I am new around these parts - looks like a great group!
Last year I bought an old farm house with 20 odd acres of land too. The house is heated from an old wood/straw burner, and as such, I am for ever using a trailer to get bits of old wood from garden centres etc.
I am now thinking of buying a landrover - something like a defender 110, but really haven't got a clue about them. I visited a dealers last night, and a good-ish one seemed to cost between 4 and 4.5k (gbp)
Can anyone offer any advice for a suitable landrover, or should I lurk around here a bit and read more posts?
Dealers well go more on age and mileage which is not necessary the best why to view a Landrover, more important would be maintenance and service records. What I'm saying is a well maintained Landrover will serve you well for many years and miles.
I would decide on engine first (petrol or diesel), depends how often/far your gonna be travelling. Then go and see lots of them private and trade,
look for body wise:
bulkhead rust at top corners and door posts doors corrode at the bottom check hinges for dropping dents are part of the landrover!
Mechanically wise:
clunks in transmission when going from first and reverse can be small or major problems ( worse case is output shaft from gearbox) poor ride can be bushes or shock and springs steering shouldn't wonder.
If your in a rush to get one take a friend with you who knows ( ask here too ), my experience of small independent dealers when I bought my discovery was they were big liars, asked them about cambelt and gearbox fault and they said they had never heard of them LOL.
Biggest problem with Main dealers is higher prices and total lack of customer service, so don't bank on good warranty service.
If I was you I think I would drive a V8 and then a TDI, there different beasts in the same body. My disco is a 300TDi and as I will be travelling abroad with mine, and getting it wet in rivers ;). The V8 RR I had tho was sooooooo good and great to drive loads of pull/power but so thirsty!
Other will add there thoughts but do come back with any queries
In your position I would consider keeping my current car for normal driving and buy a tax-exempt, decent Series Land Rover 109. There's plenty of good ones around at under 2K, which you could insure for about £100 on a limited mileage classic policy. It won't depreciate, will cost you a few hundred a year in bits and servicing at a good specialist and will haul logs and timber all day and be a great fun open-top motor in the summer.
That's very cheap motoring compared to the insurance, tax, depreciation on an everyday car, and still much cheaper than running a
110 on an unlimited mileage policy. I think a tired 110 (which is what you are likely to get for 4K) will cost you much more in 2 years than a tax-exempt 109 would.
All up, including fuel, Ernie has cost me £1200 in the two months I've had him. That includes buying him, fixing the starter motor, replacing the battery, insurance and fuel. I'm unlikely to pass £1750 in the first 12 months of ownership, after which he will still be worth £1000.
If you then find you like the Land Rover thing, you'll do what I did. Flog the car and fill your land with them. Sadly I don't have 20 acres to go at, but I've got four Land Rovers filling my garden!
Welcome to the group Charles. No worries! You'll get loads of qualified opinions shortly.
Land Rovers have a unique integrity that not everyone is able appreciate. They are effectively hand built vehicles but because they don't have the budget of a Rolls Royce or an Aston Martin to play with that hand built quality can be a bit thrown together, but that doesn't mean the basic components or design is thrown together, well mostly anyway! So what you land up with is a very adaptable, infinitely fixable and improvable, bag of simple bits hanging off a strong chassis and frame. It'll probably leak a bit of water in and oil out, it'll probably require a bit more tinkering with than a Toyota but if you want to you will be able to tinker with it for the rest of your life and who knows how many lives after you, at which point it will still be a great vehicle, generally out performing all others in it's class in terms of off road and towing, it will have personality and character in bucket loads. If you have soul and particularly if you can actually use the full performance envelope of the vehicle you'll love it.
What a great idea! I am planning on keeping my normal driving car for work, and long journeys etc.
I had a quicky look on ebay, and is this the sort of thing you mean?
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A 109 sounds cool - I am sold :)
Sounds ideal to me.
Lol - I can see myself doing that.
Thanks for the advice.
Btw, I also have a large deisel tank out the back - whats the rules about using red deisel? (if i wanted to drive around mainly on the farm, and occassionaly on the road)
You would need an extremely modified Land Rover, or _never_ use it on the road. A Land Rover is not, for instance, an agricultural machine, even if you have a PTO fitted and tow a mower around the farm.
To comply as an agricultural machine is probably easier than as an agricultural tractor. I know of one agricultural tractor that is an ex RAF lorry, however the owner did go to the high court to defend its use, and I doubt anyone else will get away with it again.
Any machine registered as an agricultural machine and carrying a current (exempt) road fund license disc can use rebated diesel, the restrictions are on its use. A major one being the speed restrictions and not going on Motorways, not to mention no private or domestic use (except possibly moving a workers furniture between homes. In point of fact there is a rule that prevents me carrying my bicycle on the tractor in order to cycle back to collect my 110.
Luton Airport has several buses which are tax exempt, and run on red diesel. They run around the apron, and into the car park, which is still within the private area, although a public road. They only go on the road to go for service, in which case the mileage is recorded. They are only allowed to do something like 12 miles a year on the public road.
Basically any vehicle which doesn't go onto the public highways is exempt from road fund licence and fuel duty, but it's a tricky subject. Customs and Excise are red hot on red diesel.
If you only intend to use the vehicle on your own private land you do not need to MOT, tax or insure it - and yes, you can use red diesel. The moment you go onto the public highway you will be breaking the law, though. Red diesel is sort of 'duty free' fuel (yes, I know that's not strictly the case, but you know what I mean). Any fuel used on the public highway is subject to different duty. Simply put; don't bother. :-)
Not only that, but the traces of red diesel stay in the tank 'almost for ever', and if you are ever 'dipped' by HM Customs and Excise (as I have been THREE times in London) they have the power of confiscation as well as hefty fines. So effectively if you use red you would need to totally flush the tank and whole fuel system. They no longer use a wooden lath, but have some cunning sniffer thingy that they pop in the filler.
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