Noman bhai, it was nice meeting you sunday. unfortunately, since we had lots of people and too big of an area and since we hadn't done offroading ourselves in a while, we all got excited and started doing our things and didn't get much chance to chat.. but hopefully in future events we'll be able to discuss and try to showcase the right and not-so-right way of doing tracks. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
I'm sure you have tremendous experience being an active outdoorsman yourself of driving off the paved road. however, specific trails like what we tried there are not something you would commonly try even when you're out hunting or just having fun, cause there is always an easier way around that tough hill climb here we look for that tough hill and hit it head on :)<o:p></o:p>
There are loads of tips and tricks of doing things and one can write a book on it. Something we all pick up by watching and more importantly trying ourselves, however, i'll try to answer your questions to the best of my knowledge and others can give their feedback aswell. <o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
Q1. “On climbing a slippery area, why momentum is required more than power as most of the people were climbing with 4L and 2nd top gear? One yellow colored willys with diesel even did it with 4L/ 3rd gear.”<o:p></o:p>
...There are generally two ways of climbing the type of track we were doing sunday; one is crawling in slow speed and generally in lower gear and the second is running up in momentum. Which technique you choose depends on many factors, among them, the condition of track, level of traction i.e rocky, dirt or muddy slope etc and more importantly the capability of your vehicle. <o:p></o:p>
The last point is perhaps the most important, in order to crawl, your engine needs to be powerful (good power to weight ration), good tires, (MT preferred) and most importantly differential lockers. The white LC80 was the only one that demonstrated this skill perfectly. He had both front and rear lockers and hence made a tremendous difference.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p> </o:p>
For everyone else with no lockers, momentum is the name of the game, you can clear pretty much any trail if you have enough power and momentum, hence you saw most vehicles run up to the trail and hit it at high speed. This isn’t the best or ideal way to do it since at high speed chances of any mishap increase a lot. However if getting over the hill is the goal then you can try anything, but if doing it in style is the goal then get diff locks J<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
Q2. If at all one has to go in 2nd gear with 4L, why not to go in 1st gear with 4H. Will there be any difference in 4L/ 2nd gear and 4H/ 1st gear?<o:p></o:p>
…. Well Low 2<SUP>nd</SUP> is going to be more powerful than High 1<SUP>st</SUP>. Don’t know the science behind it but from personal experience there are more chances of your engine stalling if you go in High 1<SUP>st</SUP> than low second or even third, depending on trail<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
Q3. Why not to climb without momentum, with very slow speed (almost zero speed), with 4L and 1st gear having proper mud tyres.<o:p></o:p>
… you can try it but to ‘crawl’ you need more than just good Mudders, you need diff locks. As demonstrated by yours truly, you can’t go up on powerful engine and MTs only. My diff wasn’t working and hence I’d get stuck at the top where the cross axle happened.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
Q4. Wider tyres do matter but yesterday most of the easy going vehicles were with the original willys or potohar tyres which are not too wide, hardly 5" in width.<o:p></o:p>
…. Again depending on type of trail, you have advantage to have either narrow or wider tyres. This event you saw most willys go up simply because of momentum. With that much momentum narrow or wide tyres don’t make a different. <o:p></o:p>
<o:p> </o:p>
5. On the climb, on which i failed, in the first attempt, i tried with 4L/ 1st gear but due to no momentum covered only 40% of the climb. On the second attempt, i tried it with 4L/ 2nd gear, i covered 85% of the climb but got stuck there because of loss of power. I had purely on road tyres, unsuitable for slippery terrain. Pls explain this situation and recommend for future.<o:p></o:p>
….. the reason as doc nn pointed out, is that at the top of the track there were a number of ditches which would cause your vehicle to loose traction. One of your wheel will be spinning and the other one will lose all power hence you will get stuck. When in momentum, you tend to rush through these kinds of ditches due to speed and don’t require that much traction hence you overcome a hurdle. As for recommendation for future, well, if the purpose is to simply go over a hurdle then you can try more momentum. But if you want to really enjoy and do the track properly without any damage to the vehicle, the trail or any personal injury, then you can try moderate speed, have a powerful engine, good tires and pick a line where you don’t get stuck in a cross axle situation.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p> </o:p>
<o:p> </o:p>
Hope this helps. Let me know your thoughts<o:p></o:p>
<o:p> </o:p>