Kluger on the beach

[Aurion]

Hey,

Well a mate of mine wants a medium sized SUV. He occasionaly gos on the beach, and is wondering if the kluger can handle the beach with no low range?

Its was either the kluger or CX9. After reading a few CX9 comments, its not for the off road.

Now the its only one beach it will go to. The stretch off beach is made to be driven by 4WD's. To enter you go along a road and hit the sand dunes, go over them and come down to the beach. On a weekend there iwll be more then 50+ 4WD's so you can expect the sand has been compacted. They currently own a tribute and that does it fine (They got it bogged once but they went to the wrong sand dune, one where oyur not meant to go).

How does the Klugers AWD work?

Why should "computer controlled stability control program" be turned off when in the rough?

Thanks for any comments/info.

Cheers.

[Captain Kaos]

The Kluger should be fine. Turn traction control off (hidden button at the bottom of the dash on the LHS just above your knee ), Lower your tyre pressure and remember that momentum is your friend !!! I have seen a WRX racing along the beach at Boat Harbour in Sydney...Fastest thing I have ever seen across the sand. If that can do it, surely we can.

[Aurion]

The Kluger should be fine. Turn traction control off (hidden button at the bottom of the dash on the LHS just above your knee ), Lower your tyre pressure and remember that momentum is your friend !!! I have seen a WRX racing along the beach at Boat Harbour in Sydney...Fastest thing I have ever seen across the sand. If that can do it, surely we can.

Ok thanks for that! The car will actually be used at boat harbour.

A WRX, how the hell did the rangers let that in! That would be one hell of a site!

[boleh]

Turn traction control off

Are you sure the kluger's traction control can be turned off???

[Taka]

Turn traction control off

Are you sure the kluger's traction control can be turned off???

I think this button will do boleh....

Press once it will come back on, press and hold disable until you switch the car off.

Edited January 12, 2008 by takahashi

[boleh]

thats good hear, takahashi. thanks for that. does that switch deactivate "VSC" as well?

in any case, the journo who wrote this review deserves a spanking:

"But the traction and stability control cannot be turned off which, while being a boon in the boondocks, may turn out to be a setback in the sand."

URL: http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0...5010760,00.html

[Taka]

Read my comment about the article in top of the "post your comment" box

To switch it off, take it off once (I think that only take the traction control off)

To take the VSC off (I think then the EBD and all the electronic except ABS are all off), then you press and HOLD the button until you see this.

From this mode to get back to normal. You have to switch off the car and restart again.

It is in the owners manual.

[Aurion]

Talking about seeing a WRX at boat harbour, I saw an impreza there yesterday! And gues what! It got bogged right in front of me! It came in at high tide, so was in the thick sand, and it took ahwhile to get out. It really did struggle, and was sliding all over the place. I also saw a CX7 which made it, but didn't have enough clearence. I also saw a new Landcruiser 200. Plenty of new and old rav4's there to. I think the kluger would do it easily.

[PC XT]

Hey,

Well a mate of mine wants a medium sized SUV. He occasionally gos on the beach, and is wondering if the kluger can handle the beach with no low range?

Id say yes see left picture on the beach use the snow function to stop the engine from racing leave it in first and take it easy, took mine off road at easter time and it was great the Down hill decent was used for the first time for 15 minutes of steep gravel down hills with the trailer on

Edited April 2, 2008 by PC XT

[Taka]

Well today I try to get up a not very steep muddy track... can't.

Just realised that I have not done any 4WD training and I forgot to turn the VDC off.

No mood to persist on it and went back on the bitumen coz I was about 190km from the destination tonight.

(Side note: Is it possible to have Ausstar but not all the sports channel? I am missing Fox Sports 1 for the Premier League football, My fav Man Utd playing Liverpool).

[Oddweekend]

Time to contribute.

I searched for "Kluger CVX on the beach", and linked together some helpful tips. Thank you all.

