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@taxiguy: Naah, it's not a too big danger for a car to get damaged by rolling over in the sand-desert. Sand is smooth.
Much more often the cars are getting broken by sand inside the technic. Carburator and especially the engine doesn't like sand inside.
And you can forget the paintwork and the windows, when you are coming in a real sand-storm.
My and my wife have made such a trip. In 2006 we made a round-trip across Namibia, 4500 km totally, 3000 km of them on "natural" ground, gravel, sand and even salt (the "pad" -Namibian slang for a natural road between Swakopmund and Terrace Baai along the Skeleton Coast is pure salt).
Btw.: as I wrote in the database, we've seen the making of that low-class-movie: http://imcdb.org/movie.php?id=884001 . But this is a different story.
Anyways, the last kilometers to this lodge was goundless sand either. 4x4-experience was helpful to reach that place.
Sure, the wearout of a car, you are using for such a trip, is immense. We had a 2003 Nissan Hardbody-Pickup as a rental car. It was a good choice. All other tourists we met, who drove also on "natural" roads (but surely not the whole distance like us), and who had normal cars like a Toyota Corolla or a VW Polo, had damages at their cars. From a broken plastic-part of the bumper up to a bursted engine. This happened to an older couple from London, when they tried to pass a "rivier" ("creek" in the USA). "Suddenly there was a big bang and the oil was everywhere on the road", the guy has told us. A big stone has smashed the oil-sump.
But our big 4x4-Pickup needed maintenance after our vacations, too. The crack in the windscreen was getting bigger, one tire has lost air, gearbox and the slip differential have made louder sounds and so on.
@Neptune: when you are driving across groundless sand, you have to switch on the LSD, the limited slip differential, have to put some weight on the axles (some people sitting in the back on the load platform are helpful), take the second gear -not the first one!- (sorry, I don't know, how it's with autimatic transmission).
Then go on with much gas and a lot of sway. Start on the last meters of hard ground, not in the sand. No stopping at all! Even if the car is slippering for meters from the left to the right and back, don't stop! With full gas going on!
A perfect place for that experience is there:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sossusvlei
To go there, you have entering the National Park and have to going for over 60 km on gravel and a bit (very bad) asphalt-road. The last 5 km from the parking-area to the dunes are such a groundless sand. The tourists, who are anxious to drive on the their own of didn't have a real good 4x4, can use a shuttle-service with old Unimog's.
We wanted to do it on our own and we made it, resp. my wife made it. She drove all the 4500 km. She likes to drive RHD-cars and the liked the 4x4-Pickup-experience. It was the first time for her to drive such a car. I just gave her some tips for the off road-driving, which I had learned 16 years before at the Bundeswehr.
Much more often the cars are getting broken by sand inside the technic. Carburator and especially the engine doesn't like sand inside.
And you can forget the paintwork and the windows, when you are coming in a real sand-storm.
My and my wife have made such a trip. In 2006 we made a round-trip across Namibia, 4500 km totally, 3000 km of them on "natural" ground, gravel, sand and even salt (the "pad" -Namibian slang for a natural road between Swakopmund and Terrace Baai along the Skeleton Coast is pure salt).
Btw.: as I wrote in the database, we've seen the making of that low-class-movie: http://imcdb.org/movie.php?id=884001 . But this is a different story.
Anyways, the last kilometers to this lodge was goundless sand either. 4x4-experience was helpful to reach that place.
Sure, the wearout of a car, you are using for such a trip, is immense. We had a 2003 Nissan Hardbody-Pickup as a rental car. It was a good choice. All other tourists we met, who drove also on "natural" roads (but surely not the whole distance like us), and who had normal cars like a Toyota Corolla or a VW Polo, had damages at their cars. From a broken plastic-part of the bumper up to a bursted engine. This happened to an older couple from London, when they tried to pass a "rivier" ("creek" in the USA). "Suddenly there was a big bang and the oil was everywhere on the road", the guy has told us. A big stone has smashed the oil-sump.
But our big 4x4-Pickup needed maintenance after our vacations, too. The crack in the windscreen was getting bigger, one tire has lost air, gearbox and the slip differential have made louder sounds and so on.
@Neptune: when you are driving across groundless sand, you have to switch on the LSD, the limited slip differential, have to put some weight on the axles (some people sitting in the back on the load platform are helpful), take the second gear -not the first one!- (sorry, I don't know, how it's with autimatic transmission).
Then go on with much gas and a lot of sway. Start on the last meters of hard ground, not in the sand. No stopping at all! Even if the car is slippering for meters from the left to the right and back, don't stop! With full gas going on!
A perfect place for that experience is there:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sossusvlei
To go there, you have entering the National Park and have to going for over 60 km on gravel and a bit (very bad) asphalt-road. The last 5 km from the parking-area to the dunes are such a groundless sand. The tourists, who are anxious to drive on the their own of didn't have a real good 4x4, can use a shuttle-service with old Unimog's.
We wanted to do it on our own and we made it, resp. my wife made it. She drove all the 4500 km. She likes to drive RHD-cars and the liked the 4x4-Pickup-experience. It was the first time for her to drive such a car. I just gave her some tips for the off road-driving, which I had learned 16 years before at the Bundeswehr.