Sayyaaf
Autotechnik Ace
- Messages
- 5,246
- Name
- Mohamed
Hello guys,
what really courged me to write this, the endless discussion regarding the X6 off roading ability, of course off road can me differrent terrians but I guess sand is one of those and it is a tricky one. Unfortunelty when I did go off roading in my gone-but-not-forgotten X6 I didn't take photos. But here is some old pictures of what we've been doing each and every weekend since the temprature dropped to 20's.
First of all, the contenders: (one missing though - a Nissan Patrol)
At the beginning, all my friends were making fun of the GMC being well known for unreliable histoy plus it is the lowest car in the bunch. The car has issues on-road/off road and it shakes like hell beyond 140KM/h. It was a reciepe for disaster. It had a very soft suspension, engine with a torque curve at the end of the power chart (it starts after 4500 rpm and ends close to 6000 rpms) which is difficult to handle in such situations.
The trip started with 4 members, me and 3 of my frinds. None of us really had experience in off roading and dune bashing. But most of us, did it before either once or twice and we barely remember how we did it.
So we started to learn and experience the sad, of course we had visitors either friends or strangers and they were a welcomed addition to the crew and actually became part of it after few weeks.
First car got stuck, the most capable one ! The landcruiser ! It was fully loaded with Diff locks, low range gearing and high suspension setting. Of course what mattered here the driver, first of all and most important thing, you have to know what kind of sand you are dealing with. If too soft or hard. Being soft most of the time and when its not raining is the default condition, so we had check our tyre pressure. Yes tyre pressure will make you go places without even pulling the AWD lever. Usually 15 PSI would work very well but here you have to be careful going to a petrol station for a tyre fill up since it can be very risky and car can easily spin around. The idea is simple, when deflate the tyres, it becomes wider which means more grip on the sand, the tyre becomes softer like you are travelling on a jelly and it does not dive into soft sand.
At 15 PSI, you litteraly dance on the sand. So low profile tyres are really useless here since the amount of air is limited and amount of rubber between tyre and rim itself is very small.
When the landcruiser got stuck, I was terrified, I know my car is less capable and I thought it was my turn next. But before getting stuck, I lowered my tyre pressure and kept going. The surprising thing, Is that, my GMC was our only rescue vehicle at that day ! the car never got stuck although being low and the torque really kick up late, but it turns out to be very off road friendly, because , all of us who drove it, we drove it carefully with less confident in he car so as if we were challenging it and it worked. The others were too confidenet with their cars and got stuck from the first obstacle.
So when the LC got stuck, we setup our tent, our own mini helipad
and let up the fire.
And some started having fun
So all in all, lesson learned, is that not only the car that matters, its the driver that can take it places our get stuck in the easiest obstcle or sand dune.
So, for such terrian what you really need,
- AWD, with low gear range (Not a must but helpful). 4LO is used if the sand is really soft and you can't gain momentum in 4HI since the gearing is much taller.
- Differential locks: At that day, only 1 car had it and it was useless, because the driver got stuck from the middle of the car and tyres are barely touching the grounding, so a small shovel did the job
Tyre profile and pressure: The bigger the rubber, the better. Moreover, the type of tyre it self, some prefer BF Goodrich that can really splash sand with those rough tyre prints.
[image no longer available]myimages/BFG%20mud.jpg
Some prefer sand tyres which are almost print-less with just straight threads
[image no longer available]Product/product_images/s/en_s__112.JPG
But personally I prefer the all weather all terrian kind of tyres that look normal with normal prints for onroad/offroad.
- Suspension: Enough ground clearence will help you go places and avoid damaging your front/rear bumper. But the main problem is that you have to know your car capabilities, extremest angles you can clime among other things. A lift kit is always good but that means you are welling to jeopardize the car ride onroad and you need to re enforce your differential, have the engine modded to keep up with the extra weight.
Some accessories you might need:
Heavy duty robs.
