Thread: Towing the camper on the Beach, Do you let the tyres Down Y or N

According to a well known 4wd mag, its better to lower your campervan tyre pressures.
However, I disagree.
Lowering your tyres spreads the load out but, that increases the load on the tow vehicle as there is more resistance from the towed item. I simply cannot see why you would want to reduce pressures if they are not wheels looking for extra traction ie driving wheels. OK you get more floatation, but most campervans have offroad tyres that are not exactly skinny,dig themselves in type tyres.
The mag in question never explained why, just said its better.
I'd say if you are having problems, let the tyres down & see if that helps.
David

Originally Posted by Dazza67

Hello peoples, going camping on Stockton beach next weekend (Sat 8th) for a bit of night fishing and have never towed our 4wd camper on that type of sand before, do you let the tyres down or keep them up Y or N ????
The camper is a Trek camper weighing in at about 600kg or so loaded,It has 15x7 tyres and raised springs.
Wont be that heavy for an overniter basically just want something to sleep in/get out of the wind and test it out on the sand for the summer months, doubt if I will even fill the 70Lt water tank.
It has been to the Cape and back twice no probs, just never over to the local beach.
3 cars and campers going, Son and I thought we would tag along to drag the two mates Nissan's out if needed.

Just need some imput
TIA Darren
Oh Im towing it with a D2 TD5 Auto Non CDL

Is the trailer wheel track in line with your tow vehicle?
Also if your going to camp, camp behind the sand dunes, as the breaking waves at night are LOUD! and keep you awake.

depends.

what pressure are you running to start with and what profile tyres do you have?

my cheese cutters on the tandem mandate lowering the pressure or they just spud in TC works enough to drag it through (sometimes) but its working hard. drop the pressures to 15-18 psi and it gets enough float to stay on top.

I also have the disadvantage that my trailer track is wider than my rovers track so the trailer tyres dont stay in the compacted "ruts" created by the rover.

If your camper is set up properly (running the same track as the tow vehicle) and you have moderate pressures (say 24-28psi ish) on a reasonable width rubber (7.50r16 is cheesecutter) you should be fine.

I have always been led to believe that the reason for letting tyres pressure down was to increase the deflection of the tyre and increase the amount of tread laid on the surface in the direction of travel hence increasing traction, rather than to balloon the tyre to give flotation.
There is of course an exception to this rule when aircraft style balloon tyres are used, (ie wide and a round profile with no tread pattern nor shoulders to dig in.) In towing a trailer, you are not actually looking for traction on the trailer but rather a tyre that doesn't "cut" a deep track and offer too much resistance.
There are a couple of schools of thought re the flotation ability of an under inflated tyre, one is that it simply offers a wider profile to offer more resistence, building up more sand in front of it, and the other is that the wider and longer tread pattern offered on the sand offers less pressure on the surface and therefore less resistance.
There is no hard and fast answer as to which school of thought is correct without taking into consideration the ratio of gross weight of the towed object to the tread pattern offered, the density and consistency of the sand (varies hour to hour with humidity and weather conditions), and as mentioned earlier, the track of the vehicle as well as the distribution of the weight of the towed vehicle.
The only accurate answer is to try both and see what works for you on the particular day.
By all means let your tractive tyres down, but remember you are trying to achieve the maximum amount of tread laid on the ground in the direction of travel, and not trying to run big wide flat tyres that balloon out the sides and
will build up a wall of sand and possibly spin on the rims!!
Regards
Glen

The camper is an inch or so off the footprint of the Disco, on the trailer they are just standard tyres 235x15x7's on the car 235x16's, will hunt down 3 D2 rims shortly to put on the trailer
I drive alot (most weekends during summer) on Stockton and use my tyre deflators on the car at 14-15PSI and have never got bogged over there, but have never taken the camper on, all it will have is a gutfull of fuel my fridge for Rum, and esky with a bit of food 2 kids and some fishing gear so it wont be loaded at all.
And yeh it will be at the back of the dunes where we setup, the Rum will take care of the noise.
The camper didnt have a problem up to the cape and back at 32 PSI but that was with a different tow car a TD Rocky.

OK... so how about you go in with normal pressures (on camper) and come out with them let down heaps and tell us what happens in practice?

Towing the camper on the beach with the prado i usualy drop the pressures to around 10 on the truck and 12 on the trailer, towing with the county, i go to 7psi on the county and i dont think it really matters what i do with the trailer behind the county as it doesnt slow it down much !

If its your first time towing on the beach make sure you take someone with you for a snatch if you get stuck, if your going alone let me know i will PM you my number if you get stuck i only live 5 mins away and im always keen for a drive on the beach

After a couple of trips to the desert I thought I had it all---- Wrong---I have just came back from 3 weeks in the desert and have found the following facts.
1- 15 lb in the tyres can be to much -- depends on the sand.
2-- 5 lb on the trailer is good if you can make it over the dune.
3- There are more tread punctures than side wall holes regardless of the pressure
4--- If you get stopped by loss of traction there are no rules -- drop the pressure until you are out of there---- do it real easy and you wont pop a tyre from a rim..
5--- Too much pressure and you will blow a tyre BIG TIME like hair shampoo Not now but it will happen
6-- In SAND --You need traction on all four --Stuff ###Traction control in sand -- GREAT on hard ground. If it spins on sand'''''' the brake will work and you will stop. You need CDL and Lockers Front and Back /// Its a bulldozer on wheels.
All the Best try it you will enjoy