'on-road' driving tips for 4x4

Compared to the Defender you will not find any rust on the Suzuki and you know by now it is very reliable. It will never let you down so it might be better then any LR ever. Sorry guys.

Good choice. Much more fun/expensive then the Alto discussed before.

The LR will not nose dive. There is hardly any suspension..;-)

Impossible with a LR but either way it just won't start when you really need it. Every other moment it does ;-)

Wish you a very nice driving experience with this great purchase. Congratulations and join the club. And as far as your bank account is concerned....my sincere condolences....;-(

Erik-Jan.

The offroad bit is easy peasy nip down the newsagents and get the copy of Land Rover Enthusiast and there is a nice DVD on the cover. The on road bit well remember you are not driving a car effectively its a truck so everything you do requires a little more time- for your enjoyment allow double the gap (thats 2 car lengths per 10 mph) you do from the car in front to allow for the longer braking distances its more than enough and will make driving more relaxing, cornering is not so bad you will slow down before you get to the limits of adhesion a transit luton is a far more frightening beast. If you are going to drive back over to Ireland just follow the heavy goods boys a safe distance behind mind you.They will slow more than you need to and it makes for an easy life unless the ferry is due out in which case Captain Kirk couldn't catch them don't race just keep it rolling. Derek

What are you on about Erik? No suspension? Lots of rust? Won't start? Are you in some kind of parallel universe?

The Defender has long-throw, soft suspension for off-roading, at first it'll feel like it's going to tip over going round the corners, but you'd have to be trying very hard indeed to get it to do that. Braking and swerving at the same time can be un-nerving for the same reason, so try to avoid it! It's very far from being a sports car. All 4x4s suffer from this, but the Defender is worse as it has longer throw, softer suspension than most to allow the axles to move more when off-roading.

Reversing and parking can be hard at times, if no-one's around, just feel your way by reversing slowly until you touch something ;-)

When reversing, remember that other drivers will almost invariably drive up behind you and get in the way, always seems to happen to me.

Measure the height of the truck and write it on a label on the dashboard to avoid those embarassing moments when you have to reverse back down the entrance ramp to a car park, it's taller than most 4x4s so gets caught out more.

The gearbox can take a little getting used to, at first just change gear gently and pause between the gears for a second or so, once you're used to it you can whack it between gears quickly, but only once the gearbox has warmed up.

That's all I can think of for now, off to bed I think!

Sorry, it was suppossed to be some kind of funny..... Erik-Jan.

Take the tyre pressure placard and throw it in the bin - IME the recommended pressures are significantly too soft for decent handling on road. I'd be looking at 32 PSI or thereabouts in all 4 corners if lightly laden, possibly even a touch more in the front tyres. That said the best way to find what suits you is to experiment - start with 30psi and got up in 2 psi increments until you like the way it handles (but don't go much over 36 lightly laden or you'll develop tyre wear problems).

what a wealth of advice! thanks so much folks. hopefully in year or two i'll be good enough at the mechanical side of things to return the favour by actually answering posts instead of asking questions all the time :)

to get comfortable with the gear box, can i just run up and down through the gears a few times with the clutch in and the engine idling? also, pardon my ignorance.. i saw a smaller stick beside the gear stick, what does it do?

tim.

Ah right, best leave that to the brits ;-)

That won't help much as gear changing involves more than that, it's not that big a deal so just hop in and drive it, but take it easy with the gears at first. It's the same with any car really, I've not noticed the defender being any worse, other than it seems to be harder to change gear smoothly when the gearbox is cold.

Blimey.. That controls the transfer box and the diff lock, don't worry about it for now, just make sure it's pulled towards you and back, at about the 4-5 O'Clock position. Then get a book on driving the truck off-road and it'll tell you when to use it, along with a whole host of other useful information.

