This 4×4 advice article needs a lot of improvement!

I’ve read a lot of very poor 4×4 advice articles but this one is a cracker. It’s badly written and filled with advice that’s either questionable or wrong. Here’s the link to the original, and now let’s take a look as what’s wrong with it, which is pretty much every other sentence:

No. Use either high or low range depending on speed. Don’t reserve low range only for boggings. If you bog, dig yourself out, drop pressures, use traction ramps etc.

First part correct, then no. You can go below 16psi on most 4x4s quite comfortably.

Umm, if it’s elongated, it’s not wider, is it? Elongation is correct. Maximum speed of 80km/h – don’t put hard limits on these things, it’s variable, and how long you drive at 80 and what you do makes a difference; a drive 100km home at 80 is different from a short burst in a straight line on beach to 80.

Sort of. Staying out of ruts is indeed a technique, but often you need to be in them, particularly downhill. The side lugs thing is correct.

What? No. You’d need to work VERY hard to clog up your entire wheelarch! It can be done, but it’s hardly the first advice I’d think of for mud driving.

NO! Mud *may* require *some* momentum. Low range may be better. Full throttle is VERY rarely needed!

Well, I reckon sideslopes terrify more, but that’s an opinion. What is definitely wrong is first low in water! Why? Generally 2/3 low is best, enough torque to move a wall of water. Clutch advice is correct, but the other reason is you slow down very quickly.

NO! Keep pressures same as you would for the surrounding terrain!

No! You simply compress the snow, you don’t break through it.

You can and should drop tyre pressures for outback roads including bulldust. And you do NOT correct ‘slew’ with more throttle unless it’s a front-drive car oversteer!

First two parts okay, last bit..what is this fixation with not dropping tyre pressures? Always drop for rocks!

You can and should air down in desert sand. Momentum is always important but maybe not as much as beach or coastal dunes as desert dunes are often easier. As for that fighting the steering wheel…NO! Where on earth do they find this advice? The downslope advice is correct, but weird in this context.

Jax…do better, or just don’t bother. I don’t care what sort of brand you want to build, but I do care that wrong and dangerous advice is given on a corporate website which should carry some sort of authority.

Here’s some sand driving advice that involves tyre pressures: