Driving in the sand

[dave17352]

My tires are normally at 80 psi with the TC on. These are the original stock tires. I plan to air down on the beach this weekend.
My question is, is how low should I go. This will be only while on the sand at slow speed. Thanks in advance for any opinions!

[Crabbypatty]

Depends on the sand. Some beaches are hard pack and you drive right on, others are sugar sand that can swallow you up quickly. Our beaches or on ramps are soft sugar sand and the park personal do not provide proper instruction to the people coming on. Especially the day trippers. They invariably don't air down or not enough and use the gas pedal to rototill the on ramps making it difficult for the next people. The beginning of the season when the beaches havent had much use I go to 20psi. Late summer 13 psi in the front and 15 psi in the rear. This mind you also depends on the tires. Some rvers who are on alot have summer tires and winter tires. The summer tires are big balloons and they just float on top with minimal effort.

So you need to see what conditions you are attempting and dont be afraid to ask someone else who is airing down in the same place. I ask people coming on and off to see whats up.

Happy trails

[Threebigfords]

Well that 5th wheel kinda got what he had coming to him, why would you take that rig below the tideline??

I've taken my toyhauler on the beaches before and never felt the need to try and launch it like a boat.

Was on the beach with the new rig just a few weeks ago. At over 11k lbs and running 90 PSI in the 19.5's I obviously stayed on the hard packed sand.

[mellow]

Just so the 5th wheel guys don't feel left out 🙂

[Mike008]

In regard to the pic of the swamped rig, OUCH! Anyone know the exact story? I'd be curious to know how much time they actually had to get it free before all was lost? Did they try to unload the camper to at least save the truck? That must have been a really bad day for somebody.

[Bedlam]

Very similar to what we did with dune buggies when my behemoth would get stuck. My wife's buggy was half the weight of mine and only a quarter of the engine displacement, so I would let out the winch line and then lock the spool. Her little buggy would spin down into the sand to create an anchor for my winch, but she would still have to sit in it with her foot on the brakes so it would not pull out of the hole.

[jefe_4x4]

I've seen that pic before, maybe even a vid of the Atlantic swallowing the beast. Grim. It looks like the floatation ability of the Lance over came the tie downs of he truck incurring a separation of the two. The P.O.V. is that there is sand and there is sand. Wet or dry, it's your job to know what you are getting into.
I always prefer someone watching my back when I get into the soft stuff. In most cases it's my brother John and his '99, 2 series Ford with OUTFITTER! The rule of thumb is it takes a machine of at least equal weight, flotational ability and extraction technique to pull your sorry rig out of the bottomless. I learned this over and over when I was a hard core Jeeper. I had a friend who was in the Hummer I (Mil. Spec. HumVee) crowd in AZ. When occasionally stuck, no number of tinky little Jeeps with multiple straps or winches could pull him out. Along comes another hummer and, Voila! no more stick. Here's a little story I've told before on here that illustrates the process you must go through before you can pull a MUCH larger vehicle than your out of the sand.
About 1967 I was driving a rag top Toyota Gland Bruiser, FJ40 with factory PTO winch.I upped the ante on the capacity of the winch by drilling out the shear pin hole to accept 1/4 inch drill rod. We had a chance to camp on the dunes at Pismo Beach, California and do a little Clamming. I had big wide 'Hi-Flot' tires, basically farm implement tires from Dick Cepek that you could run at low pressure.
On the way out we came upon a 45 foot MoHo, I think it was a 'Condor', who had descended below the tide line and subsequently dropped this 18K pound boat anchor to the frame with his trailer hitch submerged under the sand. I was in a much more forgiving mood then than I am now and took pity on this wide eyed couple. During a pre-pull chat, i told him to deflate all 6 (or maybe 8 as i think he had a tag axle) of his rock hard tires from 110 pounds down to 40 pounds. He also used my shovel to make little ramps in front of all his tires to decrease the resistance. This took a while so I readied for the extraction. Meanwhile a large contingent of onlookers appeared to see if the result was going to be like the camper pic above. What in the hxxx was this mad guy in a red jeep doing? I first measured back about 80 feet in front of the MoHo to give the least amount of courses and the greatest pulling power on the winch drum. I reeled out the winch cable almost all the way out, about 100 feet and had no good winching point on the MoHo so just wrapped it around the solid front axle of the truck chassis. and hooked onto his rig and took out the slack. Then turned the hubs off and slowly backed up against the MoHo, burying the rear axle to the frame. Then turned them back on and buried the whole rig trying to back against the winch line. I became the defacto dead man. The hook had no clip, which turn out to be a good thing. All was set. I told him, "once you get a little momentum, do not stop but make a wide arcing turn and go back the other way." I also bade him not to spin the tires. Go easy on the stupid pedal. Yeah, sure. I started in low range, low gear on the PTO and the Leviathan started to move, ever so slowly out of its temporary grave. I shifted to high gear to get more line speed. It worked. He got tipsy with actual forward motion and floored the bohemouth. Lucky the winch line fell off as he made a wild and crazy 180 around me to faint applause, sand flying and engine roaring, and never looked back. We never saw him again. Lucky for him there was air available at the beach head to reinflate his tires for the highway. jefe

[Ed-N-Dani]

Surfrat wrote:
Ok, lots of good info here. I would like to add, if beach driving do not and I repeat do not drive below the high tide water mark. If you get stuck there the incoming tide will take your rig. Every year or so a truck is lost that way.

Funny, or sorta. We were at the beach last weekend and my girlfriend said..."why don't you drop down to that level...that truck did" needless to say we did not.

Ed

[Surfrat]

Ok, lots of good info here. I would like to add, if beach driving do not and I repeat do not drive below the high tide water mark. If you get stuck there the incoming tide will take your rig. Every year or so a truck is lost that way.

[dave17352]

mellow wrote:
Wow, you are serious about your leveling. I just usually dig out the tires to make it level in the sand.

That's what I should have done. But you know how hard it is to dig holes in the sand:o Next time I think I will dig holes. Not sure what me and my three sons were thinking!!! Better to dig holes not such a big step to get in either.

[mellow]

Wow, you are serious about your leveling. I just usually dig out the tires to make it level in the sand.

[dave17352]

Here are my unexciting pictures of the beach at Big Mac. As you can see there was no real Sand driving!

[Ed-N-Dani]

mellow wrote:
Blowing the bead would be my concern with that much weight at such a low PSI. It can get pretty bumpy when you have to drive across the ruts.

Thanks brother!

Ed

[mellow]

Blowing the bead would be my concern with that much weight at such a low PSI. It can get pretty bumpy when you have to drive across the ruts.

[Ed-N-Dani]

Thanks Mellow, Ill do that. I have been so confused with the air down recommendations that I have found online in random searches. Most recommend 12-15 lbs but when I bring the front down to 15 the weight of the front of the truck really brings the tires down and it makes it feel likes it causing it to bog down once I hit soft spots. I noticed the other trucks that have aired down dont look near as low as what I have been going to.

Is your concern of airing down to 15 a bog down issue or a tire damage issue with the weight?

Thanks again!

Kindest regards
Ed