I found this pretty informative. Basic stuff we should all know I guess but I thought useful to have demonstrated.
I remember watching a documentary about that.. Was it a Ray Mears thing... When the rescuers turned up they had the Truck out in 15 mins .... Sad, The girl set off walking in an attempt to find help. She didnt get far, Rescuers found her a little later.. Sad but soberingIndeed, as with snow momentum is your friend. The biggest single mistake people make on sand is not airing tyres down. The next big mistake is not digging out enough.
I don’t know if people remember about the U.K. couple that died in the Australian outback a few years ago after their vehicle got stuck.
When the rescue team arrived they did nothing more than air down the tyres and do a bit of digging to free the vehicle. Those 2 simple things would have saved their lives.
Mud terrains are actually used by lots of desert drivers (notably almost all Dakar teams), not least because most of the desert isn’t actually sand but rocks and stones and MTs tend to be more resilient to that environment but also they tend to take airing down better.
Contrary to myth, wide tyres do not offer any advantage in sand, in fact they are detrimental. A tall skinny tyre that can be aired down is much more effective.
I wonder if Snow socks would help on that sort of thing Chris? I guess you’d have to try them to find out.There are probably as many types of sand as there are snow from hard packed sand to that stuff that acts like powdered graphite. I found wet beach sand particularly tough. The resistance to driving across it was incredible. It doesn't behave like sand it's more like mud - but then doesn't behave like mud either. The least tread the better on that stuff.
Just air down.I wonder if Snow socks would help on that sort of thing Chris? I guess you’d have to try them to find out.
Yeh that’s the one.I remember watching a documentary about that.. Was it a Ray Mears thing... When the rescuers turned up they had the Truck out in 15 mins .... Sad, The girl set off walking in an attempt to find help. She didnt get far, Rescuers found her a little later.. Sad but sobering
I was referring to Chris’s suggestion that less tread pattern was better. Purely thinking out loud really. I’ve no idea if they would or not but the fact that Snow socks help on Snow made me wonder if, with the comparison made to Snow, the Snow socks might also help on sand.Just air down.
Wide tyres will work against you
I can’t imagine snow socks helping at all.
Yeh, proper sand tyres used to be practically bald! Although the Michelin Xs has a bobbly type pattern, albeit closely spaced, as did the ones I used in the desert which I think were continentals.I was referring to Chris’s suggestion that less tread pattern was better. Purely thinking out loud really. I’ve no idea if they would or not but the fact that Snow socks help on Snow made me wonder if, with the comparison made to Snow, the Snow socks might also help on sand.
Interesting video and some good points made. Years ago I spent some time diving in a place called Sodwana in the north part of South Africa at the border with Mozambique, which also entailed driving on the beach. Lots of various models of 4x4's new and old, and inevitably you would see folk get stuck who lacked driving on sand experience. Tyres rock hard and way to liberal use of the right foot.
Most impressive however was a Parks Board Ranger who was part of our group who went everywhere in a two wheel drive Ford pickup. Only modification was slightly wider rims and aired down. I never saw him get stuck ever, and he regularly drove for miles along the beach as part of his job. He often used that rocking motion from standstill to get going.
Running around in Moab you keep switching from boulders to slick rock to sand dunes and back again.
For the running you mean…Nike air down?