Patrol 4×4 – Nissan Patrol Forum

Driving Technique With a mental picture of your route, or better still, with markers in place, and all your vehicle preparation done, its time to start the crossing. Before you enter the water, remember to take off your seat belt and wind down your window. Using low range second gear at 1500-2000 rpm (for most 4x4's) creates just the right bow wave. Its important to get the speed just right as too fast will send water everywhere while too slow may flood the engine bay. Hopefully you follow your markers and get to the other side with no problems. But if you do strike problems avoid using the clutch as this may allow water to get between the friction plate and the flywheel, resulting in limited drive. If the wheels start to slip, its important not to over-rev the engine but back-off the accelerator and hope the wheels regain traction. Excessive wheel-spin will not help. If the engine stalls, put the vehicle in neutral without using the clutch and attempt to restart. If luck is on your side the engine will fire up. Now is not a good time to wish you had already disconnected the fan belt, as your engine bay will be flooded. Its normally best to use 1st gear low range and with a minimum of clutch usage, try and extricate yourself from this predicament.