Soft-Top Troop Carrier: 1975 Land Rover 109 Series III
- August 25, 2020
These Series III trucks were the most popular vehicle built by Land Rover, with 440k units being produced from 1971 to 1985. There were several updates made for the Series III when compared to the Series IIa that preceded it, including headlights moved to the wings, a plastic front grille and a molded plastic dashboard with gauges on the driver’s side. Mechanically, the 2.25L inline-four’s compression was raised to 8:1, and these LWB trucks featured a Salisbury rear axle that housed the differential and axle case.
This truck looks exceptionally clean with the aluminum body panels finished in Limestone with matching steel wheels. The khaki soft top completes the look and matches the spare tire cover on the hood. The seller mentions it is an ex-military truck, so it shocks us to see that the body is this straight. Galvanized steel trim and bumpers are also free of damage.
These 72 hp inline-fours are anemic by today’s standards, but they got the job done back in the day, which included slowly crawling through the muck and sand while carrying a full payload of soldiers. The Series III was also the first model to utilize an all-synchro gearbox.
We’ve seen lesser examples of these trucks cross the auction block for $5k+ more, and a same model year Series III (that was definitely a notch below this one) sold for $4k more on BaT in January 2019. For that reason, we’d order you to send out the troops to go capture this rig as soon as possible if you’re in the market for a Series III.
