[benji]

Hello all,

I'm leaving in October for a sand run in South Australia and i'm wondering if anyone out there has some experience with early traction controlled rangies in deep sand. A lot of the 4wd magazines say they're no good, as the TC is always interfering and slowing the car down.

What i'm wondering is if I can turn the TC off, i.e, pulling out the ecu power fuse (abs not working doesn't worry me). Or will this log a fault code, i'm not sure. Any comments would be greatly appreciated,

Benji.

 

[rufant]

I would try it first. I've found it quite useful off road, although never tried it in really deep sand. You have to be going quite slowly before it activates.

I would try pulling the fuse before you go and see what effect it has, so if you get there and decide you don't want TC then you're not going to get any nasty suprises. I don't think you will get a permenant fault code but i haven't treied it so couldn't be sure.

Whereabouts in SA are you going?

 

[benji]

THanx heaps,

You're right, I do need to get this sorted before I leave. What i'm worried about is that if I do log a code on the abs ecu, is it easily deleted? Maybe I need to do some more research.
I've also found it great off road, I thought it'd be a con being the first of the traction controlled 4wd's.
We're going with a 4wd tour company whom we're good friends with. Around Kingston, Robe, and ...Newport? Then up to Goolwa to the Murray mouth. The beach as I remember it around Kingston is easy, dad towed his 30foot boat along it to Robe. However the stretch to the Mouth from Goolwa can be deep at times. This could have changed though, it's been a while.

 

[rufant]

Unless you want to disable it before you go and try the various methods for clearing the code, (ie; just reconnecting the sensor or whatever you did to make it inoperable, disconnecting the battery for a set time, getting a workshop/someone with correct software to clear it, which seem to be the different ways that work for different ECU's) i would be tempted to just leave it.

Landrover may have not engineered parts of their vehicles quite as well as one might like, but i would say anything they do to enhance the off road capability of the vehicle will have been pretty well tested. My first offroad outing in the Rangie with a club, i was climbing slopes on mis matched dodgy road biased tyres, that reasonably well set up Disco's were struggling with, my TC light blinking away the whole way up! I think the whole early TC not being very good rumours is mostly down to the fact it was fitted to lots of soft roaders and probably lifted wholesale from the road car they were based on and not calibrated properly for off road.

As you are going as part of a group, there will always be someone to pull you out. Take your own snatch strap, that you know is new/good condition. Maxtrax are another consideration.

If you decide to find out what works for disabling the TC and clearing the fault code lets us know. More importantly take you camera on the trip and post up the photos when you get back.

 

[Doctor Leo]

Florida has the deepest (theres no bottom) and softest sand of probbly anywhere in the World. And the TC rarely engages when I am driving down the beach or on the dunes. Our TC dosnt slow the truck down when it engages like other lesser 4x4s. All it does is try to stop a spinning wheel not try to slow the truck down. The TC is a big help when getting started and I can not for the life of me think of a time TC caused me grief. I wouldnt bother turning it off and risk a ABS light. Just air down to around 20 PSI and use low range. You want to keep your speed going no matter how bumpy it gets. If you get below 15mph its going to start and dig in. Another thing is to coast to a stop do not brake. That way you dont cause your truck to dig into the sand and cause you to have to get out of the ruts to get going (a death sentence). Go to a local boat yard and get yourself a nice size anchor (30-40lbs) and put the biggest shackel you can on it with about 20ft of heavy chain. If you do get stuck bury the anchor about 50ft from the truck and hook you winch/come along to the chain and pull your self right out. It also wouldnt hurt to get some steel grate from a scrap yard to use as sand rails.

Have fun and be safe. Drink lots of water and ware sun block. :thumb:

 

[Doctor Leo]

Notice the trucks that arent stuck? They did the braking trick. The ones stuck just came to a hard stop.

To get up a dune you have to use speed, he didn't. Air down and low range the whole time.

 

[benji]

Thanx heaps for that.
I think i'll just let it go and see what happens. It's good to hear the info. 1st hand rather than read it in a magazine!
I was reading the 1991 operations manual however, and it said that if the abs light is on and the ecu hasn't logged a code, one of the possible causes may be a blown ecu fuse!? Interesting,...
Anyway, the tc has been SO helpfull in the past, (and I know they bought the 1991 VGSE to Oz for dessert sand testing) i'll just leave it. Once again landrover design will prove me wrong; i'm sure of it!