Dave Thornton

Ok, it's a sunny day today but I have an unanswered question about a near miss I had in the snow before xmas.

I have a Discovery 3 and I had already selected low ratio, first gear, hill descent control and snow mode for a gentle downhill on a snowy road. After edging round a blind corner at less than 5mph I could see the road was blocked by another car. The gearbox and the electronics were keeping me below 5mph but the torque of the engine and the lack of friction on the road (rendering the ABS useless) kept the car above about 2mph. I only stopped by putting it in reverse and flooring it, which would have been much harder had it been a manual, and it ended up sideways across the road. There's nothing about this scenario in the handbook or in an off-road driving book I have. Is there a correct procedure?

john banks

What tyres?

Could you have found a rougher patch at the side of the road to get some friction?

Could you have braked so that you were slower before the bend?

Handbrake to see if it would slow it where the ABS wouldn't? - may be more useful in snow than ice.

As far as I know once you're in a situation like this with no friction, what you did was probably as much as you could have.

hodgy0_2

i think you did the best you could

no grip is no grip -- and every car brakes in 4 wheel drive anyway

lozgti1

Still two tons of metal.

X trail fine going forwards.Had a couple of hairy moments with broadsiding though going slowly round roundabout in the snow

Matteeboy

A Disco is 2.8 tonnes!
All you can do us take it very slowly so if you lose it, you'll crash slowly. Defender copes really well in ice but no grip is no grip unless you have studded tyres.

Matteeboy

A Disco is 2.8 tonnes!
All you can do us take it very slowly so if you lose it, you'll crash slowly. Defender copes really well in ice but no grip is no grip unless you have studded tyres.

Jamieee

When I first had my Defender it had standard road tyres on, and to be honest despite using the low box in snow it still left me thinking anytime soon im gonna lose it.

However due to me doing some offroading I bought BFG M/T KM2 tyres and in December just gone they where 100% better.

Still it all depends on your driving, from what you have said you where doing just the right thing!

If I was you i'd swap your tyres for some BFG A/T or General Grabber A/T perhaps give you the best of both worlds!

billythekid

Um, HDC should click off when you press the brake and give normal brake control back to the driver. This is why you should not touch the brake when using HDC as it can often result in control being lost.

When you brake the torque to the driven wheels should be easily overcome by the brakes regardless of the state of the abs at that kind of speed. Its my understanding that all ABS systems should prevent the wheels turning at low speeds by measuring the wheel senors as the torque convertor in the gearbox can still be sending torque to the wheels. If that makes any sense!

Dave Thornton

Yep, I think a spare set of alloys with some A/T tyres is probably the way to go. Had I had the grip I could have offered to pull the blocked car out of the way too. HDC is a wonderful invention for keeping the speed down and staying in a straight line - it's a shame that 4x4s are so often benchmarked for mud plugging, when a snowy day is a far more likely scenario for the average owner. Anyway, I did get my 4 year old and her friend to the children's birthday party - pity that it was cancelled after all that as the girl who was 5 got stuck elsewhere.