soft sand

[GTani]

Has anybody used his 600 CTD,4x4 to run beaches or soft sand?I owned Fords before and was curious how the CTDs compare. I think with the low end of the CTDs it should do quite well. I'm replacing my light truck tires with 315 all terrains also. Thanks in advance.

 

[Dave Beck]

This has been my experience in soft sand. It doesn't make any difference what truck you have. Power to the rear wheels, and front, is basically all that's needed. What is important is the type of tire and the air pressure in them. With the 600 / dually you'll have a tire rating of "E". The sidewall of the tire is on the hard side so letting the air pressure down so that the tire can flex is critical. Usually 20lbs or so is a good starting point. If you feel the truck is straining too much then lower the pressure some more. Gradually ! 2 lbs at a time. If you start hopping, stop. Don't dig yourself into a hole. Let the tire pressure down some more. That's the number one thing that determines whether you go or not go. Correct pressure. Gearing is also important. Low range works well for me. Don't go hot rodding around or making any sharp turns. You can pop the bead by putting too much pressue on the sidewall if you're not carefull. Going to a more agressive tread design is not the answer. You want the tires to float on the sand, not dig in. There's alot of trial and error involved, but when you get the right combination you'll do just fine. Just take it easy and watch out for glass and boards with nails in them. If you're on long Island, try going to the Long Island Beach Buggy web site. An excellent organization to belong to. Hope I've been of some help.



Dave Beck LIBBA # 1190 , Montauk Surfcasters # 73

 

[LRDG]

Sand

I used to live in Dubai and did some heavy stuff in the desert - including down Abu Dhabi way and the edge of the Empty Quarter. Dave's advice is spot on. Torque is less important than HP for soft sand so good flotation tyres, with pressure at below 20 psi (I used to run my 325/60 R15 BFG AT's with hard sidewalls at @ 16 psi but the Land Rover was very light compared to a Ram) are the key. We never rated diesels for big dune work - that's best done by gassers at high revs. Having said that, on the flats, diesels do as well as gassers.



As Dave says it's really all tyre pressure. You'll be surprised how low you can run even a tubeless tyre in an emergency situation as long as you aren't turning.



Enjoy!

 

[fraserrj]

I don't know how cummings power is going to get you trough soft sand but if you drop your tire air pressure to about 25 pounds it is about 200% better.

 

[RobbieH]

I'm with LRDG, I was thining 15 PSI would be a good idea.

 

[DKiesewetter]

the 17" rims and 16" rims have a safety bead on them... I would lower them as low as 10 PSI... I regularly lowered my 16. 5" 35's that low when I went river running in my old powerstroke, and the 16. 5's didn't even have a safety bead. I only lost a bead once when turning into a granite ledge under power. I barely notice a difference at 25 lbs. , but lower than 15 and you'll start to see results. by buggy is usually at 3 PSI.



Doug

 

[Rosco]

Originally posted by GTani

Has anybody used his 600 CTD,4x4 to run beaches or soft sand?I owned Fords before and was curious how the CTDs compare. I think with the low end of the CTDs it should do quite well. I'm replacing my light truck tires with 315 all terrains also. Thanks in advance.

First, air down to 10-15 psi for soft beach sand driving. Also, due to the heavy Cummins our trucks have a lot of weight over the front axle so you may need to add ballast over the rear axle so the front isn't doing all the work "pulling" the truck through the sand.



I just spent the whole day today in line (9 hours plus 4 hours of driving) to get my Cape Cod National Seashore oversand permit so I will be out on the sand a lot this summer.

 

[RonWeiss]

Rosco,



I heard it was a nightmare getting the permit on opening day. Someone said in another forum he was out to get those piping plovers now, after seeing that film.



Ron W.

 

[GColeman]

I have done quite a bit of running on beach and in sand dunes with this truck. 15-20 psi works very well for soft sand. With limited slip differential, you will do pretty well in just 2wd.

 

[JWChessell]

I used to have a '58 International 3/4 ton 4X4 6-cyl 4-spd stick, heavy front & rear step-bumpers, huge front winch and a twin-cyl hydraulic dump bed. Tires were 12 X 16. 5 mud/snow tread. Unloaded weight was 7,000 lbs, similar to our Dodges. I drove it occasionally on So. Calif. beaches in the 70s when you could still do that. It was necessary to let the tires down to about 10-15 psi each. Even then, we were limited to top speed in second gear; as soon as I tried to shift to third, the truck would sink into the sand and stop. 4X4 trucks with auto trans (even with campers) would accelerate to about 40 mph easily on level sand.

 

[fritzimax]

I'll do you one better, I use my CTD to pull my 31' Alumascape travel trailer across the sand to go camping on the outer beach here on Long Island. No problems, I just drop the air pressure to about 18 psi on the truck & the trailer (you can see some beach photos in my album) and away I go. The sand can get very soft, if you think your going to dig in just drop a few more psi, I have gone down to 12 psi but at that pressure I had a tire unseat on the trailer. Good thing I have a generator bolted in the bed of the truck and a small compressor, I was able to re-seat and be on my way in a few minutes We spend most of the late spring to early fall camping on the beach on the weekends. Gotta love it

 

[Rosco]

Originally posted by RonWeiss

Rosco,



I heard it was a nightmare getting the permit on opening day. Someone said in another forum he was out to get those piping plovers now, after seeing that film.



Ron W.

Every day has been a nightmare. I drove out Monday and when I arrived at the Ranger station at 1pm I was turned away. This year they're selling 500 permit's a day. The Rangers are filling up two parking lots that hold 250 trucks each then they close the road. I returned yesterday at 7:15am and the first lot was already full (250 trucks) and the second was half full. I did not get my permit until 4:15 in the afternoon. If they do the same thing next year everyone decided we're going to bring grill's and cooler's so we can tailgate.



Apparently, last season the 3,200 seasonal permits were sold out in 2 weeks instead of the usual 5-6 weeks so locals who usually had one missed out. This in turn was hyped up in the media so it's been a feeding frenzy this year. All the permit's will be sold by this weekend.

 

[GTani]

Thanks for the replys everybody. I know about airing down since I've been running Baja Mex. beaches for over twenty years. I was just wondering that in my Ford diesels I would take of in 4 low in the soft stuff and shift into 4 high when the terrain would permit. Problem was when I would hit soft stuff again I would have to shift back into low,meaning that I had to stop. I was just wondering if the CTD with it's torque would be able to pull through the soft stuff in 4 high.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

I run the dunes all the time with my truck and never have to use 4-low.

 

[ab7fh]

Flotation tires are the ticket



#ad

 

[nwcatman]

Originally posted by ab7fh

Flotation tires are the ticket



#ad

who's the babe? she's gorgous!