I have since taken my 05 Kluger CVX AWD to Stradbroke Island, and happily accessed Flinders and Main Beach, so I hope this post helps someone else out there.

Deflated tyres to 24psi, put Snow Mode on, 2nd gear, stable revs but not too fast, and followed evident tracks across the soft beach access sand at Flinders Camp Site. Staying in someone elses tracks certainly scrapped the underside at points, but, being sand, was no big deal. On the return off the beach, I picked a shortest points straight line with no tracks, and although it was more jostled, the car handled it well without scraping. Tyres are Yokohama Geolander HT/S. I figured if 24psi didn't work, I had a lot further down I could go.

Next day followed a friend with a proper 4wd to Main beach, up the access creek and along to the Keyholes. 7 people in the car, careful driving, but no problem. It handled the muddy puddles (axle deep), shallow creek access and dirt road with confidence. On the way back off Main Beach however, we bogged with 10m to go. Everyone got out, put it in reverse, bit of a rock and out she came. Took another run at it without passengers & a bit more speed and no problem.

Got it home, and spend 2 hours flushing & brushing out the undercarriage. It's amazing how much sand gets places.

If you understand it is not a low-range 4wd, the Kluger CVX will take you to some nice recreational places. That being said, I didn't want to tackle any lengthy soft sand tracks, and drove with a 4wd buddy for safety.

Enjoy your Kluger. I do.

[Blackkluger]

Back on the traction control issue, press once quickly and the traction is off, but if you lose grip it kicks itself back on. If you hold for 5 seconds, both lights come on and in this mode, it doesnt kick back in.

To put it back on, you dont have to pull over and restart, simply press the button one more time and its all back to normal.

since its a 50:50 drive from front to back, wouldnt traction controlbeing on assist you more than not?

[ozkluger]

Traction control on beach > Yes and no is the answer.

I have used Kluger on beach and very impressed. But as everyone has said you need to turn off traction control/Stability control.

I have used on beach & thru sand dunes (track) with tyres fully inflated (not a very clever thing to do) and left all traction control on. First thing was any tyre that slipped the ABS/traction control cut in and braked the spinning/loose wheel. This is a good thing for off-road - but then when things got a bit boggier and I needed a bit more speed the other function of the traction control dramatically throttled back the engine. As well as traction warning light flashing and beeping a warning.

Was a very weird feeling when pressing the accelerator down and getting less power from the engine. (there was no wheel spin or loss of traction due to too much engine power, just car started going slower and slower - happens very quickly with lots of beeping from the dash)

As soon as I took off all traction control I could get full power to wheels OK but you loose the 'braking' traction control function. Still is better to have no traction control as you eventually loose too much drive-ability off road when the traction control drops the power output.

Good news:

Obviously I then let tyres down (to around 17PSI as you should always do on the sand) and the car was transformed (like most cars in the sand) I have driven many 'large/real 4WD's' off road and while the Kluger is not at all in the same 4WD/offroad class as these types of vehicle it was absolutely brilliant in the beach sand/tracks! Drove around the beach on existing wheel tracks and also on newly windblown sand ans had NO problems at all. Full lock turns at low speed and the car was like a tractor! No major wheel slippage at all. Very impressed. I even put the stability control/traction back on once the tyres were down and it never cut in (or I could never tell it cut in). The beach was what I would call an average beach site. The sand was not full of massive wheel ruts and very soft sand so this should be taken into consideration.

As per others advice I would turn traction control OFF in the sand always as well as ALWAYS letting the tyres down. (also saves the track as well as the car)

There 'could' be a benefit in loose/scrabbly hills to have the traction control on as the braking function when a well looses traction can be of benefit as it transfers torque to the other wheel that does have good grip. Pity though that you cannot leave the 'braking' function on and turn off the power reduction function. Cant really complain as it is just an AWD not a 'real heavy duty' offroader.

Overall very impressed with it sand ability.

...

since its a 50:50 drive from front to back, wouldnt traction controlbeing on assist you more than not?