The suspension on your vehicle determines how well your vehicle flexes and moves when you are off-road. Suspensions can be soft or hard and can even lift your vehicle higher off the ground. A good suspension system will improve your off-road performance while maintaining a quality highway ride.
Many manufacturers of lift kits claim to improve the off road ability of a vehicle by simply lifting it to clear bigger tires. While this method does help in some areas such as approach and departure angles, break over angles and axle clearance, it raises the center of gravity.
The approach angle is the measure of incline that a vehicle can approach without running the bumper.
Just as the right kind of tire is needed for snow, so is the right kind of tire needed for off-road performance. You want a tire that will grip onto slick rock and pull you through the most extreme obstacles. Choosing the right kind of tire and right size for your vehicle is key to your off road performance.
Many factors play into tire size. The bigger the tire, the more ground clearance you have, but not without risking your center of gravity.
The center of gravity is the center position of balance for a vehicle, or the average location of a vehicle weight. A low center of gravity allows a vehicle to not only side hill well, but increases the angle that a vehicle can climb and descend.
Tire size is also affected by how high off the ground your vehicle is. When a lift kit is installed, you may choose to run a bigger tire size. Suspension also plays a role in which size tires will fit and which will hit. By understanding your whole vehicle - suspension, flex, body, etc. - you can make a good choice in tire size.
Lockers are devices that keep your wheels spinning even if you are losing traction. In most vehicles, when one tire begins to spin (lose traction), all of the power goes to making that tire spin to regain traction. A locker sends an equal distribution of power to both wheels on an axle.
A locking differential provides equal torque to the vehicle.
When riding a mountain bike up a hill, it is always easier to gear down, or you will run out of energy. This is the same concept with your vehicle. Low range is implemented to help you gear down and make good use of your engine power to help you over those steep hills, and to save your brakes when going downhill. Low range keeps your tires spinning at a slow pace with lots of power behind it. It can hold your engine back without constantly riding the brakes.
TeraFlex Low Range gear conversion products can increase your low range crawl ratio by as much as 50%, resulting in improved off road control and performance.
Rockcrawling with the TeraLow gives you the advantage of being able to start your engine on very steep inclines without using your clutch and with automatics compression braking improved when coming down a hill.
The key benefit of TeraLow conversion kits is that they improve gearing for off-roading without sacrificing the high-range gearing for highway driving, because TeraLow transfer case conversions are designed to be used in all vehicles.
Have you ever been driving down the road wondering if you have birds chirping underneath your vehicle? Well Im sure it has happened to the best of us. This is where driveline maintenance becomes very important.
Having a well maintained driveline will not only save you money, but will save you time and headache on the trail and even just normal road driving. A dry driveline starts by heating up to the point of making chirping noises, then moves to grinding noises, then soon after that, youll be lucky to keep your driveline from falling off and destroying the bottom of your vehicle. The driveline is key to the functionality of your vehicle, so come on, guys and gals, lets keep them up to par.
Thinks that all you have to do is make sure there is grease in the u joints and the splines of the shaft itself? Wrong. In a CV style drive shaft, which is very common in lifted vehicles, there is a center link called the CV ball, which is about an inch in diameter. This ball is what allows the driveline to handle extreme angles at higher speeds without burning up. The trick is in keeping this so called steel CV ball nice and greased at all times. This will require a needle Zerk fitting and usually requires taking off the driveline, at least one end of it.
A big question is, How often should you grease the drivelines in your vehicle? The best opinion is every 3,000 miles, but it may differ with certain applications or driving styles. Every time you go out wheeling or on a long road trip, you should get under there and re-grease it all. A properly greased driveline is a happy driveline.