Sand recovery techniques

[techietom]

What have you used to get off the beach?

Me, 4/5 times just letting a little more air out, some shovel work, and careful application of right foot gets me out. However I've collected and tried a lot of other options I've heard or read about.

In order of effectiveness in my experience so far:

Maxtrax do work, work very well, as long as you avoid wheelspin they are probably the best option I've tried.

Boab tracks, ditto, a little more flexible than Maxtrax, but not as much grip and I've seen them shoot out behind the vehicle instead of gripping the ground. Cheaper than maxtrax.

Sandbags, cheap, versatile, biodegradable so you can leave them in that mud hole rather than recover them if you want.

Shadecloth, a more expensive home-made solution.



Various other tracks made from plastic (milk crates, pallette's, bread crates, etc etc).

Rollup rubber strip mats, a commercially available solution, various names, fairly useless in sand.

Polytrack bog mats, a commercial solution, a modification to a product used for hard floor panels for caravan annexes, also used as tracks for trucks on building sites. The tread wasn't aggressive enough on the ones I tried, also needed to be narrower.


Devices that work best tend to be not much wider than the tyres - less digging. They are light and easy to store, and they are able to be jammed under the front of the tyre easily so the tyre gets onto them quickly without much spin.

So, what else have you used successfully?
What else do you carry for sand recovery?

Here's a vid some mates and I made one arvo testing some of the things I mentioned. Never did get around to doing part two...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8WOEC5zPFE

[my.paj]

Got stuck at Robe (not to bad) just dug around the wheels made it nice and smooth then put in strips of marine carpet about 250mm wide 1000mm long, the good thing about them is they weigh bugger all and can be rolled up or laid flat.
Rick

[floater05]

been stuck a few times through inexperience and driving with road tyres.

Since getting ATs i have not been in a situation i could not get out of with less air in the tyres or a bit of shovel work.

i never go anywhere offroad without

compressor
tyre gauge
snatch strap
rated d shackles
shovel
maxtrax
and plenty of water.

have not used the snatch since getting ATs
the maxtrax have never been used

the attached photos are the first time i got stuck in the paj. major lack of experience and common sense.
slid down the side of a dune, had to walk to get phone service. had no recovery gear whatsoever. not even a shovel.





learnt alot from that. no damage done. had a mates dad come rescue me with a patrol. i had to dig one side out to try and level the car out. man that was hard work.

[techietom]

That is pretty seriously stuck!

[Pajero_Pete]

No too much wrong with road tyres in the sand,
Common sence, right tyre pressure, correct momentum is all you need.
I dont recon any tyre would have stopped you sliding down there Floater.
Lucky it didnt roll too !
cheers PP

[bakerboy]

Reversing back over your tracks to compact them is a good one to help build a run up, zig zag steering like in mud helps as well but clearing the track in front to make it as smooth as possible and airing down works a treat

[floater05]

yeah agree with baker boy about compacting your tracks. start of by just rocking the car. then once you start to gain some ground whack it in reverse and go back over your tracks.

[old Jack]

On a recent trip along the Limestone Coast SA, we came across this Ford Ranger bogged on Geltwood Beach in Canunda National Park. The sole driver was a lady in her late 60's / early 70's, she is a volunteer with a conservation group, counting migratory bird populations (the CG's dualcab was heavily loaded). She was a regular to the area and frequent 4wd beach driver, she had been bogged for about an hour halfway between low and high tide marks and was roughly an hour or so from the rising tide claiming the Ford. She had been digging for an hour and had made little headway, 2 other 4wds in the conservation group were in the area (radio contact) but they were bogged in the dunes and had an undetermined time to offer assistance.
Needless to say see was happy to see us!
On questioning why see had left the tracks just above high tide was met with a "I wanted to do a U turn, as the flock of birds had changed direction" Further questioning and checking of the dual cab revealed 22psi and 4 high in the Auto Ranger, why? "so I do not have to pump the tyres up (she did have a compressor) and low range is too slow" . We let tyres down to 16psi (HT's) and selected 4L but the Ford refused to move as it was down to the floorpan.

