Thunderbolt has some dirty weekends (pics & videos) -- offroading in mud, sand, hills

[lazjen]

I signed up for a couple of 4WD training courses - off road and sand driving - as this vehicle is my first 4WD. Thought it best to learn some of the basics firsthand.

Overall they were not too difficult and the Lightning handled things pretty well. Probably the biggest negative was the longer wheelbase means it doesn't have a great "breakover" angle, so it can mean some stuff gets a bit more gnarly than for the shorter wheelbase 4WDs that are more prevalent.

For the off road/mud driving, the power consumption was very low. I used about 10% of the battery for the 5 to 6 hours of crawling around that we did. That was very encouraging. Sand driving however was another story. Admittedly we were doing training, so we drove mostly on the loose sand instead of the hard compacted stuff near the water. Power usage was very heavy though at about 1 kW/km, which is about 3 times "normal". I asked the trainer about the consumption in their vehicle and he mentioned that it's very heavy also - at least 5 times normal. Takes a lot of energy to push through that loose sand.

The worst part was having to clean the vehicle after, and while the sand comes off easy enough, it gets everywhere. Major pain to deal with overall and it took longer to clean than the mud. I've got a oscillating garden sprinkler that I can put under the vehicle to spray water into various crevasses and this was especially helpful dealing with the sand.

(Videos and Photos are by wife)

Videos (the descriptions have more commentary about the course, etc):

Glasshouse Mountains hill climb:
Glasshouse Mountains hill descent:
Glasshouse Mountains deep rut hill climb:
Glasshouse Mountains deep rut hill climb at top:
Glasshouse Mountains practice area:
Glasshouse Mountains easy muddy water cross:

Bribie Island Sand Driving - Getting bogged:
Bribie Island Sand Driving - The rescue part 1:
Bribie Island Sand Driving - The rescue part 2:

Whales off Bribie Island:

Pictures:

Time to get dirty:

We didn't do this path thankfully, but as we were preparing to do the other side, some other people turned up and had a go - and failed.

This was the other side of the image above:

Coonowrin (Crook Neck) Mountain:

Pumping up at the end and some of the dirty bits:

And now the sand driving:

Relatively clean at this point:

Some of the local wildlife watching on:

This leads to an inland track that loops back to the start. We didn't do that on the day.

Got stuck at one point, but we used it as a training exercise. The videos cover this in more detail.

This is the aftermath discussion where you can see the compacted sand, etc:

Some migrating whales off the coast (see video for more):

Towards the end. It might not look it, but we did manage to clean out a lot of sand when we got home. We've got our own backyard beach now.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing!

 

[The Weatherman]

Great Post. Thanks for sharing.

 

[21st Century Truck]

I signed up for a couple of 4WD training courses - off road and sand driving - as this vehicle is my first 4WD. Thought it best to learn some of the basics firsthand.

Overall they were not too difficult and the Lightning handled things pretty well. Probably the biggest negative was the longer wheelbase means it doesn't have a great "breakover" angle, so it can mean some stuff gets a bit more gnarly than for the shorter wheelbase 4WDs that are more prevalent.

For the off road/mud driving, the power consumption was very low. I used about 10% of the battery for the 5 to 6 hours of crawling around that we did. That was very encouraging. Sand driving however was another story. Admittedly we were doing training, so we drove mostly on the loose sand instead of the hard compacted stuff near the water. Power usage was very heavy though at about 1 kW/km, which is about 3 times "normal". I asked the trainer about the consumption in their vehicle and he mentioned that it's very heavy also - at least 5 times normal. Takes a lot of energy to push through that loose sand.

The worst part was having to clean the vehicle after, and while the sand comes off easy enough, it gets everywhere. Major pain to deal with overall and it took longer to clean than the mud. I've got a oscillating garden sprinkler that I can put under the vehicle to spray water into various crevasses and this was especially helpful dealing with the sand.

(Videos and Photos are by wife)

Videos (the descriptions have more commentary about the course, etc):

Glasshouse Mountains hill climb:
Glasshouse Mountains hill descent:
Glasshouse Mountains deep rut hill climb:
Glasshouse Mountains deep rut hill climb at top:
Glasshouse Mountains practice area:
Glasshouse Mountains easy muddy water cross:

Bribie Island Sand Driving - Getting bogged:
Bribie Island Sand Driving - The rescue part 1:
Bribie Island Sand Driving - The rescue part 2:

Whales off Bribie Island:

Pictures:

Time to get dirty:

We didn't do this path thankfully, but as we were preparing to do the other side, some other people turned up and had a go - and failed.

