We just had a massive storm roll through the area. I live on the outer edge of suburbia just west of Omaha. After the deluge of rain all of the local creeks flooded and numerous neighborhoods were cut off. While I was hunkered down comfortable with my family listening to the chaos over the radio I began to wonder how deep of water my full size pickup could handle. Honestly, I'd never really considered the need to ford creeks. I've done some driving in rough country and LOTS of extreme winder driving but I've never been forced to attempt to ford water. I drive a simple stock Silverado. No lift and no extras. What kind of water depth can the thing handle if I needed to evac the family in it? Is there a certain technique to doing it? I've been told that downshifting and keeping the RPMs up is good because it keeps plenty of exhaust pressure built up and helps prevent water getting into the exhaust system and stalling the engine. Is that accurate?  

Its something that would be good to know if you ever needed to bug out. The ability to blow through a creek could allow you to bypass a choke point with jammed up cars.

Flowing water..Do not try it!!!!  3 inches can make a statistic out of you. And  if you survive around here, expect a big ticket.   Still water, I  wouldn't go above the bumper, low gear, foot on the brake to create drag to aid dry out, otherwise you won't have any brakes when you get through.  Now days there are a lot of wires to worry about getting water into that weren't there in older models.

Axle centerline. Then when your done, tear apart your drivetrain and re lube. Much more than that and you are likely to flood vital modern craps under the hood. Stock axles don't breathe very high.

Good rule of thumb but it varies from car to car.

I was told one time that 'If the water is higher than that rock, don't drive across the creek. " One day before daylight I came to the crossing and had forgotten which rock had been pointed out to me. It was a slow current so  I slowly started across and my head lights went under but I was committed and drove on across. When I came back I thought I would take it faster. When I hit the water the pickup created a big wave and bobbed up and when it came down on the gravel bottom my wheels spun and then I stalled it. If your exhaust is too far under water the engine doesn't want to start. This was in December in northern New York and there were ice flows coming  down stream leading to a four mile walk out of the woods while soaked to the waist. The point is if the current is slow and you take it slow and steady and don't proceed so deep that the breather is submerged it can be done but I would not advised it.

This was in a 79 ford F150 two wheel drive three speed. Or maybe it was an F100 I can't remember, it was along time ago.

if you plan on doing that you should definitely get a remote differential breather setup.   when the warmer differential (front and back) hits the colder water, it will pull water in through the OEM breather.  this will turn your differential gear oil into a milky slush.  it will be worse if it is salt water.

https://www.google.com/search?q=differential+breather+extension

ar-jedi

Back in the day of the floods of 2010, I forded about 60 feet of foot and a half deep, somewhat moving overflow stream water in my Sierra. Truck didn't move sideways at all. There were no cops around to shut the road down, but they obviously had other matters to attend to.





There were 2 sedans dead on the other side. Don't try that stunt in a Honda.

 

I drove my stock early 90's Silverado thru water deep enough to float the truck lots of times. Exhaust bubbling out of the tailpipe while I stayed on the gas. Never stalled. Stupid teen driver off-road type stuff. Not saying it is a good idea, or that a splash in the right place wouldn't shut you down. Or that it won't kill you by washing you away. Just saying, I am surprised in retrospect that I could go thru water so deep that the carpet would be wet, but the bone stock fuel injected GM 350 never died. Put 130,000 miles on it before the tranny and rear end quit. Never anything more than nominal routine maintenance, and a few years of not even that..

Depends on your risk tolerance.

The rule of 1/2 axel is good unless you like changing dif fluids after crossings.

In emergency thats another topic. You do what is required.

With proper water proofing you can go deep





Stock not so much
My zuk can't go this deep but has been in deep enough to kill a radio (steering wheel deep in cab)




http://youtu.be/2Lk19wEdsh0






 
 
 
 

Lots of wet weather creeks and low water crossings here in MO so much so that the local channels have a Public Service Announcement called Turn Around Don't Drown.

From a few years ago:

I have had water up over the running boards on my 98-2door Tahoe.
I knew the road and that it floods often.
I would never try and cross a road that I didn't know the depth of.
Or any road that has a culvert running under it because you can't be sure if the road has washed away.

It's not just the water that can screw things up.  Mud can be worse than it looks...




http://youtu.be/f8trkgFX6wI

I have had the water cover the headlights on my Toyota truck many times. Always made it to the other side

The first mod I did on my Tacoma was to run extended differential breathers as high as possible.  
Rear diff is run to the top of the driver side tail light all nice and hidden like, the front was easier, I extended the line to the very top of the engine bay, just below the hood.  I think I may have 25 bucks in doing so.  

