Hi Everyone, i thought i'd share with you all my long week end in Robe S.A. What a magnificent place. Good for the soul. Robe is a great little town that comes alive during the holidays and the Oct LWE is no different. It is a great springboard to give you access to some great offroading too. well worth the effort getting there. A UHF and sand flags is a pretty good idea around here too.
i learned a few things about driving the Nav in sandy conditions too. being a frequent flyer in sand i thought it'd be a breeze and i'd be doing my fair share of recovering others. sadly this was not the case. i was rescued twice; and once was by a *ahem* automatic Rav4. how embarrassing! but, those things are actually quite good in sand. light and no need to worry about choosing the right gear.
so i learned;
- light truck rated BFG ATs need to be let down to 15 PSI to get a big enough footprint to be effective. 20 PSI = No Good!
- The Nav is heavy, so you really need to power through turns (in sand) to have any steering. this was my undoing on both occasions. carrying speed and needing to turn hard i backed off. "big mistake". Nav ventured into small sand hills and got me stuck. i could reverse but couldn't climb the exit of the beach (insert Rav4 here *Doh*).
- reversing off dunes, the nav is long and the front wants to swing around and push the car sideways. this requires you to accelerate quite fast to straighten the front back in line. that can be a scary maneuver but a few goes and all is good.
anyway, here's a few snaps and a short clip to give you an idea of what to expect.
[YT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DLnf46eesA[/YT]
(few more pics to follow.)
Planning a trip back there in January 2011, if anyone's interested.
Hope you like it.
i learned a few things about driving the Nav in sandy conditions too. being a frequent flyer in sand i thought it'd be a breeze and i'd be doing my fair share of recovering others. sadly this was not the case. i was rescued twice; and once was by a *ahem* automatic Rav4. how embarrassing! but, those things are actually quite good in sand. light and no need to worry about choosing the right gear.
so i learned;
- light truck rated BFG ATs need to be let down to 15 PSI to get a big enough footprint to be effective. 20 PSI = No Good!
- The Nav is heavy, so you really need to power through turns (in sand) to have any steering. this was my undoing on both occasions. carrying speed and needing to turn hard i backed off. "big mistake". Nav ventured into small sand hills and got me stuck. i could reverse but couldn't climb the exit of the beach (insert Rav4 here *Doh*).
- reversing off dunes, the nav is long and the front wants to swing around and push the car sideways. this requires you to accelerate quite fast to straighten the front back in line. that can be a scary maneuver but a few goes and all is good.
anyway, here's a few snaps and a short clip to give you an idea of what to expect.
[YT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DLnf46eesA[/YT]
(few more pics to follow.)
Planning a trip back there in January 2011, if anyone's interested.
Hope you like it.
