pictures from a trip

[toddjb123]

I was down in OBX over turkey day and thought I'd post some pics (below). I've had the LR3 in sand and mud before, but this is the first "long" trip for me as I'm usually just running on/off the beach. I drove about 26 miles in soft sand, some hardpack, & some muddy sand pits. Rover did great. I kept it in sand mode with DSC off and didn't bother with air pressure. I had planned on taking it up the beach w/o dropping the pressure and back down w/ dropping the pressure, to compare, but I ended up leaving it as-is. Truck behaved great and did not seem to work too ******* anything. I suppose on a real long trip I may drop the air just because I think it would ease the load on the engine, but its tough to tell since we don't have a temp gauge and you can't see if things are heating up or not.

Anyway, you just never know what you're going to find on the beach (or who will find you!);


Traveled up the beach at low tide (hardpack) and back down once the tide had come in. This, of course, is at low tide...

These friendly guys (Dave & Bill from Norfolk) drove up in their '73 and '85 Defenders;

The '73 - - last offroad trip before he takes it apart Bill said (new engine & chassis)

The '85 (I think)

After some rover talk I joined these two on my first rover outting as I followed them through some of the trails behind the dunes in Carova.

Hope the U.S. folks here had a good holiday weekend,
-todd

 

[daytomann]

SWEET! Nice pics!

 

[Nomad232]

I wanted to ask. I am unfamiliar with driving on the beach. Do you guys ever wash the undercarriage of the truck to wash off any salt and sand or is it not a big deal since everything is sealed?

Just wondering,
Nomad

 

[toddjb123]

I'm not sure what the word from LR is, but yes, I always give my vehicles a good spray underneath after beach driving. Heck, its actually one of the few times I'll also go to an automated wash...just for that high pressure undercarriage feature they have....

Any metal that beach sand sits on, with moisture over time, will eventually rust. In my experience it doesn't matter how its painted or coated...if salt sits it'll eventually get where its not supposed to.

 

[joey]

Looks like fun... I have been to OBX 5 or 6 times, but that was before the Land Rover... I may have to do that one day.

 

[xcursion]

Great photos. Now I want to take my to the beach too.

 

[mauleskyrocket]

Great post. Great pics!!!! Please explain the turning off of DSC. Is it turned off by the sand setting? Why would one want to turn it off? Thx.

 

[toddjb123]

Great post. Great pics!!!! Please explain the turning off of DSC. Is it turned off by the sand setting? Why would one want to turn it off? Thx.

Thanks.

Someone here (or another forum) suggested it to me. Here's why I turn it off - You can go out w/o turning it off and the truck ran fine. However, when I stopped in soft sand and restarted, the DSC was very annoying. If you have driven in sand much you know that sometimes you do give a little more power than usual to get up on top of the sand. (we're not talking digging 4 sand pits, here, but a little spinning is okay if you're moving forward)...once you're up top, you let off on the gas and it is a relatively effortless float along the sand.

Anyway, DSC would not let me get up on top of soft sand...it kept interruping the throttle and kind of stuttering the tires. Some sort of gas on/off, brake control thing that it was doing to avoid any spin. It was very annoying, noisy, and people were looking at my brand new LR3 asking if I needed a tow! (so maybe it was the pride that hurt the most...the LR3 wasn't getting stuck, just getting out of the sand in its own way.)

Anyway, if I remember, I always turn off DSC now and never have any issues. At a minimum, once I'm stopped on the sand I'll turn it off before I get going.

That's it in a nutshell...albeit a big nutshell

 

[mauleskyrocket]

Thank you. Very helpful. Makes sense.

 

[UnbrknCh8n]

For me, it really took some experience to see what the DSC did. Not long after buying my LR3, I took it out on a flat dirt trail. I took some (safe) corners fast enough to slide a little, and thought, "wow, this truck really handles great!" Then I tried the same thing without DSC and nearly crapped my pants! Yea, this is an awfully heavy truck, and without some computer assistance, it fishtails much more easily! Now, I really don't turn off the DSC (except, after reading the above posts, I will certainly try it the next time I'm in sand).

Thanks for the very useful info!