VERMONT ROVERS
Story and photos by Dave Sweetapple
PROPER PLACE / PROPER TRAILS
RUST-ic New England
S
peaking from experience, I can tell you that Land Rover ownership in New England comes with an appreciation of the Gregorian calendar. By the time October rolls around, I am already thinking of storage for my ‘95 Defender 130, and winterization prep for the Land Rovers I will treat as sacrificial lambs. Like our local municipalities, I diligently keep an eye on weather forecasts as of early November. As soon as the first snow flies, the roads will be covered in a fresh layer of salt; they will remain coated in the corrosive mix throughout the entire winter. That news means that my garage will be full for several months. The stored 130 will not see pavement until mid to late April, and then, only after several heavy rainfalls to ensure that the saline has been washed away. Owning a vintage Land Rover comes with various levels of anxiety. In the general, broader sense, this anxiety can mostly be attributed to the failure of parts causing the beloved Land Rover to sit in the driveway until the problem is diagnosed and fixed with (mostly) easily obtainable replacement parts. This condition seems universal, no matter where you live in the world. There is a second, elevated level of anxiety that many Land Rover owners will never experience if they do not live in areas with heavy snowfall. We call that rust. 48
roversmagazine.com
Winter 2022
No matter how innocuous a layer of saline seems in the present, it will ultimately degrade and destroy steel in the future. The slow decay of the steel frame and exposed metal parts of your Land Rover will definitely affect the vehicle’s value in a few short years. Whenever someone asks me if a Land Rover that they have seen for sale is worth the price, the first thing I always ask is, “How is the chassis?” A new chassis will cost thousands and that doesn’t include the labor, whether your own or someone else’s. This is where the preservation instinct comes into play. In New England, people will either fully commit to using their Land Rover year-round or to storing it over the winter months to avoid the inevitable. I’m sure that some readers are thinking, “Why bother owning a Land Rover if you are not going to use it throughout the year, especially during a season when it could most effectively be put to use?” My solution is to have multiple Land Rovers; I have three registered right now, and am building a fourth. I’ve run my 1974 Series III 88” for 20-plus years – I enjoyed winter off-roading well before I honed my Rover preservation skills. This one is my sacrificial lamb; the second one is my LR4. The LR4 is essentially the ‘daily driver,’ and like most modern vehicles, seems impervious to the abuses of salt. The Defender 130 is under the strict calendar rules, and stays in its winter cocoon until the buds appear on the trees. It came from the South of France, has never been acquainted
