EB or RB for offroad?

[haywoodphotomaccom]

Silver, funny you mention the POV thing. I have seen many cars up a Laurel Lakes near Mammoth and I always wonder how they made it up. That's one of my favorite roads on the dirt bike or Polaris. Looking forward to driving the van up next time.

[gregd]

Originally Posted by Aldercrest

...I've done some interesting 4x4 (see gallery) ...

I noticed in your recent Moab trip pictures you were traveling with an EB. Did the other van have any issues getting up Hardscrabble hill? That looked pretty tight.

[daveb]

Originally Posted by Silver350

Judging off road ability by the pictures of group outings, I would say that my wife's Freestar could get to about 50% of those places. Off road, RB. Off Pavement, EB.

Probably because 50% of the owners don't want to take a $100K(+) vehicle into the tougher trail situations, but many of us still do. Most of the places I feel comfortable driving in can be taken by vehicles like a 4x4 pickup that has a mild lift kit but a car would have some issues regarding undercarrige damage. Width of the trail holds me back more than the tail end dragging of my EB. Sometimes a stock Cherokee can make it where I can't without ripping my mirrors off and there was the one time where a little V-bug went up and over a snow bank while I had to winch through it It happens.

[Skywagon]

Last year, some of us did Bill Burke's Moab weekend. There were 5 of us including Angel, Ed in Montana, me and a couple of others. I have an RB but all the rest were EBs. I think that during the whole weekend there was only one place where I could go that the EBs couldn't. Maybe two at most. Sure they dragged a little; (I did too in a couple of spots), but by and large we went pretty much where we wanted to go and dragging the tail just wasn't much of an issue.
Bill

[Aldercrest]

Originally Posted by gregd

I noticed in your recent Moab trip pictures you were traveling with an EB. Did the other van have any issues getting up Hardscrabble hill? That looked pretty tight.

We were both EB's on that trip and had no issues. My rig is a Quigley with Aluminess bumpers front and rear, rear Deaver's, 33's, and a 3-4" lift. The other van was a Quadvan with stock bumpers, stock springs, 33's, and a 2" lift. Neither van has underfloor storage, both have receivers, and we were both running about 42psi.

The climb up the south side of Hardscrabble Hill wasn't a problem for overall length or departure angle - just really narrow. The Quigley van (me) had to back up on three turns, but the Quadvan made all three without jockeying. The turn radius on the Quadvan rocks. Descending the north side there were some big rocks and stepdowns that we had to be careful of, but again, no issues.

[jage]

Originally Posted by AndrewST

No idea but the best for a clear answer is to ask them directly

I think yes, in the same sense that you can convert a smartcar to 4wd, i.e. it would be a waste of both the Quigley/Quad and your time.

SMB 4x4 is great out of the box (well with the exception of the springs) but improvements to the existing 4x4 make more sense, or starting with a 2wd and choosing the right 4x4 system for yourself. Both the Q's, S&K and even getting it done by an independent shop all have their advantages, and tearing one down to go with a completely different system... well it would be like swapping diesel for V10 or vice-versa- better to just change vans.

[dsw4x4]

Turning radius is determined by the axle not the company that does the conversion. SMB uses a dynatrac that has a sharp turning radius and as far as I know Quigly, SK, and QV all use the new Superduty axle that uses a new designed knuckle that puts the pivot point further in the rim giving it a better scrub radius and allowing the van to turn really sharp, this is also why new truck rims have so much of set instead of the deep dish rims of the old days. So changing your conversion to a different brand will not change anything unless they use a new axle, their is no reason you could not put a new axle under your quigly conversion and get the same result with out laying down another 12k$. Also you can adjust your steering stops in a little and gain some that way to. These are the little bolts threaded into the axle or the knuckle with a jam nut that stops the knuckle from turning any further.
As far as over hang is concerned I have a EB and it drags!!! Not everywhere and suprisingly not all that hard. The hitch does take some of that beating. I will be building a bumper with the hitch intigrated in the middle to help this out. But we wheel or van hard and I have only had one hill I could not climb due to overhang. That was in Moab on poision spider and it had a way around. But the hill next to it had the same degree of steepness with out the steep approach and once on the steep part I was roasting off all four tires trying to climb it so it was steeeep!! Here some shots of my EB van in a few steep climbs.


Ok so we tilted the camera a little bit.

These are when the van was bone stock
You can see where the rear bumper scooped up some dirt.
pictures never do a climb justice rock is black due to tires spinning for traction you can see the rear about to drag.


You get the idea. I now run 35s and will be soon running 37s with a 3 to 4 inch lift. After having an extended van I would not go back to having rb van.
Derek