An illustration and some thoughts on picking a line

[rgallant]

With respect to a comment made by @Boostpowered in another post. Made me think about picking lines when driving. As I often travel solo I tend to be very careful about where I go and the lines I pick. So I thought I will do as I suggested and start a topic on this.

Picking a good line is really about 3 things

1. Limiting stresses on your vehicle by picking the best way up
2. Limiting trail damage
3. Avoiding getting stuck or worst on the side or roof.

An example video 3 Discovery's same section of trail on the same day illustrating the difference line makes, note I am the last one.

This section has a very steep drop to the right and large rock ledge more to the left with a good sized hole sort of in middle left.


Disco's at Doctors Bay

I have more to come on this topic

 

[rgallant]

The 1st thing about picking a line is looking ahead as you drive. We all do this avoiding large pot holes, rocks and other road obstacles but in this case we are talking about a more complex obstacles that needs to be traversed.

For example :

• Water crossings including large murky puddles
• Rock ledges
• Steep off camber trail sections
• Mud or Sandy sections
• Ice and Snowy sections

The 1st thing in all cases is to get out of that warm drivers seat and take a look at what you are facing. Walk over the ground take a look at what you are facing :

• Can your truck negotiate the obstacle - sometimes it is just obvious you are not going any further
• Is the ground hard or soft do you need traction aids
• How is the camber fairly level or very steep - does it switch at any point
• How wide do you have maneuvering room or do you have a narrow route
• Are there any problem ledges or holes on that section
• For muddy puddles could there be hidden rocks, drop offs branches etc, how deep and muddy
• For rivers and streams the same as puddles but consider the material on the bottom. Could you loose traction anywhere.

More to come

 

[rgallant]

Time for more examples.

On the face of this it does not look very bad, a bit narrow mountain on one side cliff on the other. The lead vehicle drove to just short of where the back of yellow LR 110 is.

It got worse, the fellow in the image guided vehicles through. Notice you ride high to the right, then need to drop and cut left. Bjorn did an excellent job of guiding those who paid attention - more on that later.

The best line although it may not be obvious to some was to travel more to the left to avoid the hole that Bjorn is standing in. There are a few issues with that though:

• Your right side tire is running on minimal tread which could result in body or slider damage if you slip left.
• Your truck needs to be wide enough to get away with it
• You also need to be long enough that your front right then rear right can float in air where the log is jutting up
• And as noted this stretched greatly benefited from having a guide

1st up the bad driver was not paying enough attention

P38 mud lakes

2nd A Discovery he misjudged his front left tire not terrible but a tad exciting

Disco at Mud lakes

Finally an LR3 - new relatively driver to off-roading he did everything right started well positioned and payed attention to the guide. A little back end lift but pretty calm

LR 3 through Mud Lakes

Very small lift of the backend


All three of these drivers hedged too far to the right and not enough to the left resulting the right rear lifting. In my case (no video I am always last) nothing lifted but I was more the left.

 

[Ubiety]

Interesting analysis, thanks for sharing. To me it looks like the "fear" of the lump on the right is causing folks to stay right in order to avoid the small climb up the lump which puts the left tire in the relatively "tame" looking hole to the left. From the comfort of the desk it is pretty clear to see that be better line is further left but adrenaline and snap judgements and not taking the time to slow down and study the obstacle. It certainly looks tamer in the picture than what the videos showed. Maybe we are more afraid of a climb/lump than a hole/drop and that is something to keep in mind. Thanks!

 

[rgallant]

@Ubiety it was that drop is is about waist deep, the guide was trying to keep them from dropping in like the P38, the problem is trust. I had 2 advantages being last and many years of guiding and being guided in vehicles in the military where you could not see behind you so you trust the guide. It carries forward for me, but it is harder for others