Driving a softroader in sand article

[team_v]

thanks for the replies... yeah i've read that thread

are there much loose stuff below the car?

would it be a good idea to get some tape and backup anything that is loose looking under the car?

Ideally I would like a TDI automatic model, would this be ok for the offroading? compared to say the manual?

my idea for stockton beach is that because i would only really drive on top of existing tracks that I "should" be ok.

There isn't much loose under the car at all.
Most of the engine has a "protective" piece of ABS plastic covering it held in by several torx head screws.

A TDI Auto would be ideal for softroading.

[NZTiguan]

thanks for the replies... yeah i've read that thread

Ideally I would like a TDI automatic model, would this be ok for the offroading? compared to say the manual?

The auto is actually preferred by a lot of light off-road drivers now because you can't get into trouble with stalling on hills and you can crawl along at very low speed without having to juggle with the clutch (and possible clutch burn-out). I don't have any knowledge of the DSG box in these circumstances however and have heard that it "m ay" not be quite as tractable as it's either "in gear" or "out of gear" rather than having a torque converter that can effectively "slip the clutch" for you. As I say, this is only what I've heard and not from experience and we all know that the DSG in the Tig is the latest and best out there. Will be interested to hear from somebody when a DSG finally gets used off-road.

Cheers

[jcubed]

Forester vs Tiguan

That article is a crock. Having taken the Tig on the beach with 3 large adult passengers. I drove on some very soft sand on the beach specifically to test the Tig I can tell you first hand that it is fine. Drop your tyre pressures nice and low (13psi or so) and don't drive like an idiot. Although I have the offroad pack, I don't think it is all that necessary unless you are in very soft sand and doing lots of turning, stopping and starting. I reckon the clowns that wrote that article had their pressures too high and were driving like tossers. Just my opinion though.

I think this is a fair concern, and I would strongly advocate getting a nice solid bash plate like the one I had made up. With the realtively poor clearance of the Tig I did notice the back plate acted as something of a bulldozer blade smoothing out the lumps in the sand so the rest of the underbody didn't cop a beating.

No. You have an offroad button and an ESP button. You can turn ESP on or off whether the offroad button is activated or not. And when you activate offroad it does nothing to ESP.

I cannot comment on the offroad ability of the Subie, but I can tell you that the Tig is a capable offroader. Its main problem is the poor ground clearnace. It's second major problem is that if you damage it (which is a distinct possibility when offroading) it is more expensive to fix than a Jap vehicle simply because in Australia spare parts for Euro cars are very overpriced.

PS. I have posted up several threads about me taking the Tig offroad, including pics and video's. So do a search through my threads if you want to get some comfort. As Derek pointed out, jjj on the MyTiguan forums has also posted some decent threads and advice on offroading with the Tig. The only other forum member I can point to as being an active offroader with the Tig is jimbomort.

What he said.

I can perhaps add something in terms of the Forester, seeing as I now have two in the family - 2001 and 2004 models.

Funnily enough, I went for a test drive in the Diesel Boxer equivalent only yesterday. It pulls well, but comes only with a manual 6-speed transmission. It is quite easy to stall it when pulling off - probably the turbo lag - but one can adjust your driving style to compensate.

It is SUPER quiet inside - not like the Tiguan - although outside, it clatters with the best of them.

You mention somewhere that you've had success with light cars on sand. This is what makes the Forester so capable - it just bounces along. Compared to the previous generation Foresters, the Tiguan is 250kg heavier. This counts against it.

The new Forester has decent ground clearance - claimed 225 mm - but I guess that is also NOT under the sump, but at the break-over point. The previous gen has 210mm minimum under the sump. By comparison the Tiguan has only 170mm clearance here.

What makes up for this somewhat in sand, is the stiff suspension, so the nose does not dive as much as with a Forester (what the heck, MOST other SUVs!). But a decent bash plate as recommended by Arctra will spread the impact, and prevent damage.

