Some of the most fun you’ll ever have offroad is plugging your 4WD through slippery sloppy mud.

You will find that by spraying some good quality real world offroad mud up the sides of your 4WD you can show people that your rig isn’t just a mall crawler and has been offroad at least once in its lifetime!

Other than a good quality snorkel and a trusty set of All Terrains or Mud Terrain tyres, there aren’t too many mods you need before you head out for a drive in the mud.

These are our top tips for having the most fun and avoiding damage to your pride and joy off road!

1.Air down your tyres.

You’ve probably heard this one a million times, while monotonous it still doesn’t get any less important, an aired down set of tyres affords you stacks more grip float and traction offroad, and will increase your ability to steer and stop your 4WD in the sloppy stuff.

If you run your tyres at recommended highway pressures of around  36PSI, by dropping them down to approximately half of this pressure will double the overall contact area, and will also protect the sidewalls from punctures and gashes usually encountered when running over sharp sticks and rocks.

To let your tyres down efficiently you should use a purpose made tyre deflation device with an integrated gauge. This way you can check what pressure you are at as you go. Something like the Kwiky tyre deflator makes short work of dropping pressures and will let you set all 4 corners down to exactly the same pressure for the most balanced offroad performance.

2.Wind up your windows, and close your sunroof

This seems like a no-brainer, but unless you like bringing spare clothes with you to get changed halfway down the track, or your 4WD is equipped with a vinyl interior, sealing your 4WD up is a great idea, we’ve discovered out the hard way that it isn’t much fun cleaning mud out of the interior of your vehicle.

We’ve made this mistake many times, and there is nothing worse than getting mud flicked up and into your mouth or mushing it into your velour seat fabric and carpet

As a quick solution you can always add a pair of Adventure Kings neoprene seat covers, or a set of Adventure Kings Heavy duty seat covers to keep the grunge off, and when you are getting back in a set of Adventure Kings Deep dish rubber floor mats to catch the mud off your boots and keep your carpet looking schmick, these can all be taken out when you are home and rinsed with the hose!

3.Top up your washer bottle fluid.

It’s located next to the blinker fluid, this handy trick has saved our clear vision many, many times when heading home from a mud puddle sesh, don’t forget your rear window washer bottle too!

A dash of soap and a simple spray whilst the mud is still wet will make it much easier for your wipers to clear the windscreen and help you see the road ahead.

PRO TIP: Don’t forget a rag and a water bottle to clean your vehicle side mirrors too!  😊

4.Drive with a steady throttle!

Depending on the depth and consistency of the mud, it’s a good idea to keep a steady right boot, this will avoid digging ruts and help to maintain your momentum. Coupled with picking a suitable gear before the muddy section, will save you stacks of embarrassment getting sucked down into sticky situations.

This will keep your steering more predictable as well. When in greasy mud, steering inputs can be delayed by a second meaning you can predict the movement of your car with more accuracy and navigate the tricky bits easier with a stable speed.

Pro tip: If you aren’t sure about the depth of the water or the consistency, ALWAYS get out and use a stick to check the depth and consistency. It’s never a clever idea to hit tracks blind and doing this can surely end in an expensive disaster!

5.Pick the high ground…if you can
When presented with a choice to navigate through super deep muddy sections, water almost always drains downhill (unless in thick clay soil) so pick the higher ground for a shallower alternative (most of the time).

It’s sometimes not worth the risk to hit the deepest puddle you can find particularly at a fast pace only to get your vehicle well and truly un-boggable!

6.Bring a mate (& recovery gear)

Make sure you have a suitable recovery vehicle on hand at all times, even if your vehicle is fitted with a Domin8r X 12,000LB winch you can never be certain of a solid recovery anchor.

Before you get into the deep bits, get your recovery gear all hooked up to your rated recovery points, pre-preparing this will save you from a muddy snorkelling trip trying to reach underwater (or under mud) for your rated points and blindly fumbling with shackles when you don’t make it to the other side!

It’s also a good idea to keep an open line of communication going over the UHF radio this way you and your buddy don’t do a synchronised dive into the thick stuff and simultaneously get bogged up to your windscreens!

7.Air up and double check your vehicle.

When driving through mud there is a lot of forces and pressures at play, and it isn’t uncommon for things like Number plates to be bent up and out of the way, and bits of sticks and branches to get stuck under your vehicles body pan or up in your tail shafts.

So whilst you are airing up with your portable 12 volt compressor like the Thumper MKII or Thumper Max go over the whole under-body and check that everything is where it is supposed to be and that you haven’t collected any unwanted cargo when you were in the mud.

This is also a good opportunity to check that your indicators headlights and brake lights are still visible to Other road users, especially heading towards dusk, as you could get yourself into trouble if you don’t clean your lenses a little bit.

8.Give’r a wash

After a few days in the bush you probably feel like a good shower to remove all of the grub from the bush, your 4WD is not too different – whilst you may like the look of mud splashed all over your 4WD, after a few days and even in under a week the crusty mud can start to do damage to your vehicles plastic trim, rubber bushings, hoses, engine belts and even wheel bearings and cv joints. So it is important to not leave your 4WD crusty caked in mud for longer than it is needed.

There are hundreds of ways to wash your vehicle, but by using something like a Stanley 1450psi Pressure Washer gives you a limitless supply of high pressure water to blast the gunk off your 4WD, this makes getting up under the under-body and blasting the build up off your trim, this offers the best protection for all of your vehicles moving components and will give you many more years on the tracks!

With these 8 tips you can get out there and have some fun in your 4WD without fear!