About Us

 Wolf was the project name used by Land Rover. It came up in an informal Land Rover engineering meeting, the engineering director said “if we’re not careful this project is going to bite us in the arse”. The transmission manager then said “well we'd better call it Wolf then”.  The MoD designates the Wolf 90 as Truck Utility Light (TUL) and the Wolf 110 as Truck Utility Medium (TUM) High Specification (HS) and Land Rover calls it eXtra Duty (XD). The name Wolf has been adopted by soldiers as a generic term. Contrary to what many people think Wolf does not mean Wheel On Left Flank.  Initial order From the debate in British parliament of 18 January 1996:  "The Land Rover vehicle, known commercially as Defender XD, has been subjected to extensive and rigorous trialling in order to ensure that it can meet the high standards of reliability which are essential for operational military vehicles. Therefore, I am pleased to have been able to announce earlier today that, subject to the satisfactory completion of contractual negotiations, I propose to place an order with Land-Rover for about 8,000 vehicles. That order is worth about £170 million. It will bring substantial industrial and employment benefits to Land-Rover, and enhance the vehicle's already excellent prospects in export markets."   The Wolf was tested, rejected, upgraded and tested again before the MoD was satisfied. It is far stronger and more reliable than the Land Rover Defender on which it was based.   When the Wolf was designed the engine in the civilian Defenders was the Td5. Land Rover preferred the 300Tdi for the Wolf because the electronics in the Td5 were more complex to manage in the field.  The 300Tdi on a Wolf uses a slightly different design of timing cover compared to the civilian version.   The testing was extremely rigorous and Salisbury axles kept breaking, the axle was redesigned using stronger internals, hubs and outer casing, making one of the strongest axles ever made.  The fibre-glass roof was far simpler to manufacture over the raised height of the roofbars than the Defender aluminium roof. The production was outsourced.   The decision to mount the spare wheel on the side was made as everywhere else where Land Rover tried to mount the spare wheel caused the mountings to break free and it was too heavy for the bonnet. There are 3 versions of mounting, soft, hard top and quick release.    The chassis is considerably different in design to the standard Defender chassis even though it looks similar. The side walls are standard, most of the rest is bespoke. The additional rear load bed mounting was to take increased weights as the standard chassis kept punching big dents in the rear floor.  Chassis made after the production run (service chassis) are slightly different, later ones have a triangular reinforcement behind the front outriggers, none of them have the front round tube going through the main chassis walls as it is more costly to tool and produce although it is stronger.  The chassis wasn’t galvanised due to the additional weight it adds. There were also Health and Safety concerns about the gases involved in welding a galvanised chassis.  WMIKs made from the factory had two outriggers in the middle of the chassis instead of just one on a standard Wolf chassis.   The chassis on all Wolfs was sprayed internally with Dinitrol rust proofing.    Goodyear G90s were designed for the project and strengthened on the sidewalls in testing. The Michelin tyres were felt to be better but more expensive and classed as an approved second choice as used on Winterised/Waterproofed Wolfs.    Other Wolf specific items  are side lockers for jerry cans on the 110's and all versions equipped with a steering guard and 24 volt electrics.  A roll cage is standard and some Wolfs were later upgraded with an extra front roll cage.  To reduce noise a special heavy duty military matting system was designed for the Wolf by Exmoor Trim. These mats weigh about 30 kg.  Not all Wolfs have these mats.  The Wolf soft top is PVC and the rear flap is fastened by zippers and Velcro.