[HobieSkipper]

New to the forum and not an F Pace owner - at least yet. I'm taking a look at the F Pace and also considering the Land Rover Discovery Sport. Probably leaning towards the F Pace based on performance on hard surfaces. However, I do have a sailboat that I need to tow onto, and off of the beach - only twice a year. While I'm sure the F Pace can handle Northeast winters - I wanted to get your thoughts on how it will handle in soft sand - not sand covering a road, but towing a boat (less than 500 lbs) in soft sand found at the beach. Any one take their F Pace to the beach yet?

 

[JWreck]

New to the forum and not an F Pace owner - at least yet. I'm taking a look at the F Pace and also considering the Land Rover Discovery Sport. Probably leaning towards the F Pace based on performance on hard surfaces. However, I do have a sailboat that I need to tow onto, and off of the beach - only twice a year. While I'm sure the F Pace can handle Northeast winters - I wanted to get your thoughts on how it will handle in soft sand - not sand covering a road, but towing a boat (less than 500 lbs) in soft sand found at the beach. Any one take their F Pace to the beach yet?

Full disclaimer: I have not taken it off road myself but would love to see someone do that and report back.

That said, I'd imagine you'd be OK on traction assuming the weight is manageable and you have AdSR (Adaptive Surface Repsonse). I believe that's a system shared with Land Rover so it probably works quite well but I'm sure the person who would use that would be in the minority here.

Based on sitting in the Disco Sport I'd say you're on the right track anyway!

 

[Roverdude]

I also cross shopped the Disco Sport against the F Pace. I'm currently driving a LR2 (forerunner to Disco Sport) which is actually a great little Rover. It performs quite well off-road and can keep up with its' older brothers admirably. That being said, while the Disco Sport will likely enjoy a slight advantage over the F Pace in a variety of off-road situations, for your purposes, I'd wager that airing down your tires and proper technique would take care of driving in soft sand easily.


As far as off-road comparisons go, between the Disco Sport and F Pace, based on my arm chair analysis of specs and experience driving all sorts of Land Rovers off road, I'd offer that the F Pace has 80% of the off-road capability of the Disco Sport with VASTLY superior on road driving dynamics. The better driving dynamics sold me on the 20% trade off in off-road capability. But between the two vehicles, the dimensions are within a few inches of each other, nearly the same ground clearance, LR has better traction management, FP has better drivetrain, so if you're leaning between the two, I'd say go F Pace. It seems like a better value in long run as well with 5/60 warranty + service included.

 

[Jag Fpace]

I took my 3.5T F-Pace to "Freeman Park;" referred to Carolina Beach locals as "North End." The park ranger would not let me in unless I had 4 wheel drive... so of course I told the ranger that I did. It was mentioned that several vehicles had gotten stuck and that a tow was $250. I aired the tires down to 20psi, turned off traction control and hit the beach. The F-Pace performed better than my prior Grand Cherokee, I'm assuming due to being 1,000 lbs lighter; I can't speak to dragging a boat on the sand but I can surprisingly say that the Jag handled like a Dune Buggy with no fear of sinking.

 

[HobieSkipper]

Thanks for the update on how it handled in the sand for you. I did decide to buy the FPace rather than the Discovery. I haven't really tested the off road capability of the FPace yet, but will need to put our HobieCat on the beach in the next few weeks. Getting the boat off and on the beach can be a real challenge - there's usually deep, soft sand which is a challenge when dragging a boat / trailer behind you. I used to have a Hummer H3 which is a great off road vehicle and getting the boat on / off the beach really tested the H3. I'll let you know how the Jaguar FPace handles the challenge. I will deflate the tires to help with the FPace (I never had to do this in an H3)...

 

[Corpraider]

I found this article might be helfpul https://practicalmotoring.com.au/car-advice/you-cant-just-drive-out-into-the-desert-preparing-for-an-off-road-camping-adventure/

and another one:http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/lifestyle/motoring/f-pace-jaguar-agility-4wd-7911671

 

[theweeb]

I took my 3.5T F-Pace to "Freeman Park;" referred to Carolina Beach locals as "North End." The park ranger would not let me in unless I had 4 wheel drive... so of course I told the ranger that I did. It was mentioned that several vehicles had gotten stuck and that a tow was $250. I aired the tires down to 20psi, turned off traction control and hit the beach. The F-Pace performed better than my prior Grand Cherokee, I'm assuming due to being 1,000 lbs lighter; I can't speak to dragging a boat on the sand but I can surprisingly say that the Jag handled like a Dune Buggy with no fear of sinking.

Slightly off-topic, but do you have any pictures of the visit to the North End? I bought a house in Carolina Beach last year, currently renting it to family, but have plans to move there this summer. In checking out that beach, the idea of camping on water's edge seemed pretty cool. I was going to use my Jeep for it, but from your post it seems the F-Pace is just as suited. That, and it certainly must have made a statement being surrounded by lifted trucks and such.

 

[VZX-CO]

Slightly off-topic, but do you have any pictures of the visit to the North End? I bought a house in Carolina Beach last year, currently renting it to family, but have plans to move there this summer. In checking out that beach, the idea of camping on water's edge seemed pretty cool. I was going to use my Jeep for it, but from your post it seems the F-Pace is just as suited. That, and it certainly must have made a statement being surrounded by lifted trucks and such.

