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- #61
Mate, that's crock, and you know it, I am talking about pulling dead weight here, dead weight takes momentum, the dead weight of a trailer you pull at low speed the trailer wheels do not turn they drag, at low speed your vehicle digs holes as the 500kg behind you drags along.
And Big Red is hit at speed, its the momentum that gets you to the top, yes you lower your tyre pressure but if you don't have the HP and momentum per ton of weight you don't make it. I have never and I say never seen anyone drive to the base of big red, stop, select first gear and reach the summit? and there would not be a STANDARD 40 that I know of that would reach the top of big red let along drag a trailer over the top un-aided.
Now, you cannot navigate the beach at high tide with a two wheel drive car because the front wheels are pushed thru the sand causing the back wheels to spin and loose traction (lowered tyre pressure or not) unless your diving at 80kph and use brut force and the momentum to keep you mobile. In four wheel your fine, then when you add a trailer your back in the same position that 2 wheels are being either pushed or dragged, and I see no one driving slow pulling a heavy trailer or caravan at high tide, they either avoid the high tide or you get out of there way because there using there momentum.
A good 4 wheel will always drive itself out of soft sand, BUT not up hill, you have to reverse down. Its the momentum of you weight that assists!
I was brought up on the beach and lower tyre pressure on wheels that are not engaged does not help, you would be better off placing snow ski's under the front wheels, add a 1/2 a ton of weight in a trailer and stop in 12" powder ( wet or dry) and see how far you get, if you don't end up in China, then your moving at 1kph, bouncing up & down like an idiot with everybody looking at you because your back wheels have formed a 12" wall of sand in front of the trailer wheels which are not turning but being dragged.
And I drive a X5 on the beach with 20" wheels (run flats), at high tide, what do you think I drop the tyre pressures, (there is no road to my house only beach access), I can drive up the beach, turn around come back and go up again and still beat any 40, its momentum & HP. If I pull up on soft sand I pull up slowly, reverse to create a launch pad and again get momentum.
I am not saying lowering your tyre pressure does not help but all wheels must be driving and with a trailer is where your problem lies, so if you have two wheels not being driven you need momentum & HP to create momentum. This is the point I am making, so dead weight, HP, momentum and a standard 40 does not compute. If you add momentum to a 40 your need HP but the 40 suspension cannot handle this combination, hence you adapt the suspension to handle the terrain and the extra HP to tow dead weight.
This is why I have coils, the beach is 60km long, the speed limit is 80kph, trailer or no trailer I want to get to the other end and at high tide not take all day to get there, a leaf sprung 40 does not cut it, but a coil sprung, fibreglass sport tub 40 with a rebuilt 12HT with a full time Lokka in the rear does, and I don't need a 3 point harness to keep me in my seat?
but I can't come to the table with springs being springs. Can't remember where on here I saw it but the quote was something like 'Leaf springs will never be as smooth as coils because the locating rod and the spring are one and the same. To achieve true suspension, the spring must be a separate item to the locating rod.' or something along those lines. I never thought about it like that until that point. I drive a leaf sprung middy and after two years I'm now finalising my research for a front coil conversion using 80s stuff.
