3. Passenger side every time. Northern WI.
This?
https://www.motor1.com/features/370039/land-rover-defender-features-options/4354539/
Absolutely. All day, every day. Gay. $1000 for an inflatable awning? LOL Maybe then I could justify the $760 air compressor.
Yes, they bend. I've seen at least a half dozen locally with severe bends in the top horizontal tube. One finger, you say? You sure do have some good grip strength there, Kenny.
IDK, I was pretty happy to have my DOM RockStar tube this day. Saved me from squashing the entire passenger roofline(note the mud on the rack from the bank), but it couldn't save the cargo glass.
The problem is they are trying WAY too hard, and it shows. The car, on its own merits, isn't terrible. As a Defender, its awful. The new
Defender styling is a flop, and LR is trying SO hard to make it "cool" despite that. Ill designed side ladders and saddle bags just prove that.
Ignore the stuff, then. Land Rover is simply misinterpreting what they should be pimping, again, but they do get points for
trying to inspire people. Yes, they've taken it a bit far, but the whole launch was botched. Right now, image searches should be
flooded with promotional photography in final trim, but they're not. They lost control several years ago and failed to regain it. They are not delivering their own narrative...
Actually, it's
still hard to find a bunch of solid pictures of the D5 interior, because that damned Sport stole it's thunder. They have the worst possible brand for this modern age. They didn't stop to think that media is a long game. You need to be prepping for media deployment well in advance of launch. You have to control what shows up and what doesn't, and be sure that when you do open the gates, it's an absolute flood of media that was already crawled.
Whoever thought it was a good idea to get a pro photographer out there to try to replicate social media angles in
every single picture was an idiot. All of them. Every last one has been taken as if someone stepped out to snap a shot for Instagram; and the angles are making it look like a riced out Honda.
I actually like the styling, minus the body color A pillars and black stripes on the ass. A little bit of paint will cure that, but I think there is
one picture that shows Land Rover actually
did know what they were doing with their industrial design:
That's essentially an "overland greatest hits" style album, right there. I can see it: Mitsubishi, Land Rover, Toyota, Nissan, International, Ford... It's all in there. They did actually put some brains on that sketch pad. Pretend that thing on the window isn't there. I edited it out, but forgot to save the file.
I want you to try something. Close your eyes, and think "Pajero" as hard as you can, and then open them and look at the above picture. Do the same with all the off-pavement Icons except Jeep. There's not a drop of Jeep in that design, and that was obviously deliberate considering how thoroughly they swept everyone else's history.
It's like they took the idea of what "adventurous vehicles" historically look like and then wrapped it in Defender vinyl with a sprinkling of retro dust.
On your rack: I forgot what those Rockstar offerings looked like. It was fun when several smaller companies were briefly trying to duke it out for an SD alternative. I do actually have good grip strength, but you can pick up an SD rack as well, though; just as easily as me. They're pretty light with nothing on them. I'd considered trying to make something before I got my hands on one that wasn't installed.
As soon as I picked it up I decided to find something else to do. It wasn't worth the trouble on a small scale, in steel, at least. The only way to improve it is to sell it and call Hannibal. We use the SD racks because they look cooler, not because it's the most logical option. If you're going to have a full steel basket up there, though, it's hard to do better than what the factory arranged in that particular instance.
Cheers,
Kennith
