A little HR-V taking on Salisbury Plain

[timlovett1982]

Hi guys,

I took the HR-V out over Salisbury Plain properly on the 3rd for the first time. A friend of mine joined me in here first off-road outing in a 2.8TD Pajero that she recently bought.

Both cars completely standard and the only places where I couldn't follow the Pajero was when ground clearance let me down. The 4WD was simply amazing for a car not really designed to do this stuff and we hit some seriously slippery stuff, sometimes heading for quite a distance at a 45 degree angle.

We headed towards an area used by some of 4x4 clubs and as first timers I think we did pretty well. There was a large group of Defenders, Discos and Range Rovers on an organised day out and it's safe to say that a few of them looked astonished to see the little HR-V up there playing alongside them.

I only got stuck once due to ground clearance issues again- There was a moment of "clenching" when I felt the car slide onto the exhaust guard!!! A bit of revving and some careful steering adjustments got me out eventually, but it was a bit scary for a second or two!

It's safe to say that I'm officially hooked on off-roading now.

I didn't get too many pictures of us but I put up quite a few videos though I didn't get as many of the outside of the HR-V as I would have liked. You can find them all on my new YouTube channel here: www.youtube.com/timboslicelovett

Let me know what you think guys. If you like them, please "Subscribe" to my YouTube channel and comment/like them. I'm going to keep pushing the HR-V as much as possible and getting as much footage of this little 4x4 as possible!

Oh, here's my favourite video of the day: http://youtu.be/q9dP44KIRic

Cheers!

[warch]

My experience is that many 2wd cars, 4x4 cars and so called soft roaders are actually very capable for use cross country, the lack of weight being the main advantage. I favour small quite puny looking tyres off road, lots of big off roaders have huge wide tyres that make the vehicle very difficult to manoervre especially on typical English clays.

The main advantage Defenders and similar vehicles have over car derived vehicles isn't off road ability but toughness, the chassis, engine and transmission are better designed to cope with hard off road use and dual purpose work like heavy towing. If your Honda's anything like my 20 year old cbr though, it'll probably be deceptively tough.

[Kermit power]

My favourites - seen taking some of Surrey's tougher green lanes perfectly in their stride - have been a couple of Panda 4x4s and, last time out, a 2CV.

[R12HCO]

TBH, I think any road going fwd car would have done a vast majority of the stuff done in these videos (I didnt watch every single video). The tracks are very flat with real small ruts.

At least you are willing to find out what a pretty new standard road going car can do, which is more than 99% of people with these sort of cars will do. (Y)

[timlovett1982]

Thanks guys.

It's true, most of the ruts in some of the videos were shallow- This is the family car and couldn't afford to bend it I avoided the tracks that I knew I wouldn't get through and let the old Pajero tackle them instead :-)

The HR-V so far has proved to be more than capable and though shallow ruts, the mud did get very thick at points. Unfortunately we got little footage of the more taxing routes as we were both losing our off road virginity, most of the time we concentrated on getting through then realised we'd missed filming the best bits.

We bought the HR-V for a bit more safety in the snow, but I was determined not to let it just sit on the road. We'll be heading out again shortly, hopefully this time a little more confident and daring. That said, I'm now trawling the pages of Ebay looking for something that I don't mind getting a bit beaten.

It was a top day and a real good laugh!

[300bhp/ton]

My brother had a HR-V, we fitted it with some BFG A/T copies, don't recall the exact size, something like a 215/70R16.

It was quite affective in the snow and grass fields, although lacked ground clearance and articulation for proper off roading. Lack of low range would also be an issue on anything more serious than laning.

Don't have a better pic online, but this is it parked up with my Jeep:

[rhinochopig]

Kermit power said:

My favourites - seen taking some of Surrey's tougher green lanes perfectly in their stride - have been a couple of Panda 4x4s and, last time out, a 2CV.

That 2CV was probably one of these http://www.2cv4x4.com/ and they are very very capable off-road. I'd love one but they are overpriced when compared to a say an old landy. That said when you consider the engineering that goes into them the price if fair enough.

[RonnieH]

Tim, please be aware that posting videos of going whats called 'off piste' on salisbury plain is very bad practice........
Firstly it shows that you have gone off the byways and ucr's.......
Secondly it shows anyone that may want to close those routes that people are going off the legal rights of way.... and that adds weight to thier argument for closing the lanes.....
and lastly you're laying yourself wide open for getting in serious trouble.......... if spotted by the range wardens you will find yourself in deep trouble....!!

Please be responsible, otherwsie your actions will assist in closing the lanes for the more responible of us.......

Ron.

[JVaughan]

As RonnieH has said, this point cannot be stressed too greatly. If yoru going across the Plain, there is plenty of Mud without straying from the byways.
I know that MOD and Wiltshire have now fully marked up the byways across the training areas and Larkhill ranges so if it doesnt say "Byway" ... you shouldnt be on it.