Defender 90's are Solid front axle.
aside from the inherant electrical issues, poor fuel economy, and just oversized bulkiness of landrovers, they are actually very capabile vehicles. I wheel with a guy who has a early 90's discovery, 2" OME lift and 35" tsl's with lots of fender trimming, other than that, pretty much stock and he can't kill that thing. the body is just about junk from being so large, I think all the glass is now officially blown out too.
Me personally, I would look for an old Toyota landcruiser, it would have to be either a FJ40 or FJ45 with an austrilian spec diesel