Defender 110 Twin Cab

I have had the Defender now for almost 6 months and have cover around 7000 miles for both personal use and for work , it has a payload capacity 1080Kg and so can carry a lot of stuff and can therefore be used as a light commercial vehicle for deliveries

The defender has proved to be very comfortable to drive especially in the front seats although the rear seats are very basic and i have adjusted the brackets holding the back cushions a little because they were very y upright and hence uncomfortable

It can get a bit noisy on the motorway and it really needs an overdrive once you hit 60mph and above or maybe the conversions done by Ashcroft's where they raise 3 and 4th gear by changing some gearing in the box for discovery gearing i am undecided which way to go yet on this one

I have fitted a Expedition draw set and locker in the rear of the vehicles although a bit expensive i need the security because the rear is basically a pickup covered by a canvas tilt anything in the back is easily available to thieves and with the camping and climbing trips i need to be able to lock stuff away and these expedition sets are great

I have set up a split charge system for the little 12 volt fridge that we take when camping to keep the milk fresh oh and the beer cool :-) i have relocated the spare wheel to sit on the wheel arch rather that at the back of the real bulkhead by fabrication an new mounting bracket this has made a lot more room and allowed me to actually get my dog cage to fit at last

Next couple of things are a roof rack probably be on from patriot a full length version which comes with the twin ladders as when we go camping carrying all the gear in the tilt can be a struggle specially when we have to dog too plus i want to get the spare wheel out of the back really and on the roof should be fine

Also think seriously about the Jeremy Fearn power upgrade with chip and intercooler as when towing the engine can puff and pant a little and it seems good value for money for the output achieved plus Jeremy's workshop is about 20 minutes away , i also have got a ,load of checker plate cut up by local company willaim Twigg and i hope to plate out the rear of the truck bed with this soon

Also visit the offroad course at the LRO show at Driffield in the Spring and gave the 110 a good testing offroad , the course was brilliant and much more testing the one at Peterborough in 2003 you can see the pics on the LRO Spring page

For those of you who have a company vehicles this can mean that you can make saving on your tax bill as its classed as a commercial vehicle obviously you will be making some deliveries or picking up goods etc to justify this but essentially vehicle with a payload capacity of over 1000Kg is classed as light commercial (Van)