Thread: 1st time beach driving advice

Running road pressures on sand is never a good idea. You waste fuel and heat up the driveline needlessly. Beg, borrow or buy a compressor before you go and run the tyres at 20-25 psi max.

Get a compressor !

You will need to air down your tyres to drive on sand. Not only does it make the tyre sit on top of the sand, instead of digging in, but you will also do less damage to the tracks.

Depending on the conditions, a starting point for tyre pressures might be around 18 psi, but down as low as 10 - 12 psi might be necessary.

On top of this, take a shovel, and if you can, Maxtrax's or similar make recovering yourself easier.

You need to be prepared for self recovery, on the off chance that there isn't someone else around to lend a hand.

Get a compressor.

IF you don't like paying for quality... then buy a couple of cheapies from ???, but don't even think about going near sand without one.

Or two.

You've got a good size tyre for deflating, the higher profile (like yours) will grow longer and give a better footprint and less drag than poncy 40 and 50 series you see on some 'Pose-mobiles'.

Start off as suggested with 20 to 25 psi, make your turns on sand wide and gentle rather than tight and hard... go for smooothness. From 18 to 20psi up to 25 won't take that long, even with a small compressor.
Another advantage of 25 psi is that you can drive - quietly for short distances - on bitumen.
Watch what other folk are doing and learn from their mistakes !

- PS, take a 'real' shovel, big or small but not a fold-up one. Certainly not a cheap fold-up. Ask me how I know...

Originally Posted by superquag

Get a compressor.

IF you don't like paying for quality... then buy a couple of cheapies from ???, but don't even think about going near sand without one.

Or two.

You've got a good size tyre for deflating, the higher profile (like yours) will grow longer and give a better footprint and less drag than poncy 40 and 50 series you see on some 'Pose-mobiles'.

Start off as suggested with 20 to 25 psi, make your turns on sand wide and gentle rather than tight and hard... go for smooothness. From 18 to 20psi up to 25 won't take that long, even with a small compressor.
Another advantage of 25 psi is that you can drive - quietly for short distances - on bitumen.
Watch what other folk are doing and learn from their mistakes !

- PS, take a 'real' shovel, big or small but not a fold-up one. Certainly not a cheap fold-up. Ask me how I know...

X2

i am also sure there is a garage over there so you should be able to air up even if you don't have a compresser,but check first.

Around 20psi is what i ran in the D2 in sand.If it is very soft,you can go lower.

There is no way i would do ANY beach or sand driving without airing down.You will probably get stuck on one of the tracks or beach access tracks and look like a fool....

And remember,momentum is your friend,once you slow down in the soft stuff,it is all over.......


Anyway,good luck,have fun and see how you go

If your car has a centre diff lock, then lock it, even if you need to climb underneath with a 10mm spanner.

That is all good advice. And should be taken seriously. But really, that is such a capable beach vehicle ( especially with tyres down) that you really should be okay. I had the same vehicle as you before getting my Defender. I had one of the first ARB compressors. It was very slow and after a while I stopped airing down because of how long it took to air up afterwards. Eventually I did get stuck, after airing down it just crawled out and kept going easily.
That was those days, I do know now that even though the D2 did make it through nearly everything at highway pressures I was damaging tracks and making the vehicle work may harder than it had to.
Air down, keep momentum for the tough patches and the vehicle is probably going to make you look great.
But always learn from your experiences

You've got a very good beach vehicle

Kenley

If there hasn't been much rain over in Straddie, then you'll find it very soft going, particularly at the beach access points. Airing down is a must, take it down to 25psi to start, take it down further if you start to get bogged.

Where are you looking to go on Straddie?

Sand is pretty cruisy,
just go to 18 psi you wont have any issues.
Air up when you finish.
Buy a compressor, ARB tyre deflators, snatch strap and a long handled shovel.
If you are cashed up Maxtracks and Air bag jack.

Have fun.
Lock the centre diff and keep up the momentum. Very Very capable vehicle on sand escecially with tyres on 18.
Enjoy
Cheers