I am SURE there was a good reason.....

It may just be that people generally got a bit fussier about the duco and didn't want scratches from lifting a heavy wheel across the bonnet? I know that there were people who made alloy plates that went on the top of the guards and so on to stop that from happening.

Wouldn't surprise me though if there was a law against it somewhere.

A while back someone on here posted a link to the Qld RTA site concerning bonnet scoops. Struth, there were diagrams from all sorts of angles showing when a particular scoop would make a vehicle unroadworthy because of vision impairment!!! If they can get their panties in a twist over a scoop which would be about 50mm above standard bonnet height, imagine the state those very same knickers would be in if they had to draw diagrams of a 265mm wide (high) tyre sitting on top of the damned bonnet!!! LOLOL

Where were you last night mate??????? A hold up in the northern suburbs last night,,,,,,police looking for man driving 4WD delica.

I believe it has to do with the increased height of the Td5 engine in '99 onward Defenders. It seems that due to this change, some bonnet ribs or braces to hold the weight of the spare had to be removed. i.e. Tdi type bonnet will not fit a Td5 vehicle.

bigfist fight on forum not that long ago whether spares are better off under the vehicle or on the back and now you want to throw on the bonnet into the mix??????????

Used to have the axe and the shovel on the mudguards too!!

Try getting the missus to heave a splitie onto the bonnet!!!!! Even uder (?) the back of a cruiser is a better option :-)

From experience - Also cause a massive headache when one inadvertently bumped the geometric lock on bonnet when one had the bonnet up and head down bum up in the engine bay.

I dunno but it sure looked cool.

Its bad enough to lift a bonnet with pick, shovel and axe attach (as per Army standards) let alone a spare tyre and I have had the lot crash down on my wrist when the bonnet stay dropped!! 5 years later and Im still waiting for all the feeling to return to my left thumb.

I have a feeling that ADRs would have stopped the spare on the bonnet when the Rover crossed the appropriate year boundary. ie pre ADR Rovers can do it but after 19.... it would have been stopped for vision and also bonnet protrusions. The same reg that covers collapsable hood ornaments etc, you know, the all inclusive pedestrian strike scenario!

Also if you have ever seen the setup on a Rover, with the little plastic hinge(grommets) that secure the firewall end of the bonnet could easily depart with the extra weight on the bonnet given the necessary upward bump!! Would certainly flog them out very quickly otherwise and what if you wanted to fit wider rims...it would get very messy!

Matt.

Also Rover 2000 and 3500 had a mount kit for the boot lid so as to mount the spare to give you more room in the boot. Useless info I know , but I thought you would like to know. Lol. regards G.T.