4WD Advice

[Angus]

Hey everyone.

Quick question. Fairly simple one granted but i thought it would be stupid not to benefit from the wealth of knowledge here.

So i have a new 4 Wheel Drive and i plan on going on the beach at Straddy a fair bit to get to some of the more out of teh way gutters. Questions?

* How much do you usually reduce to air preasure (if at all) in your tires.

* If you do reduce the air preasure, do you need to top it back ASAP. Or just when the island holiday is over so to speak. Obviously on straddy i would be going from Beach to road daily and would not want to do the tires daily if it could be avoided.

* Do you just wait to you get home and give it a big wash down to get the salt off or do you use more permanent remedies?

Cheers guys. All input much appreciated.

Angus

[geebz]

Straddy is pretty easy going. We dont bother letting down the tyres unless we get stuck but I havn't ever had any problems over there. The thing with straddy is you will be doing lots of road driving aswell and its not good to be driving on the road with low tyre pressures. You can do it but low speeds and short distances.

I mostly just give it a intense wash after we get back. Sometimes give it a quick wash over there mainly just to get the sand stuck around the wheels. If its a bit windy it will get covered in salt on the way home so its better to do it at home.

[Angus]

Nice one mate. Cheers.

Angus

[bootyinblue]

Angus

Depends on what sort of tyres you have on the 4wd and how much weight you will be carrying. The idea of decreasing tyre pressure is to increase the footprint of the tyre on the sand. With most 4wds now, they come stock with all terrain tyres which are ok for sand driving and dont require a great drop in tyre pressure if any.

I used to do a fair amount of sand driving in Sydney, both recreational and teaching and it was not uncommon to run tyres down to about 18PSI successfully. The 2 main drawbacks of drawbacks of lowering tyre pressure are heat generation due to distortion of the rubber, and the chance of rolling the tyre off the rim in a change of direction. To minimise the chances of both of these slow speed is essential.

A bought a $49.95 air compressor about 7 years ago to re inflate tyres after letting them down, and its still going strong to this day. If I have to air down on sand, I reinflate them again at first opportunity and then drive to a servo and use their air to equalise all the tyres (after buying a drink to keep them happy with a sale)

I would say, unless you are running cheese cutter style tyres which are the ones supplied on stock standard cruisers. You know the real thin chunky style ones, dont bother letting air out unless you find yourself bogging down. The key to sand driving is momentum and smoothness of acceleration and turns.

[Feral]

Booty - you forgot to add - buy a real 4wd, not one of those hairdresser ones like Angus got!

Angus - you'll be right mate, as a newby - here are a few hints

Dont stop on dry sand unless you are facing down hill unless you have to. (Just easier to get going)

Dont park below high tide mark and go for a walk on an incoming tide.

When tides are big, wet sand will still be soft - be careful

Big tides, there will be a good chance there will no beach to drive on in places at high tide. Added to that, avoid traveling at high tide, you have to flog the car through soft stuff.

Bestest way ever to catch eugaries - drive 4wd over wet sand just out of wash area, nice little bump left where ever there is one hiding underneath.

Finally - Beaches in QLD are gazetted roads, all road rules apply.

Second when bogged, tie rope to front of Nissan, stand in front holding rope in air. Thats so all the toyota drivers going past know to laugh at you.....

[bootyinblue]

Feral wrote:

Booty - you forgot to add - buy a real 4wd, not one of those hairdresser ones like Angus got!

Well I was going to start my list with

1) Get your hands on a proper 4wd

But I do it tough to maintain my Karma as it is.

[rayke1938]

How to fix nissan 4wd on straddy.

Find damp looking patch of sand on Flinders preferably on rising tide.

Park nissan and go for a walk along beach.

Take photo of nissan sunk to axles in sand.

Use insurance payout to purchase Toyota.

Cheers

Ray

ps I am just jealous.

[ellicat]

Funny guys. Having been involved in the sinking of a 4wd many years ago, I can assure you they are generally not covered for submersion - partial or total (I think that's how they put it at the time anyway)

[Confused]

Second when bogged, tie rope to front of Nissan, stand in front holding rope in air. Thats so all the toyota drivers going past know to laugh at you.....

LOL feral good one, :woohoo: only cause i own a toyota.

Angus you wont need to let ya tyres down mate, Especially if im there.

[faulked]

ijust wish everyone had land rovers:cheer: then you dont need to worry about tyre pressure as they just drive over all that stuff to easilly . angus the first thing is buy a tyre pump a long handled shovel and a snatch strap and then you wont need them, but if dont you will need all of them also work out where to attach snatch strap before you get bogged as it sucks working it out later try and make all of them accesible ish you hopefully wont need them but if you have to unload the car to find them it sucks to.

have you seen the tent thingy that bcf sell for the back of a wagon it would be gold on a beach especially if you dont have a roll out roof tent thingy i made one and love it to bits.

and watch your speed on the beach with deflated tyres they can make you high side and roll real easy

be carefull following other wheel tracks at night you dont know if they all ready fell in a wash out kerro and i learned this the hard way

the 12volt rust proofing things can be very effective on a new 4wd so can fish oil and rust proofing.

i have fitted a few 4wds with a hose conection on the chassis that has a spray hose inside the chassis to wash out easy

well thats all i can think of straight away enjoy it over there and take a couple of dawn photos for me i love dawn on the beach

[bootyinblue]

Feral wrote:

Finally - Beaches in QLD are gazetted roads, all road rules apply......

That is unless you are a Cop on a 4 runner on the beach and dont have to wear a helmet! Apparently Main Beach is not a gazetted road and therefore helmet laws do not apply.

Someone should ask the girl who drove her new buzz box onto the beach today there whether its a road or not, and if not, what was she thinking??????????

Could prove a costly mistake for here with salvage and insurance costs unfortunately. [img size=350]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/0__5805989_00.jpg

[Feral]

Yeah sorry Booty, not all beaches, but many favoured by 4WD's are.

[Dinodadog]

I'll stick up for you Angus, I had an old nissan 720 ute which I took to Fraser. I spent the whole week pulling people out that were stuck. The old nissan never went down at all.

On the way home about a half K from the barge this idiot approaching me forced me into the edge of the water as the wave came in, this of course stopped it, but a quick dry of the dist cap and away again.

Sold it to my number 3 son for 2 grand, few years later he sold to number 1 son for same and the other day he sold for same amount.

Anyway as anybody will tell you don't make sharp turns in sand and you should be ok. Happy Nissaning

Dino

[AZZA]

Angus my bro in law had the xtrail for about 3 years one thing to watch is the auto 4wd enguageing system even when locked in overheats when worked hard in soft sand and shuts down,leaving you with 2wd the only thing to do then is wait for it to cool down.So it would be best to drop tyres too about 25lb for starters this is still quite drivable on road carefully and will take some strain off the drive train.

[ellicat]

Here's a pic from the eighties....A Toyota after spending the night underwater. The full story of a mate and I's week long adventure at a tender age with zero experience is book length, but if I get bored over the break I might give you all the Readers' Digest version. This was early on in the holiday, after which I lost faith in electronics on 4wds - especially push button 4wd instead of a stick. It's along week on Fraser with a two wheel drive I can assure you! [img size=328]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/Fraser1.jpg

[ellicat]

Coincidentally Toyota later took up the caption as their own, but I don't think they had this pic in mind when they did;) :dry:

[ellicat]

This is also where I discovered the bit about no insurance for total or partial submersion

[Angus]

Ellicat: Hahahaha thats priceless mate. I have taken on board all your advice cheers. I think long story short ill do a couple of quick runs down to flinder which its the widest hardest packed beach facing north i reckon. At least here i can suss the new car out before doing something stupid like trekking all the way to the pin

Angus

[AlsHilux]

you should be right angus.. like the lads say, tyre choice has a big influence on whether or not it's necessary to lower your air pressure. If your xtrail is on the factory highway tyres, I'd advise dropping to at least 25psi and crossing your fingers for hard sand :laugh: I drop my 32\" BFG mudders down to 14psi no worries, just in case.

