Klaas Bals' Blog

Here in Belgium there are hardly any hills. And if there are, they're slippery because of the rain. In South Africa however...

So, unfortunately, I did not record the following movie. But I did want to share it with you to illustrate what I mean when I say you can do pretty steep slopes with a Discovery 3. (If you're in a hurry, skip the first 3/4 of the movie).

One of the basic rules when driving off-road is that you need to know the terrain. If you don't, make sure to check it on foot before driving it in a 4x4. Especially on those slopes where you don't see the other side. Many people ignore this advice when they're behind the wheel. Check out this video to see someone driving too confident...

Forbes has an article about which Luxury SUVs actually get used off-road. The Land Rover Discovery 3 (or LR3 as it is called in the USA) is leading the charts, with 26% of owners using it off-road, followed by the Range Rover (22.2%) and the Range Rover Sport (14.8%). The first non-Land Rover car in the list is the Porsche Cayenne with 10.5%.

So apparently I am not the only nutter using it for what it was built (or what they are marketing and selling it for). :-)

Thanks to Nathan Woods for the link!

When driving through deep ruts or over rocks you always have the risk of damaging the bottom of your vehicle. For older Land Rover models, there is a variety of protection available. For a relatively new model as the Discovery 3, this isn't the case. I've been looking for this from the beginning when I just owned my car, and there wasn't much to choose from back then.

Now, there starts to be some choice in what's available. Time for an overview of the underbody protection for a Land Rover Discovery 3.

In september 2006, several weeks after the birth of my son Anders, I really couldn't resist driving offroad any longer. My offroad buddy couldn't join me so I decided to go alone. Just me, myself and my Discovery 3...

All very well, a great day, great weather, nice slopes, some sand... and then I tried to take a ditch. I couldn't take it at a right angle, because my Disco 3 would touch the ground with its belly. So I decided to take the ditch dialogonally. Unfortunately the car pulled itself straight again, I think because I didn't have enough momentum, so it got stuck with its belly on the ground.

Initially I started to shovel the ground away, but it was too hot for that to be pleasant, and I decided to use my air jack (for the first time in an offroad situation). I had bought it several weeks before at www.air-jack.com. An air jack is a large strong bag that can be inflated by simply connecting it to the exhaust pipe of an engine running idle. Because the bag is quite big, it doesn't need a high pressure to be able to raise a serious weight. The one I bought is type ELH04, and it can actually lift 4000kg.

A Discovery 3 has two exhaust pipes that are interconnected, which means you connect the hose of the air jack to one, while you need to block the other exhaust as well. So I purchased a blocking cone as well. When using the airjack by yourself, this means you have to stretch your arms to reach out for the two exhausts... not very practical...

I'm going to try to solve that using a tool I got from a friend. It's called 'packer coupling', or just 'packer', and it is used in concrete injection processes to fix cracks and water leaks in concrete. This is a metal tube with a piece of rubber, that can be tightened with a bolt. By tightening the bolt, the rubber is pushed together, which results in it becoming wider, thus blocking one of the two exhausts. At least, that's the theory, I still need to try it out...

This is a picture of such a 'packer':

In January we went 4WDing, after it had been raining for 2 weeks... It was great fun!

This movie shows a recovery of a Defender by a Discovery 3. We try to use a kinetic rope to pull him out. A kinetic rope is elastic and allows to make some speed before actually starting to pull. This has the advantage that you don't just use the pulling power of the recovering vehicle, but also the kinetic energy.

I can be dangerous to use this technique (also called snatch recovery), because when you drive too fast, the kinetic energy will be too big, and something will break (either the cable, or the attachment points on either one of the vehicles, potentially causing serious damage or injury. So only do snatch recovery with caution, and use firm attachment points on the vehicles. Even using a tow ball isn't failsafe because it could break, as can be seen in this video from someone else.

Yesterday I went offroading, and did drive through some mud and afterwards some sand... When I got back on the paved road, I noticed that my left front tire was almost completely flat. So with the help of some friends, I installed the narrow spare wheel (max 80km/h), and today I went to a tire shop to get the flat tire repaired. They didn't find any puncture, and told me the tire got flat because sand got in between the tire and the rim. They cleaned both and I'm back on 4 decent wheels instead of 3.5...

The technician was very good, and he told me it would be better to glue the balancing weights inside of the rim instead of clamping them on the outside. It looks better, it can't come off as easy when the rim rubs mud or rocks, and it doesn't sit in between the rim and the tire instead of clamps that help the sand to get in. In my opinion, Land Rover should use glued weights instead of clamped for factory fitted wheels.

For a couple of months, I've been looking for an extra set of wheels and tires. More specifically, I wanted tires that are more suitable for driving on slippery mud.

One of the problems is that my Discovery 3 has 18 inch wheels, and there exist no decent mud tires for these wheels... There are Goodyear Wrangler MT/R tires available for 19 inch wheels on a Discovery 3. However, a new set of wheels would cost a small fortune, so I decided to look for second hand wheels.

And I did find some 19 inch wheels and Goodyear Wrangler MT/R tires, and the seller told me they were Discovery 3 wheels. Here are some pictures he sent me:

So Saturday I went to Holland, to take a closer look, and unfortunately discover a dark detail...

This is a very nice movie about a Defender that rolls over, and also about the recovery afterwards. (For good understading: I don't know these guys.)

This def has Simex tires, which have a very aggressive pattern for maximal grip. This means that you have more risk of rolling, because the tires won't slip, even in extreme situations. The driver is also pushing the throttle, which increases the risk of uncontrolled movements. I have the impression he did not turn off his engine right after he rolled, because it releases a lot of steam. Whenever rolling over, do remember to turn off he engine immediately to prevent engine damage.

To put the vehicle back on it's four wheels, they use 2 winches, so that they can control the vehicle much better. While they are doing this, pay attention to the marchal which is giving excellent instructions. Thanks to this, the vehicle doesn't get damaged more than it already is...

A while ago I bought a roof rack for my Land Rover Discovery 3. I wanted this to be able to transport big and dirty things, for example the sand waffles / sand ladders, that have been used in dirt. Previously I had to put them in my trunk which wasn't always very convenient.
I have been hesitating a long time about which model I should buy. Here are the options that I considered, followed by my conclusion.