Land Rover Defender 130 Valiance Is the Classiest Pickup Truck Around

Have you ever looked for a luxury pickup truck derived from an SUV? No? Well, apparently someone, somewhere is looking for such things, otherwise a custom crew going by the name Heritage Customs wouldn't have invested time and money into coming up with a pickup truck version of the Defender 130.

Heritage Customs is a name we stumble upon from time to time. The crew is closely tied to one of Europe's biggest names in the custom industry, Niels van Roij Design, and over the past few years it has been busy giving us radical interpretations of the mighty Defender.

It was at the end of 2021 when we learned the company is working on the "ultimate coachbuilt SUV convertible," a project that became known to the world as the Valiance. Basically, we were talking about the good-old Defender 90 but with no roof in the traditional sense, and fitted with an assortment of luxury appointments that don't come along very often.

Ever since the project was announced we've known not many of them will be made. There was talk at one point of around five of them being planned for production. To date, we only know of two making it into the world, shown in January and May 2024, respectively – it's unclear what stage the others are in, or when they will be revealed.

But we're not here to talk about the Defender 90 Valiance. At least not exactly, because the model did serve as inspiration for Heritage Customs to announce the arrival of the Valiance pickup truck.

This time based on the Defender 130, it should be a blend between classic Land Rovers and the insane looks of the convertible mentioned above. Only this time most of the chopping work was focused on the rear end, where some bodywork had to go to make room for a bed.

The customizer does not specifically say what the conversion from SUV to pickup entails, but the conversion seems as simple as cutting the roof and sides of the Defender's rear section, behind the last row of seats, and then carefully covering the resulting bed.

Other than that, the Defender remains, at least in terms of shape and capabilities, the same as it ever was. In this case, the base vehicle is a Defender 130 X-Dynamic SE, meaning the one right above the entry-level S trim.

Aside from the conversion to a pickup truck, Heritage offers people in the market for such a vehicle several customization choices. They include a wide choice of colors for the bodywork, the materials used to cover the interior (with leather and Alcantara taking center stage), and a selection of purpose-built wheels, sized 20 and 22 inches, that can be wrapped in the customer's tires of choice. On top of it all, a decal pack can be specified, and a series of accessories will be made available.

I said earlier the Valiance pickup truck is based on the Defender 130 X-Dynamic SE, and that one presently sells in the U.S. for around $70,000. The conversion from SUV to pickup, base vehicle included, will however set you back more than double that, $166,000 - Heritage is asking a minimum of 155,000 euros for one, but that's only the starting price.

You should also know that once you've committed down this path, there's not much you can do to turn around. Heritage is asking half of that sum up front, as soon as the transformation of the Defender begins, and the rest upon completion.

From start to finish it should take around three months to morph a Defender 130 from SUV to pickup truck. During all this time, the customer is kept in the loop through a constant flood of photos and videos of the build, and assistance is provided with export and registration, if such things are needed – a fine touch that kind of softens the blow of paying more than two times the price of the stock SUV.

The pickup truck is already listed on the Heritage website as being available to order, but this time we're not told anything about it being a limited edition in some sense – it's likely, though, the price tag and the design that may not be to everybody's liking will limit production in a natural fashion.

We'll keep an eye out for when the first customer Valiance pickup truck makes it into the wild, because Heritage has a habit of letting us know every time one of its special vehicles exits the shop.