Member Since: 16 Jul 2006
Location: South Gippsland
Posts: 511
Sand Driving
Headed off to Robe, South OZ early Friday, for a long weekend driving the sand dunes of Robe.
Came home with the permagrin firmly fixed
I may have said this before, but how good is the D3
After getting stuck once or twice to start (driver error) the D3 just went everywhere it was pointed - generaly outperforming the toyotas and patrols travelling with me.
Did a total of 1,560ks, averaging 8.4lt per 100 highway, and 13.7 working hard on the dunes.
I'll post some picks as soon as SWMBO tells me how to get them onto the computer.
Not too happy with the Wranglers though one with a puncture and one badly chipped, lucky only about 5k's left on them.
yay Monty (its his 1st birthday today)Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?
(Epicurus BC 341-270)
29th Jan 2008 12:32 pm
Sniegy
Member Since: 01 May 2006
Location: Melbourne
Posts: 72
Hi Tristian,
I have also just returned from a week & a bit there. The sand driving is excellent & somewhere where go back every 2 yrs.
I did see a couple of D3's, saw a red one, which was probably yours, 2 silver variants & a black one. Also saw a RRS. Didnt see any on the dunes though, would of been good to catch some on the sand & watch. Did u get to have a play in the "bowl" towards Beachport..D4 Alaska/Almond 2.7 TDV6 with E-diff & extra's..
Keep smilin' Pete.
30th Jan 2008 11:08 am
TDMP
Member Since: 16 Jul 2006
Location: South Gippsland
Posts: 511
Hi Sniegy,
I saw the very clean silver D3 parked and without a driver, and the black D3 who I waived to and did not get any reply!!
I am not sure if you saw me or not - all the locals were waiving to me the whole weekend and I figured that there must have been another red D3 that lived there - I didn't see it.
We spent all of Sunday playing in the bowl (if by this you mean the Dunebuggy club?). This was where I got stuck on the first two dunes I tried to climb, before I figured out how to drive properly From then on, the D3 was amazing and did not get stuck anywhere - and I pointed it up some VERY big dunes.
Awesome venue and awesome vehicle! We will be going back next year for sure.Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?
(Epicurus BC 341-270)
Here's my unpleasant experience at Robe. The only one having fun was my son with his plastic spade and bucket. Took me an hour to get out backward.
Chris2011 Discovery 4 (MY12) SDV6 HSE with General Grabber AT's, Traxide Aux Battery system, custom rear drawers and Autosafe half height cargo barrier
Gone - 2005 Discovery 3 TDV6 HSE
ARB Bull Bar, Warn 9.5XP Winch, IPF D/Lights, Cooper STT's, LR Raised Air Intake, Traxide aux battery system, custom drawers and half height Autosafe cargo barrier, Mitchell Bros 4x4 tow hitch
31st Jan 2008 7:17 am
TDMP
Member Since: 16 Jul 2006
Location: South Gippsland
Posts: 511
were you by yourself?Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?
(Epicurus BC 341-270)
yep. Silly me 2011 Discovery 4 (MY12) SDV6 HSE with General Grabber AT's, Traxide Aux Battery system, custom rear drawers and Autosafe half height cargo barrier
Gone - 2005 Discovery 3 TDV6 HSE
ARB Bull Bar, Warn 9.5XP Winch, IPF D/Lights, Cooper STT's, LR Raised Air Intake, Traxide aux battery system, custom drawers and half height Autosafe cargo barrier, Mitchell Bros 4x4 tow hitch
1st Feb 2008 4:37 am
TDMP
Member Since: 16 Jul 2006
Location: South Gippsland
Posts: 511
as a matter of interest, what tyre pressures were you running?Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?
(Epicurus BC 341-270)
I think I dropped them to 20 psi (warm) before hitting the sand.
I was in "Sand" mode and low range. I do wonder if I should have tried high range or trying to drop the pressures even lower but didn't think of that at the time.
Chris2011 Discovery 4 (MY12) SDV6 HSE with General Grabber AT's, Traxide Aux Battery system, custom rear drawers and Autosafe half height cargo barrier
Gone - 2005 Discovery 3 TDV6 HSE
ARB Bull Bar, Warn 9.5XP Winch, IPF D/Lights, Cooper STT's, LR Raised Air Intake, Traxide aux battery system, custom drawers and half height Autosafe cargo barrier, Mitchell Bros 4x4 tow hitch
1st Feb 2008 5:50 am
TDMP
Member Since: 16 Jul 2006
Location: South Gippsland
Posts: 511
without being a "Monday's Expert" I found that I had to drop my tyre pressures to 10psi before the D3 really started to perform in the sand. From then on, it could not be stopped.
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?
