Land Rover Experience day

[GregMilner]

Heading off on one of these today in the hills outside Perth. Will report with pics later. Should be...well, an experience:-)

[CSBrisie]

Greg, did that day way back in 2007 in my then new D3; great fun - did the sand dunes up North and the Powerline Tracks out East (hills); learnt heaps from Gordon. Make sure you ask him about the rock sliders he has as I recall he has them for L322 now.
Cheers

[GregMilner]

It was an interesting day Chris. There were all kinds of LR products there, new Disco Sports, Evoques, Disco 4s, Defenders, and of course my L322, the only one of its kind. No L405s or 494s today though.
It was run by Land Rover Experience, not Gordon - LRE is a company owned wholly by LRA.
It was pretty basic stuff, but it was good to use the car's electronics fully - something one tends not to do too much of, living in suburbia. You do forget what does what after a while of not using the systems:-)
The instructors, Ray and Ian, were very entertaining and forgiving of novices, so for those with new cars and without any off-road experience at all, it was a perfect day.
There was a stage where we were all keen for a river crossing, but recent rains had pushed the levels and water flow speed too high, so that was nixed. But otherwise, good fun.
I'm waiting for news of the more advanced course, which is being organised now, probably for the sand dune country around Lancelin, so looking forward to that....if for nothing else, something to do for a weekend when I would otherwise be mowing the lawn!

My only disappointment, my bride wasn't confident enough to have a go at the wheel. Next time.

A brief video and some photos...

https://youtu.be/cxv-w2WqBMA

[LandyAndy]

Who sorted the day Greg???
Would have liked to take my D4 along,unfortunately no deep soft sand there for them to demonstrate how 19" tyres cope with it with ease!!!!!!:wasntme::wasntme::wasntme:
Andrew

[GregMilner]

Andy it's all run by LRA's offshoot Land Rover Experience. They run these novice days every couple of weeks at Moondyne in the Avon Valley National Park - free for owners of newish vehicles.

The instructors are organising a more advanced course in the sand dunes near Lancelin, it'll be an overnight and all day event - no dates yet, we just have to keep an eye on the website where it'll be announced once the course has been approved by LRE head office in England.

FOOTNOTE: One interesting thing I did discover yesterday was that my car apparently has the e-diff fitted - one of the instructors pointed it out to me on the centre screen, the little green padlock icon down at the bottom of the screen.

[CSBrisie]

Just for others interest, another easy way to tell if you have the e-diff is put your VIN into TopIX (Land Rover site - free registration) and it shows you the Build Sheet for your car with all options you have). My D3 showed the padlock on the rear diff - always green - as I didn't actually have the e-diff fitted. I think they may have changed this now though Greg so suspect 2012 cars do indeed. TopIX will confirm!
cheers

[Graeme]

Greg, Topix show's that your's has an open rear diff. When watching the video I thought that the right rear wheel shouldn't have taken a few attempts to be stopped from turning if an e-diff was fitted.

[GregMilner]

Mmm, a bit confusing then. In the manual, it says if there's a green padlock icon over the rear diff on the centre screen, then you have an e-diff. If there's no green icon, no e-diff.
Not that it really matters, with the level of off-roading - and infrequency of it - that I do.

[Graeme]

I just put mine into rock crawl and the 4x4 screen shows a red centre diff padlock and a green rear diff padlock. Mine doesn't have an e-diff.

[LandyAndy]

Even if there was a E diff fitted Graeme,wouldnt it show as unlocked until it needed to be locked????
Andrew

[Graeme]

Possibly, but as the centre diff is shown locked the rear may also start-off locked. However the point is that mine also shows a green rear diff lock yet I know that mine does not have an e-diff, so the green symbol is not an indicator of the presence of an e-diff on these vehicles. I know that later D4s don't show the rear diff green if no e-diff whereas earlier D4s do, same as D3s.

[DNB]

Oh nooooooooo....... my LR salesperson was "supposed" to register me for the next drive day (i.e.yesterday!!!)...... He will be getting a call from me tomorrow!!!!

[CSBrisie]

I think Graeme is spot on - certainly that is my understanding having owned D3 without; D4 with and now L322 with e-diff. Odd the LRE guys seem to have different view. Anyway, point is Greg it was a good day out by the sounds of it - I know they do one similar up here in Qld so I might see if I can tag along to one. Although an Outback Trek in June/July is higher on my priority list :)

[cjc_td5]

Just take it out and dump it hard off a standing start. My D4 with ediff will at least partially lock the rear diff ( ie the diff symbol will go red) in this scenario, even on bitumen.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using AULRO mobile app

[mekon76]

Oh nooooooooo....... my LR salesperson was "supposed" to register me for the next drive day (i.e.yesterday!!!)...... He will be getting a call from me tomorrow!!!!

If you buy from LR dealer you usually get a little post card with code and do it yourself online and register for a day. I did mine in Toolangi around Yarra Glen. Good day out. Only Defender there apart from the two blokes running it.

Picked up a few bits of plastic from the Evoque in front of me.