jagermeister
01-28-2009, 07:50 PM
I took my family out to some large sand dunes in the CRV last weekend and we had an absolute blast. The dunes are located at Stockton Beach which is 2.5 hours north of Sydney. I’d say the dunes are roughly 20km long, 0.5 kms wide and up to 40-50 meters high in places. The dunes butt up against (and tower over) lush bush/forest and the dunes slowly encroach on the bush by 2-3 meters per year.
We went out with an organized tag-along-tour. The group was made up of 7 four wheel drives and consisted of several Toyota Landcruiser Prado’s, Mitsubishi Pajero’s, a Jeep and our humble 2006 CRV. All the other vehicles were very capable 4 WDs that had high and low range.
We received some excellent sand driving instruction, tested the cars and drivers capabilities, we went sandboarding and beach driving. We all came home with a buzz and desire for more. The highlight for the kids was the sandboarding and the steep dune descents.
The CRV performed very well and exceeded my expectations of what it could do. Our group explored the highs and lows of the dunes, we hit the steepest slopes and softest sand. Even though the CRV was the only softroader in the group, it kept up with and equalled all the other vehicles in terms of where we went….albeit it may have worked harder to do so.
At the start, the other vehicles lowered their tyre pressure to 15psi. We were instructed to lower the tyre pressures in the CRV to 12psi and the tyres really bagged out. Our tyres are Pirelli Scorpion ATR 225/65/17 and they performed very well. We got bogged in the sand once cresting over a dune (see pic). A few minutes digging behind the wheels and I reversed back, hit it again with more speed and we were over.
Before going out I was quiet reluctant due to hearing many stories about the inadequacies of soft-roaders and CRVs. Whilst some of this is no doubt true, I think CRV is somewhat underestimated. I suspect some of the concerns or issues people have are due to wrong tyres pressures, poor driving technique and other folk needing to justify the purchase of their serious macho 4WD. I would not hesitate to take the CRV out in the sand again.
Below are some pics.
We went out with an organized tag-along-tour. The group was made up of 7 four wheel drives and consisted of several Toyota Landcruiser Prado’s, Mitsubishi Pajero’s, a Jeep and our humble 2006 CRV. All the other vehicles were very capable 4 WDs that had high and low range.
We received some excellent sand driving instruction, tested the cars and drivers capabilities, we went sandboarding and beach driving. We all came home with a buzz and desire for more. The highlight for the kids was the sandboarding and the steep dune descents.
The CRV performed very well and exceeded my expectations of what it could do. Our group explored the highs and lows of the dunes, we hit the steepest slopes and softest sand. Even though the CRV was the only softroader in the group, it kept up with and equalled all the other vehicles in terms of where we went….albeit it may have worked harder to do so.
At the start, the other vehicles lowered their tyre pressure to 15psi. We were instructed to lower the tyre pressures in the CRV to 12psi and the tyres really bagged out. Our tyres are Pirelli Scorpion ATR 225/65/17 and they performed very well. We got bogged in the sand once cresting over a dune (see pic). A few minutes digging behind the wheels and I reversed back, hit it again with more speed and we were over.
Before going out I was quiet reluctant due to hearing many stories about the inadequacies of soft-roaders and CRVs. Whilst some of this is no doubt true, I think CRV is somewhat underestimated. I suspect some of the concerns or issues people have are due to wrong tyres pressures, poor driving technique and other folk needing to justify the purchase of their serious macho 4WD. I would not hesitate to take the CRV out in the sand again.
Below are some pics.