(Epicurus BC 341-270)
1st Feb 2008 7:49 am
Sniegy
Member Since: 01 May 2006
Location: Melbourne
Posts: 72
Hi Guys,
Chris, I know that exact spot, 2yrs ago i got bogged there with a mate & we spent an hour or so trying to get out too.
Lat week i found as Tristian has said, 10-15psi & the sand was really soft due to the wind blowing from the Sth & sitting the sand atop the hard stuff. We had a few experiments with diff pressures.
We had 3 D2's-2 TD5 & 1 V8, 1 Prado-07my D4D & 1 Pajero-07my DiD. We had lots a fun & will be back Aus day 2010-hopefully we will see some of you there. D4 Alaska/Almond 2.7 TDV6 with E-diff & extra's..
Keep smilin' Pete.
1st Feb 2008 9:01 am
Dune Disco
Member Since: 02 May 2007
Location: UK then Italy
Posts: 41
Hi PCH,
Got myself stuck a few times in the dunes over here. I also reckon 10-15 PSI is good, but would not use low range. Something worth remembering is to turn off your AC if you're bogged in sand - gives more power to the engine.
1st Feb 2008 7:28 pm
AndrewS Tarquin of the Desert
Member Since: 06 May 2005
Location: Y...... because I can
Posts: 10439
I only had the nerv to drop to 18psi in Morocco I never even concidered 10psi fair play to ya and thanks for the heads up In the Beginning there was nothing, which exploded.
1st Feb 2008 9:54 pm
TDMP
Member Since: 16 Jul 2006
Location: South Gippsland
Posts: 511
I tried all pressures from 18psi down, and found that even at 12psi I was getting stuck on the beaches like the one Chris was on. Where I was stuck at 12psi, I dropped to 10psi and drove straight out.
The family and I had such a great time we have booked our accom for Aust day 2009, and am seriously thinking about getting bead lockers to cope with the low pressures (two cars in our group rolled tyres off, but it only took 10 mins to jack them up and "pop" them back on with air. The bother was taking the tyres of again and cleaning the sand out of the rims at the end of the day).
The bead lockers are about AUS$1,000 for 5 wheels, so it is not a small purchase.
I am still working on getting pics into my gallery.Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?
(Epicurus BC 341-270)
2nd Feb 2008 3:51 am
razzle
Member Since: 18 Jul 2006
Location: Tas
Posts: 170
Timely topic just returned from a holiday on the east coast of Tassie and we did some sand driving at Perron Dunes. You enter the beach by way of a 150m long sand dune/ramp which drops say 25m over this length before hitting the beach proper, I dropped tyres to 18 psi, Selected sand mode on TR and basically kept the revs up and made it easily onto the beach, we did about 5 minutes beach driving and headed back off the beach, back up the ramp to the entry point which can be best described as a funnel shape ending in a single vehicle track.
I Made it with a little bit of work but no real problems.
Having so much fun I decided to turn round and head back down the dune and back onto the beach again, this time I turned DSC off and had another go up the ramp, I also raised the suspension, the disco went well until about 95% up the ramp when the engine just lost all power and basically went to idle speed , I had just enough momentum to get onto some reliable ground and I stopped the Disco, I looked out the back of the car and there was a light blue-ish smoke cloud . I thought at first the turbo had gone, we got out and had a good look around the disco but could not see/hear anything untoward, the engine appeared to be running fine and I could here the turbo whistle when I pushed the accelerator down, no error messages were displayed in the information screen. After re assuring myself that everything was ok I headed back onto some solid road and did a thorough check on the disco, and everything was as normal.
The only thing out of the normal was the power steering fluid appeared to be bubbling, but I was not sure if this was the vibration of the engine which was causing this?
I was basically put off doing any more sand driving after this, and still can’t understand what happened to the engine, I have done about 400ks after this and everything is normal.Trust me, what could go wrong?
2nd Feb 2008 12:56 pm
caverD3
Member Since: 03 Jul 2006
Location: Oberon, NSW
Posts: 6922
Mine went into engine safe mode after doing a water crossing.
Dealer could not say why. I thought some water may have gone in the intake but no obvious sign that it did.
Did an engine fault message appear in the message centre?“There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely gamesâ€
Ernest Hemmingway
D4 3.0 Active Diff, Adaptive Lights, High Beam Assist, Surround Cameras, Privacy Glass.
D3 2.7:Adaptive Headlights,Electronic Rear Diff,ARB Bar,Blaupunkt Speakers,JVC Powered Subwoofer,Removable Snorkel,Mitch Hitch,Pioneer After Market Head Unit,Steering Wheel Control Adaptor,Remote Adjustable Supension Rod System, Taxside Dual Battery System.
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one with a puncture and one badly chipped, lucky only about 5k's left on them.
(its his 1st birthday today)
From then on, the D3 was amazing and did not get stuck anywhere - and I pointed it up some VERY big dunes.
I only had the nerv to drop to 18psi in Morocco 