My experience with other vehicles and a house about 200 feet from ocean on Cape Cod was rust rust rust. Just the air rusts out thinks like brake rotors incredible fast, even when vehicle stored inside in the winter. I'd go for the Jeep it it was me. The further you can keep the F Pace from the ocean the better.

 

[Corpraider]

I took my 3.5T F-Pace to "Freeman Park;" referred to Carolina Beach locals as "North End." The park ranger would not let me in unless I had 4 wheel drive... so of course I told the ranger that I did. It was mentioned that several vehicles had gotten stuck and that a tow was $250. I aired the tires down to 20psi, turned off traction control and hit the beach. The F-Pace performed better than my prior Grand Cherokee, I'm assuming due to being 1,000 lbs lighter; I can't speak to dragging a boat on the sand but I can surprisingly say that the Jag handled like a Dune Buggy with no fear of sinking.

Glad to hear that from a non FPACE S driver. Why did you go to 20 psi and not like 26psi? I'm just curious

 

[GRVR]

currently renting it to family, but have plans to move there this summer.

Good Grief , you SHREWD son of a gun ! As if it's not bad enough that you are CHARGING "family" to stay in the house , but now you are planning on EVICTING them this summer ??? :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

 

[Kenzo Pan]

I haven't towed on the beach yet, but I regularly tow my 3000lb camper with the f-pace. She tows WAY better than my Tacoma. I can barely tell anything is back there. Really the biggest issue is forcing myself to slow down while towing.

kenzopan.com/towing2.jpg

 

[HobieSkipper]

F-Pace on the Beach

This weekend I had to pull my boat off the beach. Earlier in the season, I used my son's Ford F150 to pull the boat on the beach, so this was my first test of driving the F-Pace on the beach. To give some context - I needed to pull a trailer on the beach, load my HobieCat on the trailer and tow it off the beach. The access path to the beach is a hard packed surface, but at the end of the path is a deeply rutted, deep soft sand area that is about 50 yards long before you get to firmer sand. I have the Jag set on light load, and did not deflate the tires at all (34 PSI).

No problem getting the Jag on the beach with the trailer - I had good momentum when I hit the soft sand and powered through it. After loading the boat on the trailer and hooking it up to the Jag, I headed off the beach. I put it in Ice / Snow mode, and turned on low friction launch. The Jag powered up and we got started without difficulty. As I hit the soft sand, I did not maintain good momentum as I hit the deep soft sand, and my progress ground to a stop. So here I was in a Jag, stuck in soft sand hauling a boat. I kept the Jag in Low Friction Launch, and hit the gas - left wheels were spinning, but the Jag adjusted power and pulled out of the sand.

I was really impressed on how the Jag got out of the soft sand, towing a boat, from a dead stop. The problem was really caused by poor driving on my part - I should have gunned it through the soft sand and I would not have come to a stop. I also did not deflate the tires - I wanted to see if I could get through the sand without deflating the tires. My previous vehicle was a Hummer H3 that I used to tow the boat. The Hummer has struggled in the soft sand as well (without deflating tires), so I do think the Jag really handled it well.

 

[HobieSkipper]

Jaguar at the Beach

Here's a picture of the Jag and the Hobie - two fun toys!

 

[BeachBum]

My experience with other vehicles and a house about 200 feet from ocean on Cape Cod was rust rust rust. Just the air rusts out thinks like brake rotors incredible fast, even when vehicle stored inside in the winter. I'd go for the Jeep it it was me. The further you can keep the F Pace from the ocean the better.

My home is right on the coast but 100 feet above. When I was purchasing, I asked the dealer about corrosion resistance. All I could find out was that FP has a 6 year guarantee on corrosion. I'm counting on Jaguar quality with this investment and will certainly let all know if I start to see problems. Meanwhile "life is short so, jump the net will appear". ; )

 

[PA-FPace-F]

Hobieskipper, your post was great to hear! I haven't had my F-Pace on the beach yet, but it's good to hear how the low traction launch capability would help there.

My experience in towing something heavy has been pulling my boat on concrete or very hard packed ramps. Most would think that wouldn't be a problem I'm most cases but at low tide, you sometimes find you are backing your F-Pace and trailer down to a very murky ramp with a lot of slippery algae and other such things on top of the concrete. I was very concerned on one low tide pull on a ramp a few weeks ago, since the ramp itself was steep and the concrete was deep green throughout. I also have 285 tires on my F-Pace and that concern me as well, very wide contact patch to slip from, and I have a dually trailer and a 4k lbs boat. I took the same approach after loading the boat, I dropped it in low friction launch and pushed the throttle and the F-pace crawled forward and right up the ramp with the load, no issue and no tire slipping at all. It impressed a few boat ramp watchers who had seen 4WD pick up trucks have more trouble getting moving with lighter boats. One guy said you'll never get that boat pulled with that performance SUV and the F-Pace proved him wrong.

My only offloading with the F-Pace has been on light fire roads in south Jersey. there was some sand involved and some off camber stuff and I never had any issue with the f-Pace getting stuck, even when one wheel was dangling in the air. With that said, the body does make more noise than i would like when it's being stressed with only 3 wheels on the ground, but most steel unibody 4x4s are pretty much the same in that respect so I guess I shouldn't expect more from an Aluminum unibody structure.