Re-Thinking my Soft Sand Strategy after getting mega stuck....

quite positive I'm a bit heavier than you, never had a problem with sand as long as I air down.
with my weight, I'm usually running 14/24psi frt/rr for general offroad, but if I'm on deep sand or dunes, I start around 10/15 and am willing to go down to single digits as needed.

 

where did you get that wind fairing?

 

I am not a huge fan of traction control, etc in general but used my MTS in the sand recently and was very impressed by how well it worked and how unobtrusive it was.

I feel like most of the recommendations against 4lo in the sand are based on vehicles geared lower than ours. With stock sized tires and gearing you can get up to 40 in 4lo which is plenty for most situations. Just stay on the gas and there should be no problems. The ability to use MTS makes it even more worthwhile and it should help avoid situations where you dig 1 tire in.

Its important to understand what is happening in those crawl control getting out of sand videos. When you spin a tire it digs sand out of the bottom of the hole and flings it out the back. But if you move the tire slow enough there isn't enough momentum to throw it out the back so the tires end up moving sand from in front of the tire to below it and it actually fills in the hole allowing the truck to eventually move forward. It doesn't work in all conditions but seems to work rather well atleast some of the time. Make sure to use the slowest crawl control setting.

You actually don't need crawl control to do this. Put the truck in 4lo in 1st gear and give it a very light throttle application and you can achieve similar results. Turning your locker on and turning your steering wheel side to side so the front tires can grip on the sides of the hole also helps. If you don't have a rear locker light application of the e-brake can keep power going to both rear wheels but dont over do it.

The main thing in the sand seems to be avoid using your brakes. You always want to plan ahead and drift to slow down and stop.

 

Designed it myself and then had xometry/sendcutsend cut, bend, anodize it for me. Then I bolted it together

 

10-20psi, 4LO and crawl control are your friend. I am around 800lbs in the bed and I frequent a local beach. While not all beach are the same, I'd say at least 4LO and air down should solve 99% of the problems.

 

I feel like you might want to add: 10-20 PSI is a HUGE range. Even the difference between 10 and 12 PSI is noticeable.

If the sand is *really* soft, drop to 10-12, but not lower than that unless you have bead grip or beadlock wheels. And don’t drive more than 2 to 2.5x your PSI in MPH, and don’t make hard fast turns if your PSI is under 15.

 

You are absolutely right, also most part of why I gave that range is based on weight. For a heavy camper setup like the OP, I’d say no less than 20psi in the back and 12-15psi up front. But you are right, they vary based on the terrain and wheel capability to run super low pressure too. And definitely don’t recommend doing donuts or hard turns while aired down to avoid debeading.

 

The advice I have received is that if you aren't getting traction you shouldn't be afraid to go as low as 8psi in soft sand in order to get yourself out of it but you should keep things gentle and be airing back up right after. That said pressures are very tire and load dependant. A softer tire and/or more load will achieve the same deformation at a higher pressure so watch your tires as you deflate.

 

The slower you go, the quicker you sink.
Send it!

 

Honestly suprised you didnt get stuck everytime.

 

Don't let any jeep owners know you got stuck.

 

Stuck is usually easier to deal with than broken down ;-)

 

I'm confused as to why you didn't use the Crawl Control, when it's as easy as hitting a switch????

But I prolly shouldnt comment as I've never tried it with a load.

 

Pismo dunes
2wd, 12 psi rear/15 psi front(SL tires), Truetrac rear differential, traction off, 2nd gear, and good technique was all it took to not got stuck once. Did everything from stop and go, climb hills, and overall just have fun and do things 2wd haters say you can’t. Didn’t blow a bead either(and I wasn’t being gentle either, lots of speeding and kicking the rear end out) and I explored all the dunes. Id say air pressure is the biggest contributing factor to sand success. If you have E rated tires probably smarter to air down even lower