Off Road Capabilities?

kooky_guy said:

They're good in snow. About as good on ice as any other non studded tyre - my sig pic was me wedged sideways across a very steep downhill bit of road after performing at least 3 full 360s on the way down. I was crawling in L1 when I lost traction so I wasn't being dumb either.

If the dumbass local farmer had left the road alone it would have been fine, but his council sponsored attempt to plough it simply turned it into a skating rink.

So, the moral is, be careful on ice!

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Had the same experience two years ago with my wife's A6 Avant Quattro, someone removed all the snow (a few cm) and revealed all the ice beneath it and despite having brand new Snow tires we almost killed ourselves, the car could not stop at all and if it did it will immediately slide while standing still. Snow and ice = chains and NOTHING else.

Snow tires are convenient but there is NOTHING better then chains when it comes to security.

I only have worn Goodyear Wranglers on the P38, but it's fine on sloping wet grass that my Transit refuses to move an inch on.

snow chains are not recommended for RR's

sas1810 said:

snow chains are not recommended for RR's

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Really? I'm sure it gives fitting advice in my owners manual and they are obligatory in certain parts of France in winter. From memory it also says only use Land Rover chains at 5 times the price

Just checked, snow chains for on road use only, LR ones can be used on all 4 wheels, non approved one rear wheels only.

hmmmm, i could be wrong then. i did read somewhere that unless the snow is of a certain depth, they screw the suspension

sas1810 said:

hmmmm, i could be wrong then. i did read somewhere that unless the snow is of a certain depth, they screw the suspension

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They are not really needed on soft snow, traction is too good, but they are essential on packed snow and ice

See page 145 of the owner manual.

i bow to the greatness of the DATATEK page 149 on my copy

i got confused, it states not to use them off road. and to remove them when no snow and not to drive above 30mph

Well I have just been out this morning and tried the car on some different terrain and it seemed to handle it all quite well.

I tried a muddy field, which was wet and quite muddy, but not too deep, and there was no real issues in maneuvering on that terrain. Traction Control did kick in a couple of times which helped get the car moving again.

I then tried some fairly soft dry mud mixed with grass and it coped very well on this.

I have also tried the Viscous Coupling check just now to see if that it working correctly. I followed instructions from a post on here. Jack a front wheel up, select neutral and try and turn the wheel. I did this with the engine running and also with it off. I also tried with a fuse in F11 which puts the Transfer Box into neutral.

I could just about get the jacked up front wheel to turn, I did have to use a lot of effort to get it to move, I was using a breaker bar on one of the wheel studs. I tried both front sides and the results where the same on both sides.

I did read somewhere that it should take 85Nm of force to move the wheel. Now I used a torque wrench end set it to 85Nm and I can tell you that it took a lot more that 85Nm to turn either of the front wheels while jacked up. I know its a bit of a crude test using a torque wrench to measure the amount of force I needed to deliver to get the wheel to move.

Anyway, do you think that my VCU is working correctly?

Yes, if you can turn the wheel at all it's OK.

Datatek said:

Yes, if you can turn the wheel at all it's OK.

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Thats good news!

Just wanted to add that I went to examine the terrain that I initially described in my first post of this thread and basically it is like the slipperiest wet mud I have ever come across!! Deep and mixed with wet grass.

So I think it safe to say that all is OK with the car, its just me being an idiot and not having the correct rubber to tackle slippery mud on an incline and of course lack of off road driving knowledge.

I am learning so I am happy. I will try and see if there are any local off road experience days to learn some more.

Thanks for everyones input

kooky_guy said:

They're good in snow. About as good on ice as any other non studded tyre - my sig pic was me wedged sideways across a very steep downhill bit of road after performing at least 3 full 360s on the way down. I was crawling in L1 when I lost traction so I wasn't being dumb either.

If the dumbass local farmer had left the road alone it would have been fine, but his council sponsored attempt to plough it simply turned it into a skating rink.

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I had a similar experince in my P38 last winter. I was absolutely crapping myself as at times I thought it was going to flip over.

I currently run Kumho Road Venture APT and they are meh in mud. I was able to tow a stuck car out with a lot of wheel spin, if I had full on mud pluggers I imagine it would've been no bother, but I don't do enough off road driving to justify the excessive road noise. They have been good on dry mud, soft snow, but wet squishy mud are a no go.

The best tyres I've used so far have been Goodyear Wrangler, although they wear quickly on road.

Bix said:

I had a similar experince in my P38 last winter. I was absolutely crapping myself as at times I thought it was going to flip over.

I currently run Kumho Road Venture APT and they are meh in mud. I was able to tow a stuck car out with a lot of wheel spin, if I had full on mud pluggers I imagine it would've been no bother, but I don't do enough off road driving to justify the excessive road noise. They have been good on dry mud, soft snow, but wet squishy mud are a no go.

The best tyres I've used so far have been Goodyear Wrangler, although they wear quickly on road.

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I thought mine were doing OK, got about 30K on them and I reckon they are good for another 10K at least