Terrain


The type of terrain you are going to be going on is an important part of off roading. Every different terrain has a right way to cross it and many wrong ways. Unlike the urban jungle that is the city and safety of paved road ways where you are unlikely to get stuck the off road scene has a variety of different terrain and surfaces that you need to adjust for and be aware of. The basic few that I would like to cover are the desert, mud, and rocks. Each with their own unique features and technical differences.

Desert

The first one I would like to discuss is the desert, a large sand filled expanse with large dunes and a hot sun. The surface is sand which is probably one of the most difficult surfaces to grasp. Of all of the surfaces sand has a very low coefficient of friction and is very easy to get stuck in if you do not have to proper gear. To get through sand you need lots of power and some wide smooth or paddle like tires. Using wide tires on the sand allows you to keep your vehicle above the surface and prevents you from sinking down in because unlike mud sand is generally deep and offers hard surface below to grab traction. You are exerting less force per square inch the wider your tires are. A soft and low suspension is also key when blasting through the desert because it is filled with bumps and dips that if you are going fast when hitting them you could be flipped very easily. By keeping the center of mass low and the suspension soft and absorbing the bumps can be deflected by the suspension and with a lower COM the likelihood of tipping is much less.


Desert
(Taken From: http://www.menziesmotorsports.com/?page_id=82)


Mud

The most popular and least complicated places to go is a mud pit. With a solid ground below and soft deformable mud up top its easy and generally cheap to go "mudding". The coefficient of friction is low but with large big tread tires you can find some friction in the mess to pull you through with easy. The body lift is very popular here because it is a very cheap way to make room for the larger tires you need to get though the mud. Suspension is not very important as you are going low speeds through a pit of mud so just about anything that will give you the clearance for bigger tires will do the job just fine. The most important part about mud is having a winch or a friend with a vehicle and a rope to pull you out when you inevitably get stuck doing something dumb.


Mudding
(Taken from: http://www.topix.com/album/detail/chicago/JDIGG7RINMMPTBB1)


Rocks

Rocks are a very technical off roading terrain because on top of having to get to proper tires and a good lift you have to have a winch and be smart about "picking your lines". Rock crawling as it is called requires you to have large narrow sticky tires to get plenty of traction on the slippery smooth rocks. A tall and flexible suspension system is also needed as unlike the other surfaces, rocks are tall and very uneven so having a suspension system that can keep your tires on the ground even at odd angles is very important to prevent roll overs and loss of traction. The winch in this case is used in many cases to keep the vehicle the right side up and pulling the front or rear of the vehicle in the direction you want to travel. Finally and most importantly picking your lines is very important because you want to select a path that will allow you to keep your tires on the ground and not become too much of a problem.


Crawler
(Taken from: http://vitalministries.org/my_devotions/the-hard-road/#.UpaqkOLMqrt)





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