Forum Discussion

dennych1's avatar
dennych1
Explorer
Jun 17, 2020

Dually spacers for beach carry truck camper

I have a 2019 f350 carrying a Host Cascade on the beach. Should I have spacers on dually wheels. Are there disadvantages with spacers. Would like to here from people that air down and camp on beach. Right now I don’t have spacers and air down to 30 lbs in rear. Thanks for any help Dennis
  • Well do the tires touch?
    If not, zero need. If they do I wouldn’t worry about it one bit on the beach. Low speed in sand there’s nothing wrong with tires touching.
  • From advice I received on here last year as I was asking the same thing.

    No spacers required.

    I have been fine as the speed limit is 15mph and we are not driving long long distances. At first I was checking the tires to see how hot they were but after checking a couple times I saw they are not getting any hotter than the rest of the tire. I am usually at 30 in the rear as well, give or take a few psi if I am swatting at flies while airing down :)

    I use trailhead deflators on mine, makes it easy to deflate. My biggest pain point right now is inflating the 6 tires from 30 to 80psi. One of these days I might get the crossfire system for the rears.
  • I will only travel maybe 2 or 3 miles on beach maybe 4 times a year. After reading these posts I don’t think I need spacers.
    Thanks everyone
    Dennis
  • I've been hitting Pismo Beach for the last couple of years. Usually going every four to five months up till this point. I agree with others, if you are not going far and your going slow, you will be fine.

    I'm actually surprised by those that are airing down to only 30psi. I'm around 15 psi usually. However my strategy for Pismo is to time the tide so I can drive in on hard sand. I deflate the tires using the deflators previously mentioned. I then check each tire and reinflate if necessary back up to 15 psi. At that point I head down the beach towards the mile marker where we turn in to head up the small hill and find a place to camp.

    In the many times I've been there, I've only gotten stuck once and that was the first time when I aired down to about 30psi. Now, I don't have four wheel drive so that's likely why others are successful at 30psi while I'm going to 15psi. That being said, I'm towing the truck, camper and 16ft trailer with three toys on the back. I'm sure I'll get stuck in the future but I'm genuinely impressed with just how much I've been able to drive in the sand without 4wd. Slow and steady is all it takes. If your spin your wheels you are digging a hole. If your hopping up and down, get out and push the sand away from your tires. You just need to get enough momentum to get on top of the sand (kind of like how a boat has to plane on the surface of the water).

    Other suggestions... Bring a shovel so you can dig if you need to. Also, have a tow strap available in case you do get stuck. Just about anyone with a truck will get great pleasure pulling you out (maybe for the cost of a beer) but if you don't have a rope between the two of you, your not going to get far.