We live in a small hamlet which is at the bottom of a steep valley. I have been a little wary about driving down to my home notwithstanding the drive out on compacted snow was without incident and in "snow" TR coped very well.

My neighbour has a Disco4 with auto and by using HDC in conjunction with TR has traversed upand down without problem.

I tried to emulate this feat this morning in my GS manual but at a really steep bit found that the car began to slide, braking to rest stalls the engine and engaging the clutch disengages the HDC with car sliding. The lane is but 10ft wide with Cotswold stone walls either side so perhaps my inexperience coupled with an expanding sphincter made me bottle it and reverse into a drive turn around and proceed to safety.

Is it me or is an auto be better in such circumstances?

Tenet MY 09 GS manual in Lago Grey, Wood Co arm rest and side bumper strips - now sold.

MY 15 SD4 SE Auto Orkney Grey with colour coded Bumper Door Mouldings

other factors to look at are what tyres is the D4 on and its extra weight and low range box?

Pressing the clutch or brake pedle will disengage the HDC also, pressing the '+' or '-' button the the cruise control will decrease/increase the speed the car will travel at

Maybe try (if you stop clenching those but cheeks) First gear, press the brake (loads the brake force), press the '-' button serveral times to make the car go as slow as possible and foot off the brake and clutch and allow the car to take you down, by bring the clutch to biting point to take you over the edge (then foot off/covering)

its scary on just a muddy hill the first time and every ounce of you wants to jump on the brake

But you as the driver have to make sure its safe to do so, its not a magical safety device

caution is your friend  Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

Last edited by npinks on 12th Jan 2010 3:56 pm. Edited 1 time in total

He (or she) has probably got better tyres than you and did the procedure at a lower speed.

Manuals work as well as auto's in the right experienced hands.

I guess it's really about knowing the limits of the car, understanding how it'll react to the surface you're driving on, and when to use more power, or when to ease off.

Also, depends what tyres you're on, and what he's on, and how much use they've had.

In theory, the FL2 should do better, lighter, less gravity pulling you back down the hill. But if he's using low box to crawl up, and you've only got first, he may have more control.

Some wheelspin can be a good thing, depends on what happens. The FL will send power to the one wheel with grip (keeping you going when others stop) which is why they're doing so well lately, as most cars need both fronts or both rears to have grip to work, and their TC (if fitted isn't that normally that clever), where as the FL and D4 need just 1 out of their 4 wheels to have grip to keep going (and in GGS mode will adjust itself very quickly for which wheels have grip).

Obviously, if the road has a large camber, it may be a different camber, but unless your very quickly sliding sideways, it should keep going. It will slide side to side a little, as each wheel tries to get grip.

Another option, which I've been trying lately, is that it should crawl up hill, in first, at tick over, see how you get on ( should get up fairly steep sections like this).

As for Auto, the only thing a auto gives you over the manual in the FL2, is the ability to drive slower than tick over in first, without burning the clutch.

Unless the D4 has winter tyres, you should be able to get anywhere he can whilst on snow, but obviously, don't blame me if it doesn't work, I'm an idiot and have blind faith in what my FL will do, and have a go at anything (also live on the edge of the fens, and a speed bump is a big hill )

Rich

"I tried to emulate this feat this morning in my GS manual but at a really steep bit found that the car began to slide, braking to rest stalls the engine and engaging the clutch disengages the HDC with car sliding. The lane is but 10ft wide with Cotswold stone walls either side so perhaps my inexperience coupled with an expanding sphincter made me bottle it and reverse into a drive turn around and proceed to safety."

You deserve a medal mate this is a nice bit of writing - I can picture you siding around

- auto's are much easier for this task yes -

Tickover is always best off road but if your loosing grip and not going forwards more revs to around 2700 ish - seemed to work on the FL2 when I did an LR experience day

It would appear to me that after reading all these comments that none of you have any or very little experance in of roading. The best advice i can give would be to book yourself on a day offroad coarse with landrover,i can tell you they opened my eyes to just how to drive and use the cars features.the more confidence you have will enable you to better cope.If you want to see what you can do in snow just look at my pics in my gallery taken on exmoor snow last weekend best of luck

Yeah.... I just looked in your gallery and you have a few pics of you on flat snow

