Lucky8’s Project Discovery 3

[iowalr4]

Im already imagining some type of panel that can be attached with strong magnets that covers the rear glass to protect it from pokey trees.

I was thinking about this just the other day while admiring a built up 2013 JK with steel fender flairs and lots of bits to protect it. The windows are all inset a lot more than the flat panel van style LR, and he still had a lot of damage for pokey trees.

One thing is for sure, in an area like Iowa, it is impossible to avoid lots of damage from trees, or sliding into them from the black mud. Hard for me to consider doing much of any wheeling here with a nice rover that I don't want to trash.

 

[morrisdl]

I have paniced about those rear windows a few times. If the commercial disco3 steel panels are available, I wonder how much that they actually cost. Would need to find a new fm antenna too.

 

[A.J.M]

All that complicated EAS stuff is very unreliable, i mean, you would NEVER find a high mileage D3 running with it, they all sack it off and trade to inferior coil systems because the cost is so high.

Or, maybe not.
http://www.disco3.co.uk/forum/topic118779.html?highlight=Guess

Not bad for a car that tows for a living. It also gives a nice backup for the old adage of actually looking after things, fixing issues as they arise and sticking to servicing plans. That D3 is 9 years old.

I'm sure there is more to that story, i do like how one guy just appears to help...

 

[nwoods]

Im already imagining some type of panel that can be attached with strong magnets that covers the rear glass to protect it from pokey trees.

I was thinking about this just the other day while admiring a built up 2013 JK with steel fender flairs and lots of bits to protect it. The windows are all inset a lot more than the flat panel van style LR, and he still had a lot of damage for pokey trees.

One thing is for sure, in an area like Iowa, it is impossible to avoid lots of damage from trees, or sliding into them from the black mud. Hard for me to consider doing much of any wheeling here with a nice rover that I don't want to trash.

Yes, I've seen an LR3 break it's rear side window before also. Though I'm pretty sure it would have happened to a built JK in this same spot as well. Guy just slide sideways on a tilted slab, and tourqued himself into the cliff wall:

Saved the sheet metal though!

 

[zelatore]

finish the story!
finish the story!
finish the story!

Have I mentioned how patient we are around here?

 

[Fivespddisco]

Okay Lucky8, some questions and comments here for you:

Ok Bring them

1. Curious, did you try to use hill decent?

Yes multiple times. I find that in good traction situations the hill decent is fantastic.

I am just guessing, but I'll bet you stood on the brake pedal and just slid down the hill, right?

Nathan that is not correct. I wrote “ standing on my pedal with 2 feet” to help convey my point on how slippery the hill was.

Where there any other opportunities to try the hill decent? If you use the cruise control speed buttons, you can dial down the hill decent to be as slow as you want. It's noisy and makes unpleasant vibes as the internal hub mounted pads grab and grind along with the discs, but it does actually work remarkably well when the rate of decent is dialed way down, and it allows you to maintain steering input!

Have you ever tried hill decent on ice? Not a little snow but shear ice “glass" so to speak. I have and it don’t work. I could get the truck to slow down better with the human touch on the brakes Vs the computer. If I pushed to hard on the pedal the ABS would kick in and it was back to that game. The issue I saw with the hill decent on ice and very slippery mud is the truck would try to keep the wheels spinning at the same speed but in doing so it would allow the truck to increase in speed. If I would have trussed the Hill decent and tried to make the left I think 3 things could have happened.

1 The truck would have somehow found traction and defied the laws of Physics and made the turn.

2 The front would have continued to push and slide as the hill decent and ABS went bananas until the tree stopped it.

3 The front would find a bit of traction and start to bring the noes over but the back would not be able to make the turn and the D3 would slide sideways into the tree.

I did not want to try my luck with 1 and my “gut" said 3 was going to be the outcome if I tried to make the turn so I did my best to brake and point the sliding noes toward the tree.

3. Do you have a rear locker? If so, taking the winch line and attaching it to the front recovery point (way better than the wheel!), while going in reverse will cause the rear end to pirouette around nice and pretty. (Bill Burke taught me that trick).

