|
The
difference between driving on soft sand and driving on a hard surface
is that, in the sand, tires skid, sink and get worn out faster.
Duh! You are going to say, but hang on, lets look at why all these things
happen, then lets see how to best avoid them.
In offroading you learn by
doing. There are a few dos and don’ts you should know about, but the bottom
line is that you should go out there, get stuck a few times and find out
what works best for your own physical capabilities as well as your vehicle’s.
The following are just a few tips, there’s a lot more about driving in
sand; mostly gut feelings, sensing the terrain and making quick decisions.
A
few dos:
- Slightly deflate your tires when driving in sand, this increases the
contact surface between the vehicle and the ground, distributing the weight
of the vehicle over a wider area and decreasing the chances of the tires
sinking in. Traction is also improved since the contact surface is greater,
. A rule of thumb is to air down tires to about half or 2/3rds of their
normal recommended pavement pressure. Tubeless tires are better at handling
this.
- Look ahead while driving in open spaces and plan your course a few hundred
meters (yards) at a time.
- Take a close look at your vehicle’s underside and note where the lowest
parts are, the areas with most clearance (highest from the ground) and
the vulnerable parts such as the oil pan, differentials, exhaust system,
fuel tank and steering linkage. A skid plate usually protects these but
even a skid plate can get bent when you hit a rock.
- Always wear your seat belt offroad and ask you passengers to do the
same.
- Hold the steering wheel with your thumbs outside the rim; hitting an
obstacle with the front tires can rip the steering wheel out of your grasp
and spokes can be real vicious.
- Take it easy, offroading is NOT about raising a lot of dust and mangling
your car’s suspension, it looks good in the movies but in real life it
is detrimental to the environment, to your vehicle and your nerves. There
are times when you have to gas it hard but 99% of the time slower is better.
Drive “elegantly” you will learn to enjoy it more.
- Be flexible about time, think of problems and delays not as nuisances
but as challenges you enjoy solving.
- Be flexible about destinations, if you set out for a specific place
and meet something interesting on the way, stop and take a look. Or if
something prevents you from reaching your destination such as bad terrain
or weather conditions, feel free to change your mind anytime if your traveling
companions agree.
- Always go offroading in the company of at least another vehicle.
Some
don’ts:
- Never spin your wheels if you don’t have to (you usually never have
to).
- Do not use tires with an aggressive thread, they are very cosmetic but
are not for driving on sand, what you need is a wide, relatively soft
footprint that provides flotation, deep grooves are made for mud and will
make your tires dig in the sand.
- Never apply brakes as you hit an obstacle under the car, all you will
be doing is increasing the impact.
- Never apply brakes when driving down a slope in soft sand, downshifting
slows the car and keeps it in control.
- Don’t use 4WD if you don’t need to, with experience you will find out
you need it about 25% of the time only, this applies to vehicles with
no locking hubs and with shift-on-the-fly transfer cases. If you have
to stop the vehicle completely before engaging 4WD, or if you have to
get out of the car to lock your front hubs, then its better to be in 4WD
as soon as you leave the pavement. 4WD provides directional stability,
but this advantage tends to be minimal at high speeds.
- Don’t use low range unnecessarily (4WD-L), keep it as a very last resort
when you really cannot move. “L” downshifts the whole gearbox roughly
2 notches, that is 3rd gear L is more or less equivalent to 1st gear H.
When using low range, most of the time you will find it better to start
off on 2nd gear L even in the stickiest situations. 1st gear L is useful
when crawling over rocks or climbing up or down a real steep slope.
- NEVER drive over a sand dune before walking up and checking what’s on
the other side first.
- Don’t make sharp turns in sand; rather take a wide loop to get where
you want to.
- Don’t use brakes to stop a vehicle completely in the sand, rather release
the pedal just before the vehicle stops and let it come to a halt on its
own. Breaking until the end will cause the tires to slightly sink in when
the vehicle stops, forming a small mound of sand in front of each wheel;
when you start off again, the wheels will immediately sink. The corollary
to this rule is always park your car nose-down on a slope, and never depend
entirely on parking brakes on a steep slope, rather put two small rocks
in front of the front wheels for safety.
|
- Avoid driving over small
bushes if at all possible; try to minimize damage to the environment.
