[at-l] Help

[stephensadams@hotmail.com (Steve Adams)]

Bryan,

Reference your post, dated 12-7-02, advising "(M)any of these SUVs are not
made to go off road ... Many have maybe 6 inches of (ground) clearance, not
much good for rutted trails with a high central hump."

I went to school in southern California and enjoyed getting away to the
mountains and deserts.  I owned a Volkswagen Karmann Ghia convertible which
had a flat plate covering the entire underside and almost no ground
clearance.  It had steel-belted radial tires.

I recall on one occasion driving up a dry mountain creek bed and
encountering a deputy sheriff who needed to get to the top of the mountain.
He had driven a CJ-5 Jeep as far as it would go and pulled it aside.  I told
him he was welcome but would have to hop in because if I stopped I doubted I
could start up the mountain again.  The top was down and he hopped in.  We
made it to the top of the mountain and I let him out.  He told me, "I really
hope you get a flat."  I was shocked.  He told me he could see the shiny
steel fibers sticking out of three of my tires before I got to him, and was
irritated that I had been able to go where his jeep with new tires couldn't
make it.

I was only stuck once in that car.  I walked out of the desert, hitch-hiked
home, and returned the next day with a friend and his four-wheel-drive
pickup truck.  The truck became stuck before we reached my car.  A sand
storm began so we freed my car and drove home.  The next day we retrieved
his truck.  He became stuck two more times before we got out.  My mistake
was driving up the leeward side of a dune.  My car instantly bottomed out.
This is the only time the car with no ground clearance was ever stuck.

Low ground clearance doesn't automatically mean a vehicle won't make it off
road.  You don't drive IN the ruts.  You drive with the front and rear
tires, on one side of your car, on top of the crown, and the tires on the
other side of your car on top of either side of the ruts.

Steve

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