Turns out its pretty bloody good!

Spent an awesome day on the North Yorkshire Moors with Yorkshire 4x4 Specialists on monday. I've done a bit of offroading before on mild controlled courses, but without any training, just taking it steady. Quite fancy doing some proper green laning with these guys as they run group tours, so thought I'd better learn a bit more about it!

The morning consisted of learning the basic offroad skills in a Defender 110, which was pretty fantastic. It's a modern one with anti-stall which makes things a lot easier. Learned how to get out of a failed hill climb, how to cross ruts, what to look for on river crossing etc. We then took the cars out to Rudland Rigg on the Yorkshire Moors to put it into practice. It was pretty straight forward at first (although a real shame about the low cloud as the views should have been stunning) then we got to the end and there were some huge rock steps which I honestly didn't think my car could make, but with a bit of expert guidance and spotting, we got down slowly but surely. Then there were a few river crossings, some tight steep rutted lanes followed by a cracking road drive back over the moors.

Full day out, and even more respect for what this car can do Now to get booked on one of their tours. Morocco sounds good....but might have to start of with the Derbyshire Dales next.

If you haven't taken your car offroad you're missing out - it will give you huge respect for it!

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Great pictures! Nice to see a Sport being used properly. They are remarkably able bits of kit - I reckon if you could fit the knobbly tyres that Defender drivers use to one of them the Defender boys would stuggle to keep up!

In the first picture it appears that the vehicle is in super-extended mode - either that or you've been playing with the ride height settings/rods. Only ever seen mine that high off the ground in super-extended mode.

The last picture isn't showing here, by the way.

Like you, I quite fancy doing one or two of the guided group tours - there are a number of companies doing them now. The UK stuff is ok for road-standard 4x4 but for Morocco etc. they usually advise extra protection, extra kit etc. I must say that the Pyrenees and Portugal both take my fancy. Just need to get the RRS in to a state that I feel it'll be reliable enough to do it...!  2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

Looks like fun. Great pics, thanks for sharing.

WOW awesome photos. your Range Rover looks well nice. Thanks for the pictures.

I was very surprised when I took mine out last weekend with the missus. I let my Wife drive and we took it round my dads farm where I used to be gamekeeper on the Mendips so I knew exactly all the best bits to test it after years of getting various verhicles bogged in.

Started off on a very rocky ancient road and tested the rock crawl mode and it was nice too see the centre diff locking up, then out into a very wet muddy field up a steep hill (the ultimate test for a 4x4 if you ask me) where it did stop but we tried a different tack and got up without making too much mess, sideways along a very steep bank and then down a long, wet hill and was seriously impressed with the HDC (you haven't lived unless you've locked up a pickup truck and felt it accelerate downhill as you brake ), but most impressive was an extremely boggy gateway, with very deep tractor ruts, straight into a very steep climb on stony grass where it didn't skip a beat.

I've driven most things off road during my game keeping days (shoguns, l200, daihatsu, defenders, mk1 rangeys) and I would rank the sport as pretty much the best from the bunch. The only major downside being that the others have always been workhorses and I could never use a sport for that as too much to go wrong and the underside being so vulnerable.

Brilliant things though.

Last edited by Somerset Bumpkin on Tue Mar 10 2015 10:00pm. Edited 1 time in total

Google daihatsu F50. That went bloody anywhere, just such a shame it pretty much dissolved in the Damp of the Mendips.

Great pics

Good on you!

Recently did something similar in mine and walked away with the same impression as you - hugely capable machines. MY15.5 Fuji White, SDV8 HSE Dyn Stealth Pack
Gone: MY14 Fuji White, 3.0 TDV6 SE
Gone: MY10 Stornoway Grey, 3.0 TDV6

Terrific pictures... I used to take my Grand Cherokee off-road regularly and do quite a bit of green laning too. It's tremendous fun - exhilarating even and I think everyone owes it to themselves to give it a go at least once.

I did come back once or twice with some expensive battle scars though which led to a lot of off-road upgrades to protect and improve it

Don't think I'm brave enough to take my sport off-road like that though - the bills from any mishaps and the increased wear and tear could be crippling

I did the same off road tour with Yorkshire 4x4 Specialists - absolutely fantastic! Highly recommended

zaphod wrote:

Don't think I'm brave enough to take my sport off-road like that though - the bills from any mishaps and the increased wear and tear could be crippling

Yeah - great pics. I did some similar stuff at landrover experience in carmel, ca and with NorCal landrover club. Car is hugely capable even with stock tires. Experience center told me first thing they do to the sports is to remove the front bumper spoiler - gives you a few inches more clearance at the front - I got mine stuck in the softsand at the beach due to the spoiler digging in ! And then knocked off a couple of the plastic screws in the mud holes ! Carry zip ties now ... But before next off-road expedition I would probably remove the spoiler - looks to be about a 5 minute job - and attach the recovery hooks behind the front and rear covers

sagalout wrote:

Turns out its pretty bloody good!

Spent an awesome day on the North Yorkshire Moors with Yorkshire 4x4 Specialists on monday. I've done a bit of offroading before on mild controlled courses, but without any training, just taking it steady. Quite fancy doing some proper green laning with these guys as they run group tours, so thought I'd better learn a bit more about it!

The morning consisted of learning the basic offroad skills in a Defender 110, which was pretty fantastic. It's a modern one with anti-stall which makes things a lot easier. Learned how to get out of a failed hill climb, how to cross ruts, what to look for on river crossing etc. We then took the cars out to Rudland Rigg on the Yorkshire Moors to put it into practice. It was pretty straight forward at first (although a real shame about the low cloud as the views should have been stunning) then we got to the end and there were some huge rock steps which I honestly didn't think my car could make, but with a bit of expert guidance and spotting, we got down slowly but surely. Then there were a few river crossings, some tight steep rutted lanes followed by a cracking road drive back over the moors.

Full day out, and even more respect for what this car can do Now to get booked on one of their tours. Morocco sounds good....but might have to start of with the Derbyshire Dales next.

If you haven't taken your car offroad you're missing out - it will give you huge respect for it!

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Untitled by sagalout, on Flickr

My friend bought a used G4 Discovery. And decided to take it off road without any experiece. He took a muddy track in between trees,too fast slid sideways and did thousands of pounds worth of damage.  itisme