I spent yesterday (eight hours, 70 miles) going round a wet and muddy Salisbury Plain (with 4x4adventuretours, as per). The new Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac tyres made a heck of a difference (the traction control came on only once). A large root pushed up the passenger-side side-steps into the door but, apart from that, it was relatively drama free.

The red flags were out so some lanes were closed but we went along others instead.



Photos

At 16:04 the water is washing over the bonnet with the suspension at Off-Road + 55mm. The white LR in front of me ingested a bit of water (hence the subsequent steamy exhaust). I was starting to have second thoughts...

Off to the heated jet-wash at Morrisons I shall go...

There’s an exercise on at the mo and has been for a few weeks. Drive by knook camp and their vehicles have been off roading too

Steve. 2006 2.7 TDV6 HSE in Cairns Blue.

I did hear three rounds fired.

Preparations for post-Brexit martial law!

Looks like good fun, what do you think of the Duratracs so far? I dont think they are that noisy on the road considering how aggressive they are for an A/T tyre, almost a mud terrain.  2003 BMW M5 - 5 Litres of V8 Optimax Slurping Goodness in Carbon Black

2013 SDV6 HSE Black Edition- Orkney Grey with Ebony & Ivory. LR Facelift RAI, Genuine G4 Expedition Rack, 4x Warn SBD-160 Spotlights, Warn 9.5XPS Winch, Mantec Underbody Protection and Sump Guard, Full Easy Lift Suspension Module, LR Light Guards, Light Force HTX230 Hybrid spotlights, 18” Compomotive PD1881 on 265/65/18 BF Goodrich KO2, ARB fridge, TuffTrek awning 😎

Looks great fun. Well done Robin
2008 Range Rover Sport TDV8
Gone:
Jaguar S-Type V8 4.2 Sport
MGZTT 190 2.5

Buckster wrote:

Looks like good fun, what do you think of the Duratracs so far? I dont think they are that noisy on the road considering how aggressive they are for an A/T tyre, almost a mud terrain.

They were brilliant in the mud yesterday - no spinning wheels and they didn't clog up with mud: Spielberg is building a set and the access road has been built with chalk that, when wet, is slippery and clingy - again, no problem with making progress or changing direction. In most of the firmer ruts I just let the steering wheel slip through my fingers and there weren't any dramas.

If you listen for it, there is a slight hum at speed but nothing intrusive. I've made a mental note that the stopping distance has probably increased and that they are only rated to 99 mph.

£518 well spent.

The "mud on bonnet" moment was probably just a slightly high entry speed in to the puddle. Doesn't look like a bow wave forms during the crossing so presumably not that deep. The front of the RRS does seem to be very good at chucking water up.

It does look like you had to go quite quickly in places to keep up with guys in front. I found this last weekend when we were following Tom - he doesn't hang about. I did have to call on the radio at one point to say we were getting strung out in a forest section. No danger of getting lost but made a mockery of the "convoy rules" mentioned at the briefing on the first morning. I guess in a lifted 110 on big chunky tyres the tracks are dead easy with no worry about rubbing etc. In more road focussed vehicles, one sometimes needs to take it more slowly.

Looks like a good day out anyway.  2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

I'll have to use the water on the car in front of me as a reference point and scale it up.

Reasons for never being at the back of a convoy:

a) You end up closing all the gates
b) The aliens/monsters/belligerent natives pick you off first.

RRSTDV8 wrote:

It does look like you had to go quite quickly in places to keep up with guys in front. I found this last weekend when we were following Tom - he doesn't hang about. I did have to call on the radio at one point to say we were getting strung out in a forest section. No danger of getting lost but made a mockery of the "convoy rules" mentioned at the briefing on the first morning. I guess in a lifted 110 on big chunky tyres the tracks are dead easy with no worry about rubbing etc. In more road focussed vehicles, one sometimes needs to take it more slowly.

I’m horrified that you guys considered driving on such chewed up rights of way and making them worse. It is a long time since I have driven on The Plain but in the 1980’s and 1990’s trails were never that chewed up, there must a huge amount of use being made of what were occasionally used drove roads and foot paths. In Scotland we simply don’t get to drive tracks like those as the landowners would sue the socks off us for the damage done, we have to have land owners permission in writing, prove we have liability insurance that might cover damage to hedges and fence etc and often a factor from the owner coming along too........ to drive on tracks like that up here you have to go to somewhere like Drumclog (now closed by the landowner after public outcry and SEPA stepped in) or The Scottish OffRoad Driving Centre where the trails like those are groomed and really controlled for too much use and the environmental impact of SUVs is carefully monitored. It would be brilliant to be able to just drive off the tarred road onto surfaces like that but we can’t.
BTW, I don’t mean to sound like a tree hugging fun spoiler - i’m Really very envious that we cannot drive anything like that north of the Lake District. Oh and land owners now make it a condition of access that no video or photos are ever posted in open access forums too - we have to have closed controlled access websites or clubs on facebook to show photos like that if we ever want to back on that persons land again. Fortunately there are landowners who still let us in but woe be tied anybody leaving ground damage behind or showing photos in public. 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
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2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

^^ I did stop and let you reappear in my rear view mirror.

In that video of SP, you can see me pause quite a few times, which was to allow the guy behind to come into view (or to wait until the car in front had go to where I might want to stop).

Thirty-five years ago I was told "as slow as possible; as fast as necessary". I just forgot, sorry!

That muddy lane is more-or-less left for that purpose. Apart from the tank-crossing, it doesn't go anywhere and just cuts across a loop in the road. Being marked-up as being one-way is part of that. I believe it is is tolerated as being the flip-side of many of the local byways being closed to all users for the winter by the local council, and it is they who had been down there and chopped-back the trees. A biker's association got a High Court judgement against the closure of all lanes over the winter.

Many of the byways are twenty or thirty feet wide and short grass: on these, we staggered our lines across the whole width, rather than make the central ruts any worse. It's not unusual for there to be a 'solid' road with ruts for vehicles at the side so that different users are separated.

Some of the tracks on the Plain had been closed by the MoD (whose vehicles are generally much bigger and cause the most damage (which they then fill in)) because of live firing and/or damage; others are restricted to vehicles under 1t in any case. The MoD Police can be quite hot on some of the idiots who go out of their way to cause damage and have been known to order people off the Plain for causing damage or merely using 'extreme' tyres. Deviating from the tracks is verboten - partly because of risk from un-exploded ordnance and partly because of wildlife like ground-nesting Great Bustards (though firing shells and bullets at them is OK, obviously).

At any ramblers, bikers, horses or cyclists we just came to a halt or proceeded at a very, very slow pace: they all thanked us for doing so.

The cops round here send me e-mails about rural crime: it's usually dogs & sheep, theft of machinery and reports of quad-bikes and 4x4 on private land and doing 'doughnuts', etc., Best go somewhere that's pretty by the landowner anyway, has rules, guided by someone who knows those rules, and land that will be as afterwards. Just don't take the p*ss with those rules.

I can think of two runs out on byways where I've come back with a boot full of crap that had been abandoned by various users. Round here, a friend of my mothers quite like me using a Public Way on his land - it scares off all the people who are looking for magic mushrooms!

Another write up

https://www.disco3.co.uk/forum/salisbury-p...79693.html

Personally, I wouldn't be going out there when it's wet. Chews it up too much....but the guy has to make a living  Visitor from fullfatrr.com
* GONE. 2012 RR Sport HSE SDV6 Orkney Grey. Now being piloted by RRSTDV8
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