Thread: Towing on sand: opinions please

Trailer tyre pressure reducing
Will reduce contact pressure

Mass stays the same
Reduced pressure increases surface area
So the pressure applied per square cm is reduced thereby trailer not sinking into soft sand as much or “floating” a little better over the sand

S

I get my D1 right down to 12psi on the beach. Tyres always look like the will pop out but never have. Some people I know have gone right down to 10. Should be ok. Just don’t wheel spin which I’m sure you won’t.

I have taken my D1 tyres down to as low as 6 psi for a short time when I got myself stuck while not paying attention.....

Slow, straight and steady and out she crawled. I'd prefer not try that again...

Thank the Land Rover God's (or their rim designers) for the ability of the tyre to stick to an OE rim at low pressures!

I've yet to bog the D3 in sand, so don't know how low I might need to go yet.

Originally Posted by johntins

Serious question, as I haven't towed on sand and don't know. What is the advantage of dropping pressures on the trailer? It won't wheelspin, it won't dig in. I would have thought that dropping pressure would simply increase rolling resistance and made things more difficult.

What am I missing?

On sand reducing the pressure reduces the rolling resistance. Next time your on sand run with higher pressures and drop into neutral while travelling at speed - then repeat with lowered pressures. You'll find the vehicle rolls further before coming to a stop with the reduced tyre pressure. Its the same reason why its so much easier to drive on the sand with less tyre pressure

Well we are finally back on the beach with easy going. Dropped pressures to 12, 14, and 12 on the trailer.
Found an early soft patch- digging, maxtrax, advance 2 metres, dig, maxtrax, repeat till total progress maybe 6 metres in one hour. Fabulous exercise. Luckily some delightful travelers came along with a lifted Patrol and was able to snatch us to firmer sand some 30 metres further along. From there we probably overcompensated with momentum for the rest of the tracks from Waddy Point till we got to the beach south of Indian Head. Unbelievable that ANY car could survive that drive at about 30 km/hr with long stretches of deep wombat holes/moguls; many times front end smashing into the next mogul with literally waves of sand being thrown forward then over the bonnet, windscreen and rooftop. Just waiting for the low oil warning lights to start flashing or suddenly finding my gearbox stuck under the camper trailer.
Anyway, as soon as we got to the beach, just felt crazy happy; survived and apparently intact.
On review, I just cannot understand what was happening in the soft bit? “Seemed” no worse than patches we had got through previously but bizarrely as soon as we got to the end of each maxtrax, we had NOTHING! Tried low range sand mode DSC off, LR rock crawl DSC off, HR sand mode DSC off. All made zero difference (except the HR which stopped even sooner).
No question that part of the problem was always being bellied out even in extended off road, and no chance of not driving in the existing deep tracks because there was no room to move laterally.
All this despite going as light as possible ( removed 2nd and 3rd row seats, no roofrack, no drawers, only spare wheel inside the D4, and absolute minimum of food and water in the camper- tare weight about 960 kg with total added payload of approximately 150-200 kg).
In future, Fraser Island: Yes; Camper trailer: No; D4: ??????
Thanks again for all the feedback, it’s a brilliant resource to make sure you are not doing something really stupid!
Cheers,
Mario

Which inland tracks were you towing on??

Originally Posted by mkalpokas@mac.com

Well we are finally back on the beach with easy going. Dropped pressures to 12, 14, and 12 on the trailer.
Found an early soft patch- digging, maxtrax, advance 2 metres, dig, maxtrax, repeat till total progress maybe 6 metres in one hour. Fabulous exercise. Luckily some delightful travelers came along with a lifted Patrol and was able to snatch us to firmer sand some 30 metres further along. From there we probably overcompensated with momentum for the rest of the tracks from Waddy Point till we got to the beach south of Indian Head. Unbelievable that ANY car could survive that drive at about 30 km/hr with long stretches of deep wombat holes/moguls; many times front end smashing into the next mogul with literally waves of sand being thrown forward then over the bonnet, windscreen and rooftop. Just waiting for the low oil warning lights to start flashing or suddenly finding my gearbox stuck under the camper trailer.
Anyway, as soon as we got to the beach, just felt crazy happy; survived and apparently intact.
On review, I just cannot understand what was happening in the soft bit? “Seemed” no worse than patches we had got through previously but bizarrely as soon as we got to the end of each maxtrax, we had NOTHING! Tried low range sand mode DSC off, LR rock crawl DSC off, HR sand mode DSC off. All made zero difference (except the HR which stopped even sooner).
No question that part of the problem was always being bellied out even in extended off road, and no chance of not driving in the existing deep tracks because there was no room to move laterally.
All this despite going as light as possible ( removed 2nd and 3rd row seats, no roofrack, no drawers, only spare wheel inside the D4, and absolute minimum of food and water in the camper- tare weight about 960 kg with total added payload of approximately 150-200 kg).
In future, Fraser Island: Yes; Camper trailer: No; D4: ??????
Thanks again for all the feedback, it’s a brilliant resource to make sure you are not doing something really stupid!
Cheers,
Mario

Thanks for the update. Glad you've 'survived'...

It all seems a bit odd (particularly your doubt about the D4 without a trailer for future trips), my old D3 (and no doubt new D4 will but just haven't got it out enough yet) went anywhere my brothers lifted 200 went. I've only been on Frazer once and it was in a Triton on a Mitsubishi promotional trip (we spent 3 days driving around the island) and there was nothing I saw that would worry a Discovery. Of course it's unfair to comment without being there (additionally the trailer adds a completely different level of complexity) and others with more experience will be along to give a more experienced comment. However, I wouldn't hesitate to take my Disco there.

One thing I would say thought. If I were doing only maxtrax length forward runs (bugger that!) my tyres would have gone lower than 12-14.

Originally Posted by mkalpokas@mac.com

No question that part of the problem was always being bellied out even in extended off road,

How did you get into extended mode?

You have been talking about how great the lifted vehicles worked - and clearly they have the ground clearance - your D4 will have performed similar to other unmodified vehicles so maybe you need to invest in LLAMS so you can to have the same ground clearance and the other lifted vehicles.

As you have found - if in doubt go to low range Rock Crawl as it mimicks an old traditional 4wd as it locks the centre diff and sends drive equally to the front and rear. Also remember when offroad the D3/D4 goes fine in low range - with 6 or 8 speeds, the car still goes fast enough in top gear without revving its head off and you are already in low range when needed.

Garry