How Extreme Have You Been?

[bvddobb]

Mick also fitted the Seikel snorkel which we needed as some of the river crossings were over a metre deep.

Hi Lakelander,

We will be making a like trip next summer, the ferry is already booked. A meter high river fording is rather huge! Was that in Thorsmork? Didn't your interior wash? Your car did not start to float?
We wonder about your snorkel, usually one has these for air supply in dusty environments (e.g. desert storms or dust roads) sooner than for river crossing? Isn't the air inlet under the bonnet high enough as such for river crossing?

We were thinking of having the Seikel Aeration lift kit for the gearbox housing, differential and transferbox fitted, to make for a higher fording height, so that water does not enter the axle and differential air holes. It brings the air inlets to the height of the motor battery. Did you have anything fitted like that?



We were also wondering how the auxiliary heater would hold while fording rivers. Doesn't water enter the exhaust pipe, and ruin the heater? Any experiences there?

No Camping Gas in Iceland, we ran out of 2 bottles that we had taken and had to use 2 Icelandic bottles with our outside cooker.

That's a good one, we hadn't yet thought of that!

 

[lakelander]

Hi Lakelander,

We will be making a like trip next summer, the ferry is already booked. A meter high river fording is rather huge! Was that in Thorsmork? Didn't your interior wash? Your car did not start to float?
We wonder about your snorkel, usually one has these for air supply in dusty environments (e.g. desert storms or dust roads) sooner than for river crossing? Isn't the air inlet under the bonnet high enough as such for river crossing?

We were thinking of having the Seikel Aeration lift kit for the gearbox housing, differential and transferbox fitted, to make for a higher fording height, so that water does not enter the axle and differential air holes. It brings the air inlets to the height of the motor battery. Did you have anything fitted like that?

View attachment 10126

We were also wondering how the auxiliary heater would hold while fording rivers. Doesn't water enter the exhaust pipe, and ruin the heater? Any experiences there?

That's a good one, we hadn't yet thought of that!

Hi,
The snorkel was my last choice - I had tried to get another device (centrifugal air filter) to raise the air intake internally from a company in Germany but delivery took ages and a lot of models will only fit left hand drive vans. A friend of mine had been to Iceland a few years ago and he had used a snorkel on his Mitsubishi Delica - that was enough to convince me! The water - bow wave - came up to the bonnet and this was with VB air sus in off road mode, It gave us piece of mind and confidence that we could cross the rivers without much trouble.
This is the only modification we did, no water came into the van at all - just the fog lights!! The heater exhaust did cough a bit, but once it had cleared it was fine.
The rivers to Thorsmork/Landmannalaugar and Askja will depend on the glacial melt and rainfall, but they are fun to cross! The vans are not classed as a small jeep as 3 tons. You will get lots of looks! If we had crossed them 2 weeks later, it would have been a different story as heavy rainfall and most impassable.
Chase the good weather!
Van has just had its first service and only the fog lights had to be replaced, no other issues from its travels.
Hoping to get a video up soon on YouTube of the crossings etc.

 

[estresao]

Is VB-Suspension air intake high enough?. How high is the clearance when in off-road mode?

 

[lakelander]

Is VB-Suspension air intake high enough?. How high is the clearance when in off-road mode?

Vb Air is the suspension system recommended by VW Europe, the snorkel was made by Siekel and YES I drove through a stream a bit too quick and the splash came to the top of the windscreen and as the air intake is just below the head light i felt it was worth the money !!!

 

[soulstyledevon]

Just got back from 6 weeks in IcelandView attachment 10053

Nice set-up

 

[Aidy P]

This is turning into an awesome thread!
My wife thinks ... Nice camping trips with the kids in the new van ... I'm thinking ditto ... But we'll be skiing, fording rivers, exploring new countries etc etc. Shhh we won't tell her!

Ok. We might not be as extreme as as some of you ... But thanks to everyone who has posted for the inspiration.

Have a great weekend everyone!

 

[bvddobb]

Is VB-Suspension air intake high enough?. How high is the clearance when in off-road mode?

With normal suspension the lowest air intake/wade depth point to consider is the air vents in your drive train (gear box, differential). You do not want water to enter there and to mix with your gearbox and differential oiling. Not an immediate disaster if it happens, but mid to long term not good to have. They are standard at 30 cm. Seikel have an air vent raising set (basically a set of tubes that end below the bonnet, next to your battery).
The next point is the engine air intake. That is at about 40 cm. With the Seikel snorkel, you bring that to approx 70 cm, all with standard suspension.
Now if you raise your suspension, and have higher tyres, that adds further to you wade depth. Our suspension/tyre combination brings ours, with the Seikel air vents, to 45 cm in total. We decided that is enough for us.

