What factors make Off Road Ability?

Black ice is indeed something you want to avoid. I’ve come across it in Tasmania and I didn’t stop until the road flattened out. Actually it was more of a driveway. I also came across it driving from Thredbo to Khancoban. I was going slow, trying to keep the lateral loads off the car. So when I did hit the ice, it was more manageable.

Looking at the video, it seems Subaru have made progress by not restricting the throttle as much. Whether or not they’ve got it right for other conditions will be interesting, but there is hope.
 
ABFoz said:
I think it's a good sign though that many motor journalists tend to like the SK, considering that most of them almost got a heart attack when they heard that Subaru went with the CVT. Now they are praising the transmission and comparing it with CVTs from other makes. Cheers.
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Funny thing is, Subaru have been doing CVT for decades, we just didn't get or hear about those cars here, although I do remember my dad talking them up in the early 90's as being the transmission of the future.
He was more than a bit of a car nut. should have been a mechanical engineer, but ended up being a human mechanic instead of a car mechanic. Still, he made some improvements on fixing the bits that keep breaking in humans, so that's not all bad.

Dagnabit. There's some relevence here somewhere..
 
NachaLuva said:
Yes I agree, this is a global trend. Offroad vehicles are becoming more reliant on electronic systems & less reliant on mechanical grip. This is fine if those programs have been designed with your conditions in mind, but if not you get stuck. There's also more to go wrong, esp in water crossings (keep Jeeps away from water lol) and in the Outback where those corrugations play havoc with anything that isn't designed super tough
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I agree with this. The electronics can only do so much in technical and sticky situations.Also, the more electronics/parts, the more points of concern. I wonder how long the newer vehicles from any manufacturer will last considering they have at least 5 computers running simultaneously. Time will tell, I guess.

Ben Up North said:
Funny thing is, Subaru have been doing CVT for decades, we just didn't get or hear about those cars here, although I do remember my dad talking them up in the early 90's as being the transmission of the future.He was more than a bit of a car nut. should have been a mechanical engineer, but ended up being a human mechanic instead of a car mechanic. Still, he made some improvements on fixing the bits that keep breaking in humans, so that's not all bad.Dagnabit. There's some relevence here somewhere..
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The 1985 Justy came with the CVT and it might be using a Van Doorne. The Subaru kei cars, R1s and R2s came with the Lineartronic and they seem to be doing well.

I recently talked to a CVT specialist/parts wholesaler here about maintenance and reliability of that type of transmission in general and he said that, of course, different ones from different manufacturers have their own weaknesses but with a maintenance schedule every 40,000km and no overloading, any CVT can last long. I was surprised that he put Subaru's Lineartronic slightly above Toyota's CVT in terms of reliability/dependability. He mentioned the Subaru TSBs about the earlier ones and he said that the issues can easily be mitigated.

The biggest enemy of CVTs is wrong oil, according to him, and this came during the planetary auto to CVT transition period. Many mechanics still put ATF in them instead of proper CVT fluid. Ouch! When the transmission breaks, they blame the weakness of the design, not the fact that they used the wrong type of fluid. Even mechanics from dealerships had to retrain with maintenance as resistance and pressure testing must always be done on every service.

His biggest annoyance regarding CVTs is the use of the weaker and cheaper input shaft bearings causing the infamous whine on many makes. It is a very cheap component but replacement costs a lot and gives owners a lot of headaches. Cheers.
 
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NachaLuva said:
[MENTION=15721]scalman[/MENTION], I'm interested why you say this. Did you find the 2nd mode didn't work in slushy snow?
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i saw russians did test in snow. and it dont work in snow at all. any of those mods , they both turning off as previous x mode did at some speed. so if your wheel spin in snow and reaches that speed x mode goes off , with that makes your car stuck in that place. i duno why of how but they test it in snow tried go to small snow hill where you need momentum and it didint worked at all
in this video whatch from 4:23 how it failed go up hill , just because it tirned x mode off for some reason
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1fQlbSVwjg"]??? ??? ????????? ????????? ???????? ?????? ????????! - YouTube[/ame]
i mean subaru was famous on snow if not in other place snow was the one that it was best ... but not anymore, now its x mode for your aunty or mom
 
[MENTION=15721]scalman[/MENTION] in that video, at 4.23 looks like driver error, he came off the throttle & didn't give the XMode a chance.

