Climb review

[DG707]

Hi experts!

@Gaurav@J-P L @Frederic @JeromeFJ @Mark B would love to hear your valuable opinion on this particular climb and its implementation.

As i am building my way from newbie rank to marshal 😀 and expanding my knowledge base, I did find this particular video interesting to ask for opinions.

My first impression was that this climb is unsafe is on the edge of rollover, the reason i think so is because the rear end of the car is constantly falling behind the nose and most part it is sideways action… The positive thing i see is that driver keeps pushing the gas and steers to the right.

@J-P L I remember i got “don’t fight the gravity” warning from you in similar situation, of course on much more lower dune, on mu first drive.
 

would love to hear from you guys! Eating all this info as desert, between the drives 🫣😀

Insta link

Edited February 2 by DG707
Added leads and suport

[Frederic]

33 minutes ago, DG707 said:

Hi experts!

@Gaurav@J-P L @Frederic would love to hear your valuable opinion on this particular climb and its implementation.

As i am building my way from newbie rank to marshal 😀 and expanding my knowledge base, I did find this particular video interesting to ask for opinions.

My first impression was that this climb is unsafe is on the edge of rollover, the reason i think so is because the rear end of the car is constantly falling behind the nose and most part it is sideways action… The positive thing i see is that driver keeps pushing the gas and steers to the right.

@J-P L I remember i got “don’t fight the gravity” warning from you in similar situation, of course on much more lower dune, on mu first drive.
 

would love to hear from you guys! Eating all this info as desert, between the drives 🫣😀

Insta link

The Omani guys are well known for this. They are crazy about Xterra and most likely this is VK swap where they swap the stock 4.0 engine with the 5.6 V8 from the Patrol. Additionally they do this in 4Lo  on high rpm and only for “insta pleasure”, not a 4 hrs drive like this. You are totally correct this style of driving is extremely dangerous and does not belong in our midst. Imagine your 10 car convoy has to follow your tracks in this drift style 😅

[DG707]

Thanks for the input @Frederic! You just confirmed my feeling!

let’s change the rules now - You have to climb this dune in the manner he did it, but do it safe, what would you do?

I feel that car lacks initial momentum, he had to have more initial speed to do this safe way, plus aproach angle was too steep. I have prepared detailed drawing for evaluation 😅😅😅

 

let’s discuss this! 

[Luke K P]

i'd say better angle like you have drawn and try for a nice consistent speed to get up to the ridgeline,..

and just turn down early if you can feel you are not gonna make it, loop around, and try again. @DG707

[Frederic]

2 hours ago, DG707 said:

Thanks for the input @Frederic! You just confirmed my feeling!

let’s change the rules now - You have to climb this dune in the manner he did it, but do it safe, what would you do?

I feel that car lacks initial momentum, he had to have more initial speed to do this safe way, plus aproach angle was too steep. I have prepared detailed drawing for evaluation 😅😅😅

 

let’s discuss this! 

100% correct. 

Should be like this: please don't laugh with my graphic skills 😅

[DG707]

@Luke K P @Frederic

thanks for your input guys, perfect! 

[Gaurav]

Correct observation @DG707

If he had carried a bit more rolling momentum, he wouldn’t have struggled as much. Gravity wouldn’t have worked against him that heavily.

At the Newbie level, we always start with the absolute basics: never fight gravity. This principle must be ingrained in every off-roader from day one.

At higher levels, we do challenge gravity at times, but only with proper rolling momentum. If there’s no momentum, or it’s clearly insufficient to complete an advanced maneuver, the correct decision is to back down, reset, and try again, exactly as @Luke K P pointed out.

The reason some people still do this is simple: to create a dramatic sand shower that looks exciting on reels.

In reality, it often puts the vehicle just seconds away from a rollover. And when a rollover actually happens, those reels never make it to social media.

[ChrisW]

You can’t beat the physics in the end. Technique beats power every time. 
 

If you watch even some of the Dakar race footage, you’ll occasionally see guys with 1000hp cars attempt a line on a soft face and get nowhere. You really don’t need much in the way of angle, sand softness (ie softly packed and loose), and tyre contact area before you’ll simply never be able to gain the traction to start and sustain a climb. 
 

At that point you’re just a fast moving bunch of different vectors between speed, momentum, gravity and slip angle. You only need to make a small error and it’s over. 
 

Does look great though, as most stunts do…but to me that’s not the essence of desert driving, and not what our drives are about. 
 

 

[ChrisW]

I’ve just gone back to look at some recent videos - this is a drive I did recently with a roughly similar dune face. I should add that whilst this wasn’t a Carnity drive (we were testing some recent car maintenance ahead of a club drive), this is at the mid end of an Intermediate skill level. 
 

You’ll see that we took a line that was more curved and progressive. This allows you to build and carry speed, minimise slip angle (the difference between where your car chassis is pointing and the angle you’re going over the sand), and take a controlled line onto the ridge. 
 

You might need to watch this directly on YouTube - link here: https://youtube.com/shorts/PWMFGZsIJzs?si=G3vV4fW-T-sK_ZTy

 

Edited February 3 by ChrisW

[DG707]

21 minutes ago, ChrisW said:

I’ve just gone back to look at some recent videos - this is a drive I did recently with a roughly similar dune face. I should add that whilst this wasn’t a Carnity drive (we were testing some recent car maintenance ahead of a club drive), this is at the mid end of an Intermediate skill level. 
 

You’ll see that we took a line that was more curved and progressive. This allows you to build and carry speed, minimise slip angle (the difference between where your car chassis is pointing and the angle you’re going over the sand), and take a controlled line onto the ridge. 
 

You might need to watch this directly on YouTube - link here: https://youtube.com/shorts/PWMFGZsIJzs?si=G3vV4fW-T-sK_ZTy

 

Awesome footage, that’s the style I wish to drive ASAP

 

The main idea of my posts was to find the correct way to the thing, as to my opinion driver did not performed it correctly.

I have a little bit of car sports related background on tarmac, snow, rain etc. Desert is new thing for me and I am really excited about every upcoming drive, even if they feel a little bit too simple at the beginning:)

I met @Gaurav just a month ago during the Masterclass and he asked me: what is your goal? Well, my goal is very simple, I wish to achieve high level of skill in the sands now:)

Thanks everyone 

Edited February 3 by DG707