Took the LR3 to the trails for the first time yesterday:
http://www.pbase.com/jzk/land_rover_lake_geneva_march_05&page=all
I am a novice at best. I have done some offroading in Colorado with my old Durango.
The LR3 takes some learning. I found myself in the wrong mode wondering what was happening a few times.
The conditions were snow, ice, and after a while, mud. There was a land rover guy there. He advised to start out trying the snow mode. This, ended up not being the best because it made it difficult to get up the hills. A Porsche cayenne guy had the same problem with his traction control. It seems that the snow mode and his traction control will endeavor to prevent wheel spin. But climbing these hills requires some wheel spin. What happened was I was almost up, and the LR3 would take away my throttle because all the wheels were spinning.
The Cayenne couldn't get up this hill 4 times in a row. Then he turned off the traction control and he was right up it.
The land rover guy told me to try normal mode, and that was better. I should have tried the mud/rut mode, but I didn't.
The biggest disappointment was my stock tires. Not that I am complaining, but they are really out of their element in that setting. Of course, Land Rover must sell tires that are suitable for everyone. My first upgrade is going to be a set of steel wheels with some real mud tires. Also, I don't need to mess up my 19" wheels either.
The hill decent control was AWESOME! That is a must have, if you ask me. There was this one place that took me three tries to climb. It was bumps and snow and ice. Before changing to normal mode, I couldn't make it up as the power just went away at the top.
So, I had to back down. A couple of times I touched the brakes getting nervous and I locked the wheels. Very bad, but I immediately let up and let the hill decent do its job in reverse. Fantastic! This Discovery couldn't get up the hill either at first, and he had to back down also. He locked up his wheels backing, and slid into the brush! He did exactly what I was afraid I would do!
Of course, I used the hill decent control all day in forward, and it really did a good job.
The second order of business is to get some kind of protection for the front. I think I like the brush bar better than the Aframe thing. Before the event, I took off those two plastic panes for our recovery points. I ended up using it right out of the box when I got stuck in the same big puddle that this RR did right before me.
But, going up some mud hills I bashed that bottom bumper rung into the mud a few times. And, I filled the spare tire with mud also! So, I think the LR3 would do better to have some beefy protection right down there that I could slide on the mud without worrying that I am ripping something off.
All in all, it was a ton of fun, and I learned quite a bit. I had that suspension failure where my rear suspension just sagged down to the bottom, and my heart sagged down with it. That and the system fault. But it all came back to life when I "rebooted" the vehicle.
By the way, there were some hummers there, and they were amazing.
http://www.pbase.com/jzk/land_rover_lake_geneva_march_05&page=all
I am a novice at best. I have done some offroading in Colorado with my old Durango.
The LR3 takes some learning. I found myself in the wrong mode wondering what was happening a few times.
The conditions were snow, ice, and after a while, mud. There was a land rover guy there. He advised to start out trying the snow mode. This, ended up not being the best because it made it difficult to get up the hills. A Porsche cayenne guy had the same problem with his traction control. It seems that the snow mode and his traction control will endeavor to prevent wheel spin. But climbing these hills requires some wheel spin. What happened was I was almost up, and the LR3 would take away my throttle because all the wheels were spinning.
The Cayenne couldn't get up this hill 4 times in a row. Then he turned off the traction control and he was right up it.
The land rover guy told me to try normal mode, and that was better. I should have tried the mud/rut mode, but I didn't.
The biggest disappointment was my stock tires. Not that I am complaining, but they are really out of their element in that setting. Of course, Land Rover must sell tires that are suitable for everyone. My first upgrade is going to be a set of steel wheels with some real mud tires. Also, I don't need to mess up my 19" wheels either.
The hill decent control was AWESOME! That is a must have, if you ask me. There was this one place that took me three tries to climb. It was bumps and snow and ice. Before changing to normal mode, I couldn't make it up as the power just went away at the top.
So, I had to back down. A couple of times I touched the brakes getting nervous and I locked the wheels. Very bad, but I immediately let up and let the hill decent do its job in reverse. Fantastic! This Discovery couldn't get up the hill either at first, and he had to back down also. He locked up his wheels backing, and slid into the brush! He did exactly what I was afraid I would do!
Of course, I used the hill decent control all day in forward, and it really did a good job.
The second order of business is to get some kind of protection for the front. I think I like the brush bar better than the Aframe thing. Before the event, I took off those two plastic panes for our recovery points. I ended up using it right out of the box when I got stuck in the same big puddle that this RR did right before me.
But, going up some mud hills I bashed that bottom bumper rung into the mud a few times. And, I filled the spare tire with mud also! So, I think the LR3 would do better to have some beefy protection right down there that I could slide on the mud without worrying that I am ripping something off.
All in all, it was a ton of fun, and I learned quite a bit. I had that suspension failure where my rear suspension just sagged down to the bottom, and my heart sagged down with it. That and the system fault. But it all came back to life when I "rebooted" the vehicle.
By the way, there were some hummers there, and they were amazing.
