Telluride offroad capabilities - sand in particular

[N4865G]

Good day all,
First post here, so a bit of an intro.
Airline pilot living in the Middle East, managed to keep my job for a while.
I am considering refreshing my Family car, the 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland which have served me very well for the last 5 years for something more spacious, but not much less capable in terms of off-road capabilities.
Among many positives of the Jeep what I found to be a big drawback of this vehicle is the ventilation system. With temperatures ranging 45-50C (113-122F) in the summer the back seat feels like a furnace. Hardly any cooling at all. Another limitation of the Jeep was its 5 seat configuration, we often need to carry 6 people and Telluride seems like a very capable people carrier there.
As we live in the desert we do often venture out to camp by the seaside surrounded by rather large sand dunes.
My JGC served me well fitted with 20' BFG KO2 All terrain tyres.
I am hoping to get some feedback here from owners who took their Telluride to the beach. Given the stock tyres, deflated to 15-17psi how did this vehicle performed in soft sand?

Thank you very much
Dom

 

[kevmax]

Good day all,
First post here, so a bit of an intro.
Airline pilot living in the Middle East, managed to keep my job for a while.
I am considering refreshing my Family car, the 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland which have served me very well for the last 5 years for something more spacious, but not much less capable in terms of off-road capabilities.
Among many positives of the Jeep what I found to be a big drawback of this vehicle is the ventilation system. With temperatures ranging 45-50C (113-122F) in the summer the back seat feels like a furnace. Hardly any cooling at all. Another limitation of the Jeep was its 5 seat configuration, we often need to carry 6 people and Telluride seems like a very capable people carrier there.
As we live in the desert we do often venture out to camp by the seaside surrounded by rather large sand dunes.
My JGC served me well fitted with 20' BFG KO2 All terrain tyres.
I am hoping to get some feedback here from owners who took their Telluride to the beach. Given the stock tyres, deflated to 15-17psi how did this vehicle performed in soft sand?

Thank you very much
Dom

Off road article...

The Kia Telluride Has Some Serious Off-Road Chops

I didn't expect the Kia to get far on one of the toughest trails in North Carolina. It made it to the top—but not without some drama.

www.popularmechanics.com

 

[N4865G]

Thank you, I saw that article before. This SUV is quite capable of handling rough terrain.
I am just wondering how does it handle soft sand.
Dom

 

[kevmax]

Thank you, I saw that article before. This SUV is quite capable of handling rough terrain.
I am just wondering how does it handle soft sand.
Dom

Sorry, that’s all I had. I am modifying one currently for rough terrain but not much sand..

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[N4865G]

Beautiful wheels. Congratulations
Dom

 

[T_ride]

Sorry, that’s all I had. I am modifying one currently for rough terrain but not much sand..

Nice set up. Lift? What size tires?

 

[DrewD520]

Sorry, that’s all I had. I am modifying one currently for rough terrain but not much sand..

That looks sweet man! Can you share the details on what you did? What lift kit? Wheels and tires? I just picked up my EX gravity grey yesterday and wanted to do something similar... I found this pic online of what I want to do.. this one is a LX with a 2” lift kit.. the only one I’ve found is made by Truxx (2020 Kia Telluride & Hyundai Palisade - 2.0" Lift Kit #306015 | Truxxx.com)..

 

[kevmax]

That looks sweet man! Can you share the details on what you did? What lift kit? Wheels and tires? I just picked up my EX gravity grey yesterday and wanted to do something similar... I found this pic online of what I want to do.. this one is a LX with a 2” lift kit.. the only one I’ve found is made by Truxx (2020 Kia Telluride & Hyundai Palisade - 2.0" Lift Kit #306015 | Truxxx.com)..

Let me reach out to my Upfitter to get you those details. New England Vehicle Outfitters in NH is doing all my work on it, I’ll let you know

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[kevmax]

Let me reach out to my Upfitter to get you those details. New England Vehicle Outfitters in NH is doing all my work on it, I’ll let you know

The lift is a Truxx 2” kit. The wheels are 18x8 with a 38mm offset. The tires are a Toyo Open Country AT3 in a 265/60/18.

 

[DrewD520]

The lift is a Truxx 2” kit. The wheels are 18x8 with a 38mm offset. The tires are a Toyo Open Country AT3 in a 265/60/18.

Thanks for looking into that for me.. I’ve found a few posts about that Truxx kit and everyone seems to be pretty happy with it.. doesn’t impact the ride negatively at all... and fairly inexpensive.. appreciate it!

 

[T_ride]

Wish some would make 3" lift, I want to put 32's without rub

 

[DrewD520]

Wish some would make 3" lift, I want to put 32's without rub

I’m going for something like the attached pic.. 2” lift with 265/65/r17s

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[kevmax]

I’m going for something like the attached pic.. 2” lift with 265/65/r17s

From my shop FYI,
“We got the lift installed Friday and they guys had some rubbing issues and realized that the tires were actually the wrong size. They delivered them to us with a 265/65 not a 265/60. There is about a 1.1” difference in those 2 sizes”

 

[DrewD520]

From my shop FYI,
“We got the lift installed Friday and they guys had some rubbing issues and realized that the tires were actually the wrong size. They delivered them to us with a 265/65 not a 265/60. There is about a 1.1” difference in those 2 sizes”

Thanks! I was thinking of going the 265/65 on 17” wheels but looks like that would put me in the same place..

 

[rayyan29m]

Good day all,
First post here, so a bit of an intro.
Airline pilot living in the Middle East, managed to keep my job for a while.
I am considering refreshing my Family car, the 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland which have served me very well for the last 5 years for something more spacious, but not much less capable in terms of off-road capabilities.
Among many positives of the Jeep what I found to be a big drawback of this vehicle is the ventilation system. With temperatures ranging 45-50C (113-122F) in the summer the back seat feels like a furnace. Hardly any cooling at all. Another limitation of the Jeep was its 5 seat configuration, we often need to carry 6 people and Telluride seems like a very capable people carrier there.
As we live in the desert we do often venture out to camp by the seaside surrounded by rather large sand dunes.
My JGC served me well fitted with 20' BFG KO2 All terrain tyres.
I am hoping to get some feedback here from owners who took their Telluride to the beach. Given the stock tyres, deflated to 15-17psi how did this vehicle performed in soft sand?

Thank you very much
Dom

Hello, Good Day.

I live in Qatar, like you I was looking for any reviews or a video which show how it performs with middle east sand dunes. Well I took my KIA telluride SX/GTline in Middle east to a sand dunes trip for the first time, over all pretty good it performs has good has Nissan petrol/Toyota LC (4L) 4X4 and in fact I felt KIA smoother in drive. However I am not so experienced driver when comes to sand dunes probably this was my 3rd drive (on driver seat) to a sand dunes and 1st time with KIA Telluride deflated stock tyres to 17-16psi.

 

[orangeqatar]

Hello, Good Day.

I live in Qatar, like you I was looking for any reviews or a video which show how it performs with middle east sand dunes. Well I took my KIA telluride SX/GTline in Middle east to a sand dunes trip for the first time, over all pretty good it performs has good has Nissan petrol/Toyota LC (4L) 4X4 and in fact I felt KIA smoother in drive. However I am not so experienced driver when comes to sand dunes probably this was my 3rd drive (on driver seat) to a sand dunes and 1st time with KIA Telluride deflated stock tyres to 17-16psi.

Cool that is good to hear....did you do any more sand drives? Curious to hear more about it

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