Also, he's still on 18" tyres! I don't know if you can run 16" wheels on the new SK Foz but you can definitely run 17s which would be a lot better than 18". And what tyre pressure is he on? All these things matter & is why I'm always so suspicious of videos like this that show where something doesn't work well. It's so easy to make it look bad

At 7.43 he stays on the throttle but that hill is looking pretty messed up by now. The fact the he makes it up in the end on 18s shows that the XMode really does work

Unfortunately I can't understand what he's saying but that doesn't really matter, results are what's important
 
well it shows x mode in work not about driver yes x mode should handle all this you press pedal to metal and wait for result. and it doesnt work if its turning off in middle of hill.
unless they fake it all, which i doubt it they testing all cars on same place same normal tires and same snow and other cars perform differently thats all point , they tested last yer model and 2 yrs old one and they know how those performed giving same situations, and now it cant drive on snow.
he said he tried on snow mode on x mode and on deep snow too. thats those 2 modes nothing esle is in there. and car cant drift on snow anymore because of that too , older model could drift on snow at least. i get it more safety every year , but they dont give us chanse to turn all that off anymore.
 
If you want to have a look at some off-road ability, check out the following link. It's a long video but you can ff a lot of it. The setting is the Meryla State Forest in south NSW and if I'm not mistaken I've seen video of Subarus on some of these tracks.
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEW-xuBumcY"]Wild 4WD Weekender - NSW South Coast ! MENTAL Rock Steps, Ruts & Mudholes - YouTube[/ame]
 
again same russian channel with couple foresters going against real 4x4 offroaders modified and some other SUV's . for me its allways more interesting to see so many different cars in different weight classes going same tracks. and because its wet snow and mud, subarus just love those kind stuff . still when your ground clearance is not enough not much you could do, and hard axles can hang even faster then those subarus in some places.
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xS-Vye-fDMI&t=670s"]??? ????????? Freelander, Hover ? Grand Cherokee ?? ????????. ???? ????? ??????? ?????? ?? ???? - YouTube[/ame]
not sure why people still going to those places with full low hanging bumpers then braking them

i mean why people want to buy 2 new bumpers ?? first time i saw that i have this problem i fixed it. duno just remove it , they not so hard to remove are they ?
1uRrHlth.jpg


for that reason i like how some newer model bumpers outback and forester have those lower parts as separate removable , so just remove that and you dont need cuting , like 2011 and some later outbacks have those good lines so if you remove that black plastic part you will have kinda offroady bumper
2010_subaru_outback_wagon_36r-limited_fq_oem_1_500.jpg

this would be easy to make offroady with some lift and that lower part gone. its allready have that straigh line.same with rear that black part come off and you have less chance to hook on to bumper
 
That video from Meryla State Forest reminds me so much of Lerdederg/Wombat just outside Melbourne. Have to be very careful, some of these bogholes are big enough to swallow a full size 4wd. They get dug out by fourbies with 37" & 38" muddies sitting there spinning the wheels in 2wd
 

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Here's the video of it. Would not like to do this on road tyres!!

https://youtu.be/3umOu6Hh7VA
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3umOu6Hh7VA"]Boghole in Lerdederg State Park - Subaru Forester - YouTube[/ame]

EDIT: I still can't post videos like [MENTION=15721]scalman[/MENTION] & [MENTION=15642]Beachworm[/MENTION] did, what am I doing wrong? It just shows the link, not the video
 
I can check out why it's not working for you later - gotta go to the "drill and fill" doctor and his "suck spit" assistant right now.
 
test: copy URL from location bar and post
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3umOu6Hh7VA"]Boghole in Lerdederg State Park - Subaru Forester - YouTube[/ame]

Test 2: right clickon video, select "Copy Youtube URL" and post
https://youtu.be/3umOu6Hh7VA
There's your problem, copying the youtube url from within the video doesn't work
 
Thanks Ben
[MENTION=2617]NachaLuva[/MENTION] I have added the url to your post so by using "edit" you can see what it contains.
 
How good is that slow mo tho [emoji23]

Cheers

1WD


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Perfect :thumbsup:
 
Thanks, hopefully this one works. A very technical climb on Ractcliffe Tr, also in Lerderderg SP

Big ruts on the left so have to keep right, then cross to far left to miss another big rut, making the corner very tight, then don't freak out at the bank leaping out at you, then up the rock ledge

First difficult climb I've done in about 4 years, really miss this kind of offroading

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuSFL4LEJJ0"]Ractcliffe Tr Lerderderg State Park, Subaru Forester 01 - YouTube[/ame]
 
Yeah that was a really good climb! The video makes it seem so much faster than it really was.

Cheers

Bennie
 
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