Discovery 4 the best 4x4 by far

We have had five Land Rovers over the years and driven a few more. All of them have been off-road.

Today we took our Discovery 4 off-road for the first time. We did the Christmas Pud Shakedown with the Essex Land Rover Club.

We played in the wet clay for about an hour and half, or so, and our conclusion is that all the electronics and buttons do a fantastic job. The Discovery 4 is perhaps the easiest, to get about in the rough, than any of the other car we have driven.

There was a section where the car pulled through, with what seamed like ease. That same section stopped us completely in our previous Discovery. This year the car took it in its stride, even though one side had to be dragged along a muddy bank and one wheel must have left the ground. 

A cross country vehicle (CCV) did that same section after us, admittedly in the opposite direction, but it struggled as it cross axled at one point.

Wet steep slopes, in the Discovery 4, were, almost, point and let the car adjust the traction to get up. It was not quite that easy, it did require the right pressure on the accelerator and a little bit of adjusting the steering, from side to side, at appropriate points.

It pulled, with ease, through water filled holes with loose gravel bases. The first time through one hole, I used a bit too much power. It created a great wave of muddy water over the bonnet. That was unnecessary because the car could drive it, easily, without the theatrics.

I was amazed by how good the Discovery 4 is off-road. As the slogan goes... 'best 4x4 by far.'

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Winter off-roading

Another Christmas Pud Shakedown with the Essex Land Rover Club.

We were not feeling very well but were determined to get out and about in the mud. We chose to spend a short time there both going round a couple of time avoiding anywhere that looked too risky.

It was a good day and Fender did very well.

Christmas Pud Shakedown

Our annual pay and play off-road day with the Essex Land Rover Club.

Off-road Shakedown

As always on the 27th of December the Essex Land Rover Club run the Christmas Pud Shakedown.

A pay and play driving day.

If you weren't there or even if you were, it is best seen in pictures and videos.

Just starting out. Shelley, very happy, despite there not being enough mud on the car yet :-)

Some ups and downs.

Needed a helping hand. Many thanks to those that helped tow us out of the deep ruts.

Pit stop and view the state of the car. There's one more dent than we started with. It's always in that corner. The lamp already had a chip out of the plastic and the corner panel was already a non-standard shape before the bigger dent!

A bit of an overview.




The above video is a representative sample of the hour or so driving.

All is well when we can drive the same car home at 70 miles per hour that just crawled through all of that mud :-)

Christmas Pud Shakedown

Every year for as long as I have known the Essex Land Rover Club they have done a pay and play day just after Christmas.  It is titled 'the Christmas Pud Shakedown.'

We had not been members for years but with the events of this year we re-joined.  We arranged to meet Andy with 'Joe' , his Defender 90, at the site to have a drive round.




The video shows it was yet another sandy wet site.  Slippery and great fun.

There were quite a few trees but with basic care it was easy to drive round with no damage.

Shelley opted for a more difficult route.




A steep hill at the end of the video that few people, if any, had attempted that day.  Our Discovery using only traction control and low box just crawls over the peak and down the other side.

A great day off-roading with a slight dampener at the end because 'Joe's' brakes failed.  The usual heads crowded round the engine bay to pronounce that the brake master cylinder seals had failed.  We all agreed that it was nothing to do with the off-roading and that it was lucky they did this at 5 mph off-road and not on the motorway.

Brake failure, being one of the few things where you can't tow it home, Andy waited by the side of the road for the AA transporter to take him home while we gave his two teenage children a lift back.

The whole day gave us lots to talk about and our Discovery is left covered in mud as evidence of a fun time.

LRO Show Peterborough

What a day.

We headed for the off-road course first.  I joked that if we damaged anything we could then buy any spares we needed at the show.

The course was excellent fun as we expected for something Vince Cobley had organised.

We managed to slash a tyre.  One of the marshals flagged us down.  As it turned out we were not far from the end of the first trip round.

The tyre had a 5cm vertical gash and was completely flat.

The marshals were incredibly helpful.  They changed the wheel for the spare for us and found a working bottle jack because mine had a leak!  Back up and running for the next time round.

Many thanks to all the marshals who were excellent.

I thought the idea of getting a replacement tyre at the show was a good one but as it happened we did not see a tyre fitter there!

We did not spend much time looking at the arena events but spent most of the time doing the shops.

We treated the Disco to a new Torque Performance rear bumper.

Poor guys at the stand.  I visited 3 times before I made my mind up then had trouble getting enough cash together because the cash machine was out of order!  Got there in the end courtesy of some cash back at the sweet shop.

Came home with completely empty pockets.

A few jobs to do after the off-roading, including drying out one of the head lamps.

A fantastic day.


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Reminders:
MCB 4x4 for custom roof racks
Armson Automotive Engineers for chassis rust treatment

Off-Road Damage

I am not a stranger to damage from off-roading.  Although I like my car to look tidy most of the time that is not an excuse for us to ease off while off-road.

We bought our first and all subsequent Discoveries with the desire to drive them off road.

Yesterday we went to an off road pay and play site in Canewdon run by the Essex Rochford and District 4x4 club.

Their web pages are quite clear on the fact this is an extreme site and one of the first people who spoke to me when we arrived had kindly come over while I was signing in to point out that we would get the paint work scratched.

When we arrived it was nearly shiny, new looking wheels, new bumper and new steering guard.  Even the rope was new because I had bought one about the right length to neatly drape over the light bar.  I can imagine that people thought 'this guy has never been off road before.'

It was kind of them to caution me but only the car was new to this type of off-roading.

