Lane 1 Fell Green Road

TW2 - SD1188-02 & SD1288-02

ATUK - CU U4070) green lane that I find myself, and a press car, in such a precarious position, time to test my recovery knowledge and skills.

It’s once you’ve passed the tree line that this lane becomes interesting, as the many storms we had over the years have created some huge channels, deep and well as wide.

With the Trailhawk’s 4WD system set to auto I gently made my way further towards the top of the moor. On my way up there are a few smaller holes to deal with, larger 4x4s wouldn’t notice them, but they’re a bit more of a challenge in a smaller vehicle like the Renegade, which kept lifting a or two!

Although it was only a month since I was last up here with 3 D-Maxs, there is a new, soft section that has appeared, which as you can see below, looks as though, over time and use, it’ll become quite tricky.

At this point I selected low-box, Lock and set the Renegade to Rock mode, as in my experience selecting Rock mode means that the Jeep, whether it’s a Renegade or Compass, will crawl its way up and through pretty much everything without drama, and damage to both the vehicle and lane.

So it came as quite a surprise that when I was driving through the first large channel the front tyres scrambled for grip, as did the rears, and I felt the Renegade ‘crab’ sideways into a rather precarious position.

Jumping out to inspect the situation revealed that two opposing wheels were off the ground, and the remaining two wheels simply couldn’t find any grip. I have to admit that I was surprised as I’ve driven the Renegade through and over worse obstacles. Anyhow, with a few rocks and stones removed and strategically replaced under and in front of the tyres I jumped back in and gingerly pressed the accelerator. The Renegade continued crab into an even worse position and I ended up pretty much a full 180º across the lane, wheels still in the air and this time the rear bumper was almost resting against a rock. Bugger.

As a matter of course, when I venture out ‘laning I always bring along a couple of pairs of ActionTrax, a selection ropes and a shovel, and I’ve never been so happy to have the former. Placing the ActionTrax and a few more cleverly placed rocks under the wheels it was with much relief that Renegade climbed out of this potentially very embarrassing situation.

Incidentally, if you are looking for a pair of ActionTrax recovery boards, Roy at 4x4 Obsession currently has an offer with £50 off.

I mentioned earlier that I was surprised the Renegade made such a meal of climbing out of the channel, and as embarrassing as it is to admit, and I feel the need to confess the following; it was down to driver error as I hadn’t actually put the Renegade in rock mode, it was still in Mud / Snow! In my defence the modes are next to each other and easily mistaken.

With that valuable lesson learnt, I had a few more deeper and gnarlier channels to negotiate, only this time, in the correct mode, the Renegade drove up and over them with the minimum of fuss, even after stopping for the usual ‘wheel in the air' photos.

The next tricky section is just after you drive the through the second gate, there are two opposing holes in the track that make for another spectacular ‘wheel in the air’ photo, only this time with a much more incredible view.

From here I turned right onto Corney Fell Road heading back towards the A595, stopping in a wooded layby for a mother brew and a few photos as the mist had descended and it looked a bit spooky!

Lane 2

TW2 - NY3101-04

ATUK - U5004

Back on the A595, I took a left onto the A593 that would take me through Coniston and towards my next lane which is found at the end of Smithy Brow. There are few challenging and technical rocky climbs that I thought might be entertaining in the Renegade, but I’ll never know as first, on the single track lane heading towards the first gate, I met the farmer coming in the opposite direction.

He was neither jovial, nor aggressive, but he certainly challenged my reason for wanting to drive the lane. I resisted the temptation to say "Because I can, now get out of my way!", instead I explained that I was press and was reviewing the Jeep I was in. He drove off.

Then, as I approached the first gate there was a Transit van parked in front of it blocking the entrance. After repeated 'Hellos' no one came forward to admit ownership. Pretty miffed I reversed back, and headed towards my final lane of the day.

Lane 3

TW2 - SD3499-01

ATUK - U5015

Almost opposite to Smithy Brow is the lane heading towards Knipe Fold or Arnside Intake.

The first time I drove this lane it was fun and gnarly with some decent large rocks and drop-offs to negotiate, then it was graded and made easier to traverse for other users, so I reckoned it would be a cracking nondamaging final lane for the trail-hardened Trailhawk.

Usually I start at the east side and work my way west, but as I was at the opposite end this would have to do.

It begins really quite narrow with encroaching vegetation on both sides, so in summer be prepared for a few extra go-faster stripes on the side of your 4x4. The ground is solid with the odd boulder to drive over, but finding grip is never a problem.

It isn’t long before you reach a large sweeping u-turn after which there’s a modest incline with loose stone underfoot, and it was just as I was reaching the top a couple of mountain bikers approached from above and said that a 4x4 had broken down further along the lane, the owner and mates were trying their best to fix it, but it was totally blocked with a few other 4x4s in the convoy.

With this in mind, and not knowing how far along they were, and if I could get past, I decided there was no point in carrying on and figured I’d better reverse back down and find somewhere to perform a 10-point turn and head for home.

So, after a week with the Renegade Trailhawk 4xe what are my thoughts?

I really quite enjoyed it. It handles well on-road, and is even quite fun to throw around corners. Off-road it’s guaranteed to surprise a lot of people, and there were a lot of mixed reactions on social media with comments of appreciation and acknowledgement from existing owners, to the negatives, probably from folk who’ve never actually driven one.

Apart from my own buffoonery the Renegade didn’t let me down and drove wherever I pointed it, and yes, there were some rather unpleasant sounding scrapes from underneath, but I wasn’t being easy on it.

On the inside it’s really quite spacious for those up front, and there’s a decent amount of boot space, too. The Renegade is equipped with more than 60 safety and security features including full-length front and rear curtain-side airbags, a driver's knee airbag, side airbags mounted on the front seats, and advanced multi-stage front airbags. Then there’s traffic sign recognition, speed assist, lane assist, emergency braking and so on.

With the 4xe Trailhawk’s starting price at £38,100, you get a plug-in hybrid with 240bhp that’s able to deliver up to 26 miles of driving on its battery alone, yet still have the 4x4 ability that you come to expect from a Jeep. more at » jeep.co.uk/jeep-renegade/plug-in

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