I have been on off road with LRE about 4 time and off road my myself too so i would say I know a little about it

the OP is talking about a slippy hill covered in snow/ice quite different to your experience by the looks if it  Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

I have done the LRE 5 times now, but unfortunately at none of the occasions was there any snow, I have not driven on Exmoor snow only Kent, what was the Exmoor stuff like?
I would say that driving on snow is different to driving on ice, I am sure our European friends will be along soon to explain why and the need for winter tyres, but even with them ice is very difficult.
Everybody has there own views but I do like autos for off roading, all three of my Landrovers are autos.
With autos it is rare to stall them but it is possible. 09 FL2 HSE auto Lago Grey
71 Triumph Stag 3L
68 NGTCV8 3.5L

Hay Npinks there are not any pics of the steep hills i went up and down with twists and bends both up and down as i had my hands full at the time staying on the roads,the car will slip and slide as you well know but its engine controll,right gear and feeling what the car is doing at any given time which can change it a split second,thought you new that also had a lot of practice over the years in other 4x4s in Germany

Hi Green giant the snow on exmoor has been good this year with several deep drifts,there are a lot of single road tracks which twist and turn up and down hills.there are several fords to go through which was good with thick snow at either end.
I came accross a van stuck with a snow plough stuck behind it.there were several 4x4s out and a few standard cars one of which i stopped to help as they had become stuck.there was one nutter in a defender going hell for leather arround.if anything had been comming arround that corner,well you can imagine.
The pics i put up were for ilustration next time i will get the misses to take some pics to show the steep hills lol.The only way to gain experence would be to go where the snow is and experiment slowly to start if your interested in that.I love going some where clear of cars and making the car going broadside and a lot of drifting lol good luck

superspark wrote:

It would appear to me that after reading all these comments that none of you have any or very little experance in of roading.

Ehh? I have a fair amount, and would like to think that my drives to and from work lately, on the back routes experimenting has helped a lot as well, but by no means an expert.

I was trying to be helpful, and give some snippets of advise for next time, but as I said (or meant to say, but obviously forgot) was that you have to be comfortable to do this, and training is very advised (having done 3 LRE courses, every time I learn more, and hope to do more), and don't do anything you don't feel happy doing. It could be your life you're playing with (miserable I know )

Rich

Thanks for all the responses - driving on wranglers.

Here what you say re Exmoor and if I had a 6000acre moor to practice on then wouldn't have had to change my boxers. No problems going UP it was just going DOWN that made me bottle it. I did use the cruise controls to reduce speed in HDC but Cotswold stone walls are very unforgiving thankfully I didn't find out the hard way.

I think I will try to book onto one of the LR courses if nothing else will give me an idea of the full capabilities of the motor.

The disco 4 seemed to be on standard type tyres but John did go on a LR course gratis after leasing his plaything fom Stratstone Cheltenham.

Tenet MY 09 GS manual in Lago Grey, Wood Co arm rest and side bumper strips - now sold.

MY 15 SD4 SE Auto Orkney Grey with colour coded Bumper Door Mouldings

"It would appear to me that after reading all these comments that none of you have any or very little experance in of roading."

superspark - Your prob right

I'm only qualified to Btec Level 3 as a professional off road driving instructor which only took over 130 hours of instruction and god knows how many hour since so what would I know

Oh and I've spend many, many days and hours with LR instructors at Gaydon, Merc and BMW to name a few.....

We all have a contribution to make - one of them will be right finger crossed.

The only way to really help here is to drive over there and try it for yourself.

"The best advice i can give would be to book yourself on a day offroad coarse with landrover"

Thats good advice but doesn't get him to the top of his road NOW does it?

yep go down at tickover 1st gear, no sudden changes in speed/direction, no HDC as that uses the brakes , or go like joe stink and get it over and done with

My farm lane is similar, with a main road at the bottom sliding out into the the traffic is a real danger, if I havnt salted the road. (not for me but for people in 'normal' cars)
Another option for you is to buy some road salt and atleast salt the lower part of the hill as an emergency slow down area.

If all else fails try one of these
 At work
At home

"I can't always believe facts I read on the web" - Charles Dickens

winner by default of the tractor vs caravan race

or TWO incase one fails coz you cant start it coz its from 2002

CG READ THE POST AGAIN - PROBLEM IS UP NOT DOWN