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Newbie with a beach driving question

Freebooter

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We have the Nitto Ridge Grappler 116Q which has a smaller tread depth than the LT tire.

Yeah, I had to pull out a Suburban with street tires!
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johnnymiz

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Sand flea is correct....you do NOT want mud tread for a sand truck.
The idea is to float not dig.
A 2 door jeep with all terrain tread nittos puts very little weight per sqaure inch on the sand so you dont have an issue.
That suburban puts waaay more weight per square inch of tread on the ground. His issue was weight and contact patch area...not tread type.
 

johnnymiz

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@JJT-NC, as long as you stay off the highway and dont heat the tires, youll be fine for 3 days at 20psi. Certainly air up if you will be driving fast.
Id run my BFGs all summer every year at 15-20lbs around town. Aired up for the highway, though
 

Sand Flea

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Something else that I've found useful is a good low pressure tire gage for when it is time to air up.
The common 'