Noob here, all advice listened to!

A bog standard Land Rover is an off road vehicle.
If you need a modded one to drive a green lane, the conditions are probably such that you shouldn't be driving it, as you could be doing unacceptable environmental damage.
The possible exception is a winch, as occasionally winching will cause less ground damage than driving, but again, if you've reached that point, perhaps you should be backing off. A winch reduces a vehicle's off road ability by puting more weight on the front, and usually reducing the approach angle.
Of course if you are driving off road professionally, rather than recreationally, that may be different.

Davec said:

A bog standard Land Rover is an off road vehicle.
If you need a modded one to drive a green lane, the conditions are probably such that you shouldn't be driving it.....

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I concur.

With regards to my earlier comments about going out alone, I still fully stand by those comments, despite what many more vastly experianced people have said, but I would like to make my point of view clear.

I will only go on a lane by my self, if it meets the following critieriar(sp?)

I know the lane well, and the risks. I will often walk or ride it on my push bike first to check for any obsticles.
It is close to civilisation
My vehicle is in good working order.

If I feel that I am putting myself at any unnessecery risk, then I will not drive it solo.

Some green lanes are long, isulated, and technical. Others are short, close to populated areas, and easy going. Therefore I don't think that there should be a black and white rule about never going out on your own. Just use a decent amount of commens sense, and as the OP is a BiB, I should assume that he is more than capable of assesing the risk involved in any given situation.

But the question came from someone with no off road experience, so he can only answer 1 of your 4 conditions.
It's like all activities, you have to learn the rules before you can build up enough experience & knowledge to know when you can safely break them.

There are lots of different types of green lane and not all of them are flat and risk free of getting stuck. That's not just because they've been over driven and have large amounts of lane damage. Most of the lanes near me are on steep hills and have sections of axle twisters that standard vehicles will do with a struggle and increased risk of damage due to lack of grip and ground clearence, these lanes have been worked on, 20 years ago they were barely drivable by any type of vehicle thats just how they were. If you want to stay out of the ruts away from the mud and water and only drive lanes that resemble the driveway of someones country manor house then all you will need is a box standard vehicle or better still become a rambler and really save the environment.

Disco Moneypit said:

I will only go on a lane by my self, if it meets the following critieriar(sp?)

I know the lane well, and the risks. I will often walk or ride it on my push bike first to check for any obsticles.
It is close to civilisation
My vehicle is in good working order.

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Wheres the fun in that?

I'll give ou some ****ing advise.

don't est yella

**** snow.

yeah.

TheVengefulElephant said:

I'll give ou some ****ing advise.

don't est yella

**** snow.

yeah.

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FFS Flump someone should have advised you, not to drink & post!!!

Kris 300TDI said:

I don't think using a box standard vehicle for as long as possible is a good idea. If you wanted to hammer in a nail you wouldn't use a stick, you'd use the right tool for the job, and what i've found from past experience is that people are more than happy to help each other out when they get stuck, but when you get the same vehicle getting stuck time after time because the owner hasn't bothered to sort there vehicle out, it soon gets the rest of the group annoyed. Run a standard vehicle for as long as possible and what it teaches you is to be lazy and have to depend on other people all the time.

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Sadly that is very true

Kris 300TDI said:

There are lots of different types of green lane and not all of them are flat and risk free of getting stuck. That's not just because they've been over driven and have large amounts of lane damage. Most of the lanes near me are on steep hills and have sections of axle twisters that standard vehicles will do with a struggle and increased risk of damage due to lack of grip and ground clearence, these lanes have been worked on, 20 years ago they were barely drivable by any type of vehicle thats just how they were. If you want to stay out of the ruts away from the mud and water and only drive lanes that resemble the driveway of someones country manor house then all you will need is a box standard vehicle or better still become a rambler and really save the environment.

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Sorry all but with Kris on this one as well

Davec said:

A bog standard Land Rover is an off road vehicle.
If you need a modded one to drive a green lane, the conditions are probably such that you shouldn't be driving it, as you could be doing unacceptable environmental damage.
The possible exception is a winch, as occasionally winching will cause less ground damage than driving, but again, if you've reached that point, perhaps you should be backing off. A winch reduces a vehicle's off road ability by puting more weight on the front, and usually reducing the approach angle.
Of course if you are driving off road professionally, rather than recreationally, that may be different.

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Or if you try to do stuff that others with better equiped vehicles do and you get stuck ........................................

woods767 said:

Wheres the fun in that?

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Dun't come on here asking fer a tow when yer git stuck then eh.

discobasher said:

Or if you try to do stuff that others with better equiped vehicles do and you get stuck ........................................

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I'm all for having a go, but to keep going for things where you know you'll fail every time and expect to be rescued all of the time does get very tedious.
I ran a pretty standard car for a long time apart from tyres and I felt I was becoming stuck too often, due to ground clearance issues.
I've sorted that out, upgraded, and now I think that there now aren't many things that will stop me.
Once the winch is sorted, it'll be unstoppable.

redhand said:

FFS Flump someone should have advised you, not to drink & post!!!

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Yer not wrong there

OK, I think there are some valid points. ANDI agree that Kri and DB have a point is the getting rescued stakes (I know... I know... I'm the one who keeps getting rescued but not as often in the disco ok>...)

BUT

Equipping my motor with the very best of rescue and recovery equipment will not help me if I have no experience of its use. I have learned more through watching people using a high lift jack, or winch... or witnesing what happens when a kinetic rope is used incorrectly than I would have done had I bought everything willy nilly and expected to be able to use it through some genetically transferred instinct or other. (or even worse trying to use it when i got stuck and doing it wrong, thus endagering myself and possibly others!)

If you are out in a group and one member is inexperienced enough not to realise that they have no chance of making it through... surely its a good idea to tell them and let them know why? If you are happy for them to have a go then show encouragement, if you really don't want to spend hours rescuing them then let them know that too.

Before I got the Disco, I had finally become fairly good at assessing what I had a chance at and what was sheer idiocy and only likely to slow the group down.

If one vehicle is getting stuck time after time after time... perhps it is the person planning the route who needs to re-assess, after all unless the person in question is driving a roller skate the lanes should be accessible by most vehicles most of the time. The recovery gear is for the exceptional moment is it not?

As we all know... off roading equipment wil come in handy occasionally on a lane, but is really meant for serious off roading. Or did I lose perspective somewhere?

Grippa said:

Dun't come on here asking fer a tow when yer git stuck then eh.

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Could you resist the opertunity of a off road recovery?

Besides, wincheys got me covered. So long as theres an ideal tree, within 5 degrees of directly foward, within 80 feet of the vehicle and assuming it isn't 3 feet deep in crud.

So yea, how about that KER yer offered

Also if you click on my profile, you get a nice picture of a trick i did in wales. All of the above winch dilemers were true.