Bob Cooke – contributor

Ignominy. The dictionary defines it as a feeling of disgrace, public shame. That’s exactly how I felt; though at least there wasn’t any public around when it happened. Being a reasonably experienced and competent off-road driver, I’m usually quite good at reading the way ahead and deciding whether or not the Cherokee will get through. There is the argument that even if the way ahead looks doubtful the whole idea of having some off-road fun is to have a go, and no shame attached if you don’t make it, getting stuck does, after all, provide an excellent opportunity to exercise your recovery skills.

It’s just that on this occasion it wasn’t one of those challenging obstacles like a steep and rutted climb or a pile of rocks. It was just that the surface of the muddy track got softer and softer along its length. And I could see that it was getting even softer up ahead, to the extent that my brain said: “Time to stop and go back, old chap.” Unfortunately I ignored that advice, mainly because there was another car up ahead and it seemed to have no trouble at all in spite of its relatively narrow tyres. So I drove on – for another 20 metres or so, at which point the Cherokee simply sank into the soft mud and wedged its floorpan into the gloop.

Bob Cooke – contributor

It wasn’t all that long ago that the name ‘rhino’ was pretty much synonymous with ‘Suzuki’ – the all-conquering little SJ made the rhino symbol its own, a fitting reference to the little Suzuki’s rugged and adventurous nature. It seemed fitting, therefore, that we should involve our long-term Grand Vitara in a more recent rhino-related event, a tough off-road challenge aimed at raising money for conservation projects in Africa.

The British Rhino Charge event traditionally includes some quite daunting off-road obstacles, and bearing in mind the limited ground clearance and unblemished body panels of our luxury-spec SZ4, there’s no way we’d have gone anywhere near the action had it not been for a decision to run a softer-road Safari Trail event alongside the main action. That idea was a good one – although most entrants tackle the event in rugged and sometimes heavily modified vehicles, there are many of us who are concerned enough about the fate of African rhinos to want to take part, but all we have to do it in might be the school-run Nissan Qashqai… or, in our case, the definitely low-riding road-biased 2.4-litre SZ4.

Ian Seabrook

Not everything has gone to plan lately. I spent a week preparing the car and loading it up for a green lane session in North Yorkshire with some friends. Having not done very much laning at all outside Wales, I was looking forward to a change of scenery. Sadly, only three miles into the 160-mile journey there, it all went wrong. There was a clank, a bang and the front left wheel locked up. Fortunately, it was wet and the wheel was on a white line at the time, so I slowed down with rather less drama than I might have. Reversing freed off the wheel and I could limp home. I hurled everything into the Volkswagen Golf Mk2 I owned at the time and headed north, feeling somewhat depressed.

As it happens, I had a great time as a passenger, especially aboard a Vauxhall Frontera Sport – surprisingly capable if a bit lacking in ground clearance. I also got to drive a friend’s Lada Niva – also very capable if somewhat agricultural.

Robert Pepper

Every so often your brakes will wear out, and as is usual with any vehicle component the extra stress of off-roading means more frequent replacements. Brakes are no exception, as a touring off-road weighs more than a standard car, and then you’ve got grit and mud getting in the discs as well as extra use downhill. Traction control also wears a little, although that has much less effect on brake wear than might be thought.  This is because when a spinning wheel is braked to transfer torque to the other wheel on the axle there’s little force required to slow the spinning wheel – unlike the force required to brake a two or three tonne 4×4.

Anyway, off with the wheels and it was clear the Discovery needed a change of rear discs, and any time you change discs it’s a good idea to change the pads too. So that was done, but the electronic brake sensors weren’t the right ones so I left those off, and decided to just live with the dash light saying, now incorrectly, the pads were worn. So all was well until Mrs P reported a “funny noise” under braking.

Nigel Fryatt, Editor

It was somewhat appropriate that I drove our Toyota RAV4 to the dealer on what was obviously the coldest day of the winter so far. The temperature gauge actually said 2degC, but standing scrapping the ice from the windscreen, it certainly seemed a lot colder than that.

The journey to Toyota main dealer, Jemca, near Croydon was to have a set of winter tyres fitted to Sue’s RAV4, taking up the opportunity to test the manufacturer’s recommended options from Yokohama, the ‘W drive’ tyre, in 235/60 16. To be honest, this had not been our first choice as we had considered using winter tyres from either Pirelli or General Tire. We have had direct experience of the Pirelli Scorpion Verde, an excellent option, which made that first choice, the other option was that maybe General’s new Snow Grabber winter tyre would also be worth trying. Surprisingly, would you believe, neither are available in the UK in the 235/60 16 size suitable for (one of the most prolific SUVs in the UK) the Toyota RAV4! Odd, you have to admit. This problem was not going to put us off, however, and it led us to contact Toyota to find that the ‘official’ tyre choice for the company’s dealers is the Yokohama option.

