Thursday, August 24, 2006

4-Wheeling Basics: COPING WITH MUD


By David Lovejoy, extracted from Difflock.

Mud varies so much in so many places, sometimes it is a beneficial surface and at others a blessed nightmare, this is also why no one tyre type can be said to be the best.

Remember, always Stop & Check before you got stuck in the mud! Put on your boots and walk around in the mud. Most small and medium sized four wheel drives exert a similar ground pressure to the human foot (some even less with wider tyres). So if you get stuck walking, what is going to happen to your vehicle?

Look for a route through, gauge the situation and ask questions (people think you are mad anyway so talking to yourself matters little) like "do I need to drive through here, can I go around?" Always remember Tread Lightly - in other words try to make as little impact on the microenvironment as possible. Huge 'rooster tails' of liquid mud, twenty feet in the air, make for good anti-off road public relations and in the long run don't exactly aid to drive train longevity.

When you have no choice but to go through (say, for example its almost closing time or your tea is on the table) pick your route using the following criteria:

  1. Remember mud is like a city, it doesn't just start, it has its slightly soft suburbs and a potentially bottomless center, with varying districts in between.
  2. Stay out of ruts deeper than the height to the bottom of your diff casing to avoid bellying out the vehicle.
  3. Avoid mud or water you don't know the depth of; it's a world of trouble.
  4. Always start off your approach in a suitable gear i.e. one you can change down from if you need to (deep mud saps power like a thick blancmange).
  5. Do not 'floor' the throttle, use gentle amounts of power - too much momentum reduces the amount of control you have over the vehicle and generally you just end up stuck further away from hard ground, thus further from easy recovery by the friend you brought in the last episode.
  6. When you start to lose traction immediately do two things, feather the throttle (lightly) and move the steering wheel slowly side to side from lock to lock.
  7. When you grind to a wheel spinning halt don't just sit there spinning, dip the clutch, select reverse and slowly and gently attempt to reverse out of the situation you are in - remain calm and collected, remember, despite all those people taking photos and laughing, you still have your pride.
  8. When reverse has no motive result STOP, now is the time for recovery - once again remain calm and collected, this makes you appear very cool in front of your public :)

Picture shown is Ruby, courtesy of Jejelogy.Com