Sand channels (small pieces of heavy-duty rubber than can be placed underneath the wheels if sunk in the sand)
Winch: Not a must
Exposed hooks
what really courged me to write this, the endless discussion regarding the X6 off roading ability, of course off road can me differrent terrians but I guess sand is one of those and it is a tricky one. Unfortunelty when I did go off roading in my gone-but-not-forgotten X6 I didn't take photos. But here is some old pictures of what we've been doing each and every weekend since the temprature dropped to 20's.
First of all, the contenders: (one missing though - a Nissan Patrol)
At the beginning, all my friends were making fun of the GMC being well known for unreliable histoy plus it is the lowest car in the bunch. The car has issues on-road/off road and it shakes like hell beyond 140KM/h. It was a reciepe for disaster. It had a very soft suspension, engine with a torque curve at the end of the power chart (it starts after 4500 rpm and ends close to 6000 rpms) which is difficult to handle in such situations.
The trip started with 4 members, me and 3 of my frinds. None of us really had experience in off roading and dune bashing. But most of us, did it before either once or twice and we barely remember how we did it.
So we started to learn and experience the sad, of course we had visitors either friends or strangers and they were a welcomed addition to the crew and actually became part of it after few weeks.
First car got stuck, the most capable one ! The landcruiser ! It was fully loaded with Diff locks, low range gearing and high suspension setting. Of course what mattered here the driver, first of all and most important thing, you have to know what kind of sand you are dealing with. If too soft or hard. Being soft most of the time and when its not raining is the default condition, so we had check our tyre pressure. Yes tyre pressure will make you go places without even pulling the AWD lever. Usually 15 PSI would work very well but here you have to be careful going to a petrol station for a tyre fill up since it can be very risky and car can easily spin around. The idea is simple, when deflate the tyres, it becomes wider which means more grip on the sand, the tyre becomes softer like you are travelling on a jelly and it does not dive into soft sand.
At 15 PSI, you litteraly dance on the sand. So low profile tyres are really useless here since the amount of air is limited and amount of rubber between tyre and rim itself is very small.
When the landcruiser got stuck, I was terrified, I know my car is less capable and I thought it was my turn next. But before getting stuck, I lowered my tyre pressure and kept going. The surprising thing, Is that, my GMC was our only rescue vehicle at that day ! the car never got stuck although being low and the torque really kick up late, but it turns out to be very off road friendly, because , all of us who drove it, we drove it carefully with less confident in he car so as if we were challenging it and it worked. The others were too confidenet with their cars and got stuck from the first obstacle.
So when the LC got stuck, we setup our tent, our own mini helipad
and let up the fire.And some started having fun
So all in all, lesson learned, is that not only the car that matters, its the driver that can take it places our get stuck in the easiest obstcle or sand dune.
So, for such terrian what you really need,
- AWD, with low gear range (Not a must but helpful). 4LO is used if the sand is really soft and you can't gain momentum in 4HI since the gearing is much taller.
- Differential locks: At that day, only 1 car had it and it was useless, because the driver got stuck from the middle of the car and tyres are barely touching the grounding, so a small shovel did the job
Tyre profile and pressure: The bigger the rubber, the better. Moreover, the type of tyre it self, some prefer BF Goodrich that can really splash sand with those rough tyre prints.
[image no longer available]myimages/BFG%20mud.jpg
Some prefer sand tyres which are almost print-less with just straight threads
[image no longer available]Product/product_images/s/en_s__112.JPG
But personally I prefer the all weather all terrian kind of tyres that look normal with normal prints for onroad/offroad.
- Suspension: Enough ground clearence will help you go places and avoid damaging your front/rear bumper. But the main problem is that you have to know your car capabilities, extremest angles you can clime among other things. A lift kit is always good but that means you are welling to jeopardize the car ride onroad and you need to re enforce your differential, have the engine modded to keep up with the extra weight.
Some accessories you might need:
Heavy duty robs.
Sand channels (small pieces of heavy-duty rubber than can be placed underneath the wheels if sunk in the sand)
Winch: Not a must
Exposed hooks
