The rule that runs the course

Off-road driving is not about bravery. It is about knowing what the vehicle can do, reading what the ground will do, and deciding before you commit. The winner of an obstacle is the driver who walks away with no damage: to the vehicle, the ground, or the people on it.

• As slow as possible, as fast as necessary.
• When in doubt, get out and walk it first.
• Traction beats power. Tyre pressure is your biggest lever.
• The environment outranks the route. Stay on made tracks; the ground you protect is the ground you drive.

The numbers that matter

Your 110s are among the very last of that line. Nothing built since carries the same combination: a mechanical lever for the transfer box, a mechanical lock for the centre diff, and axles that move as one solid beam. No electronics decide for you. On this vehicle, you are the traction control, which is exactly what this course teaches.

Three differentials, one lock

In every corner the outside wheels travel further than the inside ones; the axle diffs allow that. Front and rear axles also travel different paths, and the centre diff allows that. The cost: if one axle loses grip, the centre diff happily sends the power there. The cure is the lock.

• Diff lock IN before you need it: on dirt, sand, mud, wet grass and every descent. Front and rear then turn together, and one slipping axle can no longer steal the drive.
• Diff lock OUT the moment you are back on high-grip surface. On tar the axles fight each other and the strain winds up in the drivetrain.

What you tapped

• Fore and aft chooses the range: H, N, L. Across to the left locks the centre diff, in high or low. A dash lamp confirms it.
• Lock and unlock on the move: wheels straight, steady throttle. High–low shifts: stop first, clutch down, firmly through neutral.

Working guide, adjust for load

• Deflated tyres mean gentle steering and no speed. A hard turn can roll a soft tyre off its rim.
• Sidewalls bulge when soft: in thorn and rock country that bulge is what gets cut. Pick lines that protect it.
• Re-inflate before the road. Heat from a soft tyre at speed destroys it from the inside.

• Low range, 2nd gear, diff locked for most climbs: momentum in hand before the slope, then a steady right foot.
• Straight up the fall line. Angling across a climb is how vehicles roll. If the crest is blind, walk it first.
• Losing the climb? Don't clutch, don't fight it. Brake to a stop in gear and do the stall drill. The vehicle will hold.

The stall-start drill: failed climb, no drama

1. Hold everything Foot hard on the footbrake. The dead engine in gear is already a brake. Stay calm, the vehicle is not going anywhere.
2. Reverse gear, low range Clutch down, select reverse, clutch fully out again. Handbrake off.
3. Check your escape Mirrors and over the shoulder: the track behind must be clear. Your marshal confirms it.
4. Feet off, key on Ease off the brake; the drivetrain holds you. Then crank the engine in gear, feet off all pedals.
5. Let the starter walk you down The engine fires and the vehicle backs down the slope under full engine braking, wheels driven, steering straight.
6. Regroup at the bottom More speed, a different line, or the honest answer: another route.

Does yours crank in gear?

Some vehicles have a clutch interlock — a switch that will not turn the starter unless the clutch is down. One of those cannot do the key drill, and the top of a failed climb is the wrong place to find out.

• Stop on top. Select low 1st, diff locked, before the nose drops. Never change gear on the slope.
• Feet off. No clutch: one dip and you are freewheeling. Engine revs are your speed control; the 2.2d's compression holds 3 tons back.
• Sliding anyway? A touch of accelerator, not brake. The wheels must turn as fast as the ground passes to steer again.
• Brakes only gently, wheels straight, when the surface is firm enough to take it.

• First choice: don't. Look for the line that turns a traverse into a straight climb or descent. The Defender is far happier nose-on.
• If you must: low range, dead slow, wheels rolling. No brakes, no clutch, no sudden steering. Momentum sideways is what starts a roll.
• Steer down to survive. If the vehicle starts to slide or the lean grows teeth, turn downhill and drive out of it. Fighting uphill invites the rollover.
• Watch the ground, not just the angle. A rock under the downhill wheels or a hole under the uphill ones changes everything mid-traverse.

