Member Since: 12 Aug 2011
Location: Northamptonshire
Posts: 8976
Off roading at Roundhill Wood, Tring with Northants 4x4
Took the RRS to Roundhill Wood near Tring. I went with a group from Northants4x4.com who had been invited over by Burnham Offroaders.
The site is wooded, is partly used for forestry and contains some very deep "bomb hole" obstacles. These were much sought-after by the hardcore off roaders in the group in their heavily modified D1, D2 and Defenders (along with some home made specials). Suffice to say I decided that I wasn't playing there.
I did try out the more gently sloped but no less muddy stuff that covers the site. Here is an example of the type of conditions we found - several inches of wet mud overlying harder ground. In places the top layer was wet, muddy, leaf mold - about as grippy as ice!
I thought I'd bitten off more than I could chew at the start when, on the first climb of the day, we just sat there with the wheels spinning and no forward movement. Eventually remembered to turn off DSC and, using high range in "mud and ruts" rather than low range, we slithered our way up. At one point the dash warned that the vehicle would lower the suspension if we went any faster - we were at less than walking pace at the time such was the amount of wheel spin required to get up!
Anyway, once I'd sorted out the best settings for the vehicle we had a great time. Lots of "ooh poo!" moments as we slid slowly towards trees but managed to get home with every panel straight. I was impressed by how well we got around the site considering we only had Pirelli Scorpion ATRs fitted - a number of nice comments from people about how nice it was to see a "Range Rover" out in the mud and how well it was doing on road tyres - I decided that mentioning all terrain tyres to these guys was fairly pointless - compared to the big lug tyres they had fitted, the ATR is a racing slick!
There were a couple of other non-hardcore vehicles about but everyone had mud-biased tyres. So the RRS's electronics were obviously doing a great job to get around. We did have to have a couple of goes at two bits but only because I heard grinding-type noises and stopped - it was just the side steps acting as rock sliders so no problems underneath that I could see today.
I've taken the following two pictures from a chap's facebook page ( (c) D Jacobi so no borrowing them further ):
(I know I'm missing the off side lower valance pieces - that got removed at Eastnor last year and I didn't notice at the time. Not bothered to replace it)
I'm looking forward to the next time I can get out in the mud although I'd like to get some underbody protection sorted such as a sump guard (to replace the standard plate as it's a bit thin and doesn't protect the plasticky bits at the front. It will also mean I can remove the remaining lower valance piece). A transmission guard might be useful too. I think I'll look in to whether D3 kit will fit with (or even without) some adjustments - I'm hoping the transmission guard will.
Oh yes, and I washed it on the way home too - 10 minutes on the motorway in the spray of a large lorry got about 90% of the brown stuff off 2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed
Sun Apr 14 2013 10:49pm
Bradders
Member Since: 08 Oct 2009
Location: Leeds
Posts: 2515
Looks like fun and nice to see an RRS with some real mud on it too FF 4.4 V8 Soooo looking forward to this bad boy
Ex 2006 RRS SC - garbage
Ex 2016 135i M Sport - dream car
Ex 2003 RS6 Avant - piece of cr*p
Ex 2014 320d X Drive, M Sport Touring - ok I guess
Ex 2007 RRS TDV8 - bloody loved it
EX 2007 FL2 XS - not so bad
Mon Apr 15 2013 6:08am
sparky8181
Member Since: 02 Nov 2012
Location: West Midlands
Posts: 588
Looks great fun, thanks for sharing with us
Mon Apr 15 2013 6:49am
cmcb
Member Since: 16 Jan 2013
Location: Edinburgh
Posts: 33
Looks really good! I did an experience day in Perth in January and was amazed by how far we went and could go in 2 feet of snow on the standard road tyres.RRS TDV8 HST
BMW 330Cd M Sport
Mon Apr 15 2013 7:32am
MisterAdam
Member Since: 03 May 2012
Location: Liverpool, UK
Posts: 352
Nice read and cool pictures, looks like a lot of fun! Current: 06 RR Sport HSE TDV6, Bonatti grey, black leather. Defender 90 pick up. Vito 110cdi
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Sun Apr 14 2013 10:49pm
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