Procedure for changing from low to high and lock to unlock

The 3 seconds thing is from the official land rover documentation (as DGFS points out). I don't pretend to know exactly why, but couldn't it be so that the gearbox spins down to a lower speed whilst the gears are dis-engaged, and then you put it in to high ratio?

If I press the clutch in and immediately select reverse gear i often get a clunk, but if I wait for a couple of seconds, and then select reverse, then it's no problem. This also doesn't have syncromesh, so I've always thought of this being due to the gearbox slowing down too.

Ah dunno why they says 3 seconds but ah used to work on a farm and to get heavy loads moving ah would start off in low range and get to about second n a half (renault tractor had a gear leaver to work half a gear) and over time with a bit of practice and double de clutching I slip her up from low range to high range and change down to first n a half and away.

Took alot of time to master but once mastered gear changes were as smooth as a babys arese and done fairly quickly.

I quite often start off in low when I come out of my fields with a trailer on as it's up a steepish hill then bung it into high just as I get to the crest. No need to stop at all. If I did that 3 second thing I'd have stopped and rolled halfway back down the bloody hill so that isn't part of the procedure even if LR says so.

don't you get a horrendous clunking noise when you do that without waiting?

I did when I first started doing it but the old technique of doubling de clutch works wonders, but once I'd mastered it it was just like changing from second to third or whatever.

so you get the engine to correct revs for the gear you're in then?

Lets just say you get to know your engine by the sound it makes when the revs are 'correct' like I said, it took a bit of practice to get it right.

When everything is 'right' it should slip through from low to high with little to no effort.


Ever driven a vehicle with a clutch cable thats snapped/hydraulics gone? you can still change gear without the cluch, you just need to find the point in the RPM where the gear stick will slip in and out of gear. Sometimes a blip in the throttle might be required.

aye, i can drive like that in my laguna, but find it difficult in the landy

i've only had to drive with a snapped clutch cable in a motorcycle, but with that, you don't have the luxury of getting in to neutral at any point unless you're in first or second, so there's a lot of lurching (glad it was a 125. I wouldn't like to have to do that on a 1000cc, you'd probably get thrown off ). At least you can get a bit of a run up to get going in first on a motorcycle though, that's quite tricky in a car, unless you're on a hill

tombardier said:

aye, i can drive like that in my laguna, but find it difficult in the landy

i've only had to drive with a snapped clutch cable in a motorcycle, but with that, you don't have the luxury of getting in to neutral at any point unless you're in first or second, so there's a lot of lurching (glad it was a 125. I wouldn't like to have to do that on a 1000cc, you'd probably get thrown off ). At least you can get a bit of a run up to get going in first on a motorcycle though, that's quite tricky in a car, unless you're on a hill

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lol, very true.

Farmyard to the main road was all downhill but pulling out onto the main road was going up hill, very first time I tried it I had that much lurching I thought the tracked excavator was going to slide off the end of the low loader :doh: