Amen on the comfort....At the Colrado Rally a couple years ago, about a dozen of us topped Imogene Pass in a driving rain storm. There were some 16 jeeps up there with all huddled together in rain gear freezing their tails off......and us sitting on heated seats!!!!!

Rick

 

We had quite the opposite situation - it was near 100F outside - but I was cool and comfortable inside the cabin.

Oh - and I forgot the mention the twisty mountain roads we had to drive through to get to the desert - I know I was in the most capable vehicle of the group in that element!!

 

That's exactly what LC / LR drivers don't get!!! With a Treg you don't have to sacrifice all your creature comforts just to do some hard core (and I use the term loosely) off-roading. The only one IMO that comes (sort of) close to a Treg might be a Discovery3.

650km through the Namib desert with 6 Toytoys, 1 SeriesI Disco and my Treg, and I was the only one with decent a/c. The rest fried their butts off.

 

driving on sand

AndrieK,

Do you air down your tires when driving on sand? Is so, to what pressure? If not, what setting do you use: high, low, center diff lock, etc? Trying to figure out what is best for the beach.

 

AndrieK,

Do you air down your tires when driving on sand? Is so, to what pressure? If not, what setting do you use: high, low, center diff lock, etc? Trying to figure out what is best for the beach.

First thing you will do is turn off the ESP. If you stop and shut the Treg off you will have to remember to turn it off again. ESP will get you stuck in sand if you have any kind of spinning at all. It is on by default when you start your car. I would not air down, just low range and steady throttle. You could use center diff lock, but doubt you would need it. It will really cut your turning radius.

 

Hey Surfman, sorry for the late reply. I was in Mozambique last week.

To answer your Q, yes. Under normal circumstances (empty car, driving on the beach) I go down to 1.1bar (16psi). ESP always off (VERY IMPORTANT). However, I have 265/65R17 tyres. Not sure what to do with the low profile 19" and 20" stuff.

I have a manual tranny, which makes gear changes in sand a little more tricky. I use High Range, auto diff. My 1st gear is VERY low, so I can keep the revs above 2,500r/min on steep inclines, which means my turbo spools up nicely. When I get stuck, I put it in low with all my diff locks on and try to reverse out in my own tracks. This works just fine 95% of the time.

In Namibia we went as low as 0.3bar (4.3psi) in some places, but desert sand is much more difficult to drive on than beach sand, because it's dry and like powder.

IMO, switch off your ESP and play a bit with your tyre pressures. The car will do the rest.

 

Beach driving

Yeti and AndrieK,

Thanks for your advice. Here's what I did a few days ago while surf fishing on a beach in New Jersey. Sand was wet and soft from all of the rain we are getting lately. Switched off the ESP as directed. Put the Treg into low range and proceeded with no problems. On sections where the sand was somewhat hardpacked, I stopped and put it back into high range. Again, no problems. On this beach I never had to air down on my previous vehicles (Chevrolet TrailBlazers), however, when I go to Cape Hatteras the sand is very soft and dry and airing down is a must. AndrieK, I have 255/60/R17 on my Treg. When I'm at Hatteras I used to air down to 18 to 20 psi in my TrailBlazers. Would this range be acceptable with my current tires and what would it do to my TPMS? One last question, my next set of tires I would like to put 265/65/R17 on my Treg. Is this ok to do. Thanks guys for your help and advice. The Treg is one awesome machine. Never driven anything like it. I smile every time I get in and start 'er up.

Dave

 

Howzit Surfman

Seems like you're doing just fine with your ride off-road. IMO the Treg is very forgiving and capable off-road. You have to be really deep in it or very stupid to get really stuck.

As far as your questions go, 18 to 20 psi I think is ok for beach driving. You probably won't need to go lower on a 255/60 tyre. Like I said, I currently run 265/65R17's and IMO this is probably the best compromise for on/off-road use.

I generally try to stick within 10% of the original tyre size. This is my own personal rule-of-thumb. If you go bigger than this, you start affecting the performance of the vehicle. Mine came with 235/65R17's. The 265/65's are 5.29% bigger (circumference). To get close to 10%, I'd have to go to a 265/70 (8.88%) or a 275/65 (7.05%). As I'm sure you know, the bigger the sidewall (higher profile) the bigger the foot print when you deflate.

