I'm totally disappointed in the performance of my LR3 today in the New York blizzard. One foot of snow and going up a hill in snow/sand/gravel selection my LR3 gets stuck. Then, on the small incline on my driveway, LR3 gets stuck again. This is a very well conditioned, 2008, with Wrangler tires (not snow tires, per se). But, I'm talking about being serious stuck - watching the Nissan Pathfinder go by me, turn around an offer help. Maybe I'm just a crappy snow driver, but after having spent 20 years in serious USA midwest snow conditions before the east coast, I'm not a complete snow driving idiot. I just can't believe how poorly the truck weight-transfered to start spinning all wheels at the same time, fast and slow acceleration. I did not enjoy watching other SUV's go by my $46,000 truck which is reputed to be the best bad condition production car in the world while I'm outside with a shovel and roping to to a Ford F-150 to get out of a snow bank. I thought this truck would allow for a more nuanced snow travel experience. I have no doubt of the rock crawling capabilities of this car, but the snow was shocking. As my Brit friends say, it went all "pear shaped" today in the snow. I guess I'm a crappy snow driver...

 

just read this on LandRoerForums.com from a post in 2008:

"Choosing the GGS setting is telling the LR3 that you are driving on a hard packed surface while at great risk of loosing control of the vehicle. When it senses that one or more of your wheels is spining free, that translates into momentary loss of control of the vehicle andbecause you told it to be extremely unforgiving of tire spin by choosing GGS in the first place, it will respond to it by doing two things: Applying theABS on the tire spining and taking away control of the gas pedal sothe tire spin stops.This works wonders if you are loosing control of the LR3 trying to go around a curve on an iced over road but if you are off road on a snow covered trail, it translates into problems.

Use mud and ruts instead for the conditions I described last and consider turning off the DSC. However, and I probably should have mentioned this before, Land Rovers WITHOUT theHeavy Duty package"use the DSC as part of their system to "mimic" lockers by looking for wheel spin, applying the ABS to that tire and re-directing torque to the rest. If you turn off DSC on a non- heavy Duty package equiped LR3, then you are basically turning off the "locker effect". Only LR3's with heavy duty packageFULLY benefit from having the DSC turned off. Thereare always very specific exeptions to every rule but as a whole and for the sake of simplicity keep this in mind."

 

were you stuck because you drove into a snow bank? Did the other less then $46,000 trucks also drive into snow banks? My Disco had no issues all day. Snow banks included

Interested in seeing if the DSC settings have that much of a effect on traction.

 

Thanks, Frozen. No the snowbank issue was really an analogy for getting up the bump and incline at the beginning of my drive way. It should not have been a problem as my wife's car has no problem with this climb even in severe winter weather (unplowed drive, 1 foot snow, bump and slight incline) (wife's car: Audi Q7). I had the Dial on GSS (gravel, snow, sand) and it seemed like all spinning was reduced but to the point of impeding forward and reverse progress. I don't have the DSC disabled as I understood that this worked in tandem with the TR/Traction Control and wasn't advised to disable unless you had the HD / locking diffs. Really shockingly poor performance today. My 1999 Range Rover HSE performed much better in horrendous weather or so it seems. I'm going out tomorrow again to see if I get better response in the truck with normal setting (highway) driving engaged.

 

Hi Waltmink- I am interested in hearing how the Highway/Auto setting worked for you. Please do post your experience...

 

Blame the majority of your trucks problem on those Wranglers, they are pure crap for tires.

 

Thanks, fkahn. I was switching between GGS and Sand on the TR dial to try to get additional traction. Nothing doing. I am chalking this one up to crappy Wranglers. I didn't put the TR back into normal mode. I guess I should have tried that too. Honestly, I think I learned a lot about the truck by getting stuck. I intend to use the knowledge in the future. Did you have a similar experience? The other information that I am seeking regarding the LR3 is how / when the center diff locks in GGS or Sand TR mode. Do you know? Thanks!

 

Thanks, Disco Mike. I have learned some valuable limits here. I agree that the tires I am using need an upgrade. You seem to have a lot of knowledge about LR - just a quick follow up question - I'm about to purchase a second car - a project car for driving to the train every day and taking around the farm - what is generally considered a better off road performer a Discovery (between 2000-04 model years) or Range Rover (99 - 02 model years)? Thanks!

 

I would attribute most of the issues to the Wranglers that you are running. I parked my '06 LR3 HSE in my folks' front yard (home for the holidays) in MA before the storm hit. I then just drove out of the yard the morning after the storm over 14" of snow in the yard and nearly 30 inches of snow that was plowed along the edge of the yard. I then proceeded to "flatten" the mound along the road in front of the Nissan Murano we had parked in the yard to get it out by driving over and through it several times like it wasn't even there....

I'm running nearly new Pirelli Sporpion ATRs and I was driving in the GSS setting.

 

I recently purchased a 2005 LR3 HSE. The dealer put new tires on it -- I can't recall the type but I had absolutely no problems with the snow/sand/gravel setting in snow. My street is a dead end that always gets plowed last so I tested the LR3 by getting out of my unplowed street (which is flat, mind you). We had about 8" of snow so it was a decent amount to get through.

I had the vehicle at max height, snow/sand/gravel, and high gearing (as opposed to low) and had no problems. After getting out of my own street, I took it for a burn around the neighborhood -- I kept it on snow/sand/gravel but lowered it to normal height. I was able to get up steep hills with stop signs at the top with no problem.

I'd agree that it's a tire issue even though I am not familiar with your tires... I've just seen the difference that tires can make on any vehicle's snow performance.