alone. In practice, I have not found that to be the case. While I have found self-recovery equipment to be useful in all circumstances, I have found that the additional capability I have built into my Rover is only practically useful in a group.

Some might think that I am just especially cautious and risk averse, but I would challenge them to consider their worst stuck/recovery situation when traveling alone and evaluate how far they were really exceeding stock vehicle capabilities.

My advice if you're not traveling in a group is to seek the model to which you're most attracted as a project. You are likely to spend just as much time working on the project as you will driving trail, and you don't want to expend that effort on a Discovery if you really want a Range Rover, or on a Range Rover if your real desire is toward a Series project.

Bear in mind that projects cost a lot more than you estimate or plan. Most of these vehicles are cheap, but nobody gets one and drives it around offroad for years without spending more than double the purchase price. If you buy a particularly depreciated one or you have immodest goals for modification, you could easily end up spending quadruple or more.

There's not much practical about these vehicles. There's a more practical way to do anything that they do. You have to love them for their own sake for it to be worth it. If you don't, you'll hate and regret being involved with it at all and resent your loss.

 

Thanks for the replies.
My wheeling has been in stock Cherokees and currently a TJ since I couldn't find a lower mileage wrangler the last time I was looking. I wheel alone and never with a group. The last time I was stuck was 6 years ago in snow when I slipped off some snow cat tracks that I was traveling on and couldn't get back on. I typically understand the limits of a vehicle and stay within them.

I HATE the TJ. This is the only reason that I am thinking about another vehicle. I like the fact that it only has an efi computer, manual trans and no abs( I have had very poor experiences with abs off road, but I hear LR's is better on the LR3). It is simple with gear driven limited slips front and rear and locked center and solid axles. It is stupid reliable. But, it is a soft top, tiny and rides like crap. It damn near gives you whiplash going into parking lots let alone on a trail. I am able to live with it, but would have to put so much money into it to make it remotely comfortable that I might as well look at something bigger.
My plans would be to (over time) stretch the wheelbase from 93 inches to 98, long arm lift and 33" tires and a hardtop. I have had limited slips and new gearsets installed front and rear (I am very handy with cars, but gears scare me). The TJ has only 95k miles on it so there is plenty of life in it since I don't drive much.

The LR3 looks like the way to go for me since the third row seating would be handy and can fit teenagers. The independent suspension would be a huge plus since the only reason for me to change to 33" tires is for wheeling in the snow. The tech scares me a bit though.
I see that the air suspension can be converted to coils if it becomes too maintenance intensive. I would probably like the piece of mind anyway. I don't pull heavy trailers ( my boat is 2500#s loaded) so the leveling suspension doesn't mean much to me.
The I haven't noticed many complaints about the other computer systems. How are they ( brake switch seems like a simple fix and easy to keep a spare on board) for stranding you?
As for the differential issues ( plating on bearings taking out the gears), once they have been replaced, is it a recurring problem?

What else am I missing? I don't mind wrenching or troubleshooting electrical, I worked on the Cherokees a bit after 400k miles in them. I don't like being stranded though.....

 

On Jeeps everything seems to break except the drive train. I blew both sets of spidergears (it was open front and rear) on the TJ after I got it. The previous owner ran the diff's out of oil and kindly filled them before selling it to me.

 

I talked to an lr3 owner today. She has an '05 dealer loaner that she bought. It doesn't have the seating for 7 which I find curious. 125k miles on the clock. She has had to buy one compressor. That is it as far as issues from failed parts. The other issues she has had is that the only repair place in town with the diagnostic software is no longer in business. The nearest dealer is 2.5 hours away. She had a mouse chew on her wiring loom. The repair was $3k. This is a repair I would have done myself so no issue there. She also hit a deer. Local body shop did the repair, but the airbags deployed. Only a dealer can put in the airbags apparently ( or the body shop can't reset something), so she doesn't have airbags. She hasn't been to the city for a while. She gave me plenty of confidence as I know ( by looking at the condition of the car) that she hasn't maintained it other than oil changes for the engine.

 

The 3 will definitely be more comfortable than the TJ. I don't see it wheeling as well though. I don't have any personal experience, but I've also never seen one really wheeling. I believe the ABS and traction control work well, and that's about it. From the videos, I just see them lifting wheels. I can sort of understand the comment that they do better in stock form than an older Land Rover, owing to the traction control (that actually works) and the fair amount of static ground clearance due to the independent suspension and ability of the air springs to lift it further. But the low-profile tires don't have much traction potential, and the suspension won't flex. I'd have to see it to believe it.

 

The independent suspension is really appealing to me because of snow. At one time I lived in the mountains of SoCal and had an Isuzu Amigo and a Cherokee. Both stock so the jeep had 29" tires and the amigo had 30s iirc. Both had limited slips in the rear with a center locked diff. It snowed a foot overnight and I wanted to see the difference of the IFS and front solid axle. The skid plate of the amigo was able to flatten or compact the snow and go much further on an unplowed road that was uphill. The jeep pushed the snow, I could watch it just stack up until the snow's weight overcame the available traction. If the Isuzu would have had IRS also I don't think it would have stopped.

The tire situation is a little worrisome to me, but I try not to mud when possible. Mud tires would be nice in deep snow though.

I want to look for more info on the conversion to the V6 brakes and what wheel sizes are available. Also if "pizza cutter" ( tall narrow tires) are available as in LRs of the past. Braking capability would be diminished, but fuel economy and ice driving should be improved.

Having a wheel or two in the air is not a big deal if the power can be transfered to the other wheel that isn't. Weather it is via lockers, limited slips ( and slight application of brakes) or the computer applying brake pressure to the airborne tire the obstacle can be overcome.

My hobby that requires off road capability is prairie dog and coyote hunting. I travel on oilfield roads, but do a fair amount of cross country driving in the desert. Some rock crawling is involved. I don't try to find the limits by going out to go off roading specifically. The activity is usually tied to hunting.

The deep snow traveling interest comes from my commute and early spring or winter hunting.