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 build quantity occurred in 1998. The Perentie was based on the Land Rover Defender 110, and was introduced in 1987. The Land Rover Perenties were produced in 4 x 4 and 6 x 6 variants and powered by an Isuzu 3.9-litre four-cylinder 4BD1 diesel engine or 4BD1-T turbo.
The major differences between the Land Rover Perentie and British Land Rovers are the relocation of the spare wheel to a position under the rear of the load area, a galvanised chassis and the Isuzu engine. The original army contract called for a variety of unusual features including being able to sustain being hung from a helicoptor by one corner without causing the chassis to distort. The 6 x 6 version has a wider cab and load sharing leaf-sprung rear axles. The 6 x 6 also has a turbocharger. The original order was for 2,500 4 x 4 and 400 6 x 6 vehicles between 1987 and 1990, while further vehicles were later added under Project Bushranger.
The name Perentie originates from Land Rover’s successful tender to Project Perentie, which was the official Australian Army trial to select new 1 and 2-tonne light vehicles. During the Project Perentie trials the Land Rover/Isuzu 110 and 6 x 6 variants were compared against models from Jeep, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, and the Unimog.
As of February 2013 the Perenties are being disposed of, with the remaining in-service units being replaced by Mercedes-Benz G-Wagons.