All this after tropical storm Fay dumped up to 5 feet of rain onto Florida. (according to Wikipedia source)

That storm was a bitch.  The fire department was driving around in their duce  and a half brush truck looking for flooded out homes.

Lots of off road modified vehicles can ford surprisingly deep still water.  Exhaust is the first thing to go under,  WWII jeeps had an exhaust cut out at the manifold for that reason. Next issue can be the fan.  It tends to be pulled into the radiator when submerged. After that electrical system or intake.

For an unmodified vehicle I'd be scared of water much above the axle centerline

On vehicles with a belt-driven fan, that's the down side of running the engine fast to keep water out of the exhaust: It also runs the fan fast - which also tends to spray water everywhere in the engine compartment.

Having a thermostatic clutch on the belt-driven fan helps somewhat - particularly in cold weather - since the fan freewheels any time the clutch isn't fully engaged.

On vehicles with electric cooling fans, the obvious solution would be to temporarily disconnect them.

I live in SW Omaha, around 192nd and Harrison. He had heavy rains for the most part and towards the end got the strong winds added in. I'm a police officer with OPD and got a bunch of txt with pictures of what was going on in NE Omaha. It was bad. Officers were doing water rescues for people who were stranded in their vehicles while trying to ford water. In the process we lost about 10 cruisers from our efforts. I'd advise against trying to do it, you never know how deep the water actually is. We also had a lot of areas where the water removed the asphalt or concrete and caused even more problems.

Jeep usually have the extended breathers on the diff, transfer case, and transmission. That said, never drive across a flooded road. A man here in Ohio drove his Lexus across a flooded spot, the car floated downstream, and he was washed up against som trees before it sank. He was stranded in the trees after he escaped thru the sunroof of his flooded car. He spent three days in the tree until the water went down.

      1. Is the road washed out? Even if you see pavement 3 inches under the water it may have been undermined.

       2. Cars float. Not for long but they float. In a surprisingly shallow stream.

       3. You are stranded on high ground. Don't risk being swept away and drowned on a strainer (downed tree in a stream).

Hell I've done 3 inches of water before and didn't even think twice. That's not even enough to make it to the rim of the wheel.

Good advice on the brake ride though I didn't think of that.

My Wrangler says in the glovebox user guide that water fording depth is 30"

I think you are either in my neighborhood or walking distance to it.

I was watching the water rescues up north on the TV and listening on the radio to the rescues. Scary stuff. I didn't realize 10 cruisers got washed away damn. Did you see the hail damage to the Washington County dispatch center?

I would only ford if I absolutely had to. I've just never pushed the capabilities of my truck before in water. Hopefully I never will have to either.

So after a deep water drive it would be a good idea to change the differential fluid? Any other fluid at risk of contamination? I was always under the impression that the differential was a sealed case. Is that not accurate?

Holy shit!

What did that thing have done to it to enable him to go that deep? You'd think that something electrical could fry after a stunt like that!

I'm surprised I haven't heard more about transmissions. I have a friend who owns a transmission shop and he told me that water will ruin auto transmissions quickly if it gets inside. The clutch material is glue is washer based and will dissolve when wet. That more than anything else keeps me out of deep water. I don't want to spend over $2000 on a rebuild.

Youtube has some amazing videos of water crossings.  Watch the duece and a half military test.



For specific vehicles find an off road site and do some reading.



For instance, my tj would be needing a lot of stuff to go much deeper than most of the electrical components in the dash and what not, stock it is probably the 30 inches someone mentioned above.



Problem with water is you don't always get to see the bottom and if water is moving it is hard to have someone walk across and check depth if it is moving quickly.



Read up on your axles and then go look at them.



In good shape, new, they all tend to have a vent hose going up a little bit.  These can be extended.



If you bought the thing used or the factory never installed it, you honestly don't know what you have until you verify it.



Hot metal that is cooled quickly can cause the internal fluids to cool and want to suck in water through that vent.



Lots of off roaders run their vent hoses to the air intake.



Depending on how well sealed your openings on the axles are, just going through a tiny stream might let water in.



My solid axle wrangler has axle shafts up front and I don't know how good the gaskets are since I bought it used.  Don't know exactly how far the vent goes, it looked stock and is going up higher than I want to take the jeep.



If you have an independant front suspension 4x4 setup then you need to look at those parts to see how well they will keep water out.