To expand on a previous comment of stopping with your car parked down the beach, always turn down the beach (towards the hard packed wet sand).

And to add to another previous comment about recovery points, your nudge bar/bullbar is not a recovery point! Don't try and tow or get towed or you'll potentially tear it off the front. There are also loops or eye screws under your car (these are not recovery points either! these are for securing your car to a container or trailer for transport, they aren't made to take high stress loads). Recovery points are generally hooks (not loops), but you may find that your car isn't factory fitted with any recovery points.

Finally, this probably wont be so much of a drama on the beach but it's good to know anyway.. if your spare tyre is mounted underneath the car (handy if you get a flat on the road, a nightmare if your axle deep in mud/sand/etc) I'd advise mounting it on the back or throwing it on a roof rack.

I'm still waiting for booty to come out to mt mee state forest.. maybe I should push the AFO 4wd excursion again.

don't forget the shovel!

[bootyinblue]

Mate.... book me in for a Mt Mee visit. I am looking to test my truck to the limit.

But by that I dont mean breaking limit, but more articulation and traction limits. Love a track where wheel placement is more important than just lockers and grunt.

[AlsHilux]

ahahahaha, you just summed up my thoughts exactly greg. Mainly being that my luxy lacks both lockers and grunt.

I'll put up a post soon about maybe trying to organise a bit of a day at mt mee in the new year (we could always go to NP dam on the way to or from as well if people are keen?) anyway, I wont jack angus' thread.

[Feral]

If you blokes in 4WD's want a free fang, you can always contact one of the sporting car clubs and volunteer to be the recovery vehicle for a rally. Usually you will get about 90k - 120k of closed dirt roads you can hit pretty hard (except for pulling the odd car back on to the road!) for no cost.

These fella's came out for a play at our last Rally at Yarraman (Yeah - not registered - like I said closed roads!)

[username_taken]

I usually drop my tyres to about 14psi, but anything under 20psi would do. I've got a set of Staun Tyre deflators you could borrow for the trip if you want. They just screw on and automatically deflate the pressure to a pre-set amount.

what did you get Angus?

Don't worry about people giving you crap for it not being a real 4wd.... I'm often told mine isn't a real 4wd either, I tell them they're right, it's an unreal 4wd!

I've got an '81 subaru sedan, 3" lift, locked rear diff, and a imprezza ( not turbo! ) engine hidden in the bonnet. I've done extreme tracks at LCMP and City View 4x4 park in it before.

videos :

in the mud

{google.com.au}-7677000895059479057{/google.com.au}

dusty hill @ LCMP

{google.com.au}6718086680722174651{/google.com.au}

rock climb, listen for the CV snapping

{google.com.au}-8073387019859661038{/google.com.au}

bit of a montage of mud driving

{google.com.au}8024130813453127461{/google.com.au}

[AlsHilux]

the staun deflators are great! Although, mine don't stay at the set psi, the little locking ring always moves when putting them on/removing them. I wouldn't advise throwing one on each tyre and then just jetting off because they could all be potentially set at different PSI (read as BAD). I split my set with my mate, two each does the trick. I set them to about 22psi so I can use them for mud/dirt as well as sand and then just use a little 5 buck tyre gauge to drop them down the rest of the way and to make sure all tyres are the same.

[username_taken]

AlsHilux wrote:

the staun deflators are great! Although, mine don't stay at the set psi, the little locking ring always moves when putting them on/removing them. I wouldn't advise throwing one on each tyre and then just jetting off because they could all be potentially set at different PSI (read as BAD). I split my set with my mate, two each does the trick. I set them to about 22psi so I can use them for mud/dirt as well as sand and then just use a little 5 buck tyre gauge to drop them down the rest of the way and to make sure all tyres are the same.