The VB system comes in two variants. The 4-Motion set ads already 3 cm to the standard height, the standard doesn't. The off-road pre-set adds another 3 cm, and you can drive at 35 km/h with that setting. You could manually raise the car to maximum 15 cm above its standard height, but then you can drive only at 5 km/hr.

 

[estresao]

We've been to Norfolk quite a lot.....

I'm more brave.... I do live in Norfolk

 

[estresao]

With normal suspension the lowest air intake/wade depth point to consider is the air vents in your drive train (gear box, differential). You do not want water to enter there and to mix with your gearbox and differential oiling. Not an immediate disaster if it happens, but mid to long term not good to have. They are standard at 30 cm. Seikel have an air vent raising set (basically a set of tubes that end below the bonnet, next to your battery).
The next point is the engine air intake. That is at about 40 cm. With the Seikel snorkel, you bring that to approx 70 cm, all with standard suspension.
Now if you raise your suspension, and have higher tyres, that adds further to you wade depth. Our suspension/tyre combination brings ours, with the Seikel air vents, to 45 cm in total. We decided that is enough for us.

The VB system comes in two variants. The 4-Motion set ads already 3 cm to the standard height, the standard doesn't. The off-road pre-set adds another 3 cm, and you can drive at 35 km/h with that setting. You could manually raise the car to maximum 15 cm above its standard height, but then you can drive only at 5 km/hr.

That's very interesting.

I'm mulling over VB-Suspension installation in my Cali, a T5.2 Beach 4Motion one. Also want to install underide protections and probably a snorkel.

And for tires.... I want to mount the new BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO2.... as soon as my current tires get weared and providing BFGoodrich sells the appropiated sizes (http://www.bfgoodrichtires.com/tire...f-road-tires/all-terrain-t-a-ko2/tire-details)

 

[Skylark2.0]

Hi Lakelander,

We will be making a like trip next summer, the ferry is already booked. A meter high river fording is rather huge! Was that in Thorsmork? Didn't your interior wash? Your car did not start to float?
We wonder about your snorkel, usually one has these for air supply in dusty environments (e.g. desert storms or dust roads) sooner than for river crossing? Isn't the air inlet under the bonnet high enough as such for river crossing?

We were thinking of having the Seikel Aeration lift kit for the gearbox housing, differential and transferbox fitted, to make for a higher fording height, so that water does not enter the axle and differential air holes. It brings the air inlets to the height of the motor battery. Did you have anything fitted like that?

View attachment 10126

We were also wondering how the auxiliary heater would hold while fording rivers. Doesn't water enter the exhaust pipe, and ruin the heater? Any experiences there?

That's a good one, we hadn't yet thought of that!

I don't know about all the vehicle mods but we have travelled in Iceland.
The bra would be essential as there are flying rocks everywhere.
Our driver used to say, walk every crossing before you make it as the gravel underneath shifts. We watched a landrover slip off the edge of the ford gravel and float down the river...
Assume the worst. Heavy ranifall is usual and river height extremely variable.
The dust is volcanic just like pumice so VERY sharp and it blows around. Feels evry gritty in the ears so dread to think what a vehicle air intake would be like.
What an amazing country though. Just awesome.

 

[zeratul]

And for tires.... I want to mount the new BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO2.... as soon as my current tires get weared and providing BFGoodrich sells the appropiated sizes (http://www.bfgoodrichtires.com/tire...f-road-tires/all-terrain-t-a-ko2/tire-details)

Do you think you could use this type of tyres instead of winter tyres? I mean, I was about to invest in winter tyres for my new cali 4 motion and I do have iceland offroad plans (my fourth visit, but first time with cali), so I was thinking can I invest in good all terrain tyres that also good in winter (snowy roads, alps, ..) or is that a totally different thing.. (then I would need three sets?!.. )

 

[estresao]

Do you think you could use this type of tyres instead of winter tyres? I mean, I was about to invest in winter tyres for my new cali 4 motion and I do have iceland offroad plans (my fourth visit, but first time with cali), so I was thinking can I invest in good all terrain tyres that also good in winter (snowy roads, alps, ..) or is that a totally different thing.. (then I would need three sets?!.. )

They are also winter tires, check the web page out

 

[estresao]

The only "problem" is that BF just launched this new model and they still have not all sizes. For example for mine one there aren't yet.

