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- ChaddersP
- Member Since: 15 Sep 2026
- Location: North Scarle
- Posts: 49
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- JonM
- Member Since: 30 Jun 2016
- Location: North Yorkshire
- Posts: 735
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- ChaddersP
- Member Since: 15 Sep 2026
- Location: North Scarle
- Posts: 49
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- Wolfpack
- Member Since: 25 May 2019
- Location: Norfolk, UK
- Posts: 596
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I’ve been through a few fords and unexpected floods in my time,, even stopped halfway across Holy Island causeway as tide was coming in to photograph Eider ducks out of the roof…much to the bewilderment of people sensibly stopped on the shoreline.
I actually started to feel the car move sideways as the tide lapped the doorsills…and that was the heavy D4…..soon high tailed it to the shore. Not a pleasant or sensible experience in hindsight.
I stay away from wading these days.
I am reminded of a retired RAF flight engineer who came to work for my company some years ago. When asked by one of the girls in the office to sponsor her for a tandem parachute jump he remarked….”anyone who jumps from a perfectly serviceable aircraft needs their head examining”.
I tend to feel that about needlessly taking cars through deep water. Probably getting too old.
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- ChaddersP
- Member Since: 15 Sep 2026
- Location: North Scarle
- Posts: 49
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- Mole HD
- Member Since: 18 Nov 2024
- Location: Orkney Islands
- Posts: 957
Yeah looks flash, watched it once on the centre screen the last time we had severely flooded roads up here... but it serves absolutely no practical purpose as Jon and Wolfie said. Just open the window and look out.
A short vid of it in action...not my vid I should stress.
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- Mole HD
- Member Since: 18 Nov 2024
- Location: Orkney Islands
- Posts: 957
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Wolfpack wrote:
I am reminded of a retired RAF flight engineer who came to work for my company some years ago. When asked by one of the girls in the office to sponsor her for a tandem parachute jump he remarked….”anyone who jumps from a perfectly serviceable aircraft needs their head examining”.
I used to do the jumping out bit as part of my day job...strange result of that is that landing whilst being strapped into a plane still terrifies me no end, especially the Britten-Norman Islander flying taxis used to plonk down on the islands up here....the landings tend to be mostly sideways until the last minute then being thrown onto the tarmac. The local pilots up here certainly put their big-boy pants on most days flying into small island runways in all sorts of weather.
I've flown hundreds of hours in all sorts of aircraft in operational theatres over the years... but usually by the time the plane had landed, I was already long out of the thing with a couple of hundred pounds of 'carry on luggage' and safely on the ground.
I took my daughter with me on a tandem rig jump from the back of a Hercules (C-130) many years ago as a surprise for her 12th birthday...we were doing a practise jump for some display thing at Brize Norton with smoke cannisters strapped to our ankles and all that stuff and being a a qualified parachute instructor at the time, I managed to wangle the permission through the army jump school.
I think she screamed all the way down...then promptly wanted to go back up and do it again once we had landed.
As we were wrapping up on the ground, she asked me if I had been frightened on my first jump...before I got a word out, one of my best mates replied to her.
"Yeah, he was...and I remember that he screamed more like a little girl on the way down." Best mates...there's a reason you can't buy them.
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- Darras
- Member Since: 16 May 2020
- Location: Inverness
- Posts: 880
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- Mole HD
- Member Since: 18 Nov 2024
- Location: Orkney Islands
- Posts: 957
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Re: Wade sensing!!
ChaddersP wrote:
Folks I don’t have wade sensing which is in some ways disappointing especially as I thought it was standard?! I’ve read somewhere that when wade sensing is engaged. As well as a graphic representation of the water depth on the display, the air vents into the car close off to help prevent water entering the vehicle.
My question is if this is the case and I don’t have wade sensing, is there a possibility of water entering the vehicle via the air vents? And if so surely this is a design fault because the wading depth is a generic depth across the disco5 range (with air suspension)
Thanks
It may also be a helpful tip that the D5 doesn't have the traditional Land Rover front wing air vents like practically everything else with a Land Rover badge stuck on it...those 'vent' covers on the D5 are strictly cosmetic badges with no actual air vents behind them, hence why you won't see any pictures of a D5 fitted with a snorkel kit.
Instead, it draws air from the bonnet and through internal ducting along the bonnet lid and front wings to the airbox(s).
So, it's always a good rule of thumb to keep the water from sloshing over the bonnet.
Last edited by Mole HD on 23rd Oct 2026 8:50 pm. Edited 2 times in total -
- ChaddersP
- Member Since: 15 Sep 2026
- Location: North Scarle
- Posts: 49
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- Mole HD
- Member Since: 18 Nov 2024
- Location: Orkney Islands
- Posts: 957
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Just check on yours where the trunking comes from that goes direct into the back of your air filter box...I think it's fed along inside the bonnet lid...but don't quote me on that, I've never actually looked.
Here's what's quoted online...
Quote:
The L462 Discovery 5 air vent intakes are located at the crease between the bonnet and both the bumper and headlight, drawing air into a plenum before it passes through a labyrinth in the bonnet to separate moisture.
...Just in case you were wondering like me WTF a 'plenum' is...I googled it.
Quote:
A condition, space, or enclosure in which air or other gas is at a pressure greater than that of the outside atmosphere.
So, it seems it was a clever and conscious design decision from Land Rover...which seems to work fairly well since I haven't seen any embarrassing online videos of D5's being hydro-locked after charging through village fords.
Last edited by Mole HD on 23rd Oct 2026 10:30 pm. Edited 2 times in total -
- JonM
- Member Since: 30 Jun 2016
- Location: North Yorkshire
- Posts: 735
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- Mole HD
- Member Since: 18 Nov 2024
- Location: Orkney Islands
- Posts: 957
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Love that article, Jon...almost as much as watching amateur video footage from the sadists who hang around all day at those village fords filming the victims.
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- ChaddersP
- Member Since: 15 Sep 2026
- Location: North Scarle
- Posts: 49
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I noticed a Disco coming to the rescue as well -
- Mole HD
- Member Since: 18 Nov 2024
- Location: Orkney Islands
- Posts: 957
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On a similar note...looks like I might be needing the wading capability a bit since we're going to get smelted by this Boelo thing today and tomorrow. We missed the other one that's just hit the rest of the country as it stayed south... so I guess it's just our turn.
Winter storms are nothing new up here by any stretch of the imagination but the winds switching around from SSE to NNW over the 2 days will hit hard. Chances are some of the locals will be sitting in the dark tomorrow and cooking off a camping stove... those of us on the farms with diesel back up generators and 4x4's will be cooking up pots of stew etc and taking meals around to the old folk and checking on those worst effected until the mains electricity suppliers can get out to repair the lines.
No ferries or anything in or out for the duration...strangely enough, there's still folk who've recently moved up here to the north sea that still haven't any idea what winter storm isolation means...they only have a single domestic fridge freezer in the kitchen, no basic freezable stores like bread, eggs, butter or milk or a few cupboards full of tins...thankfully, the rest of us who've been here a while and sampled a few bad winters that can last for 8 or 9 months have large commercial chest freezers in the byre will keep them going when the shop shelves are empty. It's not just this storm, this is the first of many... there'll be a lot more lasting for far longer durations on the way.
Island logistics...it's a bit like being a doomsday prepper.
Gusts are up to around 70mph at the moment, stronger winds through tomorrow with possibility of 100+mph gusts...seas are massive so a good many of our local roads will be flooded again.
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