Hi All,

I've had a few unsuccessful mud adventures in the old Range Rover. Leaving me a bit wary of the cars performance off road, especially if it's a bit slippery.

It's last off road fail (after fitting the GG ATs to improve it's lot) was on slippery mud on a slight incline and a very slight side slope. Got going fine up the hill in low range, then it ran out of forward momentum. Backed up without any problem. Gave it a bit more beans and got going, then slid sideways a foot or two and that was the end of it. Wouldn't go forwards or backwards and had only bitten into the surface about an inch or 2. Had to get pushed out

Now would the story have had a more triumphant ending if I had pressed the DSC button to disable it?

I'm more used to off-roading in my manual Ford Ranger without all this clever stuff and that has 'never' been stuck.


Cheers





Clive

Probably not as if your digging an inch or two into mud the tyres will be clogged. You need proper mud biased tyres for that like the old MTR's or new Duratracs.

Personally I'd reccomend a cheap set of remoulds, I've gone for Maltesta Kobra NT on my play thing and they are good at clearing and digging thru mud 👍😊 FFRR MY06 facelift With TDV8 Alloys Zeros/ATR's
Mantec Sump Guard, Rigid Load liner, MY10 BT upgrade.

Not sure about mud but I always turned off the DSC in the desert. Going up big dunes in the Middle East it was important to have all the power to all the wheels all the time. DSC can cut power momentarily when it thinks you are sliding. 2012 5.0L S/C
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That sort of thing is annoying and embarrassing, especially if a trailer needs to be unloaded and unhitched as part of the recovery effort. Also if "lesser" cars are managing and friends offer comments such as "surely a RANGE ROVER should be able to do that..." It is a very heavy vehicle and "ye cannae change the laws of physics".

Experiences like that prompted me to get Goodyear MT/Rs and then Duratracs for mine, I asked my tyre supplier about the GG ATs and he said "You'd be much better with your Duratracs" - I agree.

Anyway, what my 2012 handbook says is that it can be advantageous to switch off the DSC (a) in "extremely soft, dry sand" (not wet sand where the vehicle sinks in which is treated as mud) and (b) "if the vehicle is unable to gain traction in deep snow". That is by reference to the different terrain response programmes. Mud and ruts has no reference to switching off, nor the grass/gravel bits of grass/gravel/snow, nor indeed rock crawl. I have wondered what applies when on grass/mud without ruts - I would think more "grass" which is slow and steady rather than trying to spin up the wheels to get the mud out. I'm not sure that low ratio is that great for going up a muddy slope (as opposed to down), as it will spin the wheels more quickly, but it is recommended for 'mud and ruts', perhaps for greater control in dealing with the ruts.

There are various Youtube videos of RRs being revved hard on muddy grass and going nowhere much, plus a comparison between a L405 5/0 SC and Cayenne Turbo trying to get up a slope like yours - the 405 gets there eventually with lots of sideslip, a poor performance on unsuitable tyres, the Cayenne can't do it at all. That reinforces the 'slow and steady' approach, I suspect.

I have switched off DSC on a wet, mossy and muddy overgrown track when otherwise struggling (this on Pirelli Scorpions) and apart from the 'grass on roof' effect the main thing to note is that when one does get traction the car really shoots forward as the engine will be revving quite high, so one needs to watch where one is pointing eg when between a wall and a steep drop etc. and be quick in getting back off the throttle. There is also the potential for stones to be thrown at people, animals or vehicles behind. LR's guidance seems to suggest this only for soft and light material, where these problems would be absent. Only Range Rovers since 1988

Personally I have it turned off when I go laning but you can't fully turn it off in an FF as when a wheel begins to slip it will lock it using abs to transfer power to the gripped one. It does put some heat into the discs and pads though after a few challenging lanes 😂 FFRR MY06 facelift With TDV8 Alloys Zeros/ATR's
Mantec Sump Guard, Rigid Load liner, MY10 BT upgrade.

Lack of traction whilst offroad is always down to the three most important aspects...

Tyres, tyres and.... you get the idea...