Sadly I have no photos of us while driving the course.  We were both in the car so have to stop to take photos.

We only went on the less extreme side of the site.  Even that is still aggressive.  Not for people who worry about damage.  Some of the trees are very close and the CB aerial spent most of the time horizontal until I gave up with it and took it off.

There was only one track we tried and could not get through.  Shelley managed to progress about 10 foot further than where we originally got stuck but eventually had to admit defeat and reverse out.  We nearly hit a 90 in our blind spot while reversing out and probably only just missed him due to his quick reactions.

He had come round to see if we needed a winch out.  I think he might have been disappointed that he didn't need the winch but we all had a good laugh at our luck for not colliding.

We had done well not to need a tow from anyone so decided not to push our luck.

Back at the start area we assessed the damage.  The front heavy duty bumper and steering guard were undamaged with just some drag marks on the steering guard.

The rear protection I had rushed to fit that morning under the tow bar had done it's job well.  The idea was to allow the back to slide instead of the tow bar digging in the ground.  Based on the scratch marks I am sure it worked.

Above the tow bar was another matter.  The rear bumper had been torn off one side and the offside reversing/fog light was missing.  Two of the reversing sensors had been pulled through the bumper.

I made the rear bumper safe for the journey home.  We jet washed some of the mud off but left all the splatter up the sides as evidence of our fun day.

The journey home felt like we had done some more damage.  My best guess was that we had jet washed off some wheel balance weights.  It vibrated a lot at some speeds and was smooth round most corners.

The good news is that I was able to clear out about a kilo of mud and stones from the front wheels using a screw driver.  A test drive proved that the mud had been the cause of the vibration.

I was able to straighten the bumper, once I'd removed a bent bracket that was in the way and secure it properly using screws instead of the plastic trim clips.

The quarter bumperette bits were also only held on by luck and although you can only see when offering up the plastic corner, the rear panel was slightly pushed in and needed to be pulled back out.

Shelley had told me when I fitted the front bumper that I should fit a matching heavy duty rear bumper but I thought I knew better!  I'm now looking for a new stronger rear bumper.

Fitting a Tow Bar to a Discovery 2

It may be a bit over the top but I have changed my perfectly good genuine Land Rover tow bar for an after market alternative.

There is a reason but only a few people will appreciate it.  Off road the tow bar dramatically reduces the departure angle and acts as a drag anchor!  It does however protect the back of the car from some damage.

I need a tow bar from time to time.  About two or three times a year it is used to tow a harrow round some paddocks and rarely to tow a tiny trailer.

I wanted to have a tow bar so I looked round at what was available that might be less in the way when off-road.  Being a 2004 car the tow bar has to be type approved to European Union directive 94/20/EC so I can't design or modify my own.

The US type 2" receiver hitch is an excellent idea and they exist for the Discovery 2 but no one has type approved it for use in the EU!

Nearly all the type approved designs for the Discovery are similar to the original Land Rover version.  Mainly because the mounting points have to use the ones provided!  Luckily Tow-Trust's design uses a removable drop plate instead of the fixed plate used by Land Rover.  It may only save 80mm but that is something.

The Tow-Trust web site has a generic picture.  They kindly e-mailed me the design showing the measurements and confirmed the type approval number: e11*94/20*1658*00

The fitting instructions show the shape of the metalwork.

I fitted this on Sunday.  As is common with cars it is a very simple job made very difficult by rusted on bolts!

It's not necessary to remove the rear bumper but it gave me easier access to the stubborn bolts and a tiny bit more space for leverage.

The bumper is very easy to remove.  It is only two bolts and disconnect the lights.

The rear lights are easy to remove from the bumper, just push in the metal clip from behind on the inside edge and push out.  Once the lamps are out, unclip the wiring loom from the bumper either side. The wires are held up with a single plastic clip either side of the bumper, visible and easily reached from within the hole left after removing the lamp.  The clip is just pinched together to pop it out.

I have reversing sensors.  That plug and socket need to be separated so the lead attached to the car is free.  The socket remains attached to the bumper and the plug is attached to the, now free, lighting loom.

Also removed through the holes left by the lamps are the short bolts holding on the bumper.  One either side and mine came out with little effort.  The bumper then just drops off.

That leaves the rear free to access the tow bar and made it easy to remove the rusty rear step.

Now it gets tricky.  There are only 4 bolts to remove to get the tow bar off but you can guess the problem.  After 10 years they don't want to come out.  I did the usual stuff, starting with soaking them in penetrating oil and eventually ending with one needing to be angle ground off.

The two in the middle at the top bolt in to two fixed threaded holes in the chassis.  A long breaker bar loosened them.  I left them loose while taking off the stubborn bolts at the end of the arms further back.  I can't give any extra tips because I broke an impact socket and, as I said, I finished with an angle grinder.

I even needed an angle grinder to remove the bolt holding the electric socket bracket on.  I wanted to re-use the stronger bracket.  Unfortunately I did not know at that time that it would not fit the new tow bar!

While I had the back of the car apart I took the opportunity to treat the chassis.  I used Dinitrol ML inside the entire chassis sprayed in using an air line.  When I changed to the black 4941 stuff for the outside the spray gun sprung a hole and stopped working!

I did what I could reach with a brush.

Assembly of the tow bar is fairly simple and just need to torque up the bolts to the specified values.

I tend to go a bit overboard with copper grease to avoid bolts getting rusted in and in this case to stop the under-seal gluing the components together.  I do spend a lot of time cleaning threads but that is a lot easier than angle grinding.

A couple of bolts torqued up to 45Nm and the bumper is back on.

Job done.