Has anyone on this site really put a FL2 through it's paces off-road? I am seriously contemplating one but need to know if the ground clearance and suspension travel are up to the job of real off-road work?

cotefarmboy wrote:

ground clearance and suspension travel are up to the job of real off-road work?

You need to define what you mean by "real off road work" to get a meaningful answer.

FL2 ground clearance and suspension are improved a bit compared with FL1 but take a FL2 anywhere near deep ruts and it'll struggle in much the same way that FL1 did.

FL1 and FL2 have nowhere near as much ground clearance or suspension travel as Discos which in turn have nowhere near as much ground clearance or suspension travel as Defenders.

Used off-road within their design envelope FL1s are very capable as I'm sure FL2s will be -- but don't expect to get a Freelander (1 or 2) everywhere you'll get a Defender.

So horses for courses and all that  Bill

'97 Land Rover 300Tdi Defender 90 "Big Red" - Never Clean
'78 Triumph Spitfire 2500 - Much Modified
'76 Triumph 2000TC Saloon - Forever Original
ex V6 Freelander owner not interested in another shiny Land Rover at the moment

It was the ground clearance issue really, my old Freelander Sport (2004) was really capable off-road excpet that it kept bottoming out. I wondered how much better the new one was?

It looks like the exhaust that seems to be the lowest point, There's a long centre pipe running from front to rear which looks like it would take the first knock ...

cotefarmboy wrote:

I wondered how much better the new one was?

This is second hand info Andrew cause I haven't had a good look at FL2 yet myself so treat it with a pinch of salt -- but a couple of guys in the MAD Freelander off-road club whose opinions I trust are not convinced that there's any real improvement in ground clearance although the specs are slightly better.

FL1 is pretty well set up for off-road use. Everything underneath (except the rear silencer, which isn't a big deal in any case) is tucked up well out of the way and this doesn't appear to have been carried over to FL2 to the same extent -- which isn't really that surprising bearing in mind FL2 is based on shared Volvo/Ford/LR chassis platform.

We took our FL1 off road a lot in the three years we had it (and damaged it quite severely in the process ) and it was great so long was we could keep it out of the deep ruts (and big boulders covered in moss ) -- personally I won't hear a bad word said about them

The larger diameter tyres fitted to FL2 as standard are a definite advantage -- but on the whole the jury's out on this one I reckon  Bill

'97 Land Rover 300Tdi Defender 90 "Big Red" - Never Clean
'78 Triumph Spitfire 2500 - Much Modified
'76 Triumph 2000TC Saloon - Forever Original
ex V6 Freelander owner not interested in another shiny Land Rover at the moment