4wd course

Hi Broodie,

Can't tell you the name, as they are not a business member.

Their courses are serious fun and are good on Oz Tracks.

There is a sand course running on Sunday July 1st, though their instructor is a bit of a nut lol.

Good to see someone taking the best step in four wheel driving and wanting their wife to learn too!!

Cheers,
Wayne & Sally.

Before you spend money on course try locking the transmission in the gear you think you will need to get through . I took a r50 pathfinder through the CSR and Simpson had trouble until I worked out that when the auto changes down even though smooth it it let the car drop in the sand about 30 mm this was enough to give trouble hope this helps

Greg

Hi Broodie

Just another thought before doing anything drastic.


TYRE PRESSURES............??????????


As you mentioned that the sand is very soft and in reality 15psi is still not that low, try dropping the tyre pressure another 5psi.

Over the years we have driven the Simpson Desert countless times and you can never drive the same track with the same conditions. We have driven across with pressures as high as 24psi when the sand was very damp and was like driving on cement roads, and then the same track in very dry times and even 12 psi we were still getting bogged.

I bet you will find that regardless of what course you do, tyre pressure will come before anything.


Just my thoughts.



Cheers



Stephen

A lot of advice that doesn't answer your original question or go anywhere near teaching your wife.

You can contact us rocky_hj60@yahoo.com.au

Cheers,
Wayne & Sally.

Broodie,

Lots of information and the answer is simple..

Whoever you choose should be accredited as a training organisation (RTO) and train to the current drive and recover standards.

SISODRV302A Drive and Recover a 4WD. (Recreation)
This standard is used in the Resources industry, Mining , Forestry under various accreditations RIIVEH305A FPOCOT2234A and FPIFGM3208A.

These courses are Nationally recognised and meet the standards in all states.

Many Association 4WD Clubs can offer this qualification.

All these training organisations should/will be able to help you, advise you with your vehicle and in all aspects.

Just type "4wd training WA" into Google.

Brodie

Just a thought but how many acronyms do you have on that car ie, abs, hdc, hla, tsm, lac, eba, esc, etc etc.......

Turn as many of as you can and then give that track another go.

I feel for you Broodie , as I now have an auto 4800 Patrol and its auto can get confused and swap gears more than it should.

We aslo have an R51 in our extended family and the manual is indeed filled with descriptions of all sorts of sub systems and its hard to sort it out.

A 4wd course won't help a lot unless they specificaly know your vehicle and its systems - check this if you go down that path.

I always like to collect the relevant info on any issue and as one part of this go to Nissan - be persistent and ask the questions.

However from our experience I can tell you 2 things that work in mud and track sand (not tried on beach).

First is that the R51 has very limited wheel travel , much less than equivalent cars like Prados, this makes the electronic sub systems come in both earlier and harder.

A suspension change is required to fix this - 40mm lifts and even lower tyre pressures like 10 psi will help with effective suspension trave.

Second is an issue specific to the autos, autos are actually surposed to be better in sand and this can be true as they change gear faster and hence less momentum is lost and momentum is king in sand.

What you don't get told is that some autos can get into a mode where they swap back and forth several times as load comes on/off and the net loss is more than a single manual shift.

One thing you can do about this is drive in high range more than is reccomended in sand/mud , this keeps the transmission in torque converter mode and revs higher with less gear changing.
This mode uses more fuel and heats up oil more but this is no real issue for short beach runs.

Check this mode of driving out , we ran a test sequence up a 150m 30 degree upslope in which we recorded some 20 gear changes in low range and I think it was 2 or 3 in high range.

Quite a revealing test actually.

Hi Broodie,

THANKS for a GREAT day out!!

Cheers,
Wayne & Sally.