water crossing ??

[Ozzy119]

Hi all,

This might sound silly to the experts but this is my first auto gear box so I'm going to anyway........... what about gear changes in water crossings? I have heard time and again that you shouldn't change gear in deep water as you risk getting water into the clutch and then some big problems thereafter. So with a manual you had to set gear and hope you got through with it.

With the auto it can change on you before you know it, so it is ok in water?

thanks

[101RRS]

An auto and its equivalant of a manual clutch (torque converter) is fully sealed so there are no issues with the auto changing gear - but in reality it you are in water and driving at a steady pace it will most probably not change anyway.

Garry

[WhiteD3]

If it was deep enough to be worried about, I'd be in low range with 2nd manually selected.

[DiscoWeb]

Ozzy119,

As WhiteD3 said, low range and manually select the gear you want will stop gear changes and allow you to keep a steady pace through water crossings.

I have done a couple of short crossings in the VHC that we pretty deep (600 mm) and 1 long (50 - 60 m) wide crossing that was around 550mm deep with no snorkel and have had no problems.

These are about as deep as I am comfortable with probably with or without snorkel as things get pretty interesting when you feel the back start to drift from water flow. Only happened once on a very short, 500 mm deep crossing of the Cox river where the water was moving pretty quick, gives you a fright!

George