Beach season has begun, and flocks of newbie 4WDers are primed and ready to hit the sand tracks and rip along up the beach with more confidence than warranted by their experience. To prevent the absolute mayhem that is possible when too many people with no idea get together.

We’re going to rundown some of our top tips to getting more grip on the soft stuff!

Keep in mind the few golden rules about 4WDing on sand, whilst they are great tips for sand driving, these tips are designed to maximize your traction and increase your grip!

PRESSURES

The first trick is applicable every time you head offroad, and that is to drop down your tyre pressures, by dropping air out of your tyres you effectively allow your sidewalls to sag whilst more contact area is exposed to the soft surface, this additional surface area decreases the “sink” by decreasing the downward PSI applied to the surface and increases your vehicles ability to “float”.

By choosing to use a purpose made tyre deflator, such is the Kwiky Tyre Deflator you enable controlled and speedy deflation ensuring you maintain the best stability in your vehicle regardless of the conditions. A Kwiky Deflator uses accurate gauging to ensure performance off road without wasting a second!

MOMENTUM

The next rule for sand driving is to maintain a bit of “momentum”, Sand is an extremely dynamic surface, when a 4WD is travelling on sand it must combat a lot of forces, whilst your first thought is that momentum means speed, however it is probably better to imagine that travelling along sand is more like if you were driving a boat on water.

From a stand-still, a boat will sit quite low in the water, however with faster and faster speed the boat will tend to plane and pick itself up off the surface of the water reducing the resistance against the engine much like your 4WD will behave on sand.

When carrying more momentum your 4WD will tend to float across the sand and reduce the effort and overall fuel consumption of your vehicle, which all sounds great, however there are trade-off’s, when travelling at speed is a your control over your 4WD vehicle can be compromised with decreased braking performance, and with significant lag in steering inputs that could result in damage to your vehicle, potential injury or even getting your vehicle seriously stuck. The best way to avoid this, is to keep all inputs stable, steady and smooth, without erratic movements you will maintain your control!

ALWAYS USE LOW RANGE FIRST

Starting with your 4WD locked into low range and with diff locks engaged (if your vehicle is equipped), you should get a reasonable feel for the surface grip and firmness, in low range you will give yourself the maximum amount of torque and minimal wheel speed, meaning less wheel slippage and greatly reduce the chances of digging your tyres deep into the sand. However, if you find that your vehicle has plenty of float on the surface and seems to have more than enough power to drive through the sand many people find that you can easily engage your high range 4WD gears and drive successfully offroad, without getting stuck.

These rules didn’t help me – I got stuck!

Inevitably more time you spend driving on sand, the more likely it will be that you will sink deep into the soft stuff.

Popular track have generally been chewed up by other motorists, with deep ruts and high centers- sometimes on untouched sand it can be extremely soft due to lack of moisture content the lack of compression.

In our eyes getting stuck is just part of the fun – don’t worry there are a handful of techniques you can employ to effectively “unbury” your 4WD after some lead footed revving and jerky steering got you stuck!

Act fast, act early – when traction starts disappearing, all you need to do is remove your throttle input, that means take your foot off the accelerator and off the brakes.

By trying to drive it through with more power, you’ll end up shoveling your tyres deeper and getting your 4WD even more bogged than it initially was.

Before doing anything remember that a cool calm attitude can get you out of anything!

Unless you have found yourself stuck somewhere below the high water mark, you will have all the time in the world to get your 4WD free, so stop, jump out and have a look at what is holding your vehicle back, and think about the best way to unstick it from the trouble.

REVERSE IT OUT!

If you try reversing your vehicle back out, because your 4WD has already compressed the sand behind your wheels, this means it will be much firmer than trying to plough your 4WD forwards, once you have your 4WD out backwards you can try choosing a different line, or even the same line with a bit more momentum.

LET A SQUIRT MORE AIR OUT

Drop your pressures even more, we’ve found dropping your tyres down to around 10psi can increase your grip by around 300%, meaning your downward psi and surface area for grip would be tripled, bear in mind you should re-inflate your tyres when your vehicle is finally free using a 12v compressor like the Thumper MKII or the Thumper MAX air compressor.

JACK IT OUT!

If you carry a Hercules Offroad Jack and jacking base, like we do, you can lift your 4WD back up to ‘road level’ and then infill underneath your tyres packing the hole with any loose sticks and twigs or seaweed that may be around making it a much more stable base allowing you to simply drive out of the situation.

When all else fails, flag down another driver and start unrolling your snatch strap it’ll allow you to bungee your 4WD free from soft stuff! If you don’t already have a recovery kit something along the lines of the Hercules Complete Recovery Kit it includes just about anything you need to get your 4WD further offroad without breaking your camping budget.

It includes a Snatch Block, Snatch Strap, Tree Trunk Protector, Extension Strap, 2x 4.7T Bow Shackles, Winch Dampener, Folding Shovel, Kwiky Tyre Deflator, Heavy Duty gloves all neatly stashed inside a tidy recovery bag.

Depending on how busy the area you are 4WDing in is, fitting a UHF radio like the UHF380PK could be extremely handy, and will allow you to call for help when  our plans don’t go quite right.

We hope your Beach and sand dune runs will be much easier and comfier with all the right techniques, but the final thing you shouldn’t forget is to whip out your air compressor when it is time to go home driving on underinflated tyres can cause expensive damage and ruin your trip!