The Forester locally is overpriced - equivalent of > AUD k52 for the basic model - but this may be different your end. Also, it remains quite basic inside. VW wrote the book in terms of seat comfort - the leather versions anyway - so pretty much anything else will be worse.

If you want auto - recommended if you have no low range - go Tiguan Tiptronic. Locally you still only get the 4-speed tranny on the Forester, and no auto on the diesel. With no low range, that torque converter helps a lot to get moving from standstill by allowing slip to get the revs into the torque band. You'll smoke a manual clutch some time or other.

But a bit of lift makes a big difference. Soon you should be able to get a local report on exactly this aspect.

[jimbomort]

local report

local report just arrived!

have installed jcubed's spacers and while I haven't measured yet, the increase is quite significant. Haven't driven heaps yet but pushed through a few corners etc on way home and see no obvious impact on handling. I haven't tested off road, but another trip to Moreton later this year perhaps. I also hope to have one of Arctra's bashplates installed in the not too distant future. Pics to come.

There is my report on my trip to Moreton Island on the offroad thread and some pics. Personally I felt the Tig blitzed it, so shouldn't be a problem on Stockton. However the sand was wet which helps (had been raining a lot) and there is no doubt more clearance and a bash plate is needed to do it comfortably. Hence my additions.

I had a 2000 model Sube Outback previously. I must first say its similar BUT NOT the same as the Forester. However for the outback at least I doubt it would have coped with Moreton well at all. I have no doubt I would have been revving the engine much harder to stop the engine from bogging down and it's a lighter car with a bigger motor than the Tig!

Because of the torque converter, as jcubed said, auto better, but I still maintain the TSI with APR upgrade even in manual form (ours is) is going to eat anything you throw at it here, because there is just so much torque from low in the rev range. By way of example I towed over 450kg of trailer up a decent hill on a dirt road the other day at 55klm/hr in 5th (1300rpm) and it handled that without a problem.

By the way I also averaged 5.8l/100 on the way back from getting the spacers fitted in Brisbane. Sure I stuck to a 100 and no air con, but except for the 110 sections I was doing the same as the rest of the traffic, and the trip included about 10% city driving.

[jcubed]

Hi All,

Due to being embarrassed at the time for driving like a muppet, I only posted this video clip today: YouTube - Tiguan Stuck.

Moral of the story, if you are going up a winding dune, use manual mode - or at the very least SPORT, because as soon as you tap off, the Tiptronic transmission is going to shift up, and the same is going to happen to you. Jimbomort, you can ignore this advice . No harm done though, except to your ego.

This clip also demonstrates that the Tiguan is a tough old bird, and can survive an attack by a Defender, still living to fight another day.

[hippyhippy]

nice vid

may i ask some advice:

I cant imagine sand condition being any worse than the video you posted, and i definitely wouldnt be going as fast LOL, what are the differences between that track pack package which you cant get in australia to the normal model here?

After getting bogged down, was it easy to get out? that sand looked pretty soft but stockton looks pretty much the same.

Thanks

[jcubed]

Tiguan Delta

Hi hippyhippy,

First off, if you go slower, you go nowhere.

Somehow, I’ve never looked at the speedo while negotiating sand. It seems to be mostly a seat-of-the-pants exercise, where sometimes, the seat of your pants works better than other times. You are else wise occupied anyway , and don’t have time to look there.

As you quite rightly comment, the sand is particularly loose, and due to the amount of penetration allowed, would not have been passable by the Tiguan had it not been lifted to increase the ground clearance. The belly would have been solidly on the sand.

It does seems to appear faster – reckless almost – on the video clips, but on this specific occasion was nowhere near the 80 km/h required to get the Forester up the Namib dunes – I’m guessing 30 – 40 km/h.

As far as I can remember in terms of the off-road pack – perhaps NZtiguan who has the identical car, could fill in/correct my list - the following:

Externally, only the chin of the car is cut away. The ground clearance remains the same, although I’ve seen reviews claiming different. I do not know if the suspension is perhaps also stiffer.

