Off Road TEchnique question

[smo]

I've got a fair bit of experience in driving off road, however its only in a manual.

If i was to get an auto, how would i need to adjust my driving style and what techniques would i need to adopt?

For example...how do you cope with v.steep down hill descents due to the lack of engine braking?

[karlo]

According to the landrover manuals that come with the car (can ya tell i'm new to this  :lol: ) you get different amounts of engine braking by using 1,2,or 3 on the gear selector!

[andycwb]

Depends on the gearbox.  

The Dakar has a ZF autobox and the engine braking is there as long as you use 1st low.  I know the electronic versions lock the torque converter in 1st low as soon as the vehicle is moving.  I don't know if the non electronic version does the same, but the engine braking comes from somewhere.

It's still a bit faster than a manual, but feels controlled to me.

Quick changes from fwd to reverse take a bit of practice.

Easier to put power down gradually with an auto.

Failed hill start is more difficult sinceyou can't start the engine in gear.

Andy

[waveydavey]

It's actualyl easier: You can still get engine braking as you can hold an auto in a low gear, the newer stuff from LAnd Rover does it ona  button press anyway.
THe big advantage with an auto is that it feeds the power more gently so you are less prone to spin the wheels and loose traction, than and they are very hard to stall.

[Rich_P]

For a mid-80s Range Rover with the ZF-4 speed autobox, stick the autobox into 1st manually, and there you go, lots of engine braking.  Even more so if you put it into low ratio!  :shock: I didn't expect a Rover V8 to be so good at engine braking in a Range Rover + autobox.

[jjsaul]

Yep easier to set off on hills without spinning the wheels...

fwd to reverse swapping is possible but from experience i think it hammers the gearbox a bit  :shock:

as for downhills...there is some engine braking..and on the non visocus 4spd auto if engine braking is lost you have to dab the throttle (takes some practise to actually do it !!) to re engage the torque convertor.

ive driven manual and autos off road and would take the auto pretty much any time :)

[Doobreydog]

I've got a fair bit of experience in driving off road, however its only in a manual.

If i was to get an auto, how would i need to adjust my driving style and what techniques would i need to adopt?

For example...how do you cope with v.steep down hill descents due to the lack of engine braking?

Depends entirely on gearbox and nowadays how many electrickery gizmos you have and wheter you can turn on or off...personally have only ever driven series manuals off road and now have FL V6 with all the gizmos....first decent trip out in it was strata florida which was boring as gearbox was taking over and not giving enough for me to do...even using in manual mode all the tricks kick in.


Not complaining though great when going gets a bit sticky.

[muddyjames]

I have taken autos and manuals off road and after abingdon going round with my auto and flicking between the gears for up hills (3rd) and down hills (1st) it was a doddle. Getting reverse quick is handy too when in water and about to get stuck you can back out fast. My mate went round abingdon with his manaul disco and he was doing alot of gear changes and the beauty of auto is that you dont loose power to the wheels when changing gear as you would with a manual when you dip the clutch.

aso on sunday I was towing a van out of a muddy lane to a building site and a trailer out and when I started to spin the whells towing both of them (at different times) i just flicked thegear box up a gear and off I went again.

Low range 1st is ok for going down steep hills engine braking wise. It does take some getting used to as you speed up then the engine braking kicks in. It is a tad faster than manual so keeping that right foot off the brake is hard but you soon learn toget used ot it.

auto any day of the week for me off road and I am actualy getting used to towing with it now as well as you can flick between the gears and drop a gear early for up hils etc and flick it down into 3rd from drive and use enginebraking to slow down fora 30mph speed limit for example.

I used to hate them but since the egr got disconnected I can only say good things about them except for a bit sluggish pulling away at junctions etc.

[smo]

Cool, cheers guys. I'm well aware of the benefits but it was just a worry with more extreme off road stuff especially down hill :)

[SteveG]

Going by other posts, you are looking to put a ZF auto box in your TD5.

On the ZF you use gear box to control max gear that you want it to change up into. So for hill ascents you'll put it into 3, for down hill 1. So you are not selecting 3rd gear you are selecting 3rd as the highest gear the gearbox can use.

The box will start off in a lower gear and change up when needed, and this box works very well off-road.

For steep descents you can brake to slow yourself down. In abs equipped vehicle you can use brake pedal normally, in non abs cadence brake to avoid losing traction and the back slipping round.

Driving down or up rocks it's useful to learn to left foot brake - you can then control it by applying brake and acceleration as required.

Don't see the issue in a failed hill start - that's what the brake pedal is for. Brake, select reverse and away you go.

Cheers

Steve

[smo]

Close, itll be a ZF in a 300tdi or whatever the disco II uses in a td5 but i think the latter is going to prove too expensive, so probably the former, wrapped up in a truck cab body with lots of mods :D

[SteveG]

Close, itll be a ZF in a 300tdi or whatever the disco II uses in a td5 but i think the latter is going to prove too expensive, so probably the former, wrapped up in a truck cab body with lots of mods :D

Disco II TD5 used the ZF 4HP22EH and the V8 used the ZF 4HP24 whis has uprated clutch plates IIRC over the 22.

If you plan to use with TD5 and it's chipped and running an uprated intercooler it's advised to use the 24 version.

What's your budget for challenge truck? Also does it heve to be auto first or could you do that later?

I personally prefer autos off-road but it's not needed to have a winning challenge truck.

Cheers

Steve