Thread: Defender, sand, CDL etc

A few thoughts/observations/questions after a weekend camping on Straddie and getting used to the (chipped) 'Fender's performance.

I'm not the most experienced sand driver so comments are more than welcome. Overall, it performed well, I thought. Tyres 20psi.

The only real glitch was going through the cutting in the first dune to check the campsite availability. Not a very steep approach, but quite rough and reasonably soft. Tried in high second, but stalled halfway. Backed up and tried in high first - no problem.

I guess with experience I'll be better able to anticipate which gear I should be in, but I did think that second would get me there. I guess what I'm asking here is that even though I was giving it a fair bit in second, it really lost power quickly and I was pretty surprised that it stalled - could this be an ECU/chip problem or is it just my technique. Try low range?????

When I had to travel in the soft stuff in front of the dunes - high second and third with no problems.
High third and fourth down on the hard packed stuff.

CDL - I've read varying opinions on locking it in on the sand.

On the first day I had it locked in pretty much the whole time, but as the sand seemed pretty firm I did unlock it every now and again (being aware of the possibility of wind-up). And it seemed I was getting wind-up as the CDL was occasionally quite difficult to disengage and the warning light was taking about 30 seconds to extinguish.

Thoughts on this would be appreciated as on the second day I had no trouble driving with the CDL unlocked and just locking it in if it looked like I was going to hit some soft stuff or if I was heading up into the dunes or entering/exiting the beach. (I was conscious of the "danger" of hitting a patch of unexpected soft stuff - it'd be too late to lock it in then - but I was taking it easy, was travelling with another vehicle and we both had plenty of recovery gear so thought the risk was small and the consequences manageable).

Had to be conscious of power if I had to start in soft sand as it's got plenty of grunt and there was a tendency to dig in if I got a bit heavy-footed. Got used to this though, I think.

Overall - a bloody good weekend.

Cheers

Gascoigne

CDL is the go, on sand you will never wind it up, I leave mine in all day on sand and that might be for 100Ks or more.

The higher your tyre pressure the more power they will sap. And the turbo falls off pretty quick, and when it does so it will just die. Try the same hill in 3rd or 4th low and see how it goes. On the flatter stuff I use 1st-2nd high, but as soon as I get into dunes I go into low so you can pick the optimum gear, I find 2nd is good but is far to high for dunes as it just dies. But 3rd & 4th low are perfect. For bigger climbs in soft sand you really have to stick it into it, and just about be on the limiter.

But by the sounds of it with your tyre pressure were to high for the gear you were in, so either try it in a lower gear or with lower pressure.