What Range & When Should I Use It?

[rudiedj Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close rudiedj]

Ok so i know many of you may think this is trivial, but nevertheless:
I have had my prado grande for about 6mths now and have never taken it offroad. That is about to change :-)

Thing is, i have always had a manual geabox with a lowrange transfer ccase
I guess my question is how to and when to use the various selections on my car to go 4x4.

How do you put it into the equal of a manual low range 1st gear? (aka crawl mode).
Also when do i put it in "drive" and when in L and when in 2 ??

Please help

[Guest Close Guest]

Crawl mode:
Select Park or Neutral, select Low range, Centre diff locked, 1st gear, (hit DAC button if going downhill, foot off brake pedal).

You'll know when you can go into D when you feel the engine is revving too high when you don't need it.

Use 2nd start when taking a run up dunes in high range. This avoids gear changes midway up a dune causing loss of momentum.

[PradOz Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close PradOz]

as what amts said plus....

took my 05 grande off road for the first time last weekend since getting it nearly a year ago. we joined up to the local 4wd club and went out with them to Meryla SF. We had a great day out. They called it Basic Training and we had 10 cars along of different makes and models. people kept praising and ogling the prado so it went really well. only got stuck once and that was driver error and i expected it.

in saying all that it was first time for me to experience all the grande bits and i was impressed. the DAC went really well, just steer thats all you do. You really got to experience it yourself, take your time and you will work it out. Also drop your pressures to suit the terrain your on, it makes a noticeable difference. And obviously will depend on what your tyre choice is. I had the standard tyres and they went ok in the mud, up the rocky hills and sandy tracks i was on. i can only imagine what a different tyre will do when these finally wear out.

Go out and give it a go and have fun. took swmbo and she loved it so hopefully will get out again soon, been so long "between drinks" for me. cheers

[mjrandom Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close mjrandom]

The only thing I can add to Andrew's post is:

DAC can be too fast so don't rely solely on that to keep your speed down going down hill, you are better off selecting low range and manually grabbing 1 as well as using the hill descent control (if you want it). And keep your foot near the brake. If you run out of brakes then you run out of control and I have seen some Discos (not heard of this with Prados) that have chosen to switch the descent control off before the user wanted it off!

The other lesson I learnt when I first went auto was that with the auto gearbox left in automatic it has a natural tendency to change up a gear when the load on the transmission/engine drops. This can be a problem if you are working along a soft sandy track and then back off on some harder rough ground; the gearbox goes oh it is time for another cog and changes up so suddenly your speed increases! Bounce bounce bounce ouch. So if you are working a track like this then make sure you pick up 2nd or 3rd manually so that when you lift off the throttle the car slows rather than surges ahead with a gear change. Similarly engine braking will be less than you are used to but that is pretty easy to get used to.

Finally some sand tracks that I have been on literally hundreds of times in the manual 90 could be taken with the centre diff unlocked and say 2nd gear high range. Doing the same in the auto with the electronic bells and whistles may get you stuck. In the same scenario if the DAT thinks that you are wheel spinning (quite likely) it can and will invoke the Gods of traction and stability control and your momentum is lost in a trice. Best to lock the centre diff and then the traction control will help you as stability control is disabled.

Without wishing to start a debate (AGAIN) on manual vs auto I find that the auto is much better (for me) off road. I can concentrate more on lines without worrying about stalling the engine or being in the wrong gear at the wrong time.

Enjoy your new found freedom off the road.

[rudiedj Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close rudiedj]

Crawl mode:
Select Park or Neutral, select Low range, Centre diff locked, 1st gear

My grande does not have a 1st gear...only L2. Also i can push gearlever to left then only L is selected or push to right only 2 is selected. Still have the lowrange L/H lever. So what is difference between L and 2
???

[Bushbasher Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Bushbasher]

L usually infers that car will take off in 1st then shift to second. 2nd means you start off and stay in 2nd.

[404pug Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 404pug]

Pushing the lever to the far left when it is in 2 will get you first gear whether you are in low or high range. Unless you are towing or in mountainous country you wont need low range much eg on the Canning Stock Route mine was fine on 1000+ plus dunes in high range first gear. The trick in country like this is to drive it like a manual and change gear yourself- no transmission overheating from it hunting up and down the gears. Neil

[rudiedj Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close rudiedj]

Thanks for the info. Went off the bitchumen this past weekend and tried it out. All went well. Only thing is, when i went downhill and engaged tghe DAC, it makes horrible sounds. Grrr tik tik grrrr as it does its thing. Is that normal?

[wooley Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close wooley]

Thanks for the info. Went off the bitchumen this past weekend and tried it out. All went well. Only thing is, when i went downhill and engaged tghe DAC, it makes horrible sounds. Grrr tik tik grrrr as it does its thing. Is that normal?

Completely normal. Horrible isn't it.

[ATaylor Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close ATaylor]

I hate using the DAC it sounds terrible and can make the brakes hot on a long descent. I would only use it if I felt there was a risk of sideways skid.

I think that was was not made clear here is L = Low = 1st gear

The 2, 3, 4, only limits the the gearbox to changing up to the selected gear, ie 3 will only allow the use of 1,2, 3. And stop it going to 4th with the potential of freewheel as in D

Hope it helps