GG A/T's are OK but are very road bias... The A/T2's I run are a lot better but as has been said if you want to play in mud then buy mud tyres....

You do have to learn the correct technique for making the DSC work to your advantage, it takes some getting used to and you need to go and play to find out how..... and also to find out when best to turn it off... it does turn off fully on mine, I've had all four wheels spinning at a high speed when messing on long wet grass....

Offroad driving is all about momentum, you should drive as fast as is needed to maintain it and as slow as possible to remain in control, it's not something that the electronics can do automatically, you have to learn how to do it... it's like most things, you have to be trained to do it properly, or do it for long enough till the penny drops....  Pete
__________________________________________________
2014 L405 Autobiography SDV8 4.4 Loire Blue Ebony interior
2011 L322 Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8 Baltic Blue. Parchment over Navy Interior. Sold
2012 L322 Autobiography 5.0 Supercharged Ipanema Sand, Jet Interior. Sold
2002 L322 Vogue 4.4 V8 Epson Green, Ivory over Aspen Interior (Fatty Offroader) Sold
-Click for Project Fatty off roader-

Hi All,

Thanks for the replies.

Yes more momentum would/should have carried it through. I think the momentum might have been lost due to sliding sideways and the dsc cutting in and then the tyres just not having enough grip to climb out.

I'll wear the ATs down and then look at a set of Duratracs. Now that the radio is mended any extra road noise won't be a problem.


Cheers





Clive

Haylands wrote:

it does turn off fully on mine, I've had all four wheels spinning at a high speed when messing on long wet grass....

Hi Pete,

Is that pressing and holding the button for 10 seconds to turn off both DSC and the TC?

Yes the AT2s are better. They worked very well on my 03 Ranger double cab. Then I changed them for 31" Kumho KL71s and could get away with all sorts of sillyness.


Cheers





Clive

Ummmm...

Just been having a readup in the manual and kingpleb had it spot on... from the manual "Deactivating DSC has no effect on traction control operation"

You can't turn traction control off....!!

All I can say is these tyres must be better than I thought as I've never heard or felt the TC work when the DSC is switched off...

I'll do some testing next time I go playing in the mud....  Pete
__________________________________________________
2014 L405 Autobiography SDV8 4.4 Loire Blue Ebony interior
2011 L322 Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8 Baltic Blue. Parchment over Navy Interior. Sold
2012 L322 Autobiography 5.0 Supercharged Ipanema Sand, Jet Interior. Sold
2002 L322 Vogue 4.4 V8 Epson Green, Ivory over Aspen Interior (Fatty Offroader) Sold
-Click for Project Fatty off roader-

It's ok I was wrong as well as I thought it turned it off slightly in some way as I can get the back end to drift out more when it's off for some reason...

The other way is to pull the abs fuse...
Don't forget most don't have locking rear diff either... FFRR MY06 facelift With TDV8 Alloys Zeros/ATR's
Mantec Sump Guard, Rigid Load liner, MY10 BT upgrade.

Just been having a good read up, it seems that DSC prevents under and oversteer by reducing the engine power and braking wheels, it also prevents burnouts off the line by limiting power and braking wheels.... when it's switched off the TC controls wheelspin by braking the faster wheel, not limiting the power to them... makes sense... you can spin up all the wheels as the TC just thinks you are moving faster than you are... If one wheel is much faster than the others, and it also takes into account steering wheel angle to work out the relative difference between inside and outside wheels, it then brakes the faster wheel but allows the power to remain...

So really it's probably best to turn off DSC when doing any off road driving to get the maximum out the system... Having said that I rarely turn it off and have had no issues....

Going to try some back to back when I'm out at the end of the month....  Pete
__________________________________________________
2014 L405 Autobiography SDV8 4.4 Loire Blue Ebony interior
2011 L322 Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8 Baltic Blue. Parchment over Navy Interior. Sold
2012 L322 Autobiography 5.0 Supercharged Ipanema Sand, Jet Interior. Sold
2002 L322 Vogue 4.4 V8 Epson Green, Ivory over Aspen Interior (Fatty Offroader) Sold
-Click for Project Fatty off roader-