I haven't played an SD tanker, only an SD brute. So take this with a big grain of salt since the tanker version of SD has better base defense and higher base HP, which helps a ton. Anyway, I found that as a solo brute it was not so easy in the low levels; defense sets like SD and SR start off relatively squishier compared to many other sets. I ended up teaming a lot: a bubbler or Cold defender will make life great for you, easily putting you at the defense softcap. Once I leveled up and got more stacked defenses it was easier to solo. At level 50, now that I'm softcapped, soloing is a breeze. (It was almost absurdly expensive to softcap the brute but it's much much easier/cheaper to softcap an SD tank.)
As a tanker you'll be able to solo easily, the only question is how aggressive you'll be able to go on the difficulty settings.
My advice would be to go against your instincts and force yourself to invite a few teammates to make those early levels fly by faster. Blueside, the synergies are awesome because squishies generally have a hard time soloing in the lower levels and greatly desire to team with a tank. In return they'll usually bring tools to the party that will enhance your survivability. Everyone wins. 
EDIT: I saw in the tanker forum you intend to farm with this character. SD/SS is a good choice since once you softcap you can start investing in recharge. The goal is to get Footstomp to recharge as fast as possible. Luckily you'll have lots of places to slot those LotGs 
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Freedom: Blazing Larb, Fiery Fulcrum, Sardan Reborn, Arctic-Frenzy, Wasabi Sam, Mr Smashtastic.
I think Super Strength sucks at the lower levels, because some of the common enemies (like Trolls) have defense to Smashing, and Super Strength does pretty crappy damage before Knockout Blow and then Rage.
Shield Defense is rough at low levels, because the click-status protection cannot be made permanent until level 22 with SOs, unlike the sets that get a toggle.
On the other hand, you'll be above level 20 far longer than below, and only you can define "fun" so give it a try.
are shield/SS tanks easy to solo in earlier lvls. Im mainly gonna be soloing this too from lvl one and need to know if it will be fun to lvl solo and sometimes duo with a friend whos a blaster but mainly solo.