How-To: Identify Land Rover Series trucks and Defender Vehicles

Rovers North has a nice article for identifying all the different variations of Series trucks, and the Defenders that followed them.

It starts off:

How to Identify Your Land Rover Series by Rovers North

Land Rover began in 1947 with the Series I and continued until 1985 manufacturing the Series III model. This identification was initiated by Land Rover as a means of identifying major design changes in production. They did not intend to change them on an annual basis. The designers felt that they had this “agricultural workhorse” so right from the start, that annual cosmetic styling would only detract from its functional applications.

By Wheelbase
Land Rover wheel base is measured from the hub center of the front wheel to the hub center of the rear (example: model 88 is 88” from hub center to hub center). The exception being the 90 which is actually 92.9” wheel base.

Birth of a Legend
The prototype Land Rover built September 1947 featured a center steering wheel, negating the need to build RHD and LHD models. The vehicle was essentially a U.S. built Jeep with a Rover designed aluminum skinned body. Rover car engine and main gearbox. It was scrapped in the spring of 1948. 1948 pre-production Land Rovers were built in the first half of 1948. As the last of the pilot built vehicles were being finished, production vehicles were already coming off an adjacent assembly line.

and then the article has some great pictorial drawings with nitty gritty details. See the full article here.