Thread: Anyone done a "Land Rover Experience Day"?

The need for an instructor with LR-specific knowledge increases as the training becomes more advanced. Many of the basics are applicable to all vehicles; for example in sand the concept of flotation, how to stop, start, tackling dunes...all that is as relevant to a Patrol as a D3. However...there will be differences. For example, HDC should not be used for sand descents. ESC should be turned off. Sand mode should be selected. Low-profile tyres cannot be aired down as far as high profile. The list goes on. LR instructors know all this but that doesn't mean to say that others don't also know it.

The problem with any instructor teaching any vehicle with which they are not familiar is not when they fail to point out some extra feature, it's when they teach something which is wrong for that vehicle. And it is becoming increasingly hard to keep up with all the different vehicles as you cannot tell what the modern ones do in any given situation till you get there, unlike the days of old when there was no computer to alter the vehicle behaviour according to the conditions.

By the way I would never advocate using HSA and instead teach left foot braking to do hillstarts instead. HSA system have a tendency not to work at inopportune moments. That is HSA as distinct from HDC.

Unfortunately there is almost nothing these days that is universal. There are so many vehicle differences that for almost every technique it is possible to find a vehicle that needs it done differently to the rest.

Robert - what you say has merit, but I guess I get a little peeved with the idea that people NEED LR Experience over any other good training centre. To my mind reading the owners manual and experimenting with the basics taught first will just fine. I was taught by a that combination with my brother being a veteran 4wd'er and in business for a long time modifying all makes of 4wd to enhance their on and off road performance (I guess I was lucky in my trainer)...but I have to say that apart from the essentials (including some safety essentials including hill starts) which dont always come intuitively most of it comes from giving it a go. I also advocate giving areas a go by ruling out as much of the vehicles electronic and mechanical traction aids as possible and then doing the same area several times without to understand what YOUR vehicle can do and then do it again introducing an aid at a time (in some vehicles of course that is difficult - ie difficult to turn off aids). One thing a vehicle specific course does give though is (hopefully) some cautionary words and demonstrations to the uninitiated. The D2 and even more so the D3/D4 all in stock trim are dangerous in the wrong hands for this reason - they will crawl up that sideways slope until they fall over...so their ability deserves respect...the novice can get into situations (seemingly easily) where they suddenly crap themselves and rightly so...where open diff 4wd's would never have gone.

So get a good instructor and also read the manual, but dont worry to much if you cannot get a dedicated LR person.

Cheers

Yes, as I've said there are really good LR instructors around who are not LR-qualified, and thus LR quals are not "needed". However, anyone who is LR qualified (as opposed to just trained) will certainly know the vehicles properly, whereas from the rest there are some just as good, and some nowhere near. Therefore it is difficult for someone to assess the potential of an instructor's knowledge and the LR qualification is useful in that respect.

Your tip on reading the manual is a very good one as these days much information is right there, and even more for us on the LR ownerinfo site. I always read the manuals of vehicles I'm not familiar with.

Originally Posted by Bushwanderer

Hi Gordon,
Thanks for the clarification.

And to which "camp" do you belong?

Best Wishes,
Peter

Not quite sure I understand your question? I was trained through the CSIRO and then DTEC courses here in WA. So none of that was specific to LR. My specific knowledge of the T5 platform LR's comes from owning them, and setting up and competing in them.

And just being an overly curious computer scientist

Cheers,

Gordon

I will not enter the debate about who is and who is not qualified to what level and really don't care.

As for having LR specific training, all I can say is that I have done general 4wd training before and learnt most of the generic skills, something I would still recommend anyone do.

I have now attended a LR specific training run by someone who has done Land Rover experience training in the UK (don't know to what level) and many other training courses but also who importantly owns and loves a D3. What I can say is that particulalry with a D3 with all of its electronic idiosyncracies I believe that for me at least there was a huge amount of value in doing this to expand on my generic knowledge and learn the D3 specifics.

Hi Gordon,
I was wondering if you were one of the 4x LRE trained instructors in Australia! You've answered that well.

I, also, worked for CSIRO (here in Sydney) for more than 20 years. I didn't have the opportunity, though, to play with the 4x4s very often.

Best Wishes,
Peter

Having Cert IV quals and being reasonably experienced in offroad driving, I have some questions of the LR qualified "trainers'.
Surely these instructors if they were pushing the vehicles would have fed by to LR some glaring defiencies including the exhaust location (on my 4th set of exhausts under the rear axle), EPB issues and the lack of water proofing for vital components.
My guess is that LR would only instruct within the vehicle limits and avoid problem areas or instruct the trainers not to discuss these problems. Real world instructors (aka Gordon et al) would pass on realistic details of the vehicle abilities and limitations without fear. Qualified trainers with a thorough real world understanding will IMHO give you the best understanding of the vehicle and your own abilities.

That assumes that offroad capability is a foremost design consideration for Land Rover instead of being balanced against cost and other uses for the vehicle. Remember, we're the 5%ers.