• Walk it first. Check the floor of the donga (sand, rock or wash-out) and pick the exit before you enter. In and out at an angle, 30–45°.
• Low 1st if it is dry and stepped, low 2nd if slippery. Diff locked, crawl. Let each wheel climb out before the next drops in.
• Never two wheels on the same side in the hole. That is the side-slope problem wearing a different hat.
• Momentum is not the tool here. Speed into a ditch compresses the suspension and slams the chassis; the crawl gives the axles time to work.

• Pressures first. Drop to 1.0–1.2 bar before the sand, not after the first bog-down. Long footprints float; hard tyres dig.
• Choose the gear that keeps you moving, usually low 2nd or 3rd, and stay in it. Every gear change is a pause, and every pause digs.
• Coast to a stop on a firm patch, front wheels straight, nose pointing downhill if you can. Brakes build a little wall of sand in front of each tyre.
• Bogging down? Stop early. Wheelspin only digs the axles onto the sand. Reverse a metre in your own compacted tracks, then take another run.
• Turn wide. Sharp steering at soft pressures ploughs the front tyres and can pop a bead. Smooth arcs, gentle corrections.

• Walk it with a stick: depth, floor, and what is hiding in it. Roots and broken branches slash sidewalls that soft pressure has bulged.
• One committed run. Diff locked, gear chosen, smooth throttle. Wheelspin polishes the mud into slick; if the wheels spin up, ease off until they bite again.
• A slight wiggle of steering can find fresh bite for the front tyres when forward progress fades. Small, quick, and only then.
• Stopped for good? Stop digging. Reverse out on your own tracks while the vehicle still moves; recovery beats excavation.
• Afterwards: clear packed mud from the wheels and radiator, and test the brakes dry. A mud-caked wheel is out of balance and cooks its bearing.

• Climb the rock, don't dodge it. A tyre placed squarely on a rock lifts the diffs over it. Steering around one usually puts it under the belly instead.
• Use a marshal. From the driver's seat you cannot see your own front wheels. Hand signals agreed beforehand, one marshal only, always visible.
• Idle-speed crawl in low 1st. Over the crest of each rock let the engine brake you down the far side. Bouncing is breaking.
• Know your low points: diffs, transfer box, tie rod. After any hard contact, stop and look. A bent tie rod steers like a drunk sailor.
• Thumbs outside the rim. Rock is where the steering kicks back hardest. This is the page that rule was written for.

The drill

• Walk it. Depth, floor, current, exit, and mark the holes. If it flows faster than you can comfortably wade, it is a no.
• Prepare: belt off, window fully open, recovery gear on top, wading plugs in if fitted. A raised intake helps only if its joints are sound.
• Drive: low 2nd, locked, enter gently, build the wave, hold it. Never touch the clutch mid-stream. Plates get wet, drive is gone.
• Stalled? Do not open the door in a hurry and do not crank blindly. If water may have reached the intake, cranking bends the engine. Assess, then recover backwards with the strap.
• Afterwards: ride the brakes dry for fifty metres. Above axle-depth? Check the diff and gearbox oils that evening; milky oil means water in.

The escalation ladder

1. Think Why exactly is it stuck: hung up, dug in, no traction? A minute of looking saves an hour of pulling the wrong way.
2. Dig & pack Clear sand from the chassis, drop pressure, pack brush or boards under the wheels. Most "recoveries" end here.
3. Reverse out Your own tracks are compacted ground. The easiest road on the reserve is the one you just made.
4. Tow A steady pull with a static strap, both vehicles crawling in low 1st. Gentle, controlled, boring. Exactly right.
5. Snatch The kinetic strap, only when a steady pull cannot do it, and only with the full drill on the next page.
6. Winch The most controlled pull and the most patient one, for when there is no second vehicle or no run-up.

The drill

• Rated points only, bow shackles pinned finger-tight plus a quarter turn back. Drape the damper over the middle of the strap.
• Two metres of slack, vehicles dead in line. Agree signals: one horn, take up; two, go; hand flat, stop everything.
• Recovery vehicle pulls away briskly in low 2nd. Not a drag race. The stuck driver drives out the moment the strap bites.
• No result? Stop. Re-rig longer slack or dig more, never a faster, angrier run. Three failed snatches means the answer is the winch or the spade, not a fourth snatch.
• Inspect the strap after every use: cuts, fluff, glazing. A damaged strap is cut in half and binned so nobody ever trusts it again.

