Impressive performance by a Dodge

[motto (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Tony Wheeler

Great story Richard, and a good example of the skinny wheel principle. I bet there were some red faces amongst the jeep owners!

Not only the jeep owners. I was camped in that field with a Studebaker US6 and anticipating 'civilised' conditions in Europe had removed the drive shaft to the rear most axle. We only moved a few feet with front and intermediate axles driving before all progress stopped.
Installation of the missing shaft got us going again but did we churn some mud on the way out with the beast barely responding to the helm!
I can quite understand why those swamp racers have very narrow or knife edged, large diameter wheels.

David.

[Lynn Eades]

Great footage on both counts, Keith and Hanno. When I see all that wheel spinning, I have to wonder how violent our 1931 Napier earth quake was. It left lots cars with broken axles from the rocking. Many had to wait for stock from o/seas as the national stocks were used up.
Back to the subject,
The bouncing of the crew makes all the difference, especially with the skinnier tyres.
I remember going to the motorcycle hill climbs with my Dad, when I was a kid. I loved watching those guys riding their big heavy Nortons, AJS's, BSA's and the like, with the primary chains wirling away by their boots. Great stuff!

[Bob McNeill]

Richard I bet your heart skipped a beat in 94 when the mighty Mack went down in the nose and wouldn,t move till a Matador just idled away with said Mack. Seemed that super singles went thru while duals became slicks.

[Richard Farrant]

Originally Posted by Bob McNeill

Richard I bet your heart skipped a beat in 94 when the mighty Mack went down in the nose and wouldn,t move till a Matador just idled away with said Mack. Seemed that super singles went thru while duals became slicks.

Good on you Bob, I never got a photo of the Austin. Funniest incident was one of our members with a Dodge M37 (I think), fitted with a garage breakdown crane and towing a caravan. He drove on to the field along the metal trackway and as the Dodge dropped off the end into the mud, the crane slammed down onto the caravan roof!

regards, Richard

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Hanno

That is a really good video, but would the bounce traction method work on some thing larger? Say 20 guys in the back of 3 ton.

Thanks to Keith for starting another good thread.

Cheers Phil

[motto (RIP)]

I would imagine that so long as they were coordinated it would have some effect but wouldn't it look funny! Sometimes merely having a couple of ton on board or removing outside duals will make a truck perform better.
There was a fellow in Queensland who had a replica VW Kubelwagen. It had a rear bumper that was ideal for standing on. With one or two blokes traveling on the bumper to bounce at the appropriate time that vehicle would go anywhere a Jeep would go.
That was the first vehicle I'd seen 'bounced' for traction and I remember being surprised how effective it was. Probably more effective because of the bouncers (bouncees?) being right at the rear.

David

[Lynn Eades]

V dub's by design, are very good cross country.
Another thing many people don't consider is tyre pressure. I did see in Hanno's car trial footage, that at least one car had deflated the tyres.