At last, a solution to one of the most common complaints about Land Rover Defender Vehicles!
As you climb in to a Defender, all too frequently, one of your belt loops or pockets gets caught on the door catch - and very often gets ripped clean off! I've ruined several pairs of trousers in the last year with one of them having the leg ripped clean off after a side pocket became caught!
We decided to do something about it! The result is the X-Trouser. Not only does it protect your trousers, in many cases it makes the door close more reliably and helps (though it does not entirely stop) the seat belt getting caught in the latch. If the seat belt does become caught as you close the door, it suffers less damage due to the smooth profile of the X-Trouser.
You can see from the photograph of the new & old door catches side by side, why this happens - and also what we have done about it.
The door catch on the right is the original and you can see that the bottom left edge forms a sharp hook. This is just made to catch on belt loops etc.
As you can see, the catch on the left has a smooth profile which even if your belt loop or pocket runs over it, it will slide off freely.
The X-Trouser catch is reversible so it will fit both the driver and passenger doors, left & right hand drive. It will also fit the rear side doors of 110 Station Wagons.
Some early 90/110's (ones with lift handles rather than push button) have a different style of door catch. Compare yours to the photographs to make sure it will fit!
A few users have commented how tricky it can be to re-align the door catch when changed - but if you follow this procedure its quick & easy!
* Using a marker pen, draw a line on the door frame around the base of the cream coloured riser block (Above Centre). When you re-fit, allign the riser with the drawn line - and it will be in exactly the same place the original catch was.
* If when you close the door, it does not latch properly - its usually because the grease in the door lock has dried out and become sticky. Spray a load of WD40 into the lock from the edge of the door, then if available follow it with a spray of grease. This fixes most of the problems people blame on the catch being misalligned!
In order to add the domed end (important to make the X-Trouser smooth and less likely to catch), we have shortened it by 1.5mm in order not to contact the door latch mechanism. In some rare cases, where the door is too far forwards, this causes the latch to miss the pin on the X-Trouser and the door not close properly. On your original door catch, you will be able to see a witness mark where the latch has been striking the plastic sleeve of the striker. If this mark is within 1.5mm of the edge of the plastic, you may need to add an additional spacer underneath the Nylon block the X-Trouser bolts to. We are able to supply these, Part Number MWC3148. Alternatively, slacken the door hinges and move the door backwards a couple of mm.