Maxtrax's were dug in under the front tyres only and my brother executed a text book recovery (on his first ever 4wd beach trip).





This link is to the video of the recovery, note the wheels begin to turn slowly and then grip the Maxtraxs which feed in under the tyres, lifting the front of the Ford up whist gaining traction and easily driving out. 10 mins work from start to finish!

http://s1175.photobucket.com/user/oldJack61/media/IMG_1627_zps919caed2.mp4.html

cheers, old Jack.

[craka]

I think that's the first time I've seen a pair of matrax in use. They look to work quite well.

[chriso of penrith]

On a recent trip along the Limestone Coast SA, we came across this Ford Ranger bogged on Geltwood Beach in Canunda National Park. The sole driver was a lady in her late 60's / early 70's, she is a volunteer with a conservation group, counting migratory bird populations (the CG's dualcab was heavily loaded). She was a regular to the area and frequent 4wd beach driver, she had been bogged for about an hour halfway between low and high tide marks and was roughly an hour or so from the rising tide claiming the Ford. She had been digging for an hour and had made little headway, 2 other 4wds in the conservation group were in the area (radio contact) but they were bogged in the dunes and had an undetermined time to offer assistance.
Needless to say see was happy to see us!
On questioning why see had left the tracks just above high tide was met with a "I wanted to do a U turn, as the flock of birds had changed direction" Further questioning and checking of the dual cab revealed 22psi and 4 high in the Auto Ranger, why? "so I do not have to pump the tyres up (she did have a compressor) and low range is too slow" . We let tyres down to 16psi (HT's) and selected 4L but the Ford refused to move as it was down to the floorpan.

Maxtrax's were dug in under the front tyres only and my brother executed a text book recovery (on his first ever 4wd beach trip).





This link is to the video of the recovery, note the wheels begin to turn slowly and then grip the Maxtraxs which feed in under the tyres, lifting the front of the Ford up whist gaining traction and easily driving out. 10 mins work from start to finish!

http://s1175.photobucket.com/user/oldJack61/media/IMG_1627_zps919caed2.mp4.html

cheers, old Jack.

The complete stupidity of her reasoning with her answers would of nearly been enough for me to leave her there.

[brett]

Been stuck a few times and always got out by digging and if I was too lazy to let the tyres down you have to if stuck. Always got out with some digging and air down.
Standard HT tyres will always be better in sand than a LT type AT, the LT tyres sidewalls are too stiff and don't bag out enough compared to a passenger tyre.

[Easykill1978]

I think that's the first time I've seen a pair of matrax in use. They look to work quite well.

oh they work well, they can also fly good too esp when too much revs is used..

my mate had to use them last year and he gunned it a bit much.. those things flew down the hill.. he got unstack but had to walk down to get them.. i refused to pick them up as he didnt listen and he can go walk.

[nj swb]

Standard HT tyres will always be better in sand than a LT type AT, the LT tyres sidewalls are too stiff and don't bag out enough compared to a passenger tyre.

"Always"?

That is your opinion, to which you are entitled.

Yes, at any given pressure, the weak HT sidewalls will flex more than stronger LT sidewalls.

Yes, more aggressive tyre patterns will dig more readily in sand - HTs will generally spin on the surface rather than dig.

Get the AT pressure right, and they will grip and drive where HTs spin. That is my opinion.

[Bogger]

I think regards sand it's the less aggressive the tread and the bigger the footprint you can lay down the better ........... and any time i've seen a wheel spin on sand the result has always been a hole Like damn if you even pull up to hard in the soft stuff you create one

[Jonos]

Couldn't agree more with the above post. Have done alot of sand driving over the years and have always found the less agressive tyres to be the best performers, especially in the soft stuff. Have always wanted to try some of those recovery mats. Might have to invest in a set one day.