Defender or Disco?

aye that and the long list of teething problems.. what you want is summin abart 8 years old, that way all the recalls have been done and most major bits will have been replaced. then hopfully all you have to worry abart is worn carpets and a fag burn to the seats

Thanks for all the replies lads, its great to hear all the different views out there. I notice that in the next edition of LRO international there will be an article on this very subject. Had a look at a couple of 90's and a 110 so far, the two 90's were fair (one was tidy enough), the 110 was a bit shabby, not a straight panel on it and the rear crossmember was rotten with holes appearing. I'm going to take my time and have a look at a few more before I take the plunge, will also have a look myself at a disco or two to make a fair comparison.

Marcus, I have a book by Ken Whitehead about pike fishing in general, he seemed to spend a lot of time on the Thames, fishing the weir pools as you say and also some of the tidal stretches too. Might be worth a look if you can find a copy. Happy hunting!

i have a book on fly fishing by j r hartley

A cracking read mate....!

A pity it's a marketting gimmic... the JR Hartley one was written (or shoul I say plagiarised) after the Yellow Pages adverts to take advantage of all the free advertising. Cracking idea - but far from a good book.

A much better one is "The complete Fly Fisher's Handbook" by Malcolm Greenhalgh and Denys Ovenden.

Cheers,

esox said:

Marcus, I have a book by Ken Whitehead about pike fishing in general, he seemed to spend a lot of time on the Thames, fishing the weir pools as you say and also some of the tidal stretches too. Might be worth a look if you can find a copy. Happy hunting!

Click to expand...

Yeah, I'll look it up, cheers. Fancy getting back on the Thames this year, used to have a couple of boats when I fished there before. Made it a lot easier to get to the bits others couldn't.

Ere', I heard of a book called "Sheepshaggin" by J Y Ella. Apparently it's the definitive guide.

is that J Y Ella or K Y Ella?

'pends how slippery ya want yer sheep dip I 'spose?

Its gotta be a Defender nice name Disco washing Machine

Before I ever thought of buying a Defender I tried almost every
Disco they brought out but could never come to say I want one
However I tried the Disco 3 now you are talking lots of money
and yes I would buy one if one the Lottery.......

But the Defender is Tops go for the 90 300 tdi

From my point of view i would be using mine with a trailer, across the odd field, down farm tracks and so forth, and I recon from what i have been reading on this thread that probably the Defender would be best, Which would you say would be the best engine, and which engine is easiest to got spares for, and which one is the most reliable.
Mike

I dont worry about fishing gear in my disco - I stick it in the boat. I dont like coarse fishing. the fish are small and you have to pay for the privelige. 5K would buy a very nice 300TDi Disco on a 98 or a 93 Deepender hmmm difficult choice.....NOT!

Iv'e just raised the question about noise in the defender having just been out in my pals nice quiet discovery, but for what I use it for the defender is here to stay, its abused most of the time but just keeps coming back for more.

200tdi can be easier and cheaper to maintain. as its older, parts are slighty cheaper and as its less advance u dont have things like catalitic converter which can be a dent in the wallet, (and ur head from the misses)
i picked up a fantastic 200tdi for 3300 privately with 124k on the clock. its worth more but the guy only bought it to lug things to the tip and back and didnt really know about landys, he only had it 6months and the guy before him was a landy nut and maintained at no expense.
u can find good articles on the net on things to look out for when buying landys, pointing out areas to look out for on different models etc. privately may not come with warrenty, but u mite just get a real bargin...

oh and 200's and 300's have same power torque and speed. 300 is just more economically and a bit quiter... i think, can anyone confirm the big differences???????

there aint no big differences. electronics mostly. more to go feckin wrong eh?
200 for budget buyers and the 300 for the posh ****s.
a td5 for the criminally insane.

lol, exactly sir, exactly

Had both before the p38 (200/300 Tdi) both brilliant on and off the road, neither let me down and both had high mileage when i bought them. 200 was a manual, 300 was auto, auto was much better for slow severe off road stuff but manual was great for towing and i could put tons of band gear in both.

Cheers, Nick.

On maintenance, it is much easier to change the cambelt and other bits on a 300tdi rather than a 200tdi. But both are good engines. If you get one with a cat it is easily removed as not required by law or the MOT. Same applies to EGR which is mostly on 300tdi Discos and can be disabled or removed completely. The last 'electronic' 300tdi Disco autos go quite well, better than the TD5 autos that I have driven (unless they are chipped).

Living where I do where rust doesn't happen, the Discos keep their value and normally cost more than an equivalent Defender. This is obviously not the case in the UK. In your position I would buy the best condition Disco you can get, body/chassis condition being more important than the engine/gearbox.

that seems so strange to us here in the uk.
you can get 200tdi discos here for 500/1000 quid all over the place.

you never see a deepender for anything like that budget price.
more likely 2 or 3 times the price.