Thread: Sand Driving?

Hi Dac,,

as far as I know Vlad was the last to do a Profesional training course on sand driving.

having said that there are a LOT of people here who have driven many kilometres on sand. Trip Leaders and followers, from weekend campers to desert crossers.

first up, driving well on anything requires practice, [can you get to sand sometime before the big event?,, just for a bit of a play [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif[/img] ]
second up, EVERYBODY gets bogged,, just some a lot less than others.

last but certainly not least,, chill out. Driving your LR is supposed to be a fun thing,, the trip IS the goal,, not the destination.

How far away is "far away"??

are we talking desert here?

no friends to tag along?

In my experience - always let your tyres down a bit, the trick is to not let them down to much as there is then more rolling resistance.

If you get stuck, try again with a different gear / more momentum and if that fails, let your tyres down again.

I have always found a more agressive tyre works better, but once you stop forward movement they tend to dig A LOT more quickly.

Tyre pressures and momentum are the key, not nessecarily (sp?) speed.

Dave [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img]

Letting your tyres down is the single most important thing you can do. As previously mentioned don't go overboard, it depends on the conditions, the tyres and the vehicle.

I would try 18-20psi initially, then experiment from there so you can get a feel for the best pressure for your vehicle and tyres. No problem going down to 12-14psi but be VERY careful with changes of direction, don't steer too sharply or you can roll the tyre off the rim.

Gear selection is important. Mostly you don't need low range but in really soft stuff it might be worth being in, say L2 or L3, again experimentation is the key.

If you come to a halt, don't plant your foot and spin wheels, you will just dig yourself in. If you don't dig a big hole for yourself like that then in 99% of cases you will be able to drive out, backwards. Just reverse out and try a different line, a bit more momentum, or a different gear. If you can't get out backwards initially then try rocking back and forwards a bit.

If there are exisiting ruts then try to stay in them (you may not have much choice as the vehicle will do this anyway), the sand tends to be more compacted where other vehicles have driven.

Take a good shovel, a snatch strap (assuming you have good recovery points!), and another vehicle and you will be fine.

As previously mentioned, try to get some practice beforehand, perhaps do a course?

Just My two bobs worth........twenty years of driving on Stockton Beach!

All sand is different! Like said before, drop your tyres to around 18 psi, depending on vehicle load. Unless the sand is very dry and windblown, that is 'powdery' that might be as low as you need to go. As a general rule, the lower your tyre pressures are the slower you need to travel and turn.

If you are on damp hard pack sand high range will be OK, depending on your vehicles power and weight. If venturing into soft sand I always go low range, sand sucks torque worse than mud 8O Do everything smoothly, thottle, brake and turn....any sudden manouvres will see sunk to the gunnels or worse!

When you need to come to a halt, roll to a stop and try to pull up facing slightly downhill, it'll make starting off much easier! When traversing slopes ALWAYS travel straight up or down, beware of steep descents too, don't brake and tackle the downhill run in a high enough gear to allow you to accelerate if the nose starts to dig in.

If your vehicle had any traction aids like centre difflock or crossaxle difflocks, use them but be careful of locked rear diffs on even a gentle side slope, they make the downhill side wheel dig in and it's easy to end up ith a horrible angle, it's happened to me! 8O

All this might sound like lots of hassle, but sand driving can be a lot of fun that'd why I do so much of it!, don't forget your recovery gear and a baseplate for your jack...sometimes tyres get sand in the valves or the bead an all your air leaks out
If you carry your own air all the better. I only hav a cheapie 'cause there are two servo's off the beach I go to.........hope this helps and yes, I love sand driving! [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img] Cheers Scott. 8)

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Originally posted by DaveS3
In my experience - always let your tyres down a bit, the trick is to not let them down to much as there is then more rolling resistance.

Tyre pressures and momentum are the key, not nessecarily (sp?) speed.

Agree with the second comment, best sand driving advice in one sentence.

However...the first comment. It is true that lower pressures increases rolling resistance. But on a soft surface like sand the increased contact patch areas means you get flotation which reduces rolling resistance, and that more than makes up for the increased rolling resistance. Without lowering pressures the vehicle is always trying to drive uphill, in effect.

Sand is where you can and should run the lowest pressures. About 40-50% of placard.

Read Vlad's First sand driving experience (in the yarns section) for an insight into my course.

I generally run at 18psi on the beach and keep speeds appropriately. Never yet had any drama and I've been out there a fair bit since I did the course.

It's not as hard as it sounds, just use some common sense and enjoy.

Make sure you have good recovery points for use with snatch strap - please see other threads (there is a thread about this in the "Common threads" forum I think).

Enjoy !!

Hi Dac, i dont know where you are located, but if you are close to sydney the LROC of Australia Sydney Branch is holding a driver training weekend on the 28th and 29th of this month, you would of course have to join if you havent already, but they are training at the AWABA Training facility just south of Newcastle on the saturday and then doing beach training on stockton beach on the sunday. PM me if you need any details, i can give you the email address of the training coordinator if you need it. Matt