Freelander 1 Is the Freelander 1 any good off road?

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That sums up the Freelander pretty well. As that's what it is.

Its a road car with offroad capabilities.

Like the P38 though it is better than Defender/Disco in having the viscous 'diff lock'. You don't have to worry, slow down or take manual intervention for it to activate, its instantaneous at any speed, so has big advantages where terrain changes a lot.
 
300bhp/ton said:
A question many may have asked and probably a lot have dismissed out of hand as it simply isn't a Defender....

In this video we take a closer look at the capabilities and limitations of the Freelander as an off road vehicle.

Click to expand...

What a great video. Just like your comparison thread, this is really interesting and infomative. Again, like my comment on that thread, it would be great to see this kind of interrogation with a lifted auto to see how it fares.
 
After installing a 50mm lift kit, fitting bigger all terrain tyres and taking it for a couple off road days a few years ago, I can confirm pretty much everything in the video. In my case the VCU had been refurbed by me and was a bit on the 'soft' side so I struggled in situations where your rear wheels were pushing you through.
The lift kit and tyres sorted most of the issues you mentioned but lack of low range with a manual gearbox means the car is hindered on steep or uneven slopes. On the flat where there is poor grip it fares much better.
 
Just had our off road weekend at Billing
 

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I took the Freelander up to Courtney today to take my dog for a walk along the Waimakariri River, its about a 70km round trip.

Haven't been up there for a while. The access tracks (about 1km) to the spots where I went had obviously seen a fair bit of weather and use. They were in a pretty poor state, gave the Freelander's suspension a work out. Lots of holes that were impossible to steer round, some mud and exposed roots and rocks. I'm sure the rattles and knocks will have gotten worse.

The actual tracks along the river were in decent condition...

1694936432555.png


As you can see it was glorious weather where we were, but there was some nasty stuff up in the mountains (about an inch an hour of rainfall) and getting blown over with the Norwester...

1694936596777.png


I checked the river flows before I left to make sure it was safe. Although that's no guarantee as it can be sunny in Chch and the Waimak flowing at 100 cumecs, but 20 minutes later its flowing at 2,000 cumecs because of weather up in the mountains.

Here's a pic I found of the Waimak. This is taken from fairly close the Christchurch. We were about 1/2 way to the mountains.

1694934808251.png
 
GrumpyGel said:
I took the Freelander up to Courtney today to take my dog for a walk along the Waimakariri River, its about a 70km round trip.

Haven't been up there for a while. The access tracks (about 1km) to the spots where I went had obviously seen a fair bit of weather and use. They were in a pretty poor state, gave the Freelander's suspension a work out. Lots of holes that were impossible to steer round, some mud and exposed roots and rocks. I'm sure the rattles and knocks will have gotten worse.

The actual tracks along the river were in decent condition...

View attachment 298001

As you can see it was glorious weather where we were, but there was some nasty stuff up in the mountains (about an inch an hour of rainfall) and getting blown over with the Norwester...

View attachment 298002

I checked the river flows before I left to make sure it was safe. Although that's no guarantee as it can be sunny in Chch and the Waimak flowing at 100 cumecs, but 20 minutes later its flowing at 2,000 cumecs because of weather up in the mountains.

Here's a pic I found of the Waimak. This is taken from fairly close the Christchurch. We were about 1/2 way to the mountains.

View attachment 297998
Click to expand...
Wow what a beautiful location!
 
Wizard2003 said:
Wow what a beautiful location!
Click to expand...
Its a wonderful resource. Close to the city is a waimakiriri regional park the has a couple of golf clubs, a shooting club, steam engineering club, vintage vehicle club, kenneclub club show grounds, zoo/wild life park etc. Theres designated mountain boke tracks stretching miles and maintaned, picnic spots and even an off road racing club. All sorts. The river itself could have been purpose built for jet boat fun and is used a lot for it. All the way up to the mountains is public space with tracks for walking dirt bikking and 4wding. Plus of course there is the fishing, good trout fishing and a decent salmon run in late summer.

Plus in places its either stunningly beautiful or harsh. An awesome braided river environment.
 
GrumpyGel said:
Its a wonderful resource. Close to the city is a waimakiriri regional park the has a couple of golf clubs, a shooting club, steam engineering club, vintage vehicle club, kenneclub club show grounds, zoo/wild life park etc. Theres designated mountain boke tracks stretching miles and maintaned, picnic spots and even an off road racing club. All sorts. The river itself could have been purpose built for jet boat fun and is used a lot for it. All the way up to the mountains is public space with tracks for walking dirt bikking and 4wding. Plus of course there is the fishing, good trout fishing and a decent salmon run in late summer.

Plus in places its either stunningly beautiful or harsh. An awesome braided river environment.
Click to expand...
Ok I'm sold, do you have an extra room to rent 😃
 
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