Yeah, I know heaps of people that have split the purchase like you've said. I find a drop of thread-seal or even a dollop of silicon keeps the locking ring in place.

[AlsHilux]

good call.. i dunno why i didn't think of that! cheers dude

[ellicat]

Angus wrote:

Ellicat: Hahahaha thats priceless mate. I have taken on board all your advice cheers. I think long story short ill do a couple of quick runs down to flinder which its the widest hardest packed beach facing north i reckon. At least here i can suss the new car out before doing something stupid like trekking all the way to the pin

Angus

How'd you go with it? I imagine the sand would have been packed harder than tarmac for you anyway with all the rain. Did you take the opportunity to head down main beach or was it awash from the wind-driven waves ?

[Angus]

Sand was packed hard there was just a serious lack of beach.

I did put her to the test though taking her up the guts of the island and down to the Keyholes. This was particually tough from all the rain and the road was riveted red clay. I think it was a good test and she held up well.

She came back not silver but mud red. Didnt wash her for a few days so she drove around with some street cred

Angus

[Gazza]

I have found that in the 10.5 x 15 tyres no need to reduce tyre pressure and I run Mud terrains

it's all about how you go about it like the guys are saying

Sure muddies are designed to dig but only if you intend to get them spinning in the first place :woohoo:

I've only owned 4wd's for the past 15 years (2 of them both land cruisers) and driven on many beaches with muddies :woohoo:

never dropped pressure or got bogged

But on the other hand When I first got my olde fj 55 it had Desert Duellers on I got bogged a few times in the wet first sign of mud (tiny bit of rain) no traction

Changed to Kumo muddies now I run maxxis buckshot mudders (cheaper and good value) no more dramas either wet mud ,sand or rocky or roads

I think Feral with his rally Knowledge on tyres might agree to some point agressive tyres dont mean instant bogging it's how you read the terrain

thats my 2 cents worth I've never been bogged on bitumem but I have in the wet mud :side:

Gaz

[Feral]

Gazza, I always ran standard 16 x 7" bar tracks on my toyota's for everything except shooting. Never got bogged. When I went halvsies with Ray in a FJ45, he ran 15x8 mud tyres, never got bogged in that either.

But yeah if you dont spin the wheels you dont dig holes - simple as that. If your a bit of a novice aggressive tread tyres can get you in trouble pretty quick if you give em a squirt, but if your careful they will get you through more than they will get you into trouble in. If she stops, just back her out and have another go! Dont put your foot down.

(For shooting I ran whatever the workshop was throwing out - used to stake half a dozen tyres a month driving through pulled gidya scrub! was mostly roadgrippers, the worst 4wd tyre ever made in my opinion!)

[will]

i found with the likes of ur old troopie tyres there was no need really to go mud tyres. the tread was a good aggresive tread and because it was narrow it cut through the mud to the hard bottom, which helped with ur steering ,were as the fat tyres tend to float on the mud.then u suffer the lack of steering.

[faulked]

i have a set of 33inch muddies on my moddified landrover and was allways mashing the gass and wheel spinning to get bogged on the beaches everywhere it was the only way to bog it and have some fun but then once in a while id put in 4wd and the fun would stop no differnt to driving on tarmac in 4wd bloody boring really it would go any where i pointed it but it was a land rover the best 4wd ever built once id replaced half the running gear jacked it up six inches softened the suspension put big tyres on it thrown the original motor gearbox put a modified transfer in replaced the seats built my own dash raised the windscreen lightend the chassis removed the roof put army diffs with airlockers the best car rover ever built ahem :laugh:

[will]

sounds like a beast well done the only trouble with tinkering with 4wheelers is it can be a dear way 2 have fun. i had an 82 troopie ,put a v8 with a 5 speed box rasied it 6inchers mate it was a nice rig. trouble was it didnt fit in many car parks, had fun with it at black duck valley.then i found a cheaper way 2 have fun and that was doing all the same things but doing it on a bike