Rx350 Ground Clearence - Crossing Fords (Water)

[K-Lye]

Hi all.. so had an interesting experience this weekend. Transpires part of a route near where I've moved to has a ford. Naturally, there is a longer way around but given the nature of a 4*4 it's a bit daft not to explore the "off-road" capabilities of my RX350. Question is.. what is a safe water height to be attempting? When I passed through at the weekend, it was relatively low at about 30cm so had no problem.. but the watermarks on the indicators suggest it could get up to around 60 or 70 cm - I'm not so sure I'd want to attempt that! Anybody got some experience?

[Boxbrownie]

It should specify in the owners manual the maximum wade depth recommended (usually 300mm but occasionally 400mm depending upon vehicle), in the nature of my business I have done an awful lot of wade testing and the 300/400mm is a safe depth, having said that a lot depends upon driving technique and circumstances. You can improve the safe depth by driving through and building up a "bow wave", this has the effect of creating a slight depression of water level within the engine bay during lengthy wades, be careful though as anyone driving the other direction will cause the bow wave to collapse and you will also get a wash from the drive by.

No need to rev the guts out of the engine either a steady slow speed is the essence of success............but the best wading technique of all is to avoid the water and go around!