To go to an even higher profile, I'd have to go to 16" wheels. On my R5 Treg, I can do this, but on all others, you're stuck with 17" or even 18" as a minimum. I didn't go for the 16" wheels because 5x 17" tyres were quite a bit cheaper than 5x 16" tyres AND wheels.

My TPMS does not work at pressures below 17psi, but Siberian told me yesterday that you can actually set the lower limit of the TPMS system with a VAG-COM. I'll probably have a go at this over the weekend.

Have fun!!!
Andrie

 

If you don't want to go wider then stock but just want taller you can run a 245/70/17 or I believe BFG does a 245/75/17 Mud Terrain tire. I run 245/70/17 with no rub issues at all. I am not fond of wider tires since I live a snow area and prefer narrower. I am not sure if that would apply to sand or not, probably not.

 

Yeti and AndrieK,

Again, thanks for the great advice and info. The trick to driving on the beach is to "float" on the sand and not dig in. I found from experience the best tires for the beach are highway all-season. They don't have an overly aggressive tread so they don't dig in. Yeti, where I live in southeastern Pennsylvania (Philadelphia suburb), we don't get that much snow so I would like a wider and taller tire for every day driving and beach use. Would like to get a slightly more aggressive tire than the highway all-season now that my teenage boys and I are going on backpacking trips. Got to be able to get to the best trailheads. On last question, will the 265/65/17's rub and what tires do you guys recommend for what I'm looking for? Thanks again!

Dave

 

Yeti and AndrieK,

Again, thanks for the great advice and info. The trick to driving on the beach is to "float" on the sand and not dig in. I found from experience the best tires for the beach are highway all-season. They don't have an overly aggressive tread so they don't dig in. Yeti, where I live in southeastern Pennsylvania (Philadelphia suburb), we don't get that much snow so I would like a wider and taller tire for every day driving and beach use. Would like to get a slightly more aggressive tire than the highway all-season now that my teenage boys and I are going on backpacking trips. Got to be able to get to the best trailheads. On last question, will the 265/65/17's rub and what tires do you guys recommend for what I'm looking for? Thanks again!

Dave

I am fully aware of conditions in PA. I am from York originally and moved to UT in 2000. You don't get much snow there for sure, just that it tends to dump all at one time when it does. I certainly don't miss the freezing rain crap we got back there.

I have been on the beach, while not driving myself, with my father inlaw and he never had real wide tires on the vehicals he drove. Granted, he did air down, but I would be willing to be he did not have 255 wide tires on any of his vehicals. You have to get what works for you.

 

I have MILES of clearance with my 265/65R17's. No rubbing issues whatsoever, not even at full bump with the wheels turned at full lock.

We're a bit limited with tyre choice here in SA. I basically had to decide between Pirelli Scorpio, Yokohama Geolandar, and Bridgestone Dueller A/T tyres. I went with the Bridgestones as they were the cheapest. I'm very happy with them. The biggest change for me was the extra road noise, but that's something you'll just have to learn to live with, with the more agressive tread.

My next set will probably be the Geolandars, just to try them out, but I doubt I'll fit them on this Treg as it seems like I'll be getting in the order of 70,000 to 80,000km on the Bridgestones.

Have a look at the pics of my Treg in the Namib. You can see the tyres there.

 

AndrieK,

I had Geolanders H/T GO51 on my TrailBlazer. Very good tire. Quiet, comfortable, and provided great handling. Will look at Yoko's again. I agree with you, digging out on a crowded beach is no fun. My reason for moving up to 265/65/17's is to gain a little more ground clearance plus I like big fat tires to fill out the wheel well!!

Yeti,

What's the matter, didn't you like skating, eh, I mean, sking down our "mountains"? You had to move to the land of the greatest powder in the world? LOL Man, I'm jealous!! Yeah, the freezing rain crap is just that!!! It sucks!


Have a good weekend guys!

Dave