Thread: V8 disco 1 on soft sand

I would have to agree about the poor performance on sand of the D1. I had two over a 12 year period and as my family lives in Belmont I used to drive 9 mile beach between Blacksmiths and Redhead quite often and still do.

Compared to my previous series 3 it felt cumbersome and heavy and you had to be careful where you parked etc. My 101 and Freelander are much better on the sand though the 101 could use more power. I haven't tried the RRS on sand as yet.

But like all vehicles, you learn its pros and cons and adapt accordingly but they do feel a bit heavy on the sand.

Garry

im surprised at that I've driven 2 RR and 1 disco on Stockton.

RR auto (mates one) didn't stop was great
Disco (diesel) went fine seemed ok for power (not v8 spec)
RR manual....awesome ran up many of the dunes in high range and the other boys tried to dig my car in (down to the doors) ans i drove it out unassisted

drove the old man disco auto on rainbow and fraiser heaps no dramas and my old carby rangie 4 speed manual again no issues the old boy had a v6 triton before the disco and my old rangie would eat it up and i never wasted time with droping presures

Originally Posted by bigEd

I'm not adverse to revving the crap out of it other than it sounds like it will explode if it goes above 4000!!

.

Mine regularly goes 5000 plus rpm, no explosions yet!

Im really suprised you find your disco low powered in sand, I have a Rangie classic 3.5 and on long climbs I would have agreed.
But, also have a 3.9 RRC (same engine & chassis I believe) and last time I was on sand I had a real blast, one thing I did notice which I found really odd was I started at 25psi and it ran like a steam train, dropped them down the 16 and I really noticed the extra drag.
Try your tyres just a touch higher?

If anything you need to go lower pressure... but with the right tyres and pressure you will find the disco is great on the sand, even if it is a little tired. I have driven alot of different vehicles on the sand and have found the rovers to be great on the sand, inlcuding my gutless d1 TDI i recently picked up. Ive also played with and without CDL, F/R lockers etc etc and typically they do great at speed running high range and all open diffs, CDL actually seems to slow you down a bit but is 100% necessary for slow driving in the very soft stuff.

One thing i have noticed after taking many trips out on stockton with groups of people from here is most v8 drivers go to hard at things out there, especially without dropping to lower enough pressures, and because of there lack of throttle control end up cutting in to deep which end there forward motion pretty quickly. My suggestion is lower the pressure to 12psi and get a better feel for the truck.

Come out for a drive with us some time, we go out regulary being so close to it.

Took my 3.5V8i Disco on sand at Robe, Morroco and Libya and had no problems at all. Power was great and it really flew. Was just a standard 3.5V8. When in Libya I was driving around in low range 5th as I was following a bunch of Diesels and their gearing was very different to mine. I found it reving too high in Second and too slow for thired. So I stuck it in 5th low and it was perfect. Drove some really big sand hills in it. As said before tyre pressures will make a big difference.

Ivan

Was driving my D1 V8 3.9 over at North Stradbroke Island at the weekend - my first time in the D1 on sand - and had no problem whatsoever. Diff locked, and in 2/Low for the really soft stuff, and D/high for the harder stuff. Had only dropped the tyres to 20psi as I was 6 up with the dog and didn't want to risk taking a tyre off the rim.

Never a danger of getting bogged, the only time I lost forward momentum, it was a case of reverse/low and drive out and find another route!

Was following a Suzuki and a Jeep without any problems whatsoever.