Camping on the Beach at Pismo?

[supercub]

Looking for experiences of camping on the beach at Pismo in a motor home.
Pros and cons? What you thought about it. Would you do it again? Anyone get stuck or see anyone that needed help getting out?
Thanks
Brian

[Kidoo]

One thing I heard is to put some wire fence under the tires to get out of trouble, but taking a 20 to 30,000 pound in the sand??

I would try my class A at Padre Island in Texas, the first strech of beach is pretty hard, not like Pismo beach. It gets soft after and it goes for like 60 miles I think. I took my truck camper a good 5 or 10 miles down the beach, then drove some 30 miles further truck only.

Beach camping is nice, but it gets very sandy. We had a sand strom one day at Pismo and we had sand all over. The sand got in the air duct and we had sand for over a year comming out the dash vent.

Another thing that happen is when wind blows hard, wind gets around your tire and blows the sand around it, then it creates a small bump under the tires. Once the bumps is too thin, the tire, and camper, drops down. This is a very special moment the first time you hear the camper fall down and you do not know what happened.

The vortex created around the camper also displaced the sand and revealed some trash left over from previous campers, not very nice. Not all people do take in take out, this is a sad thing cause these behavior could lead to restriction on these nice rare places.

[msmith1199]

supercub wrote:
Thanks for all the replies -. I drove the beach in a Jeep I had a few years ago, and I remember at the time saying, I'd never take my motor home out there. Time has eased my concerns until I read the postings here and watching several different You Tube videos last night.
Nope, I'll stay in an RV park ..........I'm not going to take my motor home out there.
Thanks for the replies.
Brian

I was just there for a week in June. My toad is a Dodge Dakota 4x4 pickup. We stayed at Pismo Coast Village and then when we went to the beach we threw everything we needed in the back of the truck and just headed to the beach. The first day we went all the way down to the end and found some room to park and sat out there for a while while motorcycles and quads ran all around us. After that day I discovered it was much nicer to find a spot on the beach between the two entrances. Off road vehicles are not allowed in that area. It was far less crowded and it was nice to be able to put everything you need right in the back of the truck and have it all right there next to you.

[msmith1199]

On getting stuck out there, the times I've been out on the beach it's pretty common as you drive along to see people stuck and digging out of the sand in all types of vehicles. I took my Jeep Wrangler out there once and left 35psi in the tires because I wasn't going to be doing the stuff other people do out there, and almost as soon as I got up into the dry sand I was stuck. Before I dug myself in too deep, I let some air out of all the tires and the Wrangler drove right out. So the air pressure is clearly important.

If I ever did take my glass DP out on the sand (I don't intend to) I would bring along some good strong large boards. If you get stuck you can dig out from under the jacks and put the boards under the jacks and use the jacks to raise the rear wheels out of the hole and then either fill in sand under the tires, or put boards under the tires.

[msmith1199]

RayChez wrote:
So you air down the tires so that you do not get stuck in the sand, and then how do you air them back up?

You mean to tell me you are going to drive that heavy coach with low air pressure on the paved road until you get to a service center?

It sounds to me like a good way to blow up or ruin a tire.

Some of these idea's are simply amazing to me. These 22.5 tires are not that easy to fill up again. You can not do it with a small compressor like a automobile. You need a big compressor to refill those tires.

There are guys who set up stations right on the beach to air your tires back up as you leave. I think they were charging $3 per tire or something along those lines. They appeared to have fairly large compressors with generators running so I assume they could put out 100 psi. I'm not sure if they charged more for the big RV tires or not.

[supercub]

Thanks for all the replies -. I drove the beach in a Jeep I had a few years ago, and I remember at the time saying, I'd never take my motor home out there. Time has eased my concerns until I read the postings here and watching several different You Tube videos last night.
Nope, I'll stay in an RV park ..........I'm not going to take my motor home out there.
Thanks for the replies.
Brian

[Kidoo]

On top, it was pretty hard for us to find a place to inflate the tires. The small inflator at fillup station just normally do not inflate enough.

My experience was with a pick up truck, I do no know about a class A. Even with the pick up camper there was no way to get on the soft sand without airing down the tires.

[RayChez]

So you air down the tires so that you do not get stuck in the sand, and then how do you air them back up?

You mean to tell me you are going to drive that heavy coach with low air pressure on the paved road until you get to a service center?

It sounds to me like a good way to blow up or ruin a tire.

Some of these idea's are simply amazing to me. These 22.5 tires are not that easy to fill up again. You can not do it with a small compressor like a automobile. You need a big compressor to refill those tires.

[vegasfoodguy]

Kidoo wrote:
We were there last year but with a 4x4 truck camper. We did see many fith wheel, big ones, but did not see any class A. We saw a class C stuck in sand up to the frame, he got out because the next day he was gone.

You sure have to air down the tires, we did not at first than got stop in sand after 20 feet, we aired down and this kept us going.

I would not go to far in the dune! and not too close to the sea, because the tide will get you.

You never know before you try.

Airing down 22.5 tires won't help a bit, H rated will only come off the rims, The sidewall is too stiff.
I used to camp there in a 24 ft class A, I also towed a 350 horsepower 3/4 ton chevy pickup, I could tow my motorhome on and off the beach. I would never try it with 33,000 lb motorhome now..
Pismo is wonderful. Stay at Pismo coast Village.

[Passin_Thru]

One thing I learned is to stay out of trouble by not trying stupid stuff, like driving on a beach in a vehicle weighing 30K, not driving 10 hrs Friday night for 1 day on at he Colorado River and then tearing down I 10 to get home Sunday with 9 bazillion other nuts or Going to Pismo and trying to get back down the 101 on Sunday. We used to fly to Pismo Airport, camp under the wing, fly home in an hr on Sunday and eat at a Carson BBQ dump and then ease home. Got a lot of laughs flying over stop and go traffic for 100 miles. It cost's around $500-1000 to get towed at Pismo.

[Kidoo]

We were there last year but with a 4x4 truck camper. We did see many fith wheel, big ones, but did not see any class A. We saw a class C stuck in sand up to the frame, he got out because the next day he was gone.

You sure have to air down the tires, we did not at first than got stop in sand after 20 feet, we aired down and this kept us going.

I would not go to far in the dune! and not too close to the sea, because the tide will get you.

You never know before you try.

[MrWizard]

Nice collection of you tube videos, showing what can happen

None showing driving across dry, no tide, during the drought
But even now crossing when the tide is in is a very bad idea

[Pogoil]

We used to take my lowered Chevy in the 80s. Loaded with 3 3 wheelers Great fun. The Chevy was 2 wheel drive and only got stuck as we went up into the deep sand to camp. I would never take my DP. I have seen Jeeps float out into the ocean in that so called creek. Thing is that creek you speak of is based on tidal activity and can get quite large like a river.

Pogoil.

[RayChez]

Would not recommend heavy coaches. Light motorhomes you can do it as long as you stay on the wet sand. If you get into the soft dry sand, you will get stuck and a good chance to ruin your transmission.

I have camped at Pismo, but I stay with the coach in the RV park.

[robsouth]

JerryDT wrote:

Fresno Tundra Driver wrote:
Besides possibly getting stuck, you'll get sand in everything. I wouldn't try it.

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