On or around Mon, 20 Mar 2006 16:04:53 +1200, EMB enlightened us thusly:

and, on a 90, you'll get quite a harsh ride.

agree otherwise.

not that I've driven a suzuki alto, but I bet the 90 will out-corner it. You can fling the coil-sprung LRs about quite impressively, given suitable tyres; and the leaf-sprung ones corner well but typically lack power to embarrass hot-hatch types.. Always causes me much amusement to be overtaken on a straight by joe soap in a vauchall or similar and then catch up with him and fill his rear-view mirror with LR grille at the next corner.

You *can* roll 'em. but it takes far more effort than you might think, even on a RR or a disco which have considerably more body roll (ACE models not inlcuded). Our TDi disco has a nice new set of goodyear GT+4 on it, and by f*ck does it hold the road with them on. Suspension is letting the side down at the moment - the rear springs especially are looking and feeling tired. There's a plan to renew the springs and brakes and so forth and generally sort and tart it up.

Well it might give you an idea of where the gears are supposed to be. B-)

My (limited) experience of 90's is that gear selection is a bit hit and miss. The lever is very vague and wobbly and you need to put it in the right place rather than let the gate guide you. It's not like the tight, positive, gate that modern, cars have. ISTR that finding 3rd only happend about 50% of the time (this was on narrow roads and tracks on the Breacons though so 3rd was rarely required).

1. You have a 4wd & automatically have right-of-way before lesser, lighter cars. If your landy is looking a bit rough, so much the better- you have nothing to lose when you push into the oncoming traffic, & the BMW driver on your right knows it.
2. Roads are now much wider, by virtue of the fact that you no longer need to worry about things like gutters limiting your progress. You'll be amazed by your new-found freedom to U-turn wherever convenient, no matter how narrow the street. As long as it has footpaths to drive on, that is.
3. 'Sporty' car drivers will consider it their duty to pass you, since they assume your landy must be slow. If you detect one of these approaching rapidly in your rear view mirror, it is encumbent on you to thwart them at every opportunity. Smile sweetly when after 5 miles they finally get opportunity to pass you; if their face is particularly red, you may give them a cheery wave. And again at the lights.
4. Speed humps are fun.

1. So is minor flooding.

These points are only general in nature. Other contributors to this forum may care to offer observations more specific to your location. I hope this is the sort of thing you were looking for. Happy trails!

absolutely, this is great advice. also people won't laugh now if i have to honk at them, the old car made more of a feeble squeek than a honk, it was embarassing...

You will be in in for 10 mins, and it will feel like youve driven her for years.

Mark

You will quickly become king of the road. Even white vans defer to a tatty Landy. I love my old 200 Tdi 90 and even after 165,000 miles the gearbox is still tight and smooth. Can't say the same about the oil seals though!

You will quickly become king of the road. Even white vans defer to a tatty Landy. I love my old 200 Tdi 90 and even after 165,000 miles the gearbox is still tight and smooth. Can't say the same about the oil seals though! And if you rip half a wing off, no problem, nip down to the local engineers and get some chequer plate for a tenner!

Guess you do have a point there :-) Erik-Jan.

We have a 300tdi 1995 (Dave) and up till april last year I was driving a piddly ickle vauxhall corsa....You are right, even white van man defers to the landrover, the other day I was in lane at some traffic lights with a daimler thingy next to me, who beeped at me when we took off, he gestured that I was too close!! so I peered down at him and smiled sweetly..

On road driving in a land rover - you will never go back to a boring "normal" car again, I find them forgiving, comfy and I feel much safer and can see much farther on the motorwa now! (even though i cant hear a bloody thing over 60mph!)

Its not an oil leak, its natural seepage...honest.

"Ian Rawlings" wrote > when off-roading.

Yes, good idea, with me it was Terminal 3 car park Heathrow!!!! Interesting few moments. And I had phoned them the day before to check the height but they gave me the entrance height on the ground floor not the height up to the higher floors (Arrivals) which was a lot less.