Nigel Fryatt, Editor

Some interesting off-roading this month, far away and certainly off-road. It’s been vacation time, which has seen Sue and I on a camping and canoeing trip in Zambia; paddling around hippos, avoiding crocodiles and photographing elephants. Of course, there’s been a little conventional off-roading as well, courtesy of some interesting Toyotas. You cannot help but notice that throughout Zambia, the off-roader of choice has a Toyota badge on the bonnet. Land Rovers? As elusive as leopards, to be honest. They are there but you have to search them out. When it comes to Toyotas, however, a bit like Impalas, they are everywhere.

Admittedly it’s a bit of a cheek trying to claim this was an off-road trip, since the off-road in question was actually in canoes, and paddling down the Zambezi. We were a small group, together with two guides, camping on the islands in the river (interestingly, at this point the river is the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe, the islands in the river being officially ‘no-man’s-land’). A fantastic trip, to be recommended if you enjoy wildlife and getting well away from civilisation, as we were pretty remote at times. It was also no journalistic ‘freebie’, we paid our way and can heartily recommend the company that organised the trip, Exodus. And if you get guides TK and Norman to instruct, guide and protect then you’ll have as good a time as we did. Check out the Exodus website on www.exodus.co.uk.

Ian Seabrook

The mileage may not have crept up by much, but believe me, I’ve not been short of adventures. Twice in the space of a month, the Discovery has reminded me of the dangers of solo greenlaning, something I am prone to doing. The first time, I was in a popular area called Nant-y-Moch. It’s pretty much on the doorstep and I know the lanes well, so there’s little chance of getting stuck. But, there’s always the danger of mechanical trauma.

As I discovered when after stopping to open a gate, the clutch went a bit funny. After closing the gate, the clutch went very funny indeed and stopped working. The pedal simply had no effect at all. It wasn’t too much of a challenge to just select low third, start in gear and keep moving, though it was annoying every time I met a gate. Or had to select first for a steep descent. The poor starter motor took some punishment, as I had no option but to start the car in gear. That wasn’t too bad in low ‘box, but I was still 12 miles from home at the end of the lane and now had to do the same trick in high.

Hils Everitt – Editor at Large

In a bid to sell my Grand, it needed some TLC. Having smartened up the badly scuffed and tarnished alloy wheels last month, I then turned my attention to sorting out some cosmetic bodywork stuff that has been around for a while that I just haven’t got around to dealing with sorting.

Like the alloy job, I looked around for some quotes. The local bodyshop down the road from the guys who did my wheels was a little pricey and I had to deliver the Jeep to them and then pick it up again. This meant a fair bit of time out and a fairly costly taxi fare. There is no easy train link and the buses are few and far between around here. In the end I plumped for a local mobile service in Kent Sussex and surrey area. A chap from Dialadent – in this case a very, very nice man called Eddie – comes to your door and repairs all your dents and nicks in a few hours with a perfect colour match.

Bob Cooke – contributor

I felt a bit nervous about taking the Grand Vitara off the tarmac. On the one hand the little Suzuki in its previous incarnations has an almost legendary reputation as a serious high-fun off-roader, on the other is the feeling that the current model is just too much of a tarmac-oriented highway cruiser to warrant taking it on anything more off-road than a well-maintained gravel track. There are two conflicting aspects of the latest version. The publicity material trumpets the permanent four wheel drive transmission with centre diff lock and low range as endowing the Grand Vitara with exceptional off-road agility, yet the tape measure shows little more than 180mm of ground clearance, and the exhaust back box seems scarily vulnerable hanging under the back bumper a mere 240mm above ground. While it’s true that the Grand’s excellent departure angle is such that on a flat and level rise the rear bumper would touch down before the silencer did, but since most off-road trails are rutted I’d be wary of taking it anywhere near its theoretical capability.

Bob Cooke – contributor

Just for a moment there I thought we’d trashed the transmission. As the Cherokee charged up the rutted sandy slope it lurched, bounced and suddenly came to a stop with a loud clattering sound. In horror I thought – damn, I’ve wrecked the transfer case!

But then from outside came Simon Butcher’s booming voice: “It’s all right, it’s just the tyres rubbing against the wheelarch!”

Oh, that’s all right then, I thought. However, I’d naturally backed off when I heard the clatter and the Cherokee was well and truly sunk into the big ruts, so there was no going forwards. We backed gently down to the bottom of the climb, allowed ourselves a longer run up to the start of the slope and booted it. The Cherokee bounced, lurched and swayed up the slope again, and when we got to the deeper ruts the clattering started again, but this time I just kept the pedal down and, in a shower of sand, the Cherokee nosed its way through and eventually lurched its way up and over the top.