What factors make Off Road Ability?

@scalman, you should watch John Cadogan's YouTube about off road driving and airing down.
But he's an automotive engineer, so actually understands what he's talking about.

I think that this is the one.

 
i will see it thanks, but then others dont understand what they talking about ? heavy cars air down is one thing light cars is other thing , then it comes to surface, then what tires there are, but air down is allways helps , could do even more then lockers.
as i live where i do i watch more about areas similar to mine and about cars similar to mine in weight and such. what is needed to go off road in australia doesnt needed in here , or it needed diff things , mods , diff style of driving and such, but i watch everything i can that is more real life practical usage, tested . still doesnt mean i believe all , but some things i learn sure, some not. all things that goes into modifications with large amount money is just not interested for me.
p.s. didint find anything interesting in that video. there is never just one answer to some problem , as it depends on many things.
 
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@scalman Sorry that you found it uninteresting.

I would have thought that his points about airing down, to what degree, and airing back up, were of universal application.

His opinion is that of a professional automotive engineer, not just 'some opinion on the 'internet', and it relates to a real life occurrence that happened to one of those people out there who did not understand tyre engineering and design, and design pressures for real life use.
 
i mean real life tests are interesting , you show how far same car drive on sand lets say on full psi in tires and then in half or even lower and difference is right there. same goes for snow , mud, even hard surfaces is better even on highway tires just air down them some. but i didint do that myself al ot with my ko2 because i kinda bever drove off road for so long that it would be needed. so for me i still need to do more off road , maybe change car in general for that activity, or at least fix mine first so it could be capable at least some. now its just good for shoping nothing more.
so for me that was just waste of tires to use them most time on asphalt only , well for most time at least. so you pay for good tires but never use them properly then you dont need to buy them rly. i still thinking what im gonna do with this mess that i have now with this car. problem with engine problem with gearbox and no catalysts so it wont pass MOT test. so everything need to be fixed change , bought new. most things i messed up myself. i had proper good catalysts they where fine there. but thats off topic here, sorry.
 
so new rubicon is still best of best from factory ? Rubicon vs new Defender vs couple yrs old Prado on snow, only prado on snow tires.
that low range on rubicon just looks out of this world when compare to others.
Defender had largest ground clearance as no longer hard axles but that didnt helped him much there as it got smallest flex travel now as well
 
Yh those crawlers are amazing no need much torque no too much wheel spin it just looks easy from side and its safer i would think on crawling low gear its not using too much fuel as well as engine doesnt get much work there. Just all wins. Not that comfy on highways maybe , sure though newest models are kinda ok there too.
 
Veganpotter said:
@scalman I'd love to have even 1/3 of the crawl ratio as the Bronco on our Subies
Click to expand...
but then maybe we would snap those oem axles because of that.

anyone had , drove here one of those beasts Range Rover P38 v8 petrol or BMW diesel models ? they looks and sound so good, very comfy inside too, and they sold so cheap here.. must be something there with that price then ? hard to maintain and expencive then ? but man they can go, even 2.5 DSE diesel models.
 
@scalman for sure, that would need upgraded too. With so many modded subies, I'm still in disbelief that there isn't a decent, aftermarket CV. None are as good as OEM. Something that can better take a 3" lift, on top of increased HP builds
 
well those axles dont like angles , sure there are some tuned ones more expencive and such but then there is custom long travel suspensions too, but its crazy money, is it worth it , needed ?
 
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@scalman I'd pay double for replacements when I need them IF I knew they could handle spinning in the air with a locker, and making contact with the ground without breaking with anything less than 300hp(I'm not modding my engine but it would be nice to know it can handle that). I don't have a big lift though, and don't want one unless they were airbags. I'd love a 1-4", bagged lift without needing subframe spacers.
 
Sure i woupld pay too for some tunes like for 5eat gearbox or change torque converter there or smt so it would have lower first gear. I saw some did some modifications with torque converter and vtd there on turbo engine i think. That would be cool to try.
 
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@scalman I just have a 4eat. But I messaged two of the bulletproof rebuilders in the US about getting a 30% lower first, 15% lower second, and 5-10% higher 4th gear. Both said they can build the transmission but I'd need a TCM to be programmed with that gearing it it just won't shift out first. I messaged Cobb Racing and they won't do it. Really disappointing. The torque converter is not so hard to change though. They have low and high rpm torque converters for 4eats that work fine. I guess there isn't enough interest to convince a tuning company to do this without major cash thrown at them. But the actual transmission build would only be a little more expensive than their standard builds at $3500 and $4200 US
 
@Veganpotter yh you can change that torque converter and modify vtd in gearbox like this guy did, i mean to spin those monster wheels you need a lot torque there, looks very cool
 
well sure but that was his test too , like to see where it goes whats limits , what brakes, why would you want to do that in real situation dig down with rear wheels. those axles for sure very thin stuff there not designed to do that, then again if you upgrade that next weakest thing will snap or brake, maybe diff . so its worse then. maybe its never ending story then, as you upgrade one thing , something else brakes and so on. just buy oldschool 4x4 then and experiment with that.
 
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The axles on an XT are 1mm bigger in diameter than the ones on the N/A SG MkII. The WRX axles are 1 mm bigger again.

Those are very large increases in axle diameter.

If you want to do Landcruiser stuff, buy a Landcruiser. And not a cheap imitation like a Jeep ...
And definitely not an off-road sports car like a Forester.
 
bronco sport vs forester
that crawling speed control is very nice thing. what before was mainly toyota thing now can be on smaller SUV's as well, very nice.

never knew tribeca lifted can look so cool...

now thats some cool forester going on those massive diagonals
that must be proper mods on that forester so it could climb that without much wheel spin, lockers maybe ?
 
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@Ratbag are the WRX axles a direct fit on an SG? Even if you're driving reasonable off-road trails, and being careful, OEM axles should be fine. But there is always metal fatique as a factor. I'd like that to be less of a worry too
 
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