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Well at the risk of getting a hard time off of people I'll throw in my twopennorth..there is no difference in front wheel drive and rear wheel drive..it's the judicious application of throttle that does it..I passed my test in 1971 my HGV III in 1978 my HGVII in 1979 and my HGV I in 1980 and my PSV in 1987..whilst I was in HM Forces..I have driven just about everything on wheels/tracks..from a Chieftan MBT to a motorcycle..there is no difference to a good driver if it skids stop revving it's guts out..slowly slowly and your there..I completed my Driving Instructors course in 1982 and am also a member of I.A.M...and taught all classes of HGV/PSV/basic car for 15 years so I feel qualified to comment

I have driven in some very unforgiving enviroments..8 weeks in Kenya..the main roads were as good as the old C class roads in UK..(who remembers them??) in Canada where I never saw a tarmac road for 6 weeks never got stuck once and didn't need lo-box to move me on..To me front or rear drive it correctly and you'll do it ..

Quote: Originally posted by rabble on 16/1/2013

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Wow Ray can I have your number for when (not if) I get stuck!!!!

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..Oh,I dare say he's probably too modest a chap to do that, rabble...

we have just purchased a honda stepwagon camper conversion, 4 wheel drive, automatic BUT it also has a selectable permanant 2nd gear option apparently ( there are a few markings on the gear selctor, drive 4, drive 3 and 2 - the dealer explained that D3 and 2 are to prevent constant gear changes when going up steep hils etc - i normally just moderate that on my auto car by using the accelarator, but if it works on steep hils then D2 and low revs with the four wheel drive should help in boggy ground - I HOPE !

if anyone can offer any info etc on the stepwagon, in particular the gears and buttons etc then feel free to pm me. thanks

I know first time we had "grip issues"(as in "got stuck"!) with a MH,was when we switched from our RWD Duetto,to an x250 Peugeot and although it was still quite a small van,it was low profile,with long tail overhang..meaning less weight/bias over the drive wheels(...although I would assume that any make of vehicle of a similar construct,ie fwd,overbodied,with rear weight bias, would suffer similarly..)

I ended up putting Vredestein M&S tyres on the front of it(..probably should've been all 4 ).

Although our current van(fwd Renault,7mtr coachbuilt)has got stuck on a really muddy festival site,generally it's far better than our previous,more "overbodied", Peugeot though....

art..

Can I just ask..Do you know if they do the basic van in 4x4?.. or is it just the imported camper/people carrier types that it's available on?...

(..it's just that I've recently bought a cheapie Hiace van(rwd),to use as a knock-about,camping,lug stuff to tip,type workhorse..and at present,with little/no weight on the rear,it stuggles to get on our drive without one wheel loosing grip and spinning..)

..and as we want to use it for "festival camping", I think I may need to look getting a couple of secondhand wheels and sticking knobblier tyres on,for use on the back...