Weekend D3-ing!!

[Dirty3]

Just back from a weekend up around Woods Point. No snow Saturday and yet Sunday heaps of it. Went with a group, only Landrover on the trip. Plenty of GQ's, GU's, 80 series, Hilux and the like. The D3 performed like a bloody pearler, didn't miss a beat. Ripped a rear mud flap but that's the only damage.

There were many jibes about the Landrover before the weekend started, but by the end I think a few started to take notice....several very impresses with the high tech wizardry. Had to just smile and explain the way it worked. I felt very special by the end of it all!!

Still trying to get used to the slowing down when ascending a steep incline and in "Drive". I figure it is in too high a gear and so must slow to change down, because when you are in sports shift, the gear stays locked as you would expect. Can anyone confirm why it does this? It's a little disconcerting having a slowing vehicle on a steep hill and thinking "What if it looses traction", but of course it doesn't! What was I thinking? Have ye no faith?

Cheers Neil.

[DiscoWeb]

Still trying to get used to the slowing down when ascending a steep incline and in "Drive". I figure it is in too high a gear and so must slow to change down, because when you are in sports shift, the gear stays locked as you would expect. Can anyone confirm why it does this? It's a little disconcerting having a slowing vehicle on a steep hill and thinking "What if it looses traction", but of course it doesn't! What was I thinking? Have ye no faith?



Neil,

When ascending and descending I use the command shift option instead of "Drive" to keep the engine revs in the sweet spot and avoiding that feeling of a potential stall.

Note sure why it does this, must have something to do with the change down point in low range and each terrain response setting changes the feel subtly. Whilst it does not actually stall I certainly feel like I have more control in command shift and only use Drive when cruising along the relatively flat bits.

Your trip in the snow looks like fun. Every time I go out I am amazed not only at what the D3 will do but how easily it does it. Nice to see you put those Nissan and Toyota drives back in their box.

Regards,

George

[big guy]

I had a D3 follow me up some prettyt steep sections in the flinders only a short while ago.

Although not a huge challenge everyone in older and or different trucks was very very impressed at how easily the D3 crawled up any incline.

The driver and his partner had a big smile on their face. Good on them, I had to pick my track, they just seemed to meander over anything. Bless them.:p

[sniegy]

Hi Hedley,
When Descending use command shift 1st gear.
When Ascending use command shift 2nd gear.
As said when ascending it keeps the rev range in its peak torque curve, giving the vehicle instant pull when required.(And gee its pulls well)
If you use another gear there is a possible chance that the vehicle could stall & we have proven the point on many Drive Days. Not nice tackling a rather steep hill..

Cheers.

[Dirty3]

Thanks Pete.

We also tried this Command shift 2nd gear and it proved to be more direct (Ascent). On decent's I chose Low 1st gear. Hill descent we used as an option only on the really gnarley steep & slippery stuff. It works great but i found the engine braking to be great, not once did I touch the brake (except in extreme cases - HDC). We also played around with the DSC off as that is what others on this forum recommended. I had an excellent weekend.

Cheers Neil.

[Disco3QLD]

Hi Neil,
Just reading through your thread. Sounds like a blast.
I am taking my family down there soon for a few weeks (from QLD).
What tires are you running?

[Dirty3]

Hi Neil,
Just reading through your thread. Sounds like a blast.
I am taking my family down there soon for a few weeks (from QLD).
What tires are you running?

Hi,

I'm running General Grabber AT2's. I've only had them on for around 7,000km's but so far so good. They plenty of grip in the soft slushy stuff. Didn't seemed to be bothered with the mud either. Did not have too much sticky clay around but all in all was a great weekend. I can't rave enough about my car and how it performed.

[rmp]

Photo looks like the top of Matlock?

Re hills - I don't trust Drive on hills, even in sports. The correct gear depends on the incline, terrain and vehicle. It is usually, but not always 2nd low up. The D3 is powerful enough to manage 3rd low on many hills. Conversely, it sometimes needs 1st low if it's really rocky. The 3.0 D4 can manage 2nd low where the D3 needs first. The D3 will stall if the incorrect gear is selected, but hopefully the driver would realise that's likely to happen and change, or fail the hill and retry.

[Duck's Guts]

On previous auto 4x4s I've experienced overheating issues when traversing up hills & auto left in drive. Too much torque converter slip I imagine.

Problem solved when a specific lower gear is selected.

[Dirty3]

Photo looks like the top of Matlock?

Re hills - I don't trust Drive on hills, even in sports. The correct gear depends on the incline, terrain and vehicle. It is usually, but not always 2nd low up. The D3 is powerful enough to manage 3rd low on many hills. Conversely, it sometimes needs 1st low if it's really rocky. The 3.0 D4 can manage 2nd low where the D3 needs first. The D3 will stall if the incorrect gear is selected, but hopefully the driver would realise that's likely to happen and change, or fail the hill and retry.

Thanks for the advice guys. My previous D2 & D1 were both auto's and I also had a Prado in between also an auto. I had to learn a whole new way of driving for my first one, then it was much the same except the D2 had traction control. With the D3 however, when drive was selected and then shifted over to sports mode, I noticed that in most cases the transmission was in 3rd or 4th gear. So I basically shifted down to 2 and left it there and good results. It's really interesting to see how the vehicle performs, what it chooses to do. I sort of wanted to let it run with itself, but sometimes just the temptation to override it was too strong. [thumbsupbig]