If you have a roof rack, make sure items on it are well secured

Your survey will help you decide which gear to use. Picking a higher gear might induce you to drive too fast, or stall the engine. It is important to understand that you should not attempt to change gear halfway through driving an obstacle other than cresting a hill where you change from a higher climbing gear to a lower descending gear.

The reason for this insistence to stay in the same gear to complete the obstacle in front is simply this. If you try and change gear, you probably reduce the momentum when climbing, or run a real risk of missing a gear and being left in neutral when descending.

In the next part I shall continue with the first lesson in driving rough tracks.

LESSONS IN OFF-ROADING

• Know your four-wheel drive system
• Familiarise yourself with the controls
• Driving rough tracks
• Ascending, and deleting with defaults
• Descending - safely !
• Traversing side slopes - with care !
• Crossing ditches and driving gullies
• Driving across soft ground
• Wading - everyones favourite pastime !
• Checking the vehicle over afterwards

Index [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]

(c)Goodwinch Limited 2006