How can you hold a gear when gearbox automatically wants to change?

[Garwood]

Hi everyone,

Well I recently got a set of 18" wheels for my MY13 Discovery (thanks Gordon!) and today for the first time took my car for a run a long a beach...very simple stuff. While on the beach I tackled a few little sand hills and it was during this that things got a little frustrating...

The car ALWAYS changed gear automatically as soon as it hit about 4500rpm....so when trying to get up sand hills it would be going great and then revs may have peaked for a moment and because of this, changed to second, on which the car just completely died....and stopped progressing up the hill. On the few times I managed to keep revs below the limit and it stayed in first it went up like a tractor with no troubles at all - but doing this is not easy and I did it more on lucky than anything else. Surely there is a way to hold gears? If not it really disables the car...which I find incredible given how capable they are suppose to be.

Does anyone know how you make these cars hold gears?

I've got the MY13 which has the new 8 speed gearbox which may make it worse/more of a problem than ppl with the 6 speed (longer gears in the 6 speed so gets to point of needing to change later).

Help would be appreciated.

James

[Redback]

Can you use the new 8 speed manually with the paddles??

The 6 speed has manual mode(command shift) and the gear lever is used to change gears.

Baz.

[theresanothersteve]

Anything controlled by a computer will always overide a manual setting if the conditions (ie over-rev, under-rev) look like it could cause damage. All you can do is hold the revs below the change up...

[Gribbsmy13]

Did u have it in sand mode? I would have thought that should have allowed for this situation. Alternatively there is plenty of grunt in second, which I tend to hold gear in, allows a wider spread of speed

[BobD]

Why don't you use low range? You will have plenty of gears available without dying on a gear change and it won't be using first??

Bob

[discotwinturbo]

I had all sorts of problems trying to travel up Australia's biggest sand dunes on the Warren River. It would change gears even in manual. It would also jump back when I did not want it to occur. Dsc would kick in and had no control of gears. Was ready to dump it in the surf.

I had a chat to Gordon.

I now travel up in low, dsc off, sand mode, and only need about 10-15% throttle percentage. The D4 does not need to rev hard to fly up these dunes, as torque is the key in these cars. I now have to slow at the top.

The D4 now does it effortlessly once I learnt how to drive it on soft, steep, long dunes.

Brett.....

[CaverD3]

Yup that would be my suggestion. DSC off is important.

[Redback]

I guess I was assuming he had it in sand mode and DSC off.

Baz.

[gghaggis]

With the new 8 speeds, if you're in high range (which you probably shouldn't be), you need to select Sport before you can hold gears with the paddles. Even then it will eventually change just before the red-line.

PM me if you want a copy of the off-road booklet.

Cheers,

Gordon

[101RRS]

When in Command shift (or is equivalent in later models) the gearbox will always change up if you are starting to over rev the engine as it a protection mechanism.

Learn to drive your vehicle - in my RRS I have found I can go to about 4300rpm before it changes up so instead having the throttle flat to the floor I have it back off a bit and it stays in the selected gear - you are still getting the power and torque as at those revs you are are on the backside declining end of the curve.

Same as changing down, if you stay in too high a gear there is too much load on the engine so it changes down irrespective of what gear you have selected.

If you drove a manual gearbox the same way it would be either over revving at the top end or on the rev limiter or at that other end - drivetrain shudder but in an auto it is maked by the torque converter or the the ECU changes gear for you (when you should have done).

Garry

[JamesH]

I suspect that you have not used the terrain setting properly, low range, DSC off, sport mode etc, BUT even if I'm wrong about that, contact Gordon and purchase a copy of his booklet on off-roading in Landies like ours. You will not regret it.

[Garwood]

Thanks for the replies everyone, appreciate everyone's experiences.

I had in sand mode with DSC off but clearly low range is the way to go, there seems to be a bit to learn on now to use the systems/settings, so will get Gordon's book plus will be going on one of his drive days soon.

[Garwood]

I had all sorts of problems trying to travel up Australia's biggest sand dunes on the Warren River. It would change gears even in manual. It would also jump back when I did not want it to occur. Dsc would kick in and had no control of gears. Was ready to dump it in the surf.

I had a chat to Gordon.

I now travel up in low, dsc off, sand mode, and only need about 10-15% throttle percentage. The D4 does not need to rev hard to fly up these dunes, as torque is the key in these cars. I now have to slow at the top.

The D4 now does it effortlessly once I learnt how to drive it on soft, steep, long dunes.

Brett.....

Thanks Brett, good to hear someone else's personal experiences. So once set right you could climb long soft sand dunes?

I think you might be near me, do you travel down Canning Hwy in the mornings?

[WhiteD3]

In 2011 I upgraded from a 2007 D3 V6 petrol to a D4 TDV6 2.7. My first experience in the D4 on sand (Fraser Is) was a shocker with it running out of grunt, stopping and generally being a frustrating car to keep the momentum up.

Needless to say it is all about knowing how to drive it. Sand mode, manual shift, DSC off and 2nd low as required. Keep an eye on the revs to maintain about 2000 (to make sure that turbo is engaged) and it'll go anywhere. In the D3 V6 you could ring its neck rev wise and it'd go anywhere (until you ran out of fuel :D ) but with the D4 the aim is to keep the revs consistent.

I'm sure the 3.0 is a different beast again but the principle will be the same.

[discotwinturbo]

Thanks Brett, good to hear someone else's personal experiences. So once set right you could climb long soft sand dunes? I think you might be near me, do you travel down Canning Hwy in the mornings?

Sand dunes are no longer an issue. Unfortunately I do need to back off at the top. One dune at Dunn Rocks east of Esperance proved very interesting at Christmas. No car could make it up....I did and went ballistic over the top. I did move my bull bar slightly, and felt lucky not to set off the air bags.

Canning highway....not mine. I have a big blue phone number down the side and hover around the south eastern hills....Lesmurdie Kalamunda

Brett....