'on-road' driving tips for 4x4

Tim_Mac · 2006-03-20T00:00:13+00:00

higet ready to laugh, i used to drive a 993cc suzuki alto (ouch!), andi'm just buying my first 4x4 car this week, a 300 TDi Defender 90.obviously it will be a whole different kettle of fish for driving in.there is a wealth of off-road driving tips on the net, but for themoment i'm more interested in some "on-road" tips, which i can't findanywhere. i'm hoping someone can post some advice. i have to drivethe defender from the UK home to ireland, without ever having driven a4x4 before so i'll be going like a granny in the slow lane to beginwith :) i'm a careful and assertive driver who likes to understandhis car to get the best out of it.so far i gather that the higher centre of gravity means the car has asideways rolling effect on corners so i'll have to be careful thereuntil i get familiar with it. and the same thing for braking, that thecar will do a nose dive before balancing itself (front to rear) andachieving optimal braking. my old car was so light i could push it onmy own to get it started, so the whole weight difference will be afactor too, although because the defender is so heavy it will also havemore drag and that might cancel out the extra momentum, from a brakingperspective?thanks a million to anyone who can fill me in on some basics!tim.

Mar 20, 2006 26 Replies

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Nick Williams 20 years ago

On Mon, 20 Mar 2006 09:34:52 +0000, Austin Shackles wrote (in article ):

I think you're all being a little bit presumptive on the cornering thing. Yes, it will go round corners like it's on rails, _on the right tyres_ but the range of tyres available for this vehicle is huge and I'd encourage the OP to get to take cornering reasonably gently until they are confident in the ability of the tyres, both in the dry and the wet (which may be radically different).

If you've got some nice wide road rubber or AT's all will be well. If it's got some sexy looking knobbly things on it, corners on tarmac may be fairly optional.

Been there, done that, and I'm sure others here have as well!

If it's anything like my 90 (which admittedly is older than the OP's) the relationship between the location of the steering wheel and the direction of travel at any given moment is not entirely straightforward either!

Either way, once you get used to it, you'll never go back.

Nick.

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Ian Rawlings 20 years ago

When I first got the truck I collected the exit barrier from work when leaving, it landed neatly on my roof rack!

I've also been to a hotel near Euston station in London IIRC that had a car park with a 5'3" headroom limit... I wouldn't even go in there in the Audi given that I'd whack my head when getting out.

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Austin Shackles 20 years ago

On or around Mon, 20 Mar 2006 17:51:51 +0000, Nick Williams enlightened us thusly:

that's why I said "given suitable tyres".

mind, the series III is on avon rangemasters and that corners well too.

the 110 during my ownership had colway remoulds, pirelli scorp ATs and nankang wild conks, all of which gave plenty of wet or dry grip.

My disco had pirelli scorp STs and avon ranger ATs, ditto. I did find the BFG ATs a touch slippy in the wet.

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EMB 20 years ago

That's got to be the understatement of the year. IME BFGs in the wet are a bit like driving on ice. I'll never buy another set because of that.

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Austin Shackles 20 years ago

On or around Tue, 21 Mar 2006 12:08:32 +1200, EMB enlightened us thusly:

these weren't that bad. and they do last for ages, but personally, I'd rather buy cheaper, softer compound that grip better :-)

There's another aspect - if you do any serious off-roading you run the risk of terminal damage to a sidewall and in that event I'd be extremely pissed off if that happened on a near-new hundred-quid-plus tyre.

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Ian Rawlings 20 years ago

That's why mud-pattern remoulds are my favourite. I had BFG TrakEdges early on when the truck arrived, after just two off-road excursions they were cut up on the sidewalls, and one blew out while I was driving. Expensive tyres are fine if you want to look hunky but won't off-road it, or you have deep pockets.

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TonyB 20 years ago

Take heed of the advice about "the little stick". It controls the low/high ratio but more importantly controls the 4 wheel drive select (difflock) on many models, not sure about the Defender, if I'm wrong someone will quickly put me right.

If you drive it for long on road with 4wd selected ( little stick to the left position ) it'll fairly quickly lunch your tyres and/or gearbox. In fact, despite living in Norfolk and doing a bit of snow/sand/mud driving, I've rearely had to use the difflock.

TonyB

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