I'll add some more to this as time permits.
Camped in the Great Sand Dunes campground 4th October. On trail around 12:30-1:00pm. Much sage advice from elders in the campground with lifted Fords and Chevys that we wouldn't make it. Creek too deep. Rocks too rough. Ruts too deep. This Ford drowned out. That Chevy dragged the frame. We can always turn around, right?
We have never aired down before but considering the doom-n-gloom advice we thought an abundance of caution would be good. Aired down to 25psi at the beginning of the sandy section going north on Medano Pass from the sand dunes national park. Let me just say here - AIR DOWN. I'd be willing to bet we would have made the summit of Mosquito Pass if I'd just aired down. ESP turned off. Everything else in full auto with suspension aired up to off road mode/height. Absolutely uneventful in the sand. No problems.
As we got to the first creek crossing two jacked/lifted 4x4s pull out ahead of us. We're happy to not be alone on the trail at this point so we just followed along. First 4-5 creek crossings are uneventful. It got rougher in a few places then they pulled out of view when I stopped for a bio break.
The trail guide, folks in the campground and trip meter all say we're approaching the stream crossing too deep for us to pass. Lady in the campground says it's DEEP! We meet a Jeep on BIG tires with water on the top of the back bumper. He says we can't make it. He's followed by a lifted Land Cruiser with a snorkel. He says we can't make it. I can still turn around, right?
While sitting beside the Land Cruiser I told the other driver I should probably give Big Rhonda a little help and turned the air knob to "XTRA" level. Guy's head swiveled around like Linda Blair as he told his S.O. "lookit that!". He told me there was a dip in the middle where water went over their tires. We decided to carry on.
Made it to nearly the middle, backed up, checked the front bumper water line and decided to go back and ask how deep the dip was. His wife said she thought it was just a rock they went over. I figured what the hay. Guy in the lifted Jeep had turned around to watch us. It was either push on or turn around so we pushed on.
As you can see from the video, it was nothing. Nice solid bottom. Car felt a tiny bit floaty at one point but no water got inside. We did have steam coming out from everywhere underneath. Even the interior windows fogged near the bottom for a few seconds. Here's the
. Sure was neat to hear them cheering for us after we made it through!
Onwards and upwards we drove. Duramax-man had warned us of a section near the top of a big ole rock with some big gashes in it. "Duramax frame hit the rocks", he said. Wife and I got out to investigate when we got there. Picked a route. Put it in 4LOW with open (non-locked) diffs. She spotted me (kinda/mostly) and we made it through with nary a bump or scrape. Here's the
. Was neat to see Big Rhonda grab traction and barely slip.
Trail was fairly easy after that on down into Westcliffe. We had to go that far to air back up. It would have taken an hour with our little 12VDC air compressor. Will have to get mobile air sorted before next trip.
Know I'm preaching to the choir here but goodness that Touraeg is a capable beastie. I know there are places it won't go but I don't want to go to those places so we're good!
Hope you enjoy the vids. I'll put a few pics up later. Here's one from the trail:
Medano Pass Aspens by HI Racing, on Flickr
Camped in the Great Sand Dunes campground 4th October. On trail around 12:30-1:00pm. Much sage advice from elders in the campground with lifted Fords and Chevys that we wouldn't make it. Creek too deep. Rocks too rough. Ruts too deep. This Ford drowned out. That Chevy dragged the frame. We can always turn around, right?
We have never aired down before but considering the doom-n-gloom advice we thought an abundance of caution would be good. Aired down to 25psi at the beginning of the sandy section going north on Medano Pass from the sand dunes national park. Let me just say here - AIR DOWN. I'd be willing to bet we would have made the summit of Mosquito Pass if I'd just aired down. ESP turned off. Everything else in full auto with suspension aired up to off road mode/height. Absolutely uneventful in the sand. No problems.
As we got to the first creek crossing two jacked/lifted 4x4s pull out ahead of us. We're happy to not be alone on the trail at this point so we just followed along. First 4-5 creek crossings are uneventful. It got rougher in a few places then they pulled out of view when I stopped for a bio break.
The trail guide, folks in the campground and trip meter all say we're approaching the stream crossing too deep for us to pass. Lady in the campground says it's DEEP! We meet a Jeep on BIG tires with water on the top of the back bumper. He says we can't make it. He's followed by a lifted Land Cruiser with a snorkel. He says we can't make it. I can still turn around, right?
While sitting beside the Land Cruiser I told the other driver I should probably give Big Rhonda a little help and turned the air knob to "XTRA" level. Guy's head swiveled around like Linda Blair as he told his S.O. "lookit that!". He told me there was a dip in the middle where water went over their tires. We decided to carry on.
Made it to nearly the middle, backed up, checked the front bumper water line and decided to go back and ask how deep the dip was.
His wife said she thought it was just a rock they went over. I figured what the hay. Guy in the lifted Jeep had turned around to watch us. It was either push on or turn around so we pushed on. As you can see from the video, it was nothing. Nice solid bottom. Car felt a tiny bit floaty at one point but no water got inside. We did have steam coming out from everywhere underneath. Even the interior windows fogged near the bottom for a few seconds. Here's the
Onwards and upwards we drove. Duramax-man had warned us of a section near the top of a big ole rock with some big gashes in it. "Duramax frame hit the rocks", he said. Wife and I got out to investigate when we got there. Picked a route. Put it in 4LOW with open (non-locked) diffs. She spotted me (kinda/mostly) and we made it through with nary a bump or scrape. Here's the
Trail was fairly easy after that on down into Westcliffe. We had to go that far to air back up. It would have taken an hour with our little 12VDC air compressor. Will have to get mobile air sorted before next trip.
Know I'm preaching to the choir here but goodness that Touraeg is a capable beastie. I know there are places it won't go but I don't want to go to those places so we're good!
Hope you enjoy the vids. I'll put a few pics up later. Here's one from the trail:
Medano Pass Aspens by HI Racing, on Flickr