 

[zeratul]

Iceland , how much did it cost just to get there overseas....?
....roofrack with a 2 nd spare ....nice ...

Is that indeed a second spare lakelander or was the regular spare placed on the roof for more clearance height?
Smyril line treats cars above 1.9m as high cars and you are then in the category 1.9-2.5 so safe to add stuff on the roof.. I will probably take our large thule roofbox for mattresses, pillows, sleeping bags, etc.

 

[zeratul]

The only "problem" is that BF just launched this new model and they still have not all sizes. For example for mine one there aren't yet.

Yes that's one problem, but what worries me more is that I will drive on winter roads more than in iceland and winter tyres are superiour because of the optimized low temperature rubber.
See also

Then again, I don't want to have 3 sets of tyres. So can off-road tyres be rented?

 

[estresao]

Yep, they are also winter tires rated (3 peas montain and snow flakes).

 

[estresao]

 

[bvddobb]

And then there is always this possibility:

 

[Gavinskii]

And them there is always this possibility:

Is that an anti - aircraft gun on the roof

 

[Aidy P]

It looks like something from The A Team!

 

[estresao]

Do it have cheating software as well?

 

[estresao]

View attachment 10158

Hi,
The snorkel was my last choice - I had tried to get another device (centrifugal air filter) to raise the air intake internally from a company in Germany but delivery took ages and a lot of models will only fit left hand drive vans. A friend of mine had been to Iceland a few years ago and he had used a snorkel on his Mitsubishi Delica - that was enough to convince me! The water - bow wave - came up to the bonnet and this was with VB air sus in off road mode, It gave us piece of mind and confidence that we could cross the rivers without much trouble.
This is the only modification we did, no water came into the van at all - just the fog lights!! The heater exhaust did cough a bit, but once it had cleared it was fine.
The rivers to Thorsmork/Landmannalaugar and Askja will depend on the glacial melt and rainfall, but they are fun to cross! The vans are not classed as a small jeep as 3 tons. You will get lots of looks! If we had crossed them 2 weeks later, it would have been a different story as heavy rainfall and most impassable.
Chase the good weather!
Van has just had its first service and only the fog lights had to be replaced, no other issues from its travels.
Hoping to get a video up soon on YouTube of the crossings etc.

One more question, which arc weels protectors are your Cali wearing?

I was interested in the VW original ones, but someone here had problems with them and I stoped thinking in buy them.

 

[Abnomynous]

Do you think you could use this type of tyres instead of winter tyres? I mean, I was about to invest in winter tyres for my new cali 4 motion and I do have iceland offroad plans (my fourth visit, but first time with cali), so I was thinking can I invest in good all terrain tyres that also good in winter (snowy roads, alps, ..) or is that a totally different thing.. (then I would need three sets?!.. )

We have Cooper Discoverer M+S (245/75R16) fitted. Haven't tried them in cold weather but they are supposedly competent in winter. They have pretty aggressive tread, yet are comfortable and silent on regular road, maybe due to the softer rubber.

 

[Nick CB]

Our most extreme, mates Bongo in front. Wouldn't try this again.

Wow! That was gripping!! If you'll pardon the pun.
I know that pass well and once did it in a Reliant Robin in fine weather. Even that was horrendous.

 

[lakelander]

When they said the road was closed.......they meant it !
Snaefell mountain road in August



To answer some questions ....
We used Cooper Discoverer A/T3 M+S which were great on motorways (not too noisy) and plenty of grip off road. The spare was on the roof to give as much clearance under the rear as possible including removing the spare tyre plate too.
Wheel arch protectors, first fitted by VW then removed, (poor fit), then after seeing some on the forum, I bought them from a different garage and had a vehicle body repair shop fit them - great job.
Under body protection (see VW 4motion accessories) - in the end had 4 plates fitted by VW in France as not available in UK and it was cheaper with the exchange rate!
River crossings - a friend who had been to Iceland several years before, told me that he had given up wading out into rivers to check, as there was more chance of him being swept away than a 3 1/2 ton van and I would agree with him. There are recognised crossings but it is up to the individual to make the choice under the conditions at the time. The entrance and exits to there rivers can be steep and gravelly and the depth and flow of the river will vary depending on the time of year and how much rain they have had! We were able to film the easy ones but not so easy to film wider / deeper crossings because once over was enough!! The only vehicle we saw in difficulty was a Suzuki Jimny banked on the gravel because they hadn't followed the line through the river that everyone else took.
P.S. Unused waders for sale. Size 9