
Actual Ground Clearance
- Mad Manny
- Location: Johannesburg
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I wanted to build a box 1200mm wide x 300mm deep x 200mm high with fourlegs so that it could be raised in 10mm increments.
Then arrange an Outing where you place the box on a level section of dirt road.
Everyone deflates to 1.0bar for control purposes.
Tank must be over half full.
No passengers.
The guys then slowly drive completely over the box at 200mm high.
Then they drive over it at 210mm
Then at 220mm.
When a vehicle touches the box he gets issued with a 'certificate' of the previous height he successfully cleared.
We then publish the results.
For Jimny's we place the box lengthwise as they can't clear a 1200mm wide box.
But.... I never built the box.
Then arrange an Outing where you place the box on a level section of dirt road.
Everyone deflates to 1.0bar for control purposes.
Tank must be over half full.
No passengers.
The guys then slowly drive completely over the box at 200mm high.
Then they drive over it at 210mm
Then at 220mm.
When a vehicle touches the box he gets issued with a 'certificate' of the previous height he successfully cleared.
We then publish the results.
For Jimny's we place the box lengthwise as they can't clear a 1200mm wide box.

But.... I never built the box.

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- XJ Junkie
- Location: Cape Town
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Manny it’s a good idea in principle but many SA’s won’t clear 200.
On IS there must be a way of checking clearance on suspension compression, but I’m not sure how.
On IS there must be a way of checking clearance on suspension compression, but I’m not sure how.
Disclaimer: Uninformed, no research, just very strong opinions
- Apocalypse
- Location: Cape Town
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You lift it up, then drop it. Measure the size of the ding in the sump and that’s your clearance .
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Let an IS vehicle charge a dune at Atlantis and measure from the hole it makes
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Could this be sarcasm?
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I think the hole the 200 left last time we were there is now used as a play pit for the TJ'sOppies3800 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 01, 2018 9:40 amLet an IS vehicle charge a dune at Atlantis and measure from the hole it makes
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- Apocalypse
- Location: Cape Town
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Ground clearance is generally measured between the wheels.
To use Manny’s idea, you make a box 3m wide, you climb onto it , drop the front wheels over , then the ground clearance is the height you can clear until the rear wheels climb over the box.
To use Manny’s idea, you make a box 3m wide, you climb onto it , drop the front wheels over , then the ground clearance is the height you can clear until the rear wheels climb over the box.
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- Hedgehog
- Location: Rustenburg
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Is that not break over angle?Apocalypse wrote:Ground clearance is generally measured between the wheels.
To use Manny’s idea, you make a box 3m wide, you climb onto it , drop the front wheels over , then the ground clearance is the height you can clear until the rear wheels climb over the box.
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- Apocalypse
- Location: Cape Town
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well, break over angle is an angle as opposed to a height which is generally taken as an angle to the centre point of the wheel base taken from the tangent of the tyres:Hedgehog wrote: ↑Thu Nov 01, 2018 10:07 amIs that not break over angle?Apocalypse wrote:Ground clearance is generally measured between the wheels.
To use Manny’s idea, you make a box 3m wide, you climb onto it , drop the front wheels over , then the ground clearance is the height you can clear until the rear wheels climb over the box.
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so a SWB vehicle will always have a good breakover angle even if the ground clearance is low
Ground clearance is an actual height taken at the mid point of the wheel base, so it's unaffected by the length of the wheel base:
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- Hedgehog
- Location: Rustenburg
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That is understood, but... with your previous post you sort of claim that only vehicles with a good break over angle will have good ground clearance, if you consider what you said on how to measure ground clearance.Apocalypse wrote: ↑Thu Nov 01, 2018 12:41 pmwell, break over angle is an angle as opposed to a height which is generally taken as an angle to the centre point of the wheel base taken from the tangent of the tyres:Hedgehog wrote: ↑Thu Nov 01, 2018 10:07 amIs that not break over angle?Apocalypse wrote:Ground clearance is generally measured between the wheels.
To use Manny’s idea, you make a box 3m wide, you climb onto it , drop the front wheels over , then the ground clearance is the height you can clear until the rear wheels climb over the box.
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off-roading-diagram.gif
so a SWB vehicle will always have a good breakover angle even if the ground clearance is low
Ground clearance is an actual height taken at the mid point of the wheel base, so it's unaffected by the length of the wheel base:
Unknown.png
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- Apocalypse
- Location: Cape Town
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Ah! I was trying to actually make thee point that it's not!Hedgehog wrote: ↑Thu Nov 01, 2018 12:47 pmThat is understood, but... with your previous post you sort of claim that only vehicles with a good break over angle will have good ground clearance, if you consider what you said on how to measure ground clearance.Apocalypse wrote: ↑Thu Nov 01, 2018 12:41 pmwell, break over angle is an angle as opposed to a height which is generally taken as an angle to the centre point of the wheel base taken from the tangent of the tyres:
off-roading-diagram.gif
so a SWB vehicle will always have a good breakover angle even if the ground clearance is low
Ground clearance is an actual height taken at the mid point of the wheel base, so it's unaffected by the length of the wheel base:
Unknown.png
breaker angle and , shall we call it 'passover height' are very different and the breakover angle is a bit misleading.
the clearance under the diff is a bit of a moot point - if there is a big rock in the way, you climb it, not try to straddle it.
but once you've got the wheel on top of it, and then come off it, it has to pass under the rest of the chassis.
So , lets say it's a square box 400mm high x 200mm long and 3m wide, and you have to approach it square on....
your wheel base advantage (breakover) is gone, you literally have to have 400mm of clearance on the full length of the space between the wheels to get over it.
by the same token - if the clearance is measured in the middle of the wheelbase, it doesn't mean there isn't rigging and so on in the way towards the wheels. Trailing/leading arms, wishbones, rods, propshafts, mudflaps are all in the way and lower than the measured clearance.
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