Those who go in water all the time, serious water, will sometimes rig up a positive pressure system.  I recall an old jeep the guy had an air compressor that pumped a little bit of air into the axles and transmission and transfer case.  Air pressure kept the water out and since the things were not air tight he had the little air compressor to keep things pressurized when in deep water.



In a one time thing, might not need much.



Gonna do it a dozen times a year and want a reliable vehicle, might want to build that sucker.



Some other stuff to consider with floods is all the junk in the water.  Neighbor where I used to live took his half ton pickup through some deep flood water several times, his road to his house had a low spot and the river backed up the creek and kept it flooded for a week maybe.



Truck ran fine all week doing that.



Later that summer it was running hot.



All that mud and stuff was in the radiator fins and needed cleaned out.



I have a huge respect for water and don't mind a small stream with a nice solid bottom.



But stuff running fast and flooding and unknown depths can not just take my vehicle but me as well so I give water the respect it deserves.

No, differentials aren't completely sealed.  Usually, the differentials will have a breather, which is generally just a 1"-2" tube w/ a plastic cap that's open on the underside.

To raise the levels of the breather on the diff's, just clamp on some fuel line, run the line up to a higher point and throw a cheap filter on the end and clamp or zip tie the line.

That's how high up your air intake is.

One of the stories I just heard was about a female driver who drove through a police barricade for a flooded street. She was stopped at the other end and when asked why she absolutely had to drive through the flooded street her answer was "I need you to move, so that I can go get McDonalds." She ended up continuing through without permission and splashing the officers with nasty flood water.

Bone stock my FZJ80 can ford water up to the top of the headlights with no problems.  I have a snorkel on mine so I can probably do about a third of the way up the windshield before it turns into a submarine.  

I have a petrol model not a diesel, so I wouldn't do as well as this guy did:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LC5ld79joIA

Run your transmission, rear and front axle breathers to the engine compartment and that will help....be wary that most modern cars have the computers mounted underneath the seats....they will get wet and game over.

Under the seat?  Most I know of are behind the glove box, or in the drivers or passengers side kickpanel area.  Maybe not every manufacturer is as thoughtful as Toyota though.

Deep water fording kit, all breathers ran up high in cab and a snorkel, and i've had it over the hood-deep and didn't kill it or suck down water, it's a pretty weird feeling.

This. But don't forget to do the T-case and the tranny too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTVPPTV-bQM



Axle center line, unless you are bold, then the top of the tires.....unless you are nuts (and/or well equip) then below the top of windshield.

Or just buy a fully loaded range rover, they have a Sonar option, no shit...not even kidding! look it up!

That storm was a bitch! Walls of water, people canoeing down the street....I laughed, but felt like I should be crying.

I never thought much about this, but I have taken my 1988 4X4  4Runner through some really deep chit.  On more than one occasion, I had to open the doors to let water out.   Much of my 4X4 trail riding is in an area where it is very swampy.  Driving through water that reaches the tops of the tires is not unusual.

The air intake (assuming a 22RE) is just above the left headlight.  Don't go deeper than that.  I got a piece of flexible tubing and re-routed mine to the back of the engine bay, attached to the cowl area below the windshield.  That gave me a few more inches of wiggle room.  I crossed a lot of rivers in that thing and never had a problem.

About half way of the headlights on most vehicles ....  



most things are covered above





I have a LOT of experience in deep water riding , I grew up in a placed named the lowgrounds so basically swamp and fields so most of our farm paths looked like this most of the year , in the spring they would get a bit deeper

I was fording a flooded Street in my 63 Scout up to the headlights. An F250 came in from the other direction and his bow wave washed half way up my windshield. I was mid calf deep in the cab. I don't know how, but that Scott never missed a beat. The distributor had to be under water. I had water in the oil bath air filter.

That oil bath air filter saved the day for you!

Yep.  But our Wranglers are above the rest.    

You can ford water up to where your air intake is. As stated your trans and axles may need fluid replacing depending how much you submerge them. I used to take my truck though a river up here a few times a year with no issues. I did have an issue with over sized 33" tires floating the. Rear end on one short box pickup .

One of my first mods to my k5 was to run breathers up to the highest point in my engine bay. I hve the front and rear diff, trans and tranny. The trans case was done after the pic.

I had my Zuk with water coining in my windows.  Drain plugs help a lot!

Doors aren't ever on mine so the windows can't be a reference for me



 

Watched a guy suck water into his 98 or so Toyota pickup. The water was a couple feet deep, but it surged in past his air cleaner...bent two rods.

Yup, should've mentioned those as well.  Good catch.

Pretty deep...until you hydro lock the motor






Speed