The toughest 4x4 trail in Southern Africa in a Discovery-4

[Java]

Too cool. Airing up the tires for rocks @ 4:20 ish, and check out the awesome rims on the LRD just after 8 min or so. Best rims I've ever seen, I want. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a81JPyo7J50&feature=youtube_gdata_player
part 2- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L0BpB5Hmr4

Jim- the video loader isn't working for me, just FYI, I can cut / paste into it but it doesn't post

[Jim]

The "insert video" button works. I did question if there'd be an issue with an HTTPS YouTube link though. Just make sure when you work with YouTube URL's to prune it down to the basic URL with the video ID (your second URL was that way but the first had extra junk).

You can either hit the "insert video" button and paste the pruned down URL or you can paste the URL into the post and put the "VIDEO" codes at either end of them. I mangled the codes just slightly so that you can see, almost, what you'd type at either end of the URL. Just remove the spaces I added and flip the open/close symbol [] at each end.

]VIDEO[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a81JPyo7J50 ]/VIDEO[


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a81JPyo7J50


]VIDEO[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L0BpB5Hmr4 ]/VIDEO[


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L0BpB5Hmr4

[Jim]

It did a fine job, no distraction to the accomplishment, though it seems where was a bit of rock stacking / roadway making to keep it from being overly dinged.

[ctracy5]

Goes to show you what a fully independent vehicle can do. With that said they are more complicated and expensive to modify compared to solid axles, but not impossible. I think for any overlander setup fully independent is the way to go, but for a real rock crawler the added flex of solid axles is all but mandatory.

[Popsgarage]

Much more rock stacking than most off road rigs need but it did get the job done. It'd be a fun road to drive, for sure.

[Java]

I think a fully independent suspension with computer controlled airbags could mimic a solid axle as needed. I'm not basing that on anything except my thinking.

[Haku]

Well...in that case the Defender (solid axles front and rear) obviously did a lot better, but its more purpose built for that stuff. I'm probably gonna get long winded with this, so you'll have to forgive me.

IMHO, for slow speed (less then 30mph), Solid Axles will almost always be better. You start to get into the benefits of Independent suspension when you go faster. You obviously can make a Independent suspension rig do pretty well (look at Baja stuff and some of the Class 1 Buggiest that have fully independent suspension), but the unfortunate side to that is that it goes up exponentially in cost and complexity. You have to spend A TON of money to get strong and reliable parts that can hold up to long travel, lots of abuse. Some of the Ultra4/KOH rigs use IFS, which as far as I know all use the Pro-Am front end that can get about 18" of travel. Last I heard, that kit cost $25k just for the a-arms and steering kit, which doesn't include the differential, axle shafts, shocks and all that.

Obviously that is the top extreme, but even a kit for my 4runner that increases the travel to 12" is $2k just for the basic, and again, that doesn't include shafts or shocks or ways to mount them. I am playing with a cheap DIY kit that lengthens my a-arms for my "small" truck, and the name of the game with that rig is "low budget", so we'll see how that does. Less travel, but probably enough to make it capable of most trails around, and then I'll have my other rig to do anything harder.

Its much easier to make Solid Axle strong though, and you can make it handle high speeds with a good suspension design and spending the money in the right place with tunable shocks. Just look at the JeepSpeed class in Best in the Desert series to see a reasonably priced rig that can haul ass across rough terrain...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eU_fieZsYx8

I would love to see some modern aged stuff like what you were talking about with air bags or variable hydraulic lift and stuff like that, but that stuff certainly adds cost and complexity as well. The one I really want to see is forward scanning radar/laser that sees the bumps and adjust the dampers to perfectly soak them up as it goes over. That way on less rough surfaces you get a nice stiff handling rig that can corner, but on the rougher stuff it can get softer and soak up the big hits really well. Couple that with some yaw sensor and traction sensors, and you could potentially get it to a point of auto-correcting a situation like in the above video where the rig almost went out of control.

The other thing I'd love to see in offroad is torque vectoring (fancy way of saying independently sending the right amount of power to each wheel to make it handle the best). It essentially would mimic the idea of cutting brakes (only braking on one wheel so the vehicle pivots around it), but more complex. The auto manufacturers are starting to use it with their high end, but it could very easily be transferred to an offroad rig. U think the LandRover and other systems use a basic version, but I get the feeling it could be more robust and also be user controllable.

[ctracy5]

Totally agree, but I hope, mainly because so many rigs now are going full independent, that some of the good suspension companies rather then fight it embrace it and start to develop some more economical aftermarket parts rather then just design SAS kits. For causal wheeling/camping on easy to moderate trails independent is more comfortable and has much better road manners, but for serious rock crawling I doubt it will ever replace the solid axles.

[Funrover]

FUN!!! Man I would love to have any/all of those Rovers!