86 Hilux Surf

It sounds like he's been stuck for a while :-) Let some air out of the tyres?

Thanks all. Yep, I have suggested all those things. I would say it is standard - including tyres. It's a borrowed car to get onto a property so yeah, the hill is necessary. They are a group of musos having a writing week away from it all - not keen 4WDers so no experience. He wasn't sure if the car had low range - hence my question - I'm not familiar with the car. They nearly made it so if they can engage low range I reckon they'll be okay. It sounds like it's not too extreme - just a bit of inexperience. If anyone can shed any light on the system on that vehicle that would be great. Thanks

I think manual locking front hubs on them

I was wondering about that. Can anyone explain the 'how to' easily so I can pass it on. I'm not there and I have never owned a vehicle with that kind of system. Thanks

This has to be done to both front wheels.

In the centre of each front wheel is the hub.
On the hub are the words lock and Free, or something similar.

To engage the front hubs, grab hold of the moveable disk, centre piece, that is currently lined up with Free, and turn it to Lock.

I imagine they will engage low range by moving the second lever that is next to their gear lever into low range. There should be a diagram on the top of this to make it happen.

Tim

Thank you Tim. You might just make a bunch of young thrash artists very happy. ;-)

There is a photo of a free wheeling hub on this link.free wheeling hub

The Surf will most likely have them. You simply turn the "dial" in the centre by hand until the arrow lines up with the word "locked".

For low range, pull the transfer case straight down then across to the right as far as it will go and forward again. The positions for the lever should be clearly marked on the lever knob.

This will give him low range but it may still not be enough. Lower tyre pressures will lengthen the tyre "foot print" and should help considerably but there are times when you just can't get up a particular hill no matter what you do.

Thanks splits. I have passed on your info too.

IF they have got around to reducing their tyre pressures, they obviously need a way of pumping them back up to regular pressure again. Or alternatively, drive slowly to the nearest service station.

How do they tell what pressure they are at?
What does low pressure look like on the tyre?
What is a safe speed to travel with reduced tyre pressures?
What is 'reduced'?
What is a tyre pressure gauge?


All these are questions Facebook cannot answer. Lets hope they get back safely. The risk of tyre damage from driving at highway speed with low tyre pressure is very high. Tyre damage can lead to blowouts, made worse by a tired driver after a weekend of thrashing. Not what we want to hear about.

Thanks Tim, it's only about 100 metres of dirt. The tricky bit is about 10 metres. They won't be doing any highway driving at high speed. Basically, they just need to get up a driveway. Thanks for your concern I have absolute confidence they wouldn't do anything dumb. That's why they came to me in the first place. If my car didn't have a broken spring I'd take a drive and take them through myself.

As for any further attempts engaging 4WD will probably be about it - I don't think they'll bother with the tyre deflation anyway. They have abandoned it anyway until tomorrow now to see if conditions improve. They are just bummed that this session they have been planning for months has been marred. Oh well.

No spirit, these young people of today!!

And what's with a Nissan owner not being ready willing and able to pull out a Toyota owner. Epic fail there.

What's the world coming too?


(This post is tongue in cheek should anyone choose to take offence)

Tee hee! - Imagine that 'ey and all on Australia - no ocker spirit. Who would have thought a bunch of hard rockers would be so responsible. What is the world coming to indeed.

Oops - I mean - * Australia Day

Well what happened???? Did they make OK

Jeff