The off-road mode starts the Tiptronic transmission in 1st (normally 2nd), keeps the car in permanent 4-wheel drive (and does not change to front wheel drive somewhere between the 2nd/3rd gear up shift). It changes the shift points (hangs on to lower gears for longer) and enables the Hill Descent Control (which cannot be disabled independently) and adjusts the traction control parameters.

If you get stuck on an incline, you can ALMOST always just drive out in the other direction. In this case we reversed down and tried again (successfully) with MORE speed. Compounding the difficulty, is that in the clip, the track curves slightly. If your front wheels are not dead straight, it EATS power.

The tyres were deflated to 1.2 bar at the time, so you could lower your speed if you deflated it some more. 0.8 bar (12 lb) works well on the 215/65 R16 tyres, with unfortunately, the resultant loss in ground clearance. I have not tried it on this car, but previously have successfully deflated 70 profile tyres to 0.6 bar.

[team_v]

Just a heads up for everyone.
I did my 4WD training course for work recently and they strongly advised against lowering the tyre pressures below 20PSI.

The certified trainer stated that they do not even lower the tyre pressures normally and it should only be done if you get stuck as a chance to get out.

[jcubed]

I beg your pardon!

... and they strongly advised against lowering the tyre pressures below 20PSI.

The certified trainer stated that they do not even lower the tyre pressures normally and it should only be done if you get stuck as a chance to get out.

Hi team_v

VW advises the same in their User Manual - do not deflate. I would like to know why. Also, once you're stuck and bedded down, deflating your tyres won't help one little bit. In fact, you're now effectively raising the tyres off the ground due to the reduced pressure.

The images below illustrate what you do when taking convoys into the Namib desert - 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year - as your primary source of income.



This is the start of it all. Deflation to 1 bar, even though still on the gravel road. 170km of sand ahead. Look at the bulge in the lead vehicle's rear tyre.



Same vehicle, shortly going up the dune on the left. Compare the tyre height below the rim to that above. The bulge is only partially due to the load, pressure here 0.8 bar.



Front vehicle tyre bulge due to the 0.8 bar pressure.

I don't know where your instructor did HIS training, but good luck to him, mate .

[MGV]

Brother did a stint out at an aboriginal community (Yalata) in S.A. as a coastal ranger & the 'local' guys would deflate the tyres for sand work in the troopy for a count of 20 seconds... When they got back to the depot, they would inflate them for a count of 20! None of this psi or Kpa or bar nonsense... He reckons they never got bogged in the 2 years he was there!

[jimbomort]

yeh we ran our tyres at 18psi on Moreton and that seemed to work well

I've never got bogged on sand, well except once. I got myself out again, and only got bogged in the first place because I wasn't paying attention. Mostly, momentum is your friend on sand, as JJJ said re video and speed, going slower can mean not going at all if sand is loose. But again as JJJ said, a seat of the pants thing, you dont want to go too much faster than you need to either.

[MGV]

Looks to me like no less than 12 passengers... (!) Plus what's in the front, gotta be 1000kg's worth of people!

[jcubed]

Looks to me like no less than 12 passengers... (!) Plus what's in the front, gotta be 1000kg's worth of people!

Dead right there, mate, a round dozen. What's in front, is the driver, one passenger and a V8. Or wait!

From this photo it appears that TWO passengers could be accommodated up front if the driver can keep his left elbow tucked in.



By comparison, our Forester looks a bit puny, hiding away in its own little corner.

[hippyhippy]

time to bring up an old thread...

well i finally got the chance to take the tig to stockton on the weekend, performed ok, only problems i saw was the height of the car, it needs another 5cm, i did scrape the bottom of the car a few times but only on really soft sand. I had troubles at the start because i didnt put the tyre pressure low enough, but once i did it was fine as long as i kept the speed up on the really soft stuff. If im gonna be doing this more i would think about putting on bigger tyres and putting in them plates some of u guys have done. Overall i was pretty happy with the way the car handled in the sand.

[Transporter]

I have the spacers that I didn't fit to our Tiguan, PM me if interested.