Jeep drives down a steep ravine - GIF

[Jon]

Jeep drives down a steep ravine.



Previously:

autobiography of a Jeep
Jeep CJ-5 Go-For-Digger
Chainlink extreme 4x4
The Sherp Russian 4x4 vehicle

[Ralphxyz]

Insane to say the less.

[Frank S]

aside from the camera angle making the grade seem much steeper than it was noticeable by how much the front of the jeep dropped just as he was disembarking from the final rock. Still the grade must have been greater than 30 ° possibly approaching 40° at times. A 30 ° slope translates to a 60% grade pretty much the limit on most off road vehicles ability to climb or descend without the assistance of being wedged in a grove such as the tires were on the jeep even being wedged an 85% grade (40°) would be a feat nearing on impossibility. I said nearing the impossible, as there are several rock crawlers with documented proof to not only descending but ascending grades well above 173% (60°) angles for short distances.
All and all I say this guy is a genuine rock crawler

[MeJasonT]

My spidy senses tell me this is still impressive driving, not all 4 wheel drives stand up to the name.
I got my Honda CRV stuck in true comical fashion, i got blocked in a car park by my neighbouring business unit tenant - the only way out i could see was to drive down a foot path to an adjoining car park. The barrier on this car park was locked and there was a mound of earth at either side of the barrier, i attempted to drive over the hump and in true comical fashion got stuck via the belly pan rocking forwards and backwards. Perhaps giving it welly to attempt the jump was a huge mistake.

[Frank S]

Since I have never been much into cars, I only own trucks or SUV's based on truck platforms I had to look up a picture of what a Honda CRV was, and yes I would say your car is much better suited for hard smooth pavement or the occasional graded dirt road. and mildly inclement weather. By the same token one would not want to try any even mildly serious off road antics in any dealer stock SUV Just like the $ wheel drive pickups the farmers have around where I live are only good for getting around on their range areas and fields never for trying to traverse an arroyo or flooded creak without being modified.
Television sales ads often show new vehicles being put through horrendously severe conditions, steep climb angles crossing deep uneven arroyos at odd angles jumping over large piles of dirt and so on but what they never show is how many vehicles are damaged or destroyed in making the commercials. One thing they absolutely don't want anyone to know is for all extreme stunts the air bags are removed or disabled for safety concerns.
SO if you tried to jump your vehicle over a dirt pile consider yourself lucky if you didn't end up with a broken nose or worse from a deploying air bag.
My oldest daughter had hers broken trying to do much the same thing as you described doing in your Honda

[Loose Ctrl]

I used to build 4x4's like that back in the early to mid 90's. Most were Jeep CJs or Wagoneers from the 70's and early 80's. We did a few Ford and Chevy trucks. It was great fun to see them out in the woods being used to climb rock faces or climb down them. Tires are the most important part along with having extremely low gearing in the transfer case or using double transfer cases to get down a cliff like that. Rear steer helps but it wasn't something we got into much.

[Frank S]

Loose Ctrl, did you marry the front part of a pair of NP 205's or use 1 205 and 1 203 for the marriage to get a double transfer? A guy I knew was doing something like that to get a duel rear out put for 6 wheel drive

[Frank S]

I couldn't help but notice this jeep had rear steer but ridged axles. So many hard core rock crawlers are now going with full independent suspensions with extremely long travel which does many things first it allows for better control of camber even for on board independent camber control allowing them to maintain more tire to surface contact. Think of that as giving them ability to drive inside of a cylinder or over a sphere and have full cross section of the tread of all 4 tires in contact at all times with the proper air pressure.which can be selected by the driver on the fly as well. Another plus is the ability to have a lower center of gravity while maintaining center vehicle ground clearance

[Loose Ctrl]

Loose Ctrl, did you marry the front part of a pair of NP 205's or use 1 205 and 1 203 for the marriage to get a double transfer? A guy I knew was doing something like that to get a duel rear out put for 6 wheel drive

It's been over 22 years since I was into building 4x4 vehicles. Going from memory, we used the upper front half of a 205, had an adapter machined to mate the shaft to a full 205, and built a plate and tube coupler to hold the T cases together. We did some other stuff with the Borg Warner 24x series of T cases. I don't remember all the details. There's plenty of info around the web on the subject. We were just following the lead of the other big 4x4 shops and DIY'ers that were featured in magazines. Most of our builds got started after a customer brought in a mag or video and asked us about building them the same doubler set up. To be honest, if a person has the resources to DIY a double T case, it may be worth it. If it has to be farmed out, an Atlas or other aftermarket T case would probably be cheaper in the long run. I remember our first double T case took two weeks between finding parts, farming out machine shop work, and patching it all together. A few guys simple used a divorced 205 behind whatever T case their vehicle came with. It made for a really long driveline with a really short rear drive shaft and crazy long front drive shaft. It was mostly done on extended/crew cab long bed pickups and full size four door SUVs like Suburbans and Wagoneers.

[Loose Ctrl]

I couldn't help but notice this jeep had rear steer but ridged axles. So many hard core rock crawlers are now going with full independent suspensions with extremely long travel which does many things first it allows for better control of camber even for on board independent camber control allowing them to maintain more tire to surface contact. Think of that as giving them ability to drive inside of a cylinder or over a sphere and have full cross section of the tread of all 4 tires in contact at all times with the proper air pressure.which can be selected by the driver on the fly as well. Another plus is the ability to have a lower center of gravity while maintaining center vehicle ground clearance

I'm not up on the 4x4 trends. Here in the mountains where I live, eveyone drops IRS and IFS in favor of one ton axles. My plan is to build a full floating high pinion 9 inch axle for the rear of my truck and high pinion 509 for the front. A 509/609 is using a 9 inch axle and installing the steering knuckles from either a Dana 50 from a Ford F250 (509) or Dana 60 from a F350/450 (609). IFS and IRS use really weak constant velocity joints instead of U joints on the axles. They are weak in OE form. However, I am sure that aftermarket companies have master the art of making them stronger. Also, IFS and IRS only allows flex at one corner, which can cause the vhicle to drag over obsticals. They lack articulation compared to a straight axle. Again, some company somewhere has probably over come this problem.

This pic shows the possible problems with idependent suspension compared to solid axle.