Thread: Scary disco trip

We traveled up country to Newcastle this year for Christmas to the in-laws (1500km’s away from Cape Town)
The bank manager advised to leave the series III at home and travel in our VW Polo at 5,8liters/100km at 120km/h as opposed to 20liters/100 at 80km/h.
After 3 days we had done pretty much everything that there is to do in the village and then a blessing in disguise arrived. The aunt-in-law in her TD5 disco ser II automatic which has never seen any off-road action, arrived.
Somehow she agreed and gave us the vehicle to do a trail in the Eastern Transvaal called the Three Province Trail of about 6 hours which was graded in our local 4x4 mag as a medium grade 3 (out of 5).
When we arrived and studied the route map we were horrified to read some sections graded at 4 ½ with no apparent escape.
The tires admittedly were more on-roaders but the first rocky incline produced some wheel spin and a burning rubber smell until the T.C light appeared on the dash and up we went. If it were not for the T.C I am very sure we would have gone nowhere.
When we arrived at the first seriously steep downhill littered with loose boulders I decided to give the hill decent button a try and went down in first low. The car just took off down the slope and kept speeding up. I tried to disengage hill decent and slammed on the breaks but the pedal just kicked back and she kept getting ever faster down the slope sliding everywhere. The wife was screaming and somehow we managed to stop once the ground was firmer. In my opinion it would have been better without the ABS because had I been able to lock the breaks I could have skidded through the loose stuff and gripped the harder surface below. Thankfully no damage to aunties Disco. (By the way she was in town shopping and had no idea what we were up to in her Landy)
The rest of the trail went fairly OK with some hairy moments until the last area which was through a narrow gorge with an almost impossible side angle. I made contact with the passenger mirror on the bank while leaning at 45’ and the two drivers side wheels were both just lifting off the ground. My wife on the outside was too scared to look so I had only one option to move forward and thankfully the vehicle righted again without any of the body work contacting the slope.
All in all I would definitely choose my old series III above the electronic gismos on the Disco and a better ride height aswell. We had to build some stone ramps to get the rear diff over some of the obstructions in the track.
Hope none of you disco owners take offence.
Glad I'm back and the disco is still in 1 piece.

Hi James
The CDL was removed and replaced with TC in the D2.If you have the correct model D2 you can activate the CDL with a DIY mod as I have fitted to mine.Some you need to fit the CDL to the transfercase and the late ones had it back as it should be.
Not one of Landrovers best decicions!!!!!
Andrew