I was wondering if anyone out there had any thoughts. I live on Long Island in NY. We do alot of 4 wheeling on the many beaches whe have here. I have been doing it for years and as always before getting on the sand I like everyone else airs down to about 15lbs of air in our tires. We also pull our RV's out on the beach and some times air down even lower. 10 to 12 lbs is not unusual. As I said I have been doing it for many years. Here it the hitch. While looking through my owners manual for something else a ran accross a section were it said to never air down but instead use low range. I sometimes do both if I am towing my 5th wheel RV (12000lbs). Any one have any thoughts about their statment?

Stock
1997 F250 H/D
33000 miles
460ci, Auto
BFG 35's
American Racing Wheels
Air Hog
Off Road pkg
Trailering Pkg
Leveling Kit

 

[QUOTE=markclement] While looking through my owners manual for something else a ran accross a section were it said to never air down but instead use low range. I sometimes do both if I am towing my 5th wheel RV (12000lbs). Any one have any thoughts about their statment QUOTE)

i wouldnt air down wile towing the 5th wheel you run a good chance of poping a beed more weight plus airing down could not be good, i air down and use low range but never with alot of weight on the rear axle ether from a louded bed or from tuong weight from towing, good luck

 

I mostly agree. With that low of a pressure you could blow your bead. What would probably be best is to airdown unloaded to your normal offroad pressure, measure your "footprint", than refill, load up with trailering wieght than airdown to approximate "footprint". You have to be careful not to go overboard here though, cause you will still run the risk of blowing your bead. I find a lot of people go alot lower with the pressure than they realy need to. You don't need to sink your sidewalls, just ensure that you are using all of your treadwidth. If your mostly in sand that is all you need, I doubt your doing much rockcrawling with an rv on the backend.

 

The reason we air down tires in soft sand is to gain flotation. This happens when you use part of the sidewall to prevent the tread from "grave digging" Some tires are designed to do just that, and do not have a high risk of bead popping. If you use mud/snow tires, or off road tires that have a sharp profile and shoulders, and you do not air down, you will find that digging a grave is a lot worse than popping a bead.

The type of sand plays into this as well. You obviously are not romping in the dunes with your RV.

Also, I never use low range in the sand. Slow and easy starts prevent loss of traction, which leads to...gravedigging.

 

i use 4 low alot in the sand it depends alot on the aplication(gearing tires transfer ratios) keeping momentum going is the easest way to prevent digging and if being in 4 low keeps your momentum up then that is the gear to be in, it works the best going up long steep sand dunes were in 4 hi you would lose momentum and dig but in 4 low 2 gear you keep the momentum you need to climb the hill, just my experience from years at glamis and ocatillo wells, also gravedigging is alot better than blowing a bead you can always get pulled out reseating a bead on the trail sucks and without the propper tools is damn near imposible

 

I love seeing people getting pulled out of stucks on beaches! This is probably the best picture I've ever seen, only a video of someone getting pulled out could top this:

 

Again, it's the footprint you want....

www.oasisoffroad.com is a good resource for info on airing down.

If it was mine, I'd probably air down to 15 all the way around (I usually go 15 frront, 13 rear) and see how it does. Pulling a trailer you're not going to be making any tight turns (hopefully) so popping a bead shouldn't really be an issue (and if it is, you should have slowed down!!)

Low range versus high depends on the conditions, and the weight of the trailer, sand texture, etc. In general, low range would probably be a good idea.

As for the tongue weight causing the back end to dig, I doubt it unless the trailer is seriously overloaded. The max tongue weight should only be 500 lbs without a WD hitch anyways, so figure that's two large buddies and a cooler.... I don't see that much weight making that much difference between getting stuck or not.

-Joe

 

lol, but if you happen to get stuck, you better get that $&^@ on video.

 

Joe, he is towing a 5th wheel, the weight very well may be over 500lbs, also the turns maybe a little tighter than with a stanard trailer (bumper/hitch). I still would not go all that low in the rear. Depending on the added wieght the tires will flex more, ie a bigger footprint. The front you still will take down pretty far but I would play around with the rear.

 

Just slap some beadlockers on and air down to about 5psi.

 

I take my good ole' stocker one the beach almost every weekend. In the soft sand of the Outer Banks N.C. 18 psi and 2 wheel drive works just fine. My theory is that if you need 4 low on the sand, you need more motor, or more gear. Plus, not airing down overworks the Tranny and the Suspension. They are right though, too low and bye bye bead. Most "desert runner" or PreRunner trucks are 2wd with A/Ts or some even have street treads that are beadlocked, mud tires are about the worst thing in the world for the sand. Learned that the hard way with 38 in Boggers. Can anyone say stuck in 10 ft..

 

For some reason I don't believe they are the WORST. I can see how there may be better tires out there, but I would bet they do pretty well. The Nitto Mud Grapplers are said to do very well, and those are M/T's.

 

MT baya claws are mud tires and they work great in the sand they almost act like paddle tires, some mud tires do not fare well in the sand BFG mud tires dig in too much because of the tread pattern that is what depends on your digging in the sand

 

Agreed, but like many mud tires the MT Baja Claws are a directional tire. Good going forward, but if you have to back up, they are not quite as freindly. One of the guys that wheels with us has them on a Jeep with a small block. He is fine as long as the sand isnt too soft. If those tires start to dig, he cannot back out of the hole. I just bought a set of cepek f/c kevlars for the sand. They are about the best, they are like big *** balloons.

 

i aree with you as long as you are going forward the claws do not dig to bad but in reverse the do, also for rock crawling you put the claws on backwards and they go up anything, just my experience with them