Beach Driving Defender

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Originally Posted by scanfor

Fair enough I suppose, but 25 years of beach driving experience says otherwise.
Irresponsible? No.
Ability to drive to suit conditions - yes.
Ripping things up for those following? It's the beach, not a bush track - nothing gets ripped up.

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Your an idiot... soft sand needs low pressure... the higher your pressures the more you cut in, the harder you work the car etc. But your 25yrs experience obviously means this poor bloke first time out on the sand should run just fine full pressure. The only time running full road pressures is ok on the sand is when its below the tide mark on the hard packed highway like edge, but even then i drop my pressure incase its needed.

AS for not cutting up the tracks, have you driving Frasers inland tracks lately????

Drop them to 15 at least, if your carrying a big load keep an eye on them you might want to run slightly higher in the rears if most of the weights over the rear axle. Last trip i did there in my prado running 17s i drove everywhere on 12psi and i was carrying a good load for most of it. Better safe then sorry, we pulled many stuck trucks out including land rovers, because the drivers thought they would be fine without airing down, then they get stuck, air down but find they are bellied out..... We pulled out several that had aired down but didnt know how to drive. we even watched people get stuck before they even got on the barge.

You make a good point Debacle.
The approaches to the beach and bypass tracks would be different.
That few metres of churny sand getting on and off the beach is generally the only soft bit that I encounter, the rest of the beach (unless you try to drive it at high-tide) is usually like concrete.

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Originally Posted by scanfor

You make a good point Debacle.
The approaches to the beach and bypass tracks would be different.
That few metres of churny sand getting on and off the beach is generally the only soft bit that I encounter, the rest of the beach (unless you try to drive it at high-tide) is usually like concrete.

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... and with your quoted pressures it must feel like you're sitting directly on the concrete :D

Never having been to Frazer island, i suspect its a great place, but i still cringe at the thought of taking your rover into a VERY high salt enviroment. I don,t care how mant times you hose or wash it out, or what anti rust measures you have in place, you don,t want to be planning to hang on to your rover for much more than 10 years, as it WILL be a rust bucket by then, for sure.
Still, i hope you have fun, and do whats needed to aviod getting stuck.:D

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Originally Posted by Savanahkelpy

Never having been to Frazer island, i suspect its a great place, but i still cringe at the thought of taking your rover into a VERY high salt enviroment. I don,t care how mant times you hose or wash it out, or what anti rust measures you have in place, you don,t want to be planning to hang on to your rover for much more than 10 years, as it WILL be a rust bucket by then, for sure.
Still, i hope you have fun, and do whats needed to aviod getting stuck.:D

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What has that got to do with tyres pressures if you dont want to drive on the beach then so be it.We are all full aware of what salt can do.

I plan on hanging on to my defender for many years to come and have already cut out cancer from my defender from previous owner.There are many things you can do to prevent rust and also get rid of rust.

Back on the subject I run mine between 17 to 20psi pending on load and conditions.Anyway enjoy frazer its a great place have only been there once but much enjoyed with fellow landrover forum members.

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Originally Posted by MacFamily

What has that got to do with tyres pressures if you dont want to drive on the beach then so be it.We are all full aware of what salt can do.

I plan on hanging on to my defender for many years to come and have already cut out cancer from my defender from previous owner.There are many things you can do to prevent rust and also get rid of rust.

Back on the subject I run mine between 17 to 20psi pending on load and conditions.Anyway enjoy frazer its a great place have only been there once but much enjoyed with fellow landrover forum members.

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I just avoided mentioning tyre pressures because there is enough information from previous contributors. Im also restoring a Defender, having had to replace the whole rear cross member to to salt caused rust.
Its just a lot of work, that is possible to avoid, and it nearly always seems to be the next owner who gets the task, when its a new or near new vehicle, so we,re in the same boat.:)

The way I see it, you may as well let them down nice and low to avoid getting into trouble in the first place. Low pressures and conservative gear choices allow you to do most things with ease.

Not sure if this is good practise or not, but I usually do my tires by eye, ie watch until they are bagging out nicely to get the desired effect.

Not sure if this is good practise or not, but I usually do my tires by eye, ie watch until they are bagging out nicely to get the desired effect.

I usually do the same, last time on Frazer I was down to 20psi in the rears with a full load, other times and places they look as baggy with 15psi in them.

I only had trouble in one spot, as most people did. Only get as far as everyone else before it bogged out. There was even a bloke in a souped up FJ40 charging $20 to tow you up the hill! After watching another 15 do exactly the same thing, I went down to low 1st and at a fast idle went over with out any trouble.

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Originally Posted by scanfor

45 psi rear, 28 psi front - I never let them down for the beaches at Straddie or Teewah, never had any problems.

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Anyone can drive along a hard packed beach with road pressures in the tyres.....you could even do that in a Falcon or Commodoore.
Try to drive the coastal route from Carpenter Rocks to Robe SA with your suggested pressures and I guarantee 100%, you will get bogged to your diffs several times, even on some of the beaches right on the waterline. You might know the beaches well in your region, but the variation in the sand around the country is huge.

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Originally Posted by DeeJay

I'll just be polite & say that advising a new owner that highway pressure is Ok for Fraser Island is poor advice.

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I agree with DeeJay, very poor advise to a new owner.

Murray

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Originally Posted by series3

The way I see it, you may as well let them down nice and low to avoid getting into trouble in the first place. Low pressures and conservative gear choices allow you to do most things with ease.

Not sure if this is good practice or not, but I usually do my tires by eye, ie watch until they are bagging out nicely to get the desired effect.

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I don't know if it is really good practice or not, but I am sure I read somewhere that the correct amount of air to let out is whatever is needed to get the rims to be 3/4 of the height off the ground that they are at normal pressure. I'm sure someone with a better memory or more experience in sand will either confirm or contradict that theory.

I have also read that the first few psi you let out makes very little difference, but when you reach a certain point, the same drop in pressure makes a big difference.

In other words letting your tyres down 4 psi from 24 to 20 is pretty much a waste of time, but letting them down just 2 psi from 16 to 14 makes a huge difference.

Those figures might not be exact for every vehicle, but I'm sure you get the idea.