Everywhere Tig

[Tigwild]

What a fantastic trip. Great concept as well.

I turned off on an access track under the power lines at probably the exact same spot from which you took the photo of the brindabella valley. The track is really just two wheel ruts and heads up underneath the powerlines to the top of the ridge and then down the other side. I headed up there in the Tig to see what she could do and was amazed at how effortlessly it climbed that very rocky, steep and eroded track. I had to pay particular attention to the ground clearance, but traction wise I was really impressed and the first gear on the auto is low enough to allow you to crawl over the bigger rocks and ledges.

I uploaded a photo that I took about halfway up that track to Bonzle - http://maps.bonzle.com/c/a?a=p&p=281425.

Thanks for sharing your trip.

[vvsingh]

Love ur writing style - great work.

[harrip]

@Tigwild Ah - that view looks familiar with those power cables. Did you pass through "Piccadilly Circus" earlier too? Its a great area and good to be off the beaten track.

Thanks vvsingh

[Tigwild]

harrip

Yeah - I'd been past/through Picadilly Circus. After the power lines we went down towards the Brindabella Valley and then turned off to go down Gentle Annie's firetrail to the Goodradigbee River and then along Webbs Ridge firetrail. We had to stop for some guys in a 4wd convoy coming down off Webbs Ridge and they were a little suprised to see the Tiguan doing the steep rocky climb up Webbs Ridge. There's a picture here that gives some idea of the ridge firetrail.

As long as you take real care with positioning your wheels because of the limited ground clearance its amazing what the Tig can do. It is certainly much more capable that I would have expected from a "soft-roader". The only thing I have noticed in comparison to the Jeep Quadradrive II system I'm used to is that the full electronic locking diffs on the Jeep and the low-range allow you to crawl up and over the rocks. As long as one wheel has good traction (like is in contact with a rock ledge) the Jeep will go up and over. Taking the Tig on the same section I found that it would spin the wheels that were on the loose gravel and not transfer 100% of the power to the wheel with grip. So on the Tig you need to maintain a little bit of momentum to avoid losing grip. A couple of times I had to roll backwards just a touch (like 10cm) to get a very small "run-up" at some of the obstacles. You can't hit them fast because of the low ground clearance so its a bit of a balancing act. But, to a certain extent the short wheelbase means that the smaller ground clearance is not that bad either.

If anyone is interested in some nice offroading that the Tig is more than capable of then give Two Sticks Road a go. It starts off Picadilly Circus and travels a ridgeline and then along the side of Mt Coree. Awesome scenery and nothing too demanding. I probably would not recommend taking the Tig on the detour up Mt Coree unless they have recently graded the fire trail. It was pretty rocky and feral a couple of years ago and you needed all the ground clearance you could get.

Hope the trip's still going well.