PHEV off road not good!

[NightPHEVer]

I would agree that tyres are likely to be the only improvement that could be made to the PHEV's 'off-road' ability. I had to take mine down a muddy forest track in Scotland and was slightly worried by its slidy behaviour. If you found yourself in deep ruts you'd very soon ground-out in the centre, so none of the wheels would be on the ground anyway! I know what a proper off roader can do - my previous vehicle was a 1997 Jeep Cherokee manual (with lowbox), selectable 4 wheel drive and All Terrain tyres, which would go pretty much anywhere a tractor could go. The best approach to 'soft'-roading is to always go slowly. I see Mitsubishi claim 400mm wading depth for the PHEV. Not sure if I'd want to try that.

Exhaust ground clearance is also a problem with the PHEV. It looks to me as though MItsubishi forgot that they'd need to put an exhaust on it! Resembles the sort of system you'd see on a kit car. Although it is made of stainless steel, and I've kept mine in a rust free appearence by cleaning it up with wet and dry paper and WD40. I occasionally wipe it over with some WD40 and it seems to stay rust free.

 

[Muddywheels]

I can't believe how limited tyre options are for the phev

I must of missed the wading depth - I read it shouldn't be driven through floods due to risk of electric fault :?

 

[Sailordoc]

Hmmm. Time for bit of a confession. I took the PHEV to the jet wash for another clean as it still looked a bit mucky in places. However when I looked underneath there was a huge amount of mud all around the underside of the car, so that the exhaust was almost encased. Now all cleaned off again. This tells me that the conditions must have been worse than when the other vehicles tackled the field, as none of them sank down in the mud. Thus I may have been unfair about the car's capabilities, as it may have been worse conditions than an SUV is designed to cope with. :?

 

[jaapv]

I can't believe how limited tyre options are for the phev

I must of missed the wading depth - I read it shouldn't be driven through floods due to risk of electric fault :?

Not THAT bad...

https://www.national.co.uk/tyres-search?Width=225&Profile=55&Diameter=18&Rating=&LoadIndex=

Wading depth is said to be 40 cm.

 

[Muddywheels]

Some of those drop off the list if you add load rating into the mix https://www.national.co.uk/tyres-search?Width=225&Profile=55&Diameter=18&Rating=&LoadIndex=98

I only ever fit premium tyres and compared to LR options there are lots I have fitted that are not available for the phev

 

[Baingyl]

Proper winter tyres are made in Sweden and Finland. Use reg number OCT 927
http://valladack.se/?option=com_vallashop&view=vallashop&use=dack&cmd=regnrdack&Itemid=12

 

[sawman82]

https://youtu.be/LO5IEISadd8

I concur, on the standard Toyo tires there isn't a lot of traction. My video at the link above.

 

[anko]

To me, this doesn't look like something you could solve with different tires. One wheel is on the ground and has traction. The other is off the ground and abviously has no traction. No tire will have traction while in the air.

 

[maby]

To me, this doesn't look like something you could solve with different tires. One wheel is on the ground and has traction. The other is off the ground and abviously has no traction. No tire will have traction while in the air.

Definitely - that terrain is far past the capabilities of a PHEV. Even if you managed to maintain traction. I think you would physically break the car pretty quickly - they are simply not built to the same standards of strength as a genuine off-roader. I've broken Landrovers trying to cross land like that too quickly and the driver in the video is trying to compensate for the lack of traction by taking a run at it.

 

[Sailordoc]

Well, I took the PHEV shooting again yesterday, and in slightly drier conditions it performed pretty well and got around all the tracks and fields that the other SUVs did, although a bit more slithery in the mud, which I suspect is due to the Toyo tyres.

I'll start a separate thread about some alternative tyre choices to see if that generates any user opinions. I'm wondering whether all season tyres may be a better bet than the Geolandars AT tyres given the on road noise?