On the topic of bumpers...

[Thonglaw]

I've just purchased my first Land Rover. It's a '96 Discovery 1. Low miles, great condition, 4.0 V8. It was quite obviously used by a person that never drove it in the dirt, but less made use of the locker.

I, however, have different plans for its life. It will be a daily driver, but has to be able to get me into the bad country of Oregon...and then back out with any luck.

It currently has no rack, other than the small stock one, and nothing other than the standard plain jane bumpers. I want to put a brush guard on the front and am toying with a bumper that will hold some gear in the back. And I want to put a decent rack on the top.

For the front I'm thinking of just going with the LR OEM brush guard. I don't think I'll be putting a winch on this thing. I'm hoping a High Lift jack will be able to get me outta most places. But - how tough is the OEM brush guard? Is it worth it? is there a 3rd party version that works better? I'd like to maintain the Air bag functionality if possible.

For the rear bumper - anyone know of a company that makes one that would hold a jerry can or a shovel/axe kind of deal?

Rack - Northwestparts.com seems to make a really nice roof rack. Anyone have one? How's it working?

Any info/opinions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Moose]

RE: The stock D1 brush bar -- it's not worth it. I had one on my truck when I first bought it, and hated it. Every little limb moved it, and a quick peek at it showed me that it would be next-to-worthless in an accident.

RE: Rear bumpers that hold things -- again, tough to make good use of. The rear door swinging open means that whatever you put back there has to be lower than the door (ergo, VERY low) or also swing away. AFAIK, there are no swing-away Disco cargo options beyond bike carriers. I suppose if you were really determined to have stuff back there, you could get one of those metal cargo carriers that attach to the rear hitch. But again, this leads to the swinging door problem. You'd also be forewarned to be cautious about have a jerry can exposed to the rear. ANY collision would risk a fire, and that to me isn't worth having the gas back there. Put it in the cargo area instead.

I have a handmade rack that mounts to a Thule loadbar system, and it works well, but I still have to watch my clearance on wooded trails (i.e., every trail East of the Mississippi).


Andy

 

[Slam]

I really like the look of the roof rack from Northwestparts.com. I think that they are supposed to be pretty strong, and much cheaper than the genuine roof racks. The cheapest you can get the genuines for is about $900.

The front bumper I have is genuine and is really just for looks. Andy is right, they are very unstable and move if you put your weight on them. I would try to get one that is really strong. I would avoid the air-bag compatible bars, because they only are different in that they have weak spots. If you get into an accident, they will be set off with or without an air-bar compatible bar. If you get into a fender bender, then only the air-bar bar will go off, and you probably did not want it to go off anyways. My opinion.....

 

[JJMyerz]

FWIW,

I will be selling my Genuine Brushgard this summer when I move back to Oregon. If your looking for custom backets, go say hello to Tony at Land Cruisers Northwest on the the corner of NW 19th & Thurman.

He has great fab skillz and can build anything you can dream up.

Justin

 

[tmiller1]

Spencer, one place that has a lot of "accessories" that you may be interested in is www.atlanticbritish.com. The best/easiest way to browse their inventory is to request a catalog (at this URL: http://www.atlanticbritish.com/email.html). They have a lot of "genuine" and competing products, for far less than the dealer pricing. After getting my first catalog (came in just a few days) my wish list has grown immensely.

Just a thought.


As for the stock brush guard - I must contend that they may have "fixed" the weakness of this recently. I have a stock Satin Black A-Frame brush bar on my 2004 Discovery that is rock solid. I can jump up and down on that thing all day long and it never budges an inch; however, I do not have the extended arms that protect the headlamps and these may still be fairly weak.

 

[Sergei]

Northwestparts now makes bumpers too, btw. Takes time, but its ok.

I will post pictures of mine, whenever it will be finally arriving

I second thing on brushguards - those are not only not worthy of money, they also notorious to make serious damage in collision to your truck, that overwise would be avoided.

Rear bumpers - there is no place to hold much of stuff without decreasing approach angle seriously. And if you put any more weight on that rear door - it will fall off So you better off mounting stuff on roof rack.


Roofracks - while many will bash NWP for being not-so-cool, imho - it does what it should do. If you not caring for genuinity and on budget - go for it (i know i will with next batch of money ). If you feels like going higher - check Safety Device racks carried by many other nice online rover shops. Shop around for used adventure rack - sometime they popping up on boards. But they all will cost you about twice as much.

Accessories - before spending monies on stuff you want - go and spend them on getting proper dual recovery points front and rear (JATEs for rear, hooks/JATEs for front). Consider front bumper with recovery points too or at least possibility of mounting those (then D-rings or Tow jaws are good choice) - you will kiss yourself for having those when you will have to yank someone out or be yanked out yourself.
While it sounds stupid - many people will get fancy stuff first and then will rely on stupid whimpy factory loops that shall not be used as recovery points.

 

[MS_SE7]

I'm not sure of the cost, but ARB makes nice bumpers for the Discovery. I think that you can even get it with the brush guard built on. I've heard good stuff about ARB.

Later
Richard

 

[Sergei]

Richard, there is one tiny problem with ARBs - they do decrease approach angle quite a lot. Most of aftermarket bumpers do that , but ARBs going ahead of crowd on that.

And they do have brush guard built in, you cant get one without. Unlike TJMs (17 vs 15 models). I am not bashing ARB - they renown folkz, and building quality products, but i seen ARBs plowing through things where others went without problem (check rovering moab video - there is good point at Kane Creek Canyon trail with ARB ).