This was the other side of the image above:

Coonowrin (Crook Neck) Mountain:

Pumping up at the end and some of the dirty bits:

And now the sand driving:

Relatively clean at this point:

Some of the local wildlife watching on:

This leads to an inland track that loops back to the start. We didn't do that on the day.

Got stuck at one point, but we used it as a training exercise. The videos cover this in more detail.

This is the aftermath discussion where you can see the compacted sand, etc:

Some migrating whales off the coast (see video for more):

Towards the end. It might not look it, but we did manage to clean out a lot of sand when we got home. We've got our own backyard beach now.

That does it... I'm coming over with my truck!

 

[MaintGrl]

Ya, gotta LOVE that Independent suspension, and I assume the "Differentials" were locked !?

 

[lazjen]

That does it... I'm coming over with my truck!

Haha, yeah, lots of places to go.

Ya, gotta LOVE that Independent suspension, and I assume the "Differentials" were locked !?

Only when required, and that's mostly for badly rutted hills and roads where there's significant height differences between left and right sides, front to back. Otherwise, it really doesn't need it.

 

[Maxx]

Great report. Makes me wonder how would BYD do the same (especially with that ghost mode to see under the truck).

 

[lazjen]

It should do fine. I watched the video and I suspect if they had dropped the tire pressure a bit it would have been simple (not withstanding their software issues).

I would have liked to know more about that ghost mode - is it a real time view or constructed from previous vision as you pass over the ground?

Either way, there's a few things Ford could learn from BYD that would make the Lightning even better for off roading.

 

[Maxx]

I would have liked to know more about that ghost mode - is it a real time view or constructed from previous vision as you pass over the ground?

Either way, there's a few things Ford could learn from BYD that would make the Lightning even better for off roading.

Not sure but I wouldn't be surprised if the video is constructed that way because in the video, I only saw top view of what is under the truck which is definitely helpful but not as useful as seeing a live ground/low level view of obstacles along with the clearance as you drive over them.

Yup, it is time to put the ego aside and learn some things from Chinese. Caresoft has already brought BYD Seagull to U.S. to study. I haven't heard much about Ford/Skunkworks affordable EV project lately. Tariffs can protect American manufacturers at the expense of our consumers for so long. You guys are much closer to China. Do you have any of their low cost EVs sold in Australia?

 

[Ford Motor Company]

I signed up for a couple of 4WD training courses - off road and sand driving - as this vehicle is my first 4WD. Thought it best to learn some of the basics firsthand.

Overall they were not too difficult and the Lightning handled things pretty well. Probably the biggest negative was the longer wheelbase means it doesn't have a great "breakover" angle, so it can mean some stuff gets a bit more gnarly than for the shorter wheelbase 4WDs that are more prevalent.

For the off road/mud driving, the power consumption was very low. I used about 10% of the battery for the 5 to 6 hours of crawling around that we did. That was very encouraging. Sand driving however was another story. Admittedly we were doing training, so we drove mostly on the loose sand instead of the hard compacted stuff near the water. Power usage was very heavy though at about 1 kW/km, which is about 3 times "normal". I asked the trainer about the consumption in their vehicle and he mentioned that it's very heavy also - at least 5 times normal. Takes a lot of energy to push through that loose sand.

The worst part was having to clean the vehicle after, and while the sand comes off easy enough, it gets everywhere. Major pain to deal with overall and it took longer to clean than the mud. I've got a oscillating garden sprinkler that I can put under the vehicle to spray water into various crevasses and this was especially helpful dealing with the sand.

(Videos and Photos are by wife)

Videos (the descriptions have more commentary about the course, etc):

Glasshouse Mountains hill climb:
Glasshouse Mountains hill descent:
Glasshouse Mountains deep rut hill climb:
Glasshouse Mountains deep rut hill climb at top:
Glasshouse Mountains practice area:
Glasshouse Mountains easy muddy water cross:

Bribie Island Sand Driving - Getting bogged:
Bribie Island Sand Driving - The rescue part 1:
Bribie Island Sand Driving - The rescue part 2:

Whales off Bribie Island:

Pictures:

Time to get dirty:

We didn't do this path thankfully, but as we were preparing to do the other side, some other people turned up and had a go - and failed.

This was the other side of the image above:

Coonowrin (Crook Neck) Mountain:

Pumping up at the end and some of the dirty bits:

And now the sand driving:

Relatively clean at this point:

Some of the local wildlife watching on:

This leads to an inland track that loops back to the start. We didn't do that on the day.

