Four Wheel Drive Cars

Yesterday I was up in the Rocky Mountains of New Mexico USA looking at a couple of plots of land. I am still trying to find a nice little isolated place high enough up in the mountains that it is cool even when it is over 100F (40C) here in El Paso, Texas.

We were at an altitude of roughly 8,100 ft MSL (2.500 meters). The coordinates are N32.974074, W-105.652488. It was nice and cool, just a little bit foggy, and the terrain was heavily forested. There were tall pine trees, wild roses and strawberries, and alpine meadows. In other words BEAUTIFUL.

I was driving my Toyota 4 wheel drive car in low transfer, and my partner was driving his Pontiac Aztec All Wheel Drive car.

At one point I had to get out the tow chain and tow him a little ways up the mountain.

To look at Eagle Crest Block 2, Lot 2 the road was so steep and rugged that my friend and his dog rode in our car with Inu and myself in the Toyota. I was really driving very carefully and slow, which is the only sensible way to drive on a very steep and rocky mountain dirt road like Eagle Crest Road. I could sense that my friend was distinctly nervous and somewhat apprehensive.

Apparently he has not had a lifetime of experience driving in off road conditions. Afterwards one frequently thinks, “I should have said this, or that.”

I made light of the situation to my friend. This was wrong. I should have reassured him. I really have had a great deal of experience driving in 4 wheel drive in very rugged conditions.

Among my environmentalist friends SUVs and 4 wheel drive cars are really looked down upon. And in fact they can do a great deal of damage to the land. They are a tool that one should use lightly and carefully. One can easily damage the desert with them where 1,000 years from now the damage you caused and your tracks will be readily visible.

While I was living in Europe I owned five different 4 wheel drive cars. On many weekends we would pull the two-horse trailer to dressage events. And normally we would park on grassy fields along with the hundreds of other horse trailers. Since it rains a lot in northern Europe, one frequently did need to use 4 wheel drive to pull a horse trailer containing two large Dutch Warmbloods out of the mud. The option which people without 4 wheel drive used was to wait for the farmer’s tractor, which was always standing by ready to be of service.

I’m sure that overall I have driven thousands of miles in off-road conditions. From here in West Texas to the highlands of Scotland and the moors of England to following 2,000 year old Roman roads through the wilder parts of Belgium and Germany.

One of the 4 wheel drive cars I owned in Europe was a Mercedes G500. This is the Mercedes very top of the line, killer, ass kicker 4 wheel drive car. Fuel inected V8 with 2 spark plugs per cylinder, 5 speed automatic, lockable differentials in front, back, and in the middle. Really an amazing car. Macy Grey has one, so does Bill Cosby. Arnold Schwartzenager has two of them. The infamous Ken Lay of Enron had one. http://www.forbes.com/2002/02/25/0225test.html

I was a member of the British Gelandewagen club, and I would occasionally drive over to England (via the tunnel under the English channel) to go drive it in extreme conditions with these other crazy old farts in their Mercedes off road cars. I called it playing in the mud. My wife hated the idea of me taking this very expensive car and abusing the hell out of it by driving in extreme off road conditions. Like most other things, she was probably right about this too.

One time we were part of a 4-wheel drive car show and rally in the New Forest portion of England. Down South, kind of West of London. I guess it probably is in Dorset. Where the Queen has her very own forest. Horses run free there. Honest. And they have the right of way legally. They have Velcro mounted cloth reflectors on these wild horses to try and prevent night time road deaths.

My car was displayed in the car show, and I also entered it in the off-road rally.

I was out there in the country near Beaulieu (pronounced BuuLee) where they had the off road course set up, practicing going around and around the course when I met some British guys in their wild, not even remotely road legal high performance 4 wheel drive cars. One of the guys was the chief instructor for the British Land Rover club. They were surprised when they found out that I was a Texan driving this fine car with Dutch license plates.
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To describe it politely, this guy was rather in lust with and was drooling all over my car. So I asked him if he would like to drive it around the course. He declined to drive my car on this off road course, but he did ride with me once around the off-road course. We shot the breeze, and he gave me some free off-road driving instruction and tips.

What I should have told my friend yesterday up in the Rocky Mountains is that a good off-road car can go up or down a rather incredibly steep slope if one is driving perpendicular to the horizon/slope. Just put it in 4 wheel drive, low transfer, first gear, and go real slow. Don’t make too many strange and excessive moves.

There normally is no big danger if the road is not wet or slippery. The real dangerous thing is when you are driving along the side of a hill and the car is leaning over to the side. Here you need to steer into the hill, but be careful. You can turn the car over if the slope is very steep.

One can easily drive straight up or down a hill that you can’t possibly drive along the side of.