freelander or defender

so after towing our tea room/caravan to our woods on the freelander, it was so wet and muddy, that our mate took over in his defender, we was going to try pulling/pushing this in by hand, but after seeing what a difference having a front winch makes, its got me thinking, do I try getting a winch fitted to the freelander, or save my money till next year and go for a defender with a winch??

caravan 001 - YouTube

Personally I'd love a Defender, but they are too expensive for me and not too comfy on a long run on the autoroute, so I'll just have to dream.

Before I saw the vid I would've said defender

What tyres has he got on that Defender then,,

I would expect a Defender to cope much better than that???

What was in the caravan? A tonne of lead by the looks of it!

CoilerBen said:

What was in the caravan? A tonne of lead by the looks of it!

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just a bog standard caravan, no added load, just very wet clay soil

Get a winch for the Freelander...

Only criticism I've got is, why do people stand so close to a winching cable when in use, obviously not seen one let go, very painful when it broke the guy in questions arm.

And did I also see someone stepping over the cable?!?!?!..... Could all end in tears.

Good practice is to have all unnressercary people out of harms way. A winch cable damper ( bag or heavy cloth etc) on the cable. Avoid being in the line of travel if something snaps.
I have seen winch hooks ending up throughwindscreenstoo.

saw the video and I think somebody needs winching lessons never ever step over the cable always step on it as said and never be close to the winch cable it could cut you in half

I went on a vehicle recovery course some years ago. If I'd been that close to the cable, I'd have failed the course. 10mm cable breaking would have enough power to remove a limb should it make contact!!
I reckon a Freelander would do that towing job slightly better than the tratter

And always watch everything when winching.......

One of my fingers is a bit shorter than it should be due to not paying enough attention to what I was doing with a winch cable..:censored: I was very lucky not to lose it altogether....

:focus:

The hippo should do better with TC than the debender does on sloppy slippy slidey mud even with diff locks

I'd get a winch on the Freelander.
That way you can still have comfort and a heater for the journey home!

Traction Control in that stuff would beat the 4WD with center diff lock of an older Defender. A newer Defender with TC that's heavyer than a Freelander and with low-range would presumably pull better though.

cheers for the replies in relation to the question asked, as for the health and safety answers, yup it was me stepping over, yes I know it was naughty, thankfully this time I didn't get cut in half, but it made me remember all those on another forum, that told me a year ago that using a chinese imported chainsaw would result in loss of limbs left,right and centre, well I aint been called stumpy yet

I've got a cheap Chinese chain saw. Using that is much safer than stepping over a winch cable!!
It least you've learnt before you lost something
Why didn't you tow the caravan with your hippo?

buy a winch, make sure it will fit the defender you get next year

GrumpyGel said:

Traction Control in that stuff would beat the 4WD with center diff lock of an older Defender. A newer Defender with TC that's heavyer than a Freelander and with low-range would presumably pull better though.

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TC is useless, it only works for a short time or the brakes overheat, LSD and/or difflocks every time

Nodge68 said:

I've got a cheap Chinese chain saw. Using that is much safer than stepping over a winch cable!!
It least you've learnt before you lost something
Why didn't you tow the caravan with your hippo?

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simply, the private road in has had so much abuse by us woodland lot, that the freebie is bottoming out on the middle section, in made sense to tow the caravan along that in the defender, then it was easier to take the defender in, rather than swap it back over again, plus of course the winch made our minds up, had we towed it with the freebie and got stuck, it would have been worst

Datatek said:

TC is useless, it only works for a short time or the brakes overheat, LSD and/or difflocks every time

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If it works (as you say), it can't be useless!

As with all things - its horses for courses. It depends how often you're going to be pulling a caravan through **** like that. If you're going to be doing it often, then yes spending $$$$$ on difflocks all round will give a better result, but you'd be better off getting a tractor anyway!