yep.... large diameter skinny wheels and good clearance , go any where , almost ..
As the roads in Australia get better and better our "need" for 4wd goes up and up.
Select to expand quoteDezman said...
Skinny wheels dig deep.
Surprisingly, as long as you know what you are doing, cheese cutters can get you almost everywhere.
You don't really need megabuck muddies, bling rims and huge horsepower to get around.
Len Beadel used a bog stock early landrover, running skinny street crossplies to survey the Gunbarrel Highway and many other tracks.
Now to use those same tracks everyone "needs" overkill 4wd's and tyres.
Prior to ww2, a British embassy worker based in Egypt used a heavily overloaded Model A Ford for his hobby of desert navigation.
Back then the maps were just blank sheets of paper.
During WW2, the same bloke [Vladimir Peniakof] had his own army unit nicknamed "Popski's Private Army"- similar to the SAS.
The PPA were issued 4wd vehicles, and Popski was amazed at how easy it was for crews to get bogged in 4wd's- when he had no trouble crossing the same areas in his model A.
The trick with skinny tyres is they [usually] sink in deep enough to contact firmer ground, and being skinny they have more weight so can get traction.
Fat tyres have greater surface area - so better floatation, but less weight - so they will often sit in the slush or soft dirt and spin.
Biggest problem these days is most drivers are in too much of a hurry and don't take the time to look where they are about to drive.
[on or off road]
stephen
Could that be a pre-differential car, and if so would that have been an advantage in the mud?
Maybe not if the mud was the same under both wheels. But even if they had diffs in those days I'm sure they knew about locking them up for a promotional movie.
The best way to tackle a tricky obstacle is to drive around it.
Most people nowadays with their high horsepower 4wd’s and huge mud tyres need to go looking for the boggy sections to get into trouble.