That is a good trick but you are failing to understand how slippery the conditions were. I needed that buggy on 37s jammed against a tree to stop me from sliding down hill. Reverse was not an option . I even tried reverse with the monster Series pulling me and I just pulled him down with me.
So to recap spinning the tires in any direction made the D3 go down hill.

It seems to me that you still haven't figured out how to use your special program modes to extract the maximum performance. Don't rely on the Easy Button. You've got to think too.

Im sure there is more to learn about the truck but please don’t underestimate the conditions I’m willing to push the D3 through. Look around at the crowd of trucks its with before you judge that I’m not doing something correct.

 

[nwoods]

Have you ever tried hill decent on ice?

I hesitate to respond, because WE WANT YOU TO FINISH THE STORY! But no, never on ice. I live in SoCal.

This is about as close as we get (when the decomposed granite freezes, then thaws, and turns to snot)

 

[Fivespddisco]

For nasty mud like that what setting do you recommend?

Grass and snow with traction control off and HDC in Rock crawling mode?

I am just curious in how to use the tools at hand better. I am a newbie to off roading and the LR3 is my first vehicle for the task. So I don't always know the best approach and what settings to use to allow the vehicle to perform that approach (e.g. allowing wheel spin etc.).

Thanks!

*edit* I realize this advice may differ if you are actually present and the vehicle or obstacle is different then expected. I am just wondering what I would use to accomplish that approach.

I find that sand mode is the go to mode for most things. Rock mode is fantastic if you are trying to finesse over something. Playing with the truck this weekend on a steep slippery hill climb I did a comparison of mud Vs sand modes.

MUD
When I got half way up the hill and put the petal to the floor looking to help keep the momentum the motor just shut off. It did not like the Revs

Sand

Now when I got half way up the hill and put the petal to the floor the motor smiled and the truck danced to the top.

 

[Fivespddisco]

My impression from Lucky8 was that this was not really a hill and that the truck slid down an incline within a few seconds. The pictures of the mud in the tires tell the whole story, might as well have been ice.

Exactly

 

[Fivespddisco]

I hesitate to respond, because WE WANT YOU TO FINISH THE STORY! But no, never on ice. I live in SoCal.

This is about as close as we get (when the decomposed granite freezes, then thaws, and turns to snot)

With all due respect sir. That mud was so bad people that were helping and watching the recovery were falling down.

The picture you have would be fantastic in my mind for hill decent.

 

[Fivespddisco]

finish the story!
finish the story!
finish the story!

Have I mentioned how patient we are around here?

I say this with peace and love,,
Im working on it.

 

[brickpaul65]

Interesting note on Sand mode. I have not every really used it. I will keep that in mind for playing around.

 

[Fivespddisco]

Okay Lucky8,

Curious, did you try to use hill decent? [/img]

All hill decent as we lower a broken D1 tied to a 90 tied to the D3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQZTm37Rt1k&index=1&list=UUUnCLXtAqip_9qd-T1NenbA

 

[ArmyRover]

Nathan the mud out there was amazing.

My 110 with MTR's on flat ground with the wheels straight ahead pivot steered sideways on me. I'm a northern boy and I've never experienced such a low traction situation in my life. I thought for sure I was stuck but luck was with me and the 110 clawed it's way out and pointed in the right direction.

I looked at a couple of trails with serious hills and did a u-turn as I knew even if I made it down without issue, I probably would not make it back up.

you can check the "post pictures of your Land Rover" for what my 110 looked like after about 1 hour on the trails. I even had mud coming out of the shifter boot on the floor.

 

[zelatore]

interesting note on Sand mode. I too have found I don't like snow mode a lot and usually end up using rock-crawl for most stuff. About the only time I've used sand was an experiment on a long hill climb (truck hill at Hollister...dirt with several inches of dust overlaying the base). It didn't work great - I made it about 75% of the way up before loosing momentum and coming to a stop. I figured I was done for but backed up a few feet, switched to rock crawl, and was able to get moving again and make the top.
But I'll have to experiment with Sand some more. Heck, I should even get a chance to do some actual sand (beach) driving this weekend.