Also don’t drive in a water pond or cross a stream if you don’t absolutely
have to, any oil leaks under the car will pollute the water. Additionally,
water will make your brakes temporarily useless and may cause rust build-up
on your suspension, exhaust system or other delicate parts of the car’s
belly, not to mention the agony of being stuck in water!
- Never negotiate a slope (up or down) at an angle.
- Don’t assume that because there are previous tracks somewhere, it is
safe to drive along them, always be on the lookout for surprises.
These are only a few primary
rules to follow, as I said earlier there is no substitute for field experience.
Oh! And why do tires wear out faster when driving in sand, well sand is
an abrasive material and driving on it subjects tires to much more friction
than a hard surface.
OK, you are stuck to your wheel hubs, an ominous smell of grilled clutch
hangs in the air, the sun is sinking down fast, the wolves are closing
in, you are 100 km from nowhere and you are going to miss your mother
in law's birthday party.
What should you do?
Turn off the engine, get out of the car, light a cigarette if this makes
your nerves cooler pull a drink out of the ice box and calmly assess the
situation. Walk around the vehicle and try to understand why you are not
moving. If the car’s belly is in contact with the sand, start by shoveling
out until you can see clearly from one end of the car to the other lengthwise.
Take a close look at each wheel, chances are you will find one or more
not even touching the ground or at least not getting enough traction.
Now there is a series of actions to take; start with the easiest and work
your way up. First try shoveling sand from BEHIND the wheels creating
a ramp behind each wheel, in most situations getting out backwards where
you came from is the right thing to do.
Usually a bit of pushing is needed and is all that is required to free
a vehicle. Once you feel the tires getting grip, go for the nearest patch
of hard ground you see around you and stop there for you passengers to
climb back in.
Now if this doesn't work and you’re driving a car with manual transmission
you’re in luck; you can swing the car forward and backwards using the
reverse gear and clutch until you’ve compressed the sand enough to get
an even traction on all 4 wheels. Increase the swing each time until you
feel you can drive out, and voila!
If this doesn’t work, try lifting the car with a jack, make sure you place
something flat and rigid under the jack otherwise, as you lift, you will
only make it sink in the sand. Fill in sand under the lifted wheel and
bring the car down again, repeat the operation on all wheels as needed.
You may want to pour some water on the sand under the wheels; it helps
compressing it. Again try the swinging technique.
No way? Don’t worry, there are still a few tricks you can try. If you
have a long towing strap (a must when offroading) and there is a solid
stationary object around such as a tree or another vehicle, try rolling
one end of the strap around a wheel, (2 turns at least) and attach the
other end to the object. You should make sure that the wheels, when turning
would reel the strap in not out, start the car and drive slowly; this
way you are actually towing yourself out of trouble.
Still doesn’t work, OK you will have to swallow your pride and ask your
4-wheeling buddy to tow you, now you owe him/her one!
Sand plates are a very convenient
tool but they are bulky, steel ones are very heavy and if you don’t have
a special place to fix them outside your vehicle, they can be very cumbersome.
Additionally after you have driven off from the trouble spot you still
have to walk back and carry them, sometimes for 50 m (yards) or more.
Some say this helps build character.
On the other hand if this is what you feel works best for you, then do
it by all means.
A
few tips about sand plates:
- Do not just place them in front (or behind) a wheel, rather dig under
the wheel until you reach the lowest part of the tire and push the sand
plate in.
- Make sure the sand is evenly distributed under the sand plate with no
empty spaces between the metal and the sand. An empty space means the
wheel may cause the sand plate to bend, turning the two uplifted ends
into a cutting instrument ready to tear at the next wheel rolling over
it. Nothing is more frustrating than the sound of a rapidly deflating
tire when you’re already in trouble.
- Use sand plates in pairs on front wheels or rear wheels and not on one
front and one rear wheel.
- Store sand plates on a special rack outside the vehicle so you can take
them off and put them back without disturbing your cargo.
- Do not buy sand plates that are longer than the distance between your
front and rear wheels, otherwise just cut them to the desired length.
Use any extra pieces as support for your jack.
Home-made sand plates:
Buy four rigid plastic doormats, the kind that is used for scraping mud
off shoes, ideally they should be a bit heavy and slightly flexible. Attach
each pair of them end to end with heavy duty wire. You now have a perfectly
usable set of sand plates. They are reasonably sturdy and can be folded
and stored in any convenient little nook in your car.
|