Why it is on the vehicle

• It cannot become a missile. Every rule about steel shackles exists because steel flies.
• It joins two straps — the connection steel is banned from. Through both eyes, knot through the eye. Undoes afterwards.
• It fits what steel will not: an odd-shaped point, a closed eye, a hook with no room for a pin.
• Light enough to carry two, and it floats when you drop one in the drift.

Before every single use

1. Read the marking. Rated and marked, or it stays in the box.
2. Run it through your hand. Fuzz is fine. Cuts, glazing or a shiny melted patch — retired on the spot.
3. Dress the knot. If the button will not pull up tight and round, the shackle is finished.

• Gloves on before the cable. One broken wire strand through a bare palm ends the day. Handle the hook by its strap, never the cable.
• Anchor to live, thick trees through a trunk protector, as low as possible, as straight ahead as possible. Angled pulls walk the line across the drum; use a pulley block to straighten them.
• Engine running. The winch flattens a battery in minutes. Drive gently with the winch in low 1st; don't make it do all the work.
• Line out, re-tension, inspect after every use. A winch that has not been run out in six months is a rumour, not a recovery plan.
• Step over a winch line never, slack or loaded. Walk around.

• Smoothness is a safety system. Every harsh brake or throttle input is multiplied at the top seat row. If your guests sway, you are driving too roughly, whatever the speed.
• Look far, then near. Scan the road edge for game paths, wash-outs and fresh digging; animals use the roads at night and leave holes by day. We LOOK, but do we SEE.
• Predict the animal, not the sighting. An elephant beside the road is a fact; where it will be in ten seconds is the question. Position with an exit line always open, reverse gear already chosen at any close sighting.
• Night drives: half the speed, twice the following distance, spotlight discipline agreed before the drive. Dust plus dark equals driving on faith; drop back until you can see.
• Other vehicles at sightings: agree positions on the radio, move slowly, engines at idle. The best drivers at a sighting are the ones nobody noticed arriving.

• You must be able to stop inside your lights. That single rule sets your speed, not the clock and not the guests. If your stopping distance is longer than the road you can see, you are driving blind and hoping.
• Half your daylight speed. Then take some off. On a road you drove this morning at 40, you drive at 20 tonight. Nobody has ever complained that a night drive was too gentle.
• Depth is gone. A donga, a rut and a shadow all read flat under a beam. If the ground looks flat at night, that is the beam lying to you — not proof. Drive the routes you know.
• Twice the following distance, and more in dust. In another vehicle's dust you are driving on faith. Drop right back until you can see the road again, even if you lose the sighting.
• Stop to look. Do not look and drive. Scanning and steering at the same time is how a driver puts a wheel into a hole while everybody is watching a leopard.

• The spotter works the light. The driver works the road. One job each. A driver holding a spotlight is a driver not looking where the wheels are going. Agree the sweep, the signals and who calls a stop before you leave camp.
• Sweep slow, sweep wide, and keep it off the road ahead. Light thrown down your own driving line kills your night vision and the road disappears the moment it moves away. Work the light above and to the sides.
• Never in the eyes. Not guests, not another vehicle's driver, not a walking animal. Follow the reserve's own rules on which species and which moments get no light at all.
• A dazzled animal is an unpredictable animal. It may freeze, or it may run straight at the light. Give way, idle, let it choose. Never chase, never pin a running animal in the beam.
• Brief the guests before you pull off. Seated, arms and cameras inside, no standing, no phone torches, and stay quiet on approach. Cold hands come inside jackets, not onto the roll bar.
• Getting stuck at night is the thing to avoid, not to solve. Recovery in the dark, in long grass, with guests aboard, is the worst position on this course. If it happens: everyone stays seated, light the whole area, radio camp, and check the ground on foot only when it is safe to.