Our First Overland Vehicle – Land Rover Defender 110 300TDI
The time-old question: Land Rover or Land Cruiser?
When it comes to overland vehicles there is significant subjectivity. I warn you now below is now different!
There are Land Rover fanatics and there are Land Cruiser fanatics, it all boils down to personal preference, in all honesty, Dan has a sweet spot for both. Ideally, we would have a BJ42, a Troopy (Toyota 78 Series), a Defender 90 and a 110. By the way, the BJ42 and the 90 should be soft tops or rag tops as they are known in some circles. But that is just wishful thinking.
So many people would laugh after reading that and say “Mate, there is no choice in the matter, it’s a Land Rover out right… Land Cruiser… I ask you, what are you thinking!?” Especially in the UK, we did start thinking Land Rover and nothing else to begin with. Firstly because Dan’s always wanted a Land Rover and secondly, everyone doing this kind of trip uses a Land Rover. Don’t they? Not so.
If you look elsewhere in the world, Land Cruisers are also popular and great vehicles. The 70, 80 and 100 series are all awesome vehicles. They are often used by the United Nations and NGOs.
What about Nissan Patrols, too? These are popular in the Middle East.
Well, after looking into this more and finding a couple that are doing a similar route to us with 2 kids Cassie’s age, in a Land Cruiser, we looked at the Land Cruiser option a tad more. For our requirements and having Cassie on board, a Land Cruiser seemed the better option. A little more space, a little more comfort…
The Choice – Land Rover Defender 110
But Dan yearned for a Defender and as his 30th birthday approached and the Land Rover talking got more incessant, Wendy agreed that we should go the Landy route. The search was on!
Eventually, the Defender was found at a Surrey dealer and named Tusky by the girls.
Tusky, is a 1996 Defender 110 – 300TDI which was fairly standard in spec and would need a few changes to be both our travelling vehicle for future trips and our daily driver.
When we purchased her she had 150,000 miles on the clock. Barely run in some would say. The picture above is how she looked on delivery. It was not long before we had the first dramas though!
If you are interested in the changes, mishaps and dramas of owning a Land Rover, you can read all the posts about Tusky here.
