Driving in the sand

jefe 4x4 wrote:
How about driving in quicksand? Yep, I've been there but not for a long time and not again. Right down to the frame in 1970, Salt Creek, Canyonlands NP:

Wow. That's cool, you were wheeling back in the 70's! The fact that you still have that picture all these years later is even more cool. :D

Well we have returned from Lake Big Mac. The sand issue was no issue at all. The lake was so full I just drove in on the hard packed sand and pulled right to our location that was great by the way. I used 4 low but probably could have gotten away with 2 wheel drive! Little disappointed I didn't get a chance to use my teraflex deflators and do some sand driving! But on the other hand it was a piece of cake and good time was had by all. But my fairly good sized air compressor came in handy blowing up the big tube and other large floating rigs for the kids and grand kids. Every time I go with my truck camper and boat setup I like it more and more! We left the TC at the lake and the boat I just left tied to the shore. Me and grandma shuttled to the cabin in the evenings with the clan and shuttled back out to the beach at night in my sons car. The weather was absolutely perfect. Down to about 60 at night with a nice breeze. No higher than 88 during the days. My propane fridge could even keep up in these temps!

Travelnutz,
I like your style, but there is nothing packable about the sand in anutami's pic. I have been on that route. About 2 feet down you will encounter a harder pack than the pic shows, but it will bury you to the frame if your try to drive up grade in the stuff at full pressure. The beach at Fort Stevens, OR is packable: (we were here a couple days ago)






Even then, the drier, softer edge blow sand away from the surf can swallow your rig. We were on the beach trying out all our 'drive on soft stuff' appliances like the front Eaton-Detroit True Trac which kept all wheels pulling, and the widemo rear tires, at full pressure with approaching no sidewall deflection. On real soft sand I needed more pedal to pull through, but it never stopped pulling even with 10,500 pounds of rig. I have driven on dune sand of which you speak and there is no way to keep forward motion without dumping the pressure way down (but not below 20 pounds all around). Ten pounds will walk your tires off the rim on a TC unless you have bead locks. It's all a matter of weight vs. floatation. These two issues are particularly edgy with a hard side truck camper, but it is do able. There are rules: one; never drive uphill in the sand. two: never stop in the softest stuff. If you do come to an unscheduled stop, instantly put it in reverse and try to ease your way back the way you came using what little momentum you have. You have already made a channel to drive in and your sidewall biters will help a little.
How about driving in quicksand? Yep, I've been there but not for a long time and not again. Right down to the frame in 1970, Salt Creek, Canyonlands NP:

jefe

Actually and very telling that's quite hard packable sand in anutami's pics as you can see the many previous vehicle tire tracks showing and their detail. Also showing is lots of pebble media and underlying and nearby dead vegetation debris and there has to be feeder roots from the many close side bushes which means there's ample water or moisture underneath the very top layer that packs/hardens/firms and supports weight or the so much vegetation shown wouldn't be green and growing!

As an example of some of the very different kinds of sand and beach sand:

Our beach sand and lots of the sand areas in our state is totally different as if you drove off the pavement or gravel roads, "hi frame, meet sand!" and you won't be able to move at all even with only 10 PSI in all tires. Walking barefoot on the beach or in many woods in it and you will usually sink almost to your ankles in the dry sand unless you have size 14 feet! Gunboats! Need wide sole flat bottom shoes or sandals. The sand also sings with a music like sound as you take steps in it because it's 97% pure quartz sand granules all the same size without fine grit between or hardly any foreign particles in it. Pure clean sand! That's why it's called "singing sand". That's what we call "sand" and "beach sand" Look it up! In most of the S.E. USA, what they call sand, we call clay as it's slimy when wet. In Florida, you can drive with regular OEM tire at full inflation on most beaches as it's mostly ground coral, shell, fragments mixed in with some quartz sand.

We could and do drive our TC rig on it here in our state also when it's sand like shown in California etc as it's more like a forest road here which are there for fire fighting access in our masses of our woods/forests/meadows.

Started the trail at full PSI until we bogged down and reduced down to 25 in the front and 30 in the rear. Started to feel the sand getting softer and did not know the trail so we decided to call it quits.

anutami wrote:
I concur with knowing your limits and starting small. We made it about 1/3 of the way around mono lake starting from the south side heading counter clockwise and turned around because we did not know the sand and no one was around.


Man that sand is soft and appeared to be getting softer around every corner

Were you aired down? and if so at what pressure?

I concur with knowing your limits and starting small. We made it about 1/3 of the way around mono lake starting from the south side heading counter clockwise and turned around because we did not know the sand and no one was around.


Man that sand is soft and appeared to be getting softer around every corner

Well I just ran a little test air down in the shop. I went from 10 to 14 inch footprint front to back by going to 30 pounds. Went to 25 pounds and not much different. Went to 20 pounds and went to a 16 inch foot print. Didn't measure the width but at 30 I was getting a fairly big bulge and 20 quite a bit more. You can certainly see why it works so well.

Oldtymeflyr I grew up on the west coast and spent most my summers at the beach. I wonder how the west vs east coast sand differs.

Looks like a lot of fun. Think if you use common sense you will be fine and should definitely have some help. Just watch out about having people snatch you hard as that is when things rip apart.

Found this video of Lake McConaughy. Lots of others to just searching youtube on the name.

Enjoy.