Welcome back to part 2 of our complete guide to beach 4WDing! Let’s go through some secrets that will hopefully minimise the amount of time you’ll need to drag out the 4WD recovery gear and get yourself unbogged.

TYRE PRESSURES

Whenever you drive on the beach, drop your tyre pressures. Getting your tyre pressures right is the best thing you can do to ease the strain on your engine and drivetrain. Not dropping your tyre pressures enough means you’ll be working your vehicle harder, pushing sand along in front of the tyres making the vehicle more likely to dig the in and become bogged, especially if the sand is soft. It also means it’s also guaranteed that you’ll be cracking out the 4×4 recovery kit! By lowering your tyre pressures you increase the tyre footprint area, adding flotation and driving traction. Once you are on the sand, the idea is to have your tyre pressures low enough so that with appropriate momentum, the tyres can roll over the sand without digging in.

The hardest part of any beach drive is generally immediately as you get onto the sand and immediately before getting off the sand, so lower your tyre pressures before you turn onto the beach. Somewhere between about 18-24psi is a good starting point depending on the sand and the load you are carrying.  You’ll need pressures up the higher end of the scale if you are fully loaded, and you might need to go even lower than 18psi if the sand is particularly soft or difficult. To avoid damaging your deflated tyres, don’t drive over 60-70km/h on the beach and keep your speed below 50-60km/h if you must drive on the hard black stuff. Follow these tips and it’s very likely your offroad recovery gear will stay happily in your drawers!

TERRA-FIRMA

Aim to drive across the firmest sand you can find. Avoid driving on wet sand or at the edge of the surf. That is the quickest way to get bogged, not to mention the damage done by salty sand and spray blasted onto your chassis and running gear. If you find yourself starting to slow down while driving in someone else wheel ruts, try swinging the wheel a quarter turn in each direction getting the sidewall biters on the tyres to dig into the ruts. If you do go down on the wet stuff, usually a quick recovery with the snatch strap is all that’s needed.

ROLLING BEADS

The combination of lower tyre pressures and sand having less traction but a lot of rolling resistance, means you need to concentrate on using smooth steering, braking, and accelerator input. Sudden changes to any of these can easily peel a tyre off the rim or dig the tyres and rims into the sand. If you do that too quickly, it can well mean a roll-over. There’s a saying with those in the know along the lines of “Donuts in 4-Low, over you go!” Try to be smooth and gentle in all your control inputs. While it might mean travelling a bit slower than you’d like, you need to be able to see well ahead to avoid any holes, dips, or gutters in the beach. Braking hard to avoid anything, hitting a dip or gutter at speed, or swerving suddenly to avoid an obstacle is the most common cause of roll-overs on beaches. Leave room to make big wide arcs when you are turning so that you don’t put too much sideways stress on those low pressure tyres. Heed this advice – because if you roll a tyre bead on the beach, not even quality 4×4 recovery gear will be able to save you.

SELECTING THE RIGHT GEAR FOR YOUR 4WD

When driving on sand, particularly that soft powdery stuff that seems to want nothing but halt the progress of your vehicle, depressing the clutch will momentarily prevent power delivery to yours wheels. The time between gear changes is often the difference between continuing forward momentum and stopping dead in your tracks. The solution is simple; it’s all about being in the right gear to suit the engine speed with enough momentum to achieve adequate flotation and prevent the need to use your offroad recovery gear. Easy right?

Well maybe not, but with a bit of practice it’s straight forward using a technique long since forgotten by many new generation drivers known as “driving by the seat of your pants”. This involves taking note of the specific engine speed your vehicle makes its maximum torque. This is usually around 3500rpm in petrol’s and 2500rpm in a diesel. For soft sand, select a low gear of second or third then increase rpm until peak torque is achieved. By staying in the torque band of your 4WD you can maximise the performance of the vehicle while keeping it in a range where stabs of the throttle will yield a response. Above all remember that if you feel you’re in the wrong gear change up or down only if you’re confident that it will not bring you to a halt. That is particularly the case when changing the transfer case from high to low range requiring a complete halt of the vehicle. Get it right, or get out the 4WD snatch strap!

DRIVING DECISIONS

Keep looking out well ahead for gutters or holes in the water so you can plan your driving attack early. Leave yourself plenty of room between vehicles, giving you room to stop if the vehicle in front gets bogged. If you come across a treacherous stretch, only let one vehicle in your group attempt the hazard or obstacle at a time. Wherever possible, follow and drive in existing wheel ruts as the sand will be packed down firmer giving you more chance of maintaining traction and making your steering easier. Take care to avoid bellying out on high sand between the ruts especially if you’re running tyres less than 31in in diameter or out comes the snatch strap when you grind to a halt. Constant steering corrections drain power, overheat the engine and transmission adding unnecessary strain to your 4WD so avoid them wherever possible. While driving in the ruts allows you to lightly guide the wheel and use less steering input as well as keeping your steering wheels pointing in the right direction. It’s very easy to get your wheels crossed up even while you are still pushing straight ahead in the ruts, so be aware.

MOMENTUM

The key to not getting stuck and needing to perform a beach 4WD recovery is momentum. Aim to keep the engine revs just into the top third of your engine’s torque band and then use the range and gears to give you the speed you need to keep on top of the sand. If the engine is revving hard, or you just can’t get the tyres up on top of the sand, then you might need to drop your tyre pressures some more or try a different range/gear.