Thread: Pre sand driving preparations for the D3

1. Shovels (x 2 or x 3)
2. Passengers to operate them
3. Loudhailer to supervise and motivate passengers
4. Camping chair from which to operate loudhailer. Cold drinks to replenish your voice.
5. First aid kit to repair damage to self after supervision is complete
6. 2 x tyre pressure gauges (in case one is lost or jammed somewhere)
7. Compressor
8. Maxtrax (x 4 preferably)
9. Snatch strap, joiner mags, knowledge of how to join safely, shackles only for connecting to D3 front point
10. Flat plate for jacking in sand

Robe can be deadly. Every time I've been there I've recovered at least 4 cars, mostly not from my own group. Just saved a Patrol from the tide last time. Do not drive close together (ie within 400m) on the beach. Send a canary down the mine so to speak. De-bogging a car with the tide coming in is not pleasant ("hello, insurance? well, my car's a bit, um, moist..."), unless the car isn't yours in which case it is terrific fun.

And don't forget to turn DSC off!! Also I found it best to use Command Shift ie manual gearchanges when climbing dunes because in auto mode if you have to lift off the transmission goes up a gear and engine goes offboost. And of course let your tyres down. Took my mudflaps off for my last Sunset Country trip. Haven't bothered to put them back on yet.

If you don't turn off DSC, you will swear at your car a lot - at least that's what I did until I'd worked it out

I'm seriously considering the maxtrax. Might also need a fridge or decent esky to keep the drinks cold while directing diggers as rmp suggested

Ashes,

One very small and possible irrelevant thing some seem to forget when taking the D3 off road and particularly in sand is to remove those stupid plastic guards covering the recovery points.

The front is more important than the back IMHO, but either ripping it off and smashing it as you drive over it or digging out the front to remove a guard so you can access the recovery point is both easily avoided and saves your passengers a bit of digging.

Enjoy the trip.

Regards,

George

George,
agree with the recovery point covers. I haven't bothered putting the front one back on since the trip to robe last year. I've lost the rear cover so no problems there.

I'm unlikely in the near future to put a bar on the front as the car really is a daily driver that ventures off road occassionally. If I was doing a decent solo trip I'd go that option with a winch but at the moment I'm usually in a group and doing fairly easy drives so it isn't a necessity.

Having a good look at the mounting options for a flag, there aren't that many. I'm leaning towards a mount on the passengers side with a bracket that fits under the bonnet a bit like my UHF aerial mount. Probably use a a couple of bike flags which are fairly light which shouldn't cause too much stress. Might be a bit whippy though..will see

I've ordered some maxtrax as well. I'm sure I'll be using them on the beach...wish I had them last year!

Just came back from Stockton Beach near Newcastle, which seems to be a sand dune mecca. I've got a diesel and found it ran best in command shift, high range, 2nd gear, DSC off and in sand terrain mode. On a few dunes I started in 2nd and changed to 1st as it slowed down. It could run in 3rd on the beach no worries and in some faster sections.
Tyre pressure started at 18psi and went down to 12 after a while.
Because the suspension lowers at 40klm I could not get up all the steep dunes that some other vehicles could. It would just bottom out and I would have to reverse. This is just a fact of life with the Discos. Steep dunes are just not a strong point with them, so they will never keep up with lifted rigs with bigger tyres.
I only got stuck once on top of one dune and needed a snatch to get moving again.
Maxtrax would be useful, particularly if you are alone.
And yes, as others have said, get rid of the plastic guards.

Have fun in Robe, that's one of our next trips.....

Rhino have a good mounting plate that screws into the aero profile roof rack. I've got it on my fl2 and my jeep crd and it works great...really high coming off the roof. Mike