If your vehicle has ABS fitted, you can control your descents much more safely, especially with automatics. Even so, still only 'feather the footbrake' carefully, as standing abruptly on the footbrake while on a slope will transfer the weight more onto the front axle making the rear go light, which could cause an unnecessary experience!

When driving down into and through a high banked gully area, always know you have an exit. You may be unable to continue your route ahead, say because of a fallen tree out of sight, and unable to turn round on a narrow track, so may be forced to reverse back up the hill.

Not easy if the hill is steep, rocky or slippery. We know that we need a higher gear to climb in order to minimise wheel spin. But as reverse gear is very low, we could have a problem coupled with the fact that the general weight of the vehicle is thrown forward, not helped by having the engine at the front, so the back axle becomes light. The steering is the wrong end of the vehicle and when we look backwards, all we see is the sky! If the track is on a twist, you will have a further problem in that the back of the vehicle could slide sideways. The moral of the story is always know your exit.

Over the years, I've regularly had the dubious pleasure of being a passenger in a vehicle when either the main gear lever or transfer lever has fallen into neutral while descending. When I say don't or hardly use the brakes, there are exceptions!

Should your beloved Land Rover decide to pop into neutral when descending, use your common sense. Try to bring the vehicle under control by using the footbrake carefully without locking the wheels. If you can, try to stop or at least nearly stop, before putting it back into first gear or low ratio, whichever came out. Then keep one hand on the offending lever until you reach the bottom. In rare circumstances, even a newer vehicle can jump out of main gear or transfer gear, so always be prepared.

One last thing. When you survey on foot before descending down a steep hill, if you come across any nastily placed rocks, move them to one side to minimise the risk of burst tyres. It's usually the tyre's sidewall that gets damaged.

Next part: Getting up to your axles in mud.

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