A Defender 200 Tdi, Defender Td5 and Discovery 300 Tdi off-roading in Dalby Forest; the weather has been more reminiscent of tropical parts of the world in the UK recently, with very hot spells followed by heavy rains. Heavy rain on British green lanes can lead to some challenging off-road conditions, and that is exactly what Rob, from Famous Four’s Mail Order department, experienced during a recent trip to near Dalby Forest in Yorkshire this August, where he travelled for a weekend’s off-roading fun with his mates William, Nicolas and Mason in their vehicles.

Rob uses a Terrafirma A12000 Electric winch on his Defender, which was brilliant even in the extreme conditions. He had to deal with an alternator belt failure, but his truck was otherwise trouble free. William uses a Warn 8274 which also performed beautifully, and his only issue was an air box full of leaves! Mason uses a Britpart 12000lb winch which was good, but slower than ideal. Due to the rain and mud, winching was tough, and progress was slow. They slept in the wild, and Rob admits that although it did become a little uncomfortable, a few beers and a bottle of brandy made the night pass a little better.

They really enjoyed the weekend, and took some fabulous pictures of their exploits. Needless to say, a good hose down was required when they returned to Lincolnshire. Hopefully their next trip will be drier 🙂

You can view Famous Four’s extensive range of Off- Road accessories on our website: https://www.famousfour.co.uk

Here’s one from our archives…

Defender V8 = More power!

Way back in 2004 we thought it would be an interesting exercise to build an off-road biased Defender to showcase and test our wares. We came across a rather sad and neglected example with 2.5 Petrol engine and LT77 5 speed box. Out went all of that, in went a much more purposeful V8 3.9 EFi engine mated to a 4 speed ZF automatic gearbox.

A new rear cross member was fitted at the same time to make the underside structurally sound.

Well Equipped

We added our own excellent Famous Four Heavy Duty plus 1 inch springs (FF001000 & FF001001) mated with Bilstein heavy-duty gas assisted shock absorbers (FF000992 & FF000993) and heavy-duty Bilstein steering damper (FF000989). For off-road protection we fitted rock sliders, diff guards (FF003735) and aluminium steering guard (FF001232). BFGoodrich 265/75X16 Mud Terrain tyres were fitted to silver modular steel wheels. To finish it off we mounted a Warn 9.5 XP (FF003438) winch to a winch bumper (FF003472 pictured fitted to this vehicle on our web listing), with a Plasma Lightweight winch rope (FF003441).

Silver Dream Machine

The freshly silver-painted beauty made it’s off-road debut at Kirton Lindsey Quarry later that year, and starred in a number of photo shoots and product testing for some of our ‘FourSport’ Off-Road goodies which are still available on the website.

The performance and torque were awesome, the off-road cross-axle abilities superb, and the grip exceptional. All round it was a wonderful vehicle. Sadly, due to lack of use we sold the 90 on for a new owner to enjoy. Recently we were pleased to be contacted by it’s current owner who clearly loves and cherishes it to this day, appreciating the unique qualities of our bespoke modifications all those years ago which are still performing well and standing the test of time.