Auto gearbox use

[Maggs1]

Hi All, I'm new to automatic vehicles.  I have a 53 plate Land Rover Discovery Landmark. 

When would you use the three gears on the shift changer, are they good in the snow?

 

[Blanco]

Welcome, and congrats on your aquisition.

No simple answer I'm afraid, ... you have a vehicle, which,( in good condition) should be very capable in snow, ... if you don't have any experience of driving in slippery conditions then I recommend you arrange to 'play' on some private ground somewhere. The shifter gives you the option to limit the gearbox to  the lower gears, but without experience the gearbox is likely to make a good enough choice in  'Drive' for uphill conditions, and for downhill you will do just as well pressing the 'Hill Descent' button on the dash. There is enormous fun to be had but you need to get a feel for the vehicle and it's handling in a safe enviroment before experimenting on public roads.

If you get onto snow before you get the chance to familiarize yourself with the handling then just remember, smooth and progressive, .... your Discovery will get you through all except the worst conditions. Just check you have good tyres, brakes etc. before winter gets into it's stride. HTSH

[Nonimouse]

As Blanco says, get training. Until then just bang it into Drive low for deep tricky snow. The rest of the time, use Drive. When the TC comes on, don't back off on the throttle, gently accelerate 500rpm or so, then hold it at that rpm until you regain traction on both sides

Hill descent only works at 3.4mph which can seem quick. As soon as you brake you will bypass HDC, so don't, learn to trust it

Do you have a Centre diff lock fitted?

For training avoid Protrax,  Rocking Castle and Belvoir Castle. That's just about money. Give Chris at The Offroad Consultancy a bell. He has a presence on FB

[FridgeFreezer]

If it came with a owners manual they usually describe how & when to use it in various conditions in there.

[mad_pete]

The auto box will shift to a higher gear let’s say when it wants to.  Now sometimes you might want to stay in a gear longer with the higher revs. In a manual no problem just don’t change up. In the auto you need to tell it with those numbers which says don’t go higher than this gear. So any time to might want to stay in a gear in a manual you can use the numbers to do it in an auto. Cases I use or for are off road when I don’t want to go too fast and hill decent.   Maybe towing up a hill but you also have kick down which if you floor the throttle tells the auto box this gear is nice but how about we go for a lower one.   For some land rovers this results in a change in noise but not actually a change on speed but that’s probably for another thread 🙂