4WD off road course with our 4Motion Cali

bvddobb · Dec 10, 2013

In another topic I promised to share some photo's and video's of our 4WD off road course last weekend.

We have a slide show of some photo's
And also a little video

We did a full day's 4WD off road training with our Cali 4Motion. We looked like a bit of a strange duck amidst different types of Land Rover and even an old Swedish Volvo 'Lapland' army truck, all with lots of gear, winches, snorkels, what have you, and we were a bit frowned upon...

. We only had our M+S winter tyres on. They had never had a 4Motion or Synchro Transporter in their trainings before, but the trainer supervisor had experienced them in the field in Tunesia and felt comfortable enough to allow us on the course.

And here's the story: our Cali held up our honour terrifically well!! It was very wet and muddy and slippery with deep tracks and rather steep climbs and descends. Yet there were many climbs where some of the Land Rovers needed 4 or 5 tries, and just slid back, where we happily raced up in one try, once we got the hang of it :lol: , and the steering through the mud was very tight and precise. Never needed the diff lock in all this (we don't have it, nor low gear...). We never got stuck so that we couldn't get out ourselves and needed help.

The trainers were very happily surprised at our Cali's capabilities, and so were we

. 4Motion rocks! The car is very dirty now, but all our plates, chinaware and glasses are all still in one piece!

HistoryBob · Dec 10, 2013

There is also a great shot of the pull out screen blinds that are fitted in the pillars on the continental Calis.
First class video and nice to see the Cali didn't loose out to the more conventional 4x4s.
:goodone

TwentyOneThirtyFive · Dec 10, 2013

That is very cool :thumb

Retiredron · Dec 10, 2013

Well done Bart. :cool
Ron

Marmar · Jun 7, 2016

bvddobb said:
In another topic I promised to share some photo's and video's of our 4WD off road course last weekend.

We have a slide show of some photo's

And also a little video

We did a full day's 4WD off road training with our Cali 4Motion. We looked like a bit of a strange duck amidst different types of Land Rover and even an old Swedish Volvo 'Lapland' army truck, all with lots of gear, winches, snorkels, what have you, and we were a bit frowned upon... . We only had our M+S winter tyres on. They had never had a 4Motion or Synchro Transporter in their trainings before, but the trainer supervisor had experienced them in the field in Tunesia and felt comfortable enough to allow us on the course.

And here's the story: our Cali held up our honour terrifically well!! It was very wet and muddy and slippery with deep tracks and rather steep climbs and descends. Yet there were many climbs where some of the Land Rovers needed 4 or 5 tries, and just slid back, where we happily raced up in one try, once we got the hang of it :lol: , and the steering through the mud was very tight and precise. Never needed the diff lock in all this (we don't have it, nor low gear...). We never got stuck so that we couldn't get out ourselves and needed help.

The trainers were very happily surprised at our Cali's capabilities, and so were we . 4Motion rocks! The car is very dirty now, but all our plates, chinaware and glasses are all still in one piece!

Marmar · Jun 7, 2016

Hello bvddobb,

I'm seriously thinking about a VB suspension. I have a 4 motion. My question is. Do you have a VB standard kit or the VB+30mm kit.
I hope to hear from you.

Best regards Martin.

bvddobb · Jun 7, 2016

Hi Martin,

We have the standard kit.

Reason is: we have a solar panel on the roof and slightly bigger AT tyres than standard (which raise the van already 2 cm). Panel and tyres together, we are now 205 cm high, in standard setting, 203 cm in 'sports' mode (-2 cm). With the standard kit in parking garage mode (- 7 cm), we are then 198 cm, which allows us to enter most parking garages, gives us the lower toll on French autoroutes, many times lower ferry fares, etc, while still able to drive at 35 km/h.

With the raised kit we would be 201 cm high in parking garage mode, which we didn't want. One can then still lower the van further than the parking garage preset (another -8 cm), but that takes longer and would reduce the max speed to 5 km/h.

Marmar · Jun 7, 2016

Hi Bart & Marga,

Thanks for the helpful information. I will take the standard kit as well.
If you don't mind I have an other question?
Wich AT tyres do you have. And are you contant with them?

best regards Martin.

Op 7 jun. 2016 om 15:36 heeft Vw California Club <noreply@vwcaliforniaclub.com> het volgende geschreven:

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Marmar, bvddobb replied to a thread you are watching at VW California Owners Club.

4WD off road course with our 4Motion Cali

Hi Martin,

We have the standard kit.

Reason is: we have a solar panel on the roof and slightly bigger AT tyres than standard (which raise the van already 2 cm). Panel and tyres together, we are now 205 cm high, in standard setting, 203 cm in 'sports' mode (-2 cm). With the standard kit in parking garage mode (- 7 cm), we are then 198 cm, which allows us to enter most parking garages, gives us the lower toll on French autoroutes, many times lower ferry fares, etc, while still able to drive at 35 km/h.

With the raised kit we would be 201 cm high in parking garage mode, which we didn't want. One can then still lower the van further than the parking garage preset (another -8 cm), but that takes longer and would reduce the max speed to 5 km/h.
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bvddobb · Jun 7, 2016

Marmar said:
Wich AT tyres do you have. And are you contant with them?

We have the Michelin Lattitude Cross 225/70/R16 103H. We have had them only for two months now, but thus far we are really content with them.

Not the 'hammering' noise of traditional off-road tyres, and really good driving characteristics on wet normal roads (where traditional off-road tyres are really bad, usually).

We took part in the Transporter 4Motion Off-road Festival in Germany last month on them, and they did really well there, both in mud and sand (we did lower the pressure, though). Many more there had them on, and interestingly, they are also the tyres that Seikel now delivers in their Cruiser package.

This summer we will try them on the gravel roads of Iceland's highland tracks!

estresao · Jun 8, 2016

Interesting, I'm thinking about new BF KO2

bvddobb · Jun 8, 2016

estresao said:
Interesting, I'm thinking about new BF KO2

If we were 80% off and 20% on-road, we might have considered the BFG's. They look cool and they're really good in terrain. But for most of us, it is the reverse: 80% on-road if not more. And the BFG's have really bad, if not dangerous, on-road characteristics, especially in bad weather. Google is your friend: read some tests, and you will see what we mean.