from a regular desert visitor and traveller ...
Hello Charles.
You may want to post this....
Out in the desert, you will almost never find Land Rovers of any sort or marque. They are too unreliable. The dodgy electronics in Range Rovers rule them out as a car of choice in the desert and the bodywork on Land Rovers just does not last. American 4x4's are too heavy.
In the desert, pretty much the only car you will find is the Toyota Land Cruiser. The type they use in the Sahara generally has the straight six 4.5 litre diesel engine, delivering about 240 bhp with normal aspiration. The low down grunt of these cars is simply enormous. They are light, extremely rugged, and can carry huge loads (1.5 tons is quite normal). And they are simple. When started, you can take the battery out and it will just keep going. The drivers who work out there who I have talked to say they do not know of any case where anyone has had to leave a Land Cruiser out in the desert. There is always some way to get it back home. It is quite usual to see Land Cruisers with over 300,000 km on the clock and still looking like they just drove out of the showroom. They do not have a facility to lock the diffs.
The secret in driving in sand is to have enough power to keep you going when you hit a soft patch. The Land Cruiser certainly has that, which is why locked diffs are not considered necessary. That said, you have to be very nimble in changing down when you hit really soft sand. The Range Rover with automatic gearbox will get through really soft sand that will stop a Land Cruiser dead in its tracks, mainly because the automatic gearbox will keep the power on as the car slows dramatically.
So, for driving in sand, the trick is not to get stuck in the first place. For that you should have as much power as possible and an automatic would help.
Regards,
Geoffrey
Hello Charles.
You may want to post this....
Out in the desert, you will almost never find Land Rovers of any sort or marque. They are too unreliable. The dodgy electronics in Range Rovers rule them out as a car of choice in the desert and the bodywork on Land Rovers just does not last. American 4x4's are too heavy.
In the desert, pretty much the only car you will find is the Toyota Land Cruiser. The type they use in the Sahara generally has the straight six 4.5 litre diesel engine, delivering about 240 bhp with normal aspiration. The low down grunt of these cars is simply enormous. They are light, extremely rugged, and can carry huge loads (1.5 tons is quite normal). And they are simple. When started, you can take the battery out and it will just keep going. The drivers who work out there who I have talked to say they do not know of any case where anyone has had to leave a Land Cruiser out in the desert. There is always some way to get it back home. It is quite usual to see Land Cruisers with over 300,000 km on the clock and still looking like they just drove out of the showroom. They do not have a facility to lock the diffs.
The secret in driving in sand is to have enough power to keep you going when you hit a soft patch. The Land Cruiser certainly has that, which is why locked diffs are not considered necessary. That said, you have to be very nimble in changing down when you hit really soft sand. The Range Rover with automatic gearbox will get through really soft sand that will stop a Land Cruiser dead in its tracks, mainly because the automatic gearbox will keep the power on as the car slows dramatically.
So, for driving in sand, the trick is not to get stuck in the first place. For that you should have as much power as possible and an automatic would help.
Regards,
Geoffrey
