On or around Fri, 11 Aug 2006 16:53:17 +0100, beamendsltd enlightened us thusly:
I think they mainly suffered from being a conversion using different axles and suchlike and thus costing enormously more than the basic 2WD one, such that only government agencies could afford 'em. ISTR that the county conversion almost doubled the price of the van.
later ones with the Di or TDi engines aren't bad, although underpowered when fully laden, but then that's what you were just complaining about on the one you hired :-)
Not sure about the comments about higher-revving engines, BTW - it all depends on what gearing they equip it with. If the engine produces little torque at (say) 1000 rpm compared with a TDi, but produces plenty at 2000 rpm then provided the CONTROL of the engine is there it's not a problem except to traditionalists who can moan about how in the old days you had engines that would pull tree-stumps at idle.
what's really needed is progressive pedal-to-performance, rather than an all-or-nothing setup; which should be easier to achieve on a fly-by-wire system - simply a matter of selecting the appropriate throttle pots (probably it wants a non-linear set such that you get finer control up to (say) about 3000 revs and then the last half-inch or so goes from there to flat-out).
but the thing about control off-road is really only a matter of setting it up right. If it's the case that a TDi pulls nicely at 1500 rpm in low-2 at
8 mph, say, but the ford engine requires 2300 rpm to achieve the same torque, then all that's needed is suitable gearing so that the ford-engine variant does 8 mph in low-2 at 2300 rpm.Of course, there's every chance that it won't be equipped suitably, but that's not a fault of the engine, but of the design team and marketing types. Same applies to your problem about reversing the van up the drive - if you were overheating the clutch (because, presumably, you had to slip it to make the thing go slowly enough) then it means that it's got an inappropriately high reverse gear. Get similar problems with the TDi disco
- high reverse is way to fast for precise trailer reversing (or reversing up steep slopes), for example, leading to excessive clutch-work, this is mainly due to the high transfer ratios that TDi discos have, to make 'em quieter at motorway speeds. But on the disco you have the option of dropping into low box to get a nice slow, controllable reverse. What the transit needs is sensible reverse gear, or just possibly, 2 reverse gears if you decide that it's desirable to be able to do 25 mph backwards. Personally, in a van, I see no need to be able to reverse fast - you've never got enough visibility to do so safely.
So, provided they keep the low box on the "new" defender and provided the ratios are suitable, I don't really see a problem.