Thread: Terrain response while towing offroad

When I tow in low speed very rough, steep and windy tracks (not as bad as Vic high country) I use high range and sand mode. This gives the car better gearing (keeps the revs up) and better engine mapping for the steep hills and slow speed (40 to 80 kph). If really slow I would use low range sand mode.

For maximum traction really slow speed I would use rock crawl. I never tend to use mud and ruts or gravel and grass for anything, rightly or wrongly. However, I hardly ever drive in mud. I might change my mind if I did.

Thanks Bob

A follow up
do you ever use low range towing on the bitumen

Read in the forum some where you can but they talk about not locking the CDL.
Unfortunately you don't have that control in the D4 I believe


WB

Really the answer is it all depends. If you mean on the dirt roads and fire trails we just use LR and leave TR alone as it is not required. On really steep descents though we will use HDC and manual mode selecting first or second LR depending on how much engine braking we want. As well we change the settings on the brake controller to push more braking effort to the camper.

If you mean really off road either sand or rock crawl mode as you are probably already in LR

Rob

Rob
Talking about on road bitumen

Apparently according to FAQ D4 don't get wind up if driving in low range on bitumen.

WB

Originally Posted by wbowner

Apparently according to FAQ D4 don't get wind up if driving in low range on bitumen.

WB

I believe that's true..... in a D3/D4 the system will only lock the centre diff when it senses a a loss of traction at one end or the other, no matter what surface you are on. ( Unless you put it in rock crawl I think.) Vehicles where you manually select the CDL it's either on or off - the vehicle has no way of knowing if it's needed or not - that's why if you select it in the wrong situation you will get wind up


I don't tow a lot - but I nearly always use low range to reverse trailers , no matter what surface I'm on. I wouldn't be worried about low range on bitumen - I'd be more careful about use of terrain response settings.

You can use low range or any traction control settings on bitumen if you need to. The car won't allow itself to be damaged by too much locking of anything, whether centre ediff or rear ediff. You wouldn't normally need low range, however, apart from backing or perhaps improving engine braking at very low speeds. On steep low speed hills you could use low range to reduce the stress on the auto transmission, but that would not be normal for most bitumen roads.

And in answer to your question- get the booklet from GOE and have a read