A newbie 4WDer knows the reality of how intimidating it is to take a perfectly good vehicle and take it off firm surfaces, and drive it into places where there is some very real potential for causing damage getting bogged, or even wedging your vehicle into an undesirable places offroad. It strikes as no wonder, when people buy themselves a brand new 4WD as a business write off or a new family car that they hesitate for a couple of years to eventually bite the proverbial bullet and build up the courage to finally take it off road for the first time!

It will come as a surprise to many newcomers that a 4WD with standard trim and tyres is more than capable of hitting some of the toughest tracks in oz with a close eye for detail and picking keen eye for choosing driving lines through the obstacles and a few indispensable tips and tricks. However these methods aren’t instant and usually take a bit of trial and error, and a bit of practice to become fully accustomed to reading the track surface ahead when you are offroad and whilst you are learning to tackle these techniques and even if you are a seasoned veteran, there is a bunch of essential items you MUST bring with you offroad to ensure you have way out, when things don’t quite go to plan when you are 4WDing.

Getting Bite.

We aren’t talking about lunch here, every time we take our 4WD’s offroad, you dramatically reduce traction available to you, this means driving like you normally would on hard terrain will very quickly result in you spinning up your tyres on the soft stuff. This is because of 2 reasons, firstly your vehicles weight is distributed across your four tyres, and with standard air pressure you will find that your contact patch area is around the size of the palm of your hand on each corner.

This down force equates to around 250kg of weight per corner, for an average dual cab ute or family wagon, this weight pushes down into the roughly 100mm x 100mm area and buries itself, when you introduce drive from your motor, you simply aggravate the problem.

There are two simple ways to address this issue of digging in, first is to drop your tyre pressures down to a much lower pressure, around 2/3 to ½ the usual highway pressures you would be running.  This works by allowing the sidewall to flex allowing more of the tyres circumference to be exposed to the track nearly tripling the contact area to around 250-300mm x 100mm, this increase in tyre tread contact patch, reduces the downforce to 250kg per corner over 3 times the surface, which decreases the downforce per square mm allowing the tyre to float and with more contact area you increase the grip potential of your tyres.

There are about as many ways to let down your tyres as there are ways to crack an egg, but if you are looking for a way to simply and easily drop your tyres pressures whilst being able to double check their pressures accurately, the Kwiky Tyre Deflator is it, by removing your tyres valve core you easily dump air out of your tyres quickly but accurately, and by capturing the core of the tyre valve inside the device and controlling the release of air you have absolute control of how much air you drop out of your tyre

The second way to get more bite on the track is to engage your 4WD into low range gearing, many 4WD’s do this with the short gear shift lever next to the normal gear selector. Low range offers more torque and less speed, being able to crawl slowly through obstacles, without breaking traction. This combo are four wheel driving 101 for even beginning to drive offroad

 Low range is kind of like shifting into an extra low 1^st gear, allowing your 4WD to stay in the torque of the RPM range, without needing the clutch to be used, and without any shudder or stalling that can occur when you drop the RPM too low.

  You’ll be surprised just how much your stock standard 4WD can do, just by releasing some air from your tyres, but by also bringing a portable air compressor with you, you’ll be able to pump your pressures back up, quickly and easily, to highway pressures. Although they are only flat on the bottom, by driving at speed with your tyres dropped down you increase the risk of all manner of issues such as decreased braking performance, and the possibility of breaking a bead off the tyre during sharp steering maneuvers. This is why we always pack our Thumper MAX, this is one of the highest output Air Compressors on the market using its double alloy pistons for twice the air output of similar sized units on the market!

If you are new to 4WDing one of the most important things you can do to learn quickly is to head into the bush with your mates, by following those who are more experienced you can see the way they managed to choose a line through the tough surfaces and you may be able to drag your 4WD through some of those same lines without any stress. The other benefit to other 4WD’s being nearby, is the ability to recover each other when things don’t quite go to plan, something as simple as a snatch strap can help pull your tyres into traction and get your 4WD out of some seriously sticky situations.

When recovering from the rear make sure you use a rated Tow Hitch Receiver and never a tow ball (quickly becomes a cannonball with recovery loads), and if you are taking advantage of adequate recovery points on the front, make sure you use an equalizing bridle such as the tree trunk protector from your Hercules Essential Recovery Kit to help reduce the loads on each point for a much safer recovery!

There are dozens of ways to get your 4WD further down the track, but a simple recovery kit, air compressor and tyre deflator, will get you to 99.999% of the places you never thought possible. And all for much much less than you imagined thanks to 4WD Supacentre and Adventure Kings. Check out the full range of 4WD accessories and recovery gear at www.4WDSupacentre.com.au call their team on 1800 88 39 64 to get your hands on the latest deals or drop into one of the fully equipped showrooms to see the gear in person and head home with a rippa bargain!