go buy a defender  At work
At home

"I can't always believe facts I read on the web" - Charles Dickens

winner by default of the tractor vs caravan race

chapps wrote:

Nice lady at the dealership is phoning Landrover now and will call me back later to tell me what she finds out

chicken george wrote:

go buy a defender

Thanks CG - shoulda seen that one coming.

Probably shouldn't repeat this but the tech guy at the dealers said if you do a recovery and damage the car just hose it off, bring it in and tell them you did it on the road - they'll fix it under warranty.

Still - will be interesting to see what LR say to the sales person at the dealers. Will let you all know. 

Tim in Scotland wrote:

Who-ever made the recovery system for the G4 Freelander2's would probably sell you one - IIRC it was Mantec who made them for Camel Trophy F1 with the L series diesel engine and the G4 F1's.

Did some digging - the FL2 G4 edition uses the standard recovery points - the mantec sump guard has a hole in it to let it through - see here:

Click image to enlarge

 

Land Rover modified the G4 to go accross Mongolia, I would hope that they would have taken into acount the idea that it would get stuck and would need a little help. Unless of couse it is so light that they expected in to skim across the sand - hence the lack of winch

Been outside and looked at mine. The only front attachment point is the centre loop exposed by the mantec "sump guard" - this doesn't actually cover the sump, but does make servicing easier than the FL1 version

At the rear they have fitted a removable tow bar. This is rated to tow a 2000kg horse box across a field, mso towing a 1800kg Freelander backwards when it is stuck seems a good bet, it is certainly capable of towing a loaded VW transporter out of a ditch. The standard steel loop is still thyer attached to the chassis, but if LR had fitted the tow bar I would hope they have done it for a reason.

Snatch recovery is a different matter, the forces involved are far more. As the rest of the G4 fleet are fitted with winches a steady pull would be expected when they were winching them selves out of the mire - using the FL as an anchor

Drive shafts
Yes the Defender range has been known to shear half shafts - could a contributing factor be that the wheels are much larger/heavier, and therefore impose a larger inertia?
Have done all the wrong things in both the FL1 & FL2 with much smaller diameter drive shafts eg airborn at 80mph with foot down hard and landed with wheel spinning(in the desert), cross axled with traction control off and trying the blast through (doesn't work), these and several more have brought madly spinning wheels to an abrupt stop without damaging the drive shafts - this may have helped with the early demise of other transmission components