SRW vs DRW driving in sand.

AT tires are much much better than MT's in the sand. Look at the BFG Baja tire. That tread type is good illustration of what the right tire on a two wheel truck can do in sand and silt!

If mud tires have deep side lugs, they dig in sand. If you have directional tread for mud that clears the tire, you swap left to right to actually push sand under the tread and increase flotation.

I've never witnessed or experienced there being a defficiency with mud tread tires in sand. They seem to work just as well or better than all terrain type treads.

In fact, practically all dirtbike and atv/utv tires have much greater resemblance to mud tread tires than any other tread type. There hardly exists a dirt bike or atv tire that has any resemblance at all to an all terrain tread tire.

And if you think of sand paddle tires, with their giant, wide spaced tread blocks going across the whole width of the tire, they have more in common with large blocky wide spaced mud treads, than closely spaced all terrain treads.

I've spent plenty of time driving and riding in dune sand and sand washes, with lots of various different vehicles, and with others about with many more different vehicles. I've not seen anything that would suggest that mud tread tires are bad in sand.

I don't buy it that an all terrain beats a mud tread in sand.

I now have aggresive tread type tires, Cooper STT Pros, but aired down to 18 psi they do an amazing job in sand, nice wide foot print.

carringb wrote:
Duallies have a disadvantage that the outer rears are pushing more sand. SRW trucks only have to push sand with the front end, then the rear has a nice compacted track to follow.

And X2 on M/T tires being terrible with sand. I watched two identical Dodge Rams do a hill climb at the dunes one day. The one with M/Ts and lockers couldn't make it to the top. The other dodge had A/Ts, and only factory limited slip, and still made it to the top without even spinning its tires.

I would liked to have seen that! There are times I need to use 4WD to maneuver my TH because of tire spin.... Still, I love my DRW

Limited slip differential's are a big help, our truck came with that option. My new tires worked great at pismo, better than expected. And with 16" rims, not 20's, they cruised right on thru towing our fifthwheel hauler. We bought a set of Cooper Discovery STT Pro's, aired down to 18lbs. 285/16/75, not a large tire by any means but they air down nicely.

4 hi, aired down..... Fingers crossed. Helps to have the power a diesel affords, just add more pedal.

That's a true statement, and in fact the most likely time to get stuck is when turning around.

That being said, unless you're just going in circles, the vast majority of your driving is in a somewhat straight line.

When towing in the sand I always look for a firmer section of sand to make my turns, as that's the most likely point to bury the truck.

I've driven most of the driveable beaches ( and some not so driveable) from Washington to California, in both a SRW and DRW, hauling truck campers and toyhaulers. As stated sand conditions have a lot to do with what you can and can't drive on the beach. Common sense and the ability to air down will get you through most situations regardless of how many tires are on your truck.

Yes definitely air pressure is a big part of tire traction in sand.

As far as duals not following the front tires, any time any vehicle makes any kind of turn, the rear tires do not follow the same track as the front tires, regardless of how many rear tires the vehicle has.

So unless you only ever drive in a straight line, it doesn't matter if your dual rears are not following in the same track as the fronts. The rears of a single rear wheel truck won't be following in the same track as the fronts either.

The one with a Truetrac in the front differential will do best.

SoCalDesertRider wrote:
It depends on the width of tires and the air pressure. Some SRW trucks have tires the same width as DRW trucks. Other SRW trucks have wider tires.

Tire width has less to do with it than you might think. Sure an inch or two extra width helps, but airing down makes the contact patch much LONGER, not wider.

Think of how a tire looks when it's flat, not much wider, but huge flat contact patch.

I've driven my previous F350 DRW on the sand in multiple states, and aired down, the E rated Toyo MT's did OK. Not as good as my SRW truck, but still never got stuck. The biggest problem seems to be the wider rear track as stated above, it just doesn't follow the compacted front track well.

The worst are the dually rigs running low profile tires or the F and up rated commercial tires that can't be aired down. I haven't had my F450 on the sand YET, but it's coming up the last week of August.

With G rated 245' 75' 19.5's that can't be aired down below 80 psi, I'll be sticking to the hard packed sand for sure.