Got stuck at one point, but we used it as a training exercise. The videos cover this in more detail.

This is the aftermath discussion where you can see the compacted sand, etc:

Some migrating whales off the coast (see video for more):

Towards the end. It might not look it, but we did manage to clean out a lot of sand when we got home. We've got our own backyard beach now.

Looks like fun! Thanks for sharing, Chris.

 

[Realtruck]

I signed up for a couple of 4WD training courses - off road and sand driving - as this vehicle is my first 4WD. Thought it best to learn some of the basics firsthand.

Overall they were not too difficult and the Lightning handled things pretty well. Probably the biggest negative was the longer wheelbase means it doesn't have a great "breakover" angle, so it can mean some stuff gets a bit more gnarly than for the shorter wheelbase 4WDs that are more prevalent.

For the off road/mud driving, the power consumption was very low. I used about 10% of the battery for the 5 to 6 hours of crawling around that we did. That was very encouraging. Sand driving however was another story. Admittedly we were doing training, so we drove mostly on the loose sand instead of the hard compacted stuff near the water. Power usage was very heavy though at about 1 kW/km, which is about 3 times "normal". I asked the trainer about the consumption in their vehicle and he mentioned that it's very heavy also - at least 5 times normal. Takes a lot of energy to push through that loose sand.

The worst part was having to clean the vehicle after, and while the sand comes off easy enough, it gets everywhere. Major pain to deal with overall and it took longer to clean than the mud. I've got a oscillating garden sprinkler that I can put under the vehicle to spray water into various crevasses and this was especially helpful dealing with the sand.

(Videos and Photos are by wife)

Videos (the descriptions have more commentary about the course, etc):

Glasshouse Mountains hill climb:
Glasshouse Mountains hill descent:
Glasshouse Mountains deep rut hill climb:
Glasshouse Mountains deep rut hill climb at top:
Glasshouse Mountains practice area:
Glasshouse Mountains easy muddy water cross:

Bribie Island Sand Driving - Getting bogged:
Bribie Island Sand Driving - The rescue part 1:
Bribie Island Sand Driving - The rescue part 2:

Whales off Bribie Island:

Pictures:

Time to get dirty:

We didn't do this path thankfully, but as we were preparing to do the other side, some other people turned up and had a go - and failed.

This was the other side of the image above:

Coonowrin (Crook Neck) Mountain:

Pumping up at the end and some of the dirty bits:

And now the sand driving:

Relatively clean at this point:

Some of the local wildlife watching on:

This leads to an inland track that loops back to the start. We didn't do that on the day.

Got stuck at one point, but we used it as a training exercise. The videos cover this in more detail.

This is the aftermath discussion where you can see the compacted sand, etc:

Some migrating whales off the coast (see video for more):

Towards the end. It might not look it, but we did manage to clean out a lot of sand when we got home. We've got our own backyard beach now.

The Lightning handled the terrain really well, despite getting stuck in the sand. Beach sand can be fussy, and you almost always need some kind of recovery gear- either to get yourself out of a bind or the next person. Great write up!

 

[lazjen]

The Lightning handled the terrain really well, despite getting stuck in the sand. Beach sand can be fussy, and you almost always need some kind of recovery gear- either to get yourself out of a bind or the next person. Great write up!

Note that it wasn't the Lightning's fault for getting stuck in the sand - that was 100% my fault for making the wrong decision (I should have gone down hill and leveled out, and then head back up directly, not across the slope). Our trainer mentioned that any vehicle would have had the same problem to varying degrees of stuck.

 

[lazjen]

Not sure but I wouldn't be surprised if the video is constructed that way because in the video, I only saw top view of what is under the truck which is definitely helpful but not as useful as seeing a live ground/low level view of obstacles along with the clearance as you drive over them.

Yup, it is time to put the ego aside and learn some things from Chinese. Caresoft has already brought BYD Seagull to U.S. to study. I haven't heard much about Ford/Skunkworks affordable EV project lately. Tariffs can protect American manufacturers at the expense of our consumers for so long. You guys are much closer to China. Do you have any of their low cost EVs sold in Australia?

BYD is the second most popular EV brand in Australia, after Tesla (I think it's Kia after that, but don't quote me). They are appearing everywhere I look these days. I think they look quite stylish overall. I haven't really looked into them much as I already had the Tesla Model 3 and they've got nothing like the Lightning available (I'm never going to get a PHEV).

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