Had a pleasant day in the desert (Borrego) today. Some easy - some hard wheeling. More pics and videos later when I get them edited.
For now, enjoy these. Yes, the trail (Coyote Canyon) goes through the 10" deep water for 100 ft.
Goster asked me how it ran. I answered:
1) Water: With the new tires and lift, it definitely handles water better, especially getting up out of a wet wash. Looking at the service manual, the front and rear differentials *do* have vent tubes to raise the vent opening to a safe level. Otherwise I would have had to do more work to make them safe. But something tells me Mrs. Roadie would not support a snorkel mod:
2) Rocks: Rocks up to 10" are no problem, and 16" rocks are OK if I put a tire up on them and steer around them before they hit the rocker panel. Wish I had rock rails instead of plastic rocker panels so I could use rocks as a pivot fulcrum. If I have to take a rock underneath and scrape something, it's nice to have a frame to slide them on, because the skid plates aren't structural enough. The skid plates will deflect kicked up small rocks, but aren't really useful to slide on. Our extremely tight turning radius helps a LOT when picking the right line to take on a rock trail. Experience going with my jeeper friends was very useful. Long wheelbase vehicles (EXT/XUV) aren't as suitable because of the danger of high centering.
Favorite place to show off articulation and side-slope crawling is Sandstone Canyon:
3) Traction: The G80 automatic locker is absolutely essential. I'm even considering upgrading to the electronic-actuated Eaton locker because it's annoying to let a tire spin to activate the locker. One trail situation sometimes shows up the problem of having an open front differential and a non-locking transfer case, and it's when climbing a trail that's composed of rocks embedded in sand, and both rear wheels end up embedded in sand. They would lock if only one of them was on a rock, but if both start spinning in the sand, the front wheels don't generally get enough torque transferred to them to pull out the heavy vehicle. Taking a slightly different line to keep at least one rear tire touching rock is enough to solve this issue, but the jeeps with total lockability don't need to learn this trick. Until I figured it out, I got stopped a few times and gave up on trails I can get through now. Getting out and stacking rocks on top of the sand is another alternative, totally allowed by the unwritten off-road rules.
4) Tires: I'm really, really happy with the traction I'm getting with the Wrangler Silent Armors. Never even had to air them down for good sand traction, and I haven't ever felt nervous about any kind of deep sand, but that's partially a consequence of 4WD and the locker. With a built-in compressor (I put in for the Airlift 1000 rear air bags), I'm all set to air down if necessary, but then I don't do a lot of sand hill climbing like my buddies. The Envoy is simply too darned heavy!
5) What I'm most nervous about: Approach angle. The bumper kills the approach angle. The departure angle is not so bad when I inflate the Airlift bags to their max, but the front bumper will have to go in the long run after the warranty is over. See what 4 wheeler magazine did to a Lexus for a project car and you'll see where I'll be going in the next 2-3 years.
6) What I'm next most nervous about: Body damage. Can't do much about the shape of the body, but it does stick out in ways that could catch tall rocks. It's also too wide to go through the Pinyon Squeeze. So that's one trail I'll just have to enjoy walking through instead of driving.
