Jetta with Paddle tires. Discuss

Wackiest thing I've seen at Silver Lake.  This is at the top of the test hill.

Proof that turbo's and electronics can win out over proper tires, axles and ground clearance.  Our Exploder made it to the top easily.  

pilotbraden said:

I have had tires out there from Street radials,  mudders ,all terrains ,snow tires and it really doesn't make much difference if your pressure is proper. All required between 6 and 8 PSI for the best results. I have had a Jeepster Commando, Wagoneer, F100 and the Nissan out there.  

THIS.

I had those Boggers at 1.  (yes, one PSI)

I love the vintage pix.  Here are a couple old pix of my Scrambler on 30x9.50 Dunlop Mud Rovers @ 12 PSI

pinchvalve said:

I used to take my sister's CJ7 out on the sand in the Outer Banks. There was a guy back in the day who worked construction up past Corolla who would drive a full-size GM wagon up the beach. Not just on the wet, hard-pack sand, back by the dunes in the soft stuff. And not on paddle tires, just normal snow tires. I think he just kept the revs up and sent it. Never saw him get stuck, still don't know how he did that. 

Momentum.  We had the wife's woods buggy out there on the absolute worst tires for the dunes.  (super skinny semi-aggressive all terrains)  

I had to teach her how to float the tires over the sand, almost like keeping a boat on plane.  And to keep the engine up in the powerband.   Otherwise, it would dig to China.   The good thing was that you could just lift it out of the holes, set it two feet to either side of them, and be back on your way.

this is my friend the Commander 1987

the Commander, stuck

the only photo of my Jeepster in the dunes, 1987

artur1808 said:

I saw this on the sloppy mechanics facebook group (I think?), but wanted to share with the audience here for no reason other than thinking that you folks would enjoy it. I have little-to-no experience with dune vehicles, but this doesn't strike me as a great idea. On the other hand, how bad could it be with those tires? 

Needs something with better flotation in the rear. Noticed in the video the rear tires were making more of a trench. That is drag. For sand want more flotation to stay up on the sand.

And what is that thing sticking out of the hood behind the headlight? Some type of air filter?

In reply to wlkelley3 :

That's a stock A4-chassis Golf/Jetta/New Beetle 1.8t intercooler.  (Might be a B5 A4/Passat intercooler, on further thought)

They stuck it out the hood because, just like through hood exhausts, doing anything else just takes too much work, and it doesn't matter if it actually functions as long as it looks like you didn't give a E36 M3.

I never really understood the "can't give a damn" aesthetic.

For those that have been going for years, didn’t test hill used to be a test?  When I started going, in the mid 90s, nothing stock made it up there. Nothing.  Now I see stock SUVs going up there.  

But as Braden said, tire pressure is king. With non-bead locked wheels, 10-12 psi is as low as I dare. 

It changes from day to day, year to year, and storm to storm.   My Scrambler photos are from the '90s, and it made it up Test Hill, as did the D90.   While the CJ8 isn't stock in the photo (It had a swapped in Dodge 360 that year), the year before I went up TH with the wheezy 120K mi stock 258 inline 6 on Uniroyal Laredos.    Back then, you would see people "Testing" their sand drag cars on the hill.