First Land Rover

Hi all

After off roading in friends 4x4s for the last few years I am looking to buy my first Land Rover, have pretty much decided on a 300tdi disco, will spend as much I can afford to get lowest mileage/best condition. Budget will be up to £3k, I'm going to use mainly off road as I have a car for day to day stuff. Saying that I will probably use at least once or twice a week on road if other half has got the car. My dilemma is whether to buy one with some off road modifications already made or to start from scratch?
I wouldn't know where to start modifying it myself but am quite handy and tend to be able to pick things up quickly, are there any good books or websites available for modifying discos?
Any advice welcome, I'm not going to be buying for about 5/6 months so just doing plenty of research.

Many thanks
Ben

I am not aware of any good websites. This ones crap.

storm99 said:

I am not aware of any good websites. This ones crap.

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Wondered why you were still here :doh:

:welcome2:Ben and my advice is paper mache volcanoes take a lot longer to dry than you may imagine..........This I've discovered in the last few days and only wish someone had seen fit to mention it last week Hope this helps.......

Unless you are looking into going for serious offload, no mods should be needed apart from some AT tyres and some rope etc, discos are excellent.

I have just purchased a '96 300 tdi with a whole host of mods for £1500. I bought it because it had everything I thought I would add except for a winch and bumper and a light bar. Got to say the first thing I am doing is replacing the 2" lift with standard (it is a dog to drive as my daily runner) then start from there. I would buy a good standard one and mod as required.

mines a 300TDI 3 door, standard ride height, test drove some with lifts and for a daily driver they would have been a nightmare, just get urself a winch bumper and winch, some diff guards and a steering guard and some chunky A/T tyres and the world of laning is yours to explore i gave £2200 for mine and she's a good un, so do have a good scour before settling on one

Mister_L said:

just get urself a winch bumper and winch, some diff guards and a steering guard and some chunky A/T tyres and the world of laning is yours to explore

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why?

The Mad Hat Man said:

why?

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why not? its all ive got and it's never stopped me, granted you dont need a winch and winch bumper, but they help

Thanks for the replies. Always thought a 2 inch lift is something I would have but the more I read, the more it doesn't sound like a good idea. I guess if I ever got to the stage where I wanted bigger tyres then I would need to go down that route. but until such times I think leave it as it is. I'll mainly be doing laning and pay and play days. I think things like steering guards, and heavy duty front and rear bumpers are a good idea to as I've seen quite a few people get the standard bumpers damaged etc. Those sort of mods I could do myself, it'd only be when it breaks down I'd struggle myself. But hey we all have to start learning somewhere and I do see this as a bit of a project for me. Just got to get the small matter of my wedding out the way next March and then get my first landy!

Cheers

To go green laning, yu will find a standard disco will be fine, if it isn't, you should, possibly, not be driving it.

Also, £3k is borderline disco 2 money. You can get a half decent 300 tdi for around half that money.

As they are all quite old, there is little point trying to find a low mileage one because you will probably spend a lot of time looking and you will pay top dollar when you eventually find one. I'd suggest looking for one with average mileage for the year. (unless of course you spot a bargain then by all means, go for it)

High mileage is not the main problem for discos. The 300 tdi engines are generally very good and like many diesels, they tend to last. The main problem is rust. I've seen lower mileage S reg disco 300 tdi's with more rust than my high mileage 1996 N plate disco.

You could look for a 300tdi japanese import, they are generally in better condition than a uk disco as the japs don't use salt on the roads. I bought my 1997 300tdi disco recently and its in very good condition for the year for £2000 with 120,000 miles and service history. Everything on my disco works as it should and underneath is very very clean, had the boot carpet up and the floor is in brilliant condition!

If you can find one!!!

If you have a budget of £3000, spend half of it on the best TDi 300 you can find and leave the other £1500 for repairs and modifications you might want/need to do.

All Discos of this age will want some work, even if it's only discs and pads all round plus a thorough service so you'll need some funds to do tidying jobs before feeling fully confident with a new vehicle.

Underbody protection such as diff guards are cheap, easy to install and worthwhile. After that just go and have fun and learn along the way.

Cheers

Dave

I'm another Jap import fan. Biggest problem with Discoveries is body rot so buy on condition rather than mileage & service history. As for mods for off-roading they're pretty good out the box so unless you're going extreme off-roading don't waste your money.

Just my opinion though & plenty on here could disagree

ive had a standard disco for a few years.... most of the tracks i se are used by farmers in tractors or bog standard 4x4s..... only thing ive ever bent is the front bumper and trackrod..... leaving a tarmac lane to avoid a tranny van...... id say steering gaurd and chop the skirt of the front bumper is the mods id consider first.....perhaps a snorkle if you want to knacker yer wheel bearings and carpets by wading deep water.