Share your dune driving experience
Driving on the sand dunes was amazing fun when I tried it last year with some dunes but I could not make it with long dunes.
I reduced the tire pressure to 20 PSI
Gear Set as ( Auto Trans Lever on 2nd ) ( 4WD Lever on = L )
Some friends told to reduce the tire pressure to 13-15 PSI for long dunes.
13-15 PSI is OK or will it lead the tire out of rim
is fine...
no nothng happend to the tire as i was driving very slow till mesaieed where i refilled the tire for the accurate pressure to drive on the road
I was stuck at sealine beach because of the spare tire under the body, I entered the dense thick sand near the beach every thing was going fine, I reached a place where need to cross over the sea water, I decide not to cross the water, there was not enough space to turn so I reverse trying to make a U turn the spare tire was touching the sand I make a few forward and reverse moves but its started digging, I stopped it was not that much bad, removing the sand from the spare tire and other tires will work and I tried to remove the sand. an un experienced guy came to help, he sit in, start to move forward with full accelerator turning the front wheels fully left and right and within a few seconds all for tires was stuck deep in the sand, then he asked for towing rope, I had one and he also had one we joint both the ropes he started to pull with his vehicle but the rope was not heavy enough, the rope cuts near the metal hook at the joint, one piece of metal hook hit his bumper damaged the color and bumper, another guy came to help he had a winch fitted in his vehicle within seconds he pulled it out of sand.
Never reverse in dense sand if you have spare tire fitted under the body
Pappu_Pager you reduced the pressure to 5, how was the turning, will it not cause the tire to pop out of rim while turning
i had been on the dunes many times but the first experience was really bad. i had set the pressure on 20 and i reached till the end without stucking but the return was a tragedy as at one point i was like flyin in the air and whn i landed i thought for sure sumthing for sure has broken. whn inspected dnt find anything seemed everythng normal. later got stuck may be 10 kms from sea line beach resort and tht was really bad after that i had to set the pressure 5 and from there till mesaieed industrial city i drived with that pressure.
but i was fine with that experience and now i usually go like once in couple of months:)
I've been to khor al udaid dozen times with my pocket size 4x4 alone. I studied the area with google map, set my destination, waypoints and saved it to my google map application in my gps enabled mobile phone. Brought some things with me, shovel, piece of plywood, tow rope, jump start cable water etc.
See the vid below, the last trip I did with friends...
cassocck1980 thanks to share your experience, So it means if you plan a long trip through sand should fix a winch, winch will be able to pull it out of the sand
alain I tried to keep the momentum but before reach the top engine starts losing power
technique is to keep your momentum
mustangboy is the gear setting OK or need to change
I myself tried it only three times so far. Had my tyres on 15, 12, and 13 (each occasion on different pressure setting). Never had the tyre pop out of the rim, though.
As for gear setting, my car has manual shifting capability, so depending on the terrain i used up to 4th gear (out of 5). Only once I was 100% stuck (meaning I could not move the car anymore and it had to be pulled out). Had the 4WD on 4H mostly, 4L only when I got stopped (not necessarily stuck).
Loved the experience each time. Loved the way you have to turn the steering wheel this way and that when driving through softer sand, going down (slowly) a steep sand wall, etc. Disliked rugged hard sand - too bumpy.
but I am thinking to sell my car in the near future and just switch to plain saloon car for a more boring life.
Havent tried the dune driving using the car but tried using the ATV..what i could remember was i was able to keep myself safe enough before the atv explode. Lol. Wish i was not that brave enough to go on the peak.:( It scared the hell outta me but i'll do it again.
13-15 PSI is perfectly alright. OR You can try with 20 but if your car gets stuck, u can reduce further.