Over recent years the trends in car sales quite distinctly show that the sales of standard passenger vehicles such as sedans and compact vehicles have declined at an ever increasing rate, with the market share of new car sales once being dominated by the typical Australian made sedan, or even small, seemingly economical, Asian manufactured hatchbacks. These traditional market leaders have had to move over and make way for the domination of the industry by SUV’s and 4WD Utes.

The three top selling vehicles in 2019 were dual cab 4WD Utes, this may have something to do with the affordability and comfort now offered by vehicles that once wore the badge of being utilitarian in nature, smelly to run and heavy with poor handling characteristics jumping onboard with modern conveniences that make them as easy to drive as you could ever want.

Modern electronic aids like reversing camera’s, lane assist and hazard avoidance have improved safety on longer trips, coupled with racing inspired suspension and leather trimmed interiors, sound deadening and superb entertainment packages, the result being even some of the largest 4WD vehicles becoming much easier than expected to handle for even the least ‘skilled’ drivers.

The handling and ease of driving hadn’t just improved on-road, the offroad handling characteristics have also dramatically improved, with many of the latest modern offroad traction control offerings boasting performance yet unparalleled even in extremely hardcore situations.

Even if you have all of the electronic aids in the world for offroad driving assistance, there are some situations where a little bit of knowhow, and a bit of preparation can improve your odds of getting past an obstacle that much simpler.

One of our favourite tips to getting further offroad is one you may have seen on tele when you were young, watching the old bush survival shows, is to reduce the pressure in your tyres. A tyre, when dropped in pressure to a relatively low setting, usually between one third and one half of standard pressures. By dropping the pressure down inside, this offers a handful of benefits. Because your tyres now aren’t as supported by as much of a cushion of air, and because of this the sidewalls are aloud to droop and sag, meaning your contact patch becomes greater as the chord (section of a circle) of the diameter of your tyre becomes longer.

The longer chord length of your tyre means that for the same given weight of your vehicle you have increased the surface area supporting it, and a larger surface area means that you have less pressure on the track surface, resulting in what is known as “float” or the ability for your 4WD to use its tyres like a tank track or a caterpillar track and drive through terrain that you wouldn’t normally think possible.

The type of tyre will make a difference, but many factory supplied All Terrain style tyres are great at handling this sort of pressure and the performance gains offroad that you gain are incredible making you question the noisy and expensive upgraded Mud Terrain tyres your mates at the pub recommended.

More than just additional surface area on the ground, by dumping out your pressures allows your sidewalls to flex and contort on uneven and sharp surfaces meaning that your tyres sidewalls are far less likely to take a puncture offroad and won’t need repairs or replacements when you are far from civilization.

Obviously, dumping out your air pressure won’t work too well if you chose to “upgrade” your cutting edge, offroad machine with low profile (mall crawler spec) tyres as generally the lack of sidewall will result in a much shorter “chord” and much less surface area to distribute your vehicles weight over, additionally the smaller sidewall profile results in less flex and “give” when encountering sharper obstacles as mentioned earlier.

Letting your tyres down may seem like a simple enough concept but there certainly is a science to the art, with special tools and equipment being necessary for dropping your pressures safely, accurately and quickly, not to mention the special requirements you have for getting your tyres back up to normal pressures when all the off road shenanigans are over.

Dropping pressures can be done with just about anything, such as your keys or a clean stick, even the edge of your tyre valve dust cover, but hands down the most effective way to drop your air pressures down is by using a purpose made tool, such as the Kwiky Tyre Deflation tool, which fastens quickly via the screw threads directly to your vehicles tyre valve.

Once affixed, the device contains a compact yet easy to use valve core removal tool, which allows you to remove the tyre valve core captured wholly within the tool, the tool also allows you to release the pressure in full control with its integrated release valve.

Simply relieve the pressure and check the built-in bourdon tube gauge, for accurate and even control over your tyres pressures. When you have your tyre pressures set to the ideal pressures you simply reinsert the valve core to the tyre valve, remove the device and replace the dust cap. And you are on your way, this tool is incredibly quick and efficient at reducing tyre pressures and makes 4WDing a piece of cake!

But now your pressures are one third to half the pressure of standard road going pressures, what do you do when you need to drive home? When it is time to go home or hit the highway to move onto the next offroad destination with your family in tow, a 12-volt air compressor is an essential, and if you are looking for one of the best value high pressure air outputs for the side of the tracks, you seriously cant look past the new and improved Thumper Max MKII, this heavy duty air compressor is not only one of the highest output portable 4WD compressors on the market, it is also one of the best value portable compressors out there. Boasting up to 300L per minute flow rate, it will take only a couple of minutes to get all 4 tyres back up to pressure, ready for the road ahead.

There is no reason to not equip yourself with some of the best value 4WD accessories you could chuck in the back of your vehicle, so head to 4WD Supacentre and get your hands on all of your air compressor accessories for much less than you’d imagine, head into one of the www.4WDSupacentre.com.au dealers or company stores and get your hands on the best bang for buck outdoor gear in the country!