Posted on 1/5/2021
What better way to continue evaluating our new Defender than to celebrate Christmas with a trip to Moab, UT this year? It's now been about 2 months and 1700 miles since picking up our '20 Defender Model X from the dealer and I couldn't be happier with it. Do I think it's perfect, no, but it does meet my expectations of the truck and more. As I've stated before, I think the new Defender is a great replacement for the LR3 & LR4 as its inherent design is as a utility vehicle capable of performing a large range of tasks. A solid daily driver that can haul your kids to school as well as it can haul a load in the back, or haul a trailer. I do wish for a more off-road specific version as I lean heavily towards the "rock crawling" spectrum of off-road enthusiasts, perhaps Rover will release something in the future, but it's ok with me if they leave this up to the enthusiasts and fabricators to make this happen. And that is already in the works from ma ... read more
Posted on 11/29/2020
Back in June '20 I had the lucky opportunity to join Steve Burt, GM of Land Rover Denver, on Chinaman's trail with their pre-release D110. I had come out with my '98 Range Rover, my friend Chris with his '94 D90, and Steve's son with his Jeep Wrangler. It was during this trip that Steve allowed me some seat time in the Defender and I was impressed with its layout and seating space, being 6'4" and about 230lbs headroom and visibility is often a challenge in most vehicles. I had been considering purchasing the new Defender before this trip, but now knowing I had good headroom, seating position, and visibility cinched it for me. I took some time thinking about the options and color choices and finally placed my order in early July for the model X with the rear locker in Pangea green. Now the wait was on, and I was updated about a month later with an ETA of October 30th. My next update came in early Oc ... read more
Posted on 6/22/2020
With the recent release of the New Defender, I was lucky enough to be invited on a trail ride with one of the demo vehicles from Land Rover Denver. They had already done a little outfitting of this one with a 2” air suspension lift and larger 275/60R20 BFG AT tires. We met at the Chinaman Gulch trailhead just outside Buena Vista Colorado Sunday morning. It was a cool dry morning following a pretty good rain the night before which really cut down on the dust on the trail and offered incredibly clear views of the surrounding sky and mountains. Four of us lined up that morning, Chris & Shea Breidenbach in his ’94 D90 nicknamed “The Crusher”, me and Dena in the ’98 P38 nicknamed “Trail Shark”, Steve Burt the GM of Land Rover Denver in the ’20 D110, one of Steve’s sons in his Jeep TJ, the other son hiked most of the trail taking video. We spen ... read more
Posted on 11/28/2018
If you would have told me a year ago that a car brand would be a life changing motivator, I would have told you that you were crazy. Since immersing myself in the Land Rover brand, I have found it to be so much more than just a vehicle. Rather a true extension of an adventurous lifestyle. The History of Land Rover and its dedicated followers really caught my attention. So many seemingly ordinary people taking what started as a farm truck on epic ventures. I read about people like Barbara Toy who took her Series I, Pollyanna, on solo excursions through Africa, the Middle East, across Asia, and even around the world. Later reading an article on Bristol Foster and Robert Bateman being reunited with their long-lost Grizzly Torque, a 1957 ambulance built by Land Rover, that had been lost for decades somewhere in Can ... read more
Posted on 8/20/2018
Mile-Hi Jeep Club is a non-profit organization, 501c(7), that combines the love of off-road with the drive to keep the sport alive. They strive to educate their members on the necessity of proper trail use, the importance of protecting and preserving the beauty of the trails they use and assist in search & rescue and other humanitarian missions around the state on a voluntary basis. For the last 52 years, Mile-Hi Jeep Club has hosted the All-4-Fun event. Bringing together hundreds of like minded off-road enthusiasts to enjoy a week of wheeling and other vendor sponsored events, including safety and recovery demos. The location varies from year to year, offering a chance to hit trails all over Colorado. As expected by their name, it is a predominately Jeep event. For the second year, JC’s once again infiltrated the Jeep community. Originally planned for Silverton this year, JC’s had only planned to sponsor the kids’ games, an event held during the Vendor Show to in ... read more
Posted on 5/18/2017
Since late 2016, I’ve been working on importing an Australian Land Rover Perentie 6×6. As you may recall, we had a customer bring one in earlier in 2016, and I was pretty enamored with the vehicle. So after more research on the Perentie, I decided that the 6×6 flat bed variant would be perfect for us, as it is the only Perentie that comes with the turbocharged 3.9l Isuzu engine, and would be a great platform for any future modifications or use. Not only did I get the Perentie as a cool shop and marketing vehicle, but going through the importing process is part of the knowledge I need for our shop expansion into vehicle sales as I am hoping to bring more of these great and unique Rovers to the states. Here’s some more information from Wikipedia one the Land Rover Perentie. So, after months of waiting (th ... read more
Posted on 2/6/2016
This week, we had the rare opportunity to see and work on an imported Australian Military Defender often know as a Land Rover Perentie. It was in for a fuel tank replacement as the original had sprung a leak, luckily for us the owner had already sourced the replacement as we are not familiar with this Rover variant and what parts are the same as NAS (North American Stock) vehicles or other ROW (Rest Of World) vehicles. Our customer is working to import more of these vehicles, so hopefully we will continue to see more of them as the options seem very well planned in my opinion. Here’s an excerpt from Wikipedia on the model: The Land Rover Perentie is a nickname for the Land Rover 110 produced by JRA Limited for the Australian Army, and part manufactured and assembled in Moorebank, New South Wales, during the 1980s and 1990s. There were two build contracts. The first was in 1988 and the second ... read more