Thread: freeranger

Originally posted by Steinzy
All the small 4x4's have gone that way - my misses drives an x-trail and it's the same deal no low range and how sad am I because i didn't realise untill we bought it - i was under the impression that the switch on the dash electronicaly engaged the transfer case like the pathfinder - but i was wrong :?

That is quite acceptable from a motor company that make sedans as well as 4wd's... but from a company that only makes 4wd's.. :roll:

Originally posted by landy_man

That is quite acceptable from a motor company that make sedans as well as 4wd's... but from a company that only makes 4wd's.. :roll:

Here here!

A "sheep in wolves clothing" and an opportunity lost

That's a very good point - I didn't think of it that way :?

The Freelander is a car that doesn't know what it wants to be - always designed as a softroader with low ground clearance and no low range but they then go and put in hill decent control so you can get down hills but then cannot get back up and have put in ETC which is great in most conditions (except sand) and two great diesel engines so that while it is a softroader it seems to also have some pretence of trying to also be an offroader.

The cars are great on the road and as long as you don't have to climb slow rough stuff they are great in most offroad conditions where clearance is not an issue - however they are able to decent much easier than they climb so can get you into trouble.

Apparently the TD4 when fitted with an auto makes a good go at disguising it has not low range.

But the engine bay could fit a north south engine so at the design stage I cannot understand why they didn't do this and connect the gearbox to a disco transfer case - would be a lot cheaper, have proper 4wd and have a whole lot less engineering to go wrong - the shaft from the gearbox to the IRD (transfer case) is hollow so the driveshaft that then drives the front left wheel passes inside it so that drive can get to the front left wheel. And the lot has to all be sealed seperately because the gearbox and the IRD use different oil - all overly complex and difficult to repair if needed.

But when it all works - it all works well.

Garry

Racing in the Dakar 2006:




www.rallyraid.co.uk

Some shots from last years Rally are here:

http://gallery.rallyraid.co.uk/gallery/thu...category_id=123

Looks great. Even better Foxtel are going to broadcast it over 16 days.