It was a beautiful January Monday afternoon and I wanted to take advantage of the amazing landscapes I have where I live. Besides, it was my day off, I had to do some offroad, right?
So I made some calls, it happened that my best friend was free and we set out to go somewhere near the forest to try going up a hill with the Duster.
We got there and saw that the snow was very thick but kept on going until something unplanned happened. The trail to the base of the hill was slightly inclined and because of the thick layer of snow the car stated sliding to the left and before you know it, the left side was off the main trail…
Our adventure ended up before it even began:(. So I got my hands o a shovel and started to clean up the snow around the car. Unfortunately there a lot of snow under the car and that made it to slide even more to its left, making it harder and harder to get out of there with every time we tried.
At a certain point we undestood the Duster was stuck and I was lucky enough to find a good friend with a Mitsubishi Shogun. While we waited for our rescue car I got my drone up and captured some amazing shots of the valley.
Here is the link to the video:
And the next article about the tow itself, which was very difficult… Read it now!
Because the Ad-Blue system was introduced to the 1.5 dCi engine in september 2018 and my Duster was manufactured in october 2018, it had a small problem at a certain point. At 27000 km to be more specific , the message appeared: “Check antipollution system” along with 3 warning lights on the dashboard.
My first thought was that the DPF was blocked and need it a regeneration but I was wrong. And I went to the dealership’s car service and after a diagnostic check, it turned out to be the Ad-Blue system (not enough Ad-Blue was poured into the final mix).
The problem was solved with an Ad-Blue Performance/Consumption Test, procedure that took about an hour and it was made immediately after the diagnosis.
What I didn’t know at that time was that the problem was not solved entirely and after 3000 km I had to go back to the dealer’s service and leave the car for a day. They made some upgrades on the ad-blue computer and the car is running just fine.
The 2018 Dacia Duster model has a weak spot that cand be damaged very easy while offroading.
This spot is represented by the EGR valve that is mounted on the exhaust pipe, almost in the middle of the car. This part, if it were to be replaced cost very much and a protective shield had to be made.
There is allready a shield that covers that can be installed and will cover the whole area under the car, including the EGR valve but it can be very dangerous and make your car loose grip at exists from climbs on the 30-35 degrees ramps or get the car suspended.
This was pointed out by the colleagues from the Trails group through the tests they performed. The problem with the old shield was discovered by the Dacia Duster Trails&Technical Group colleagues, on a trip to test the new duster, where on a seemingly easy offroad trail, a colleague’s car started to slide sideways, after 4 dusters had passed without problems just before he did.
In the subsequent tests it was found that more attention is needed with this shield at the exits from steep climbs on the ramp with an inclination of 30-35 degrees. So one othe Duster owners thought of a way to protect the shield and not to loose so much ground cleareance. And this is how the prototype looks:
The video with the installation and testing can be found here:
From this prototype, a specialized company made a final version, much better than the prototype. Added some drainage holes and now it can be purchased online with delivery in all the countries in the EU.
For the rest of the world please chat with the online site support.
If you want a closer look at the final product, here is the video link with some testing:
This relatively unknown waterfall is located deep into the forest, at 9,9 Km distance from the center of Putna, Suceava. Putna is known for the Monastery raised in 1466 by Stephen the Great , the most important ruler of Moldavia.
He ruled it from 1457 until his death in 1504. From the Putna Monastery you have to go to the Sihastria Putnei Monastery and from there you have to keep the road South to Moldovita. Unfortunately there are no signs to help you reach the waterfal.
If you pay attention to the video I shot with my drone, you will be able to reach the waterfall, if you travel to Putna.
It is also located on Google Maps, just search “Cascada Burscului” and it will lead you to the waterfall. In order to reach it you will have to wear rubber boots because you will have to go on foot up the river.
Depending on the time you go there, the level of the river will be changed, also the landscape is different from a season to another. I only visited in the autmun. I think the best time to see it is in May or June.
As you reach the Sihastria Putnei Monastery you have to go forward and pass by some stables and a cement procesing machine. From there you will see a barrier ahead. You go thru that barrier and keep the road ahead untill you reach an intersection with a road to go right and a small bridge ahead.. Go ahead and keep going until you reach a second bridge, larger than the first. There will be a house there in a big meadow. From the bridge you will see another intersection and you have to go left. From there you have to go ahead another 2.9 km untill you see a smaller river coming from the right and passing under the main road. If you go up that river you will find the waterfall.
The road to the waterfall is a simple forest road and you might have problems going all the way to there especially if there are wood logging in the area. I recomend going there with an SUV or at least a car that has good ground cleareance so you won’t damage it.
This is the video I shot. Look carefully at the place where I parked the car. From there you can see the area you have to go upstream to find the waterfall.
Enjoy your trip. For any informations, write me on the Facbook Page: Duster Cool Travels:
For many of the Youtube viewers that saw the video it was something that just can’t be done. Or so they say. Well, I managed to do it. The comparison between a 2018 Dacia Duster and 2017 Porsche Macan. First of all, I have to say that the video was shot in April 2019 and the owner of the Macan just changed the tires on the car with the summer tires. A couple of days prior to the offroad drive we shot. So these were the cars.
For the offroad drive I chose a trail that was easy, because we didn’t want to take any chances and scratch the cars or damage it. I knew the road before and, as you can see in the video, I took the first hill with higher speed than the Porsche. The Porsche almost stopped at the midlle of the hill and if it had manual gearbox probably the engine would have stopped. The owner of the Porsche had a very careful way of driving which is why at a certain point the car stops and can’t move forward when it remains suspended on the right front wheel and the left back wheel.
The curiuos thing is why the front wheels didn’t move at all quickly after the car got thru the point where it was suspended in diagonal. Basically only one wheel (the right back) was rotating. The left back wheel might have been rotating as well, but from my point I couldn’t tell for sure. So he had to go back a little and try again, this time with more speed. The tires the Macan had also didn’t help so much because it were summer tires. A similar thing happened with the Audi Q5 we tested on the same hill, under the same conditions.
At the next hill the Porsche went up without any problems, helped very much by the automatic gearbox and all the electronic systems the car has working in offroad. I like the fact that the Macan goes up about 5 cm when the Offroad Mode is activated.
Here you have the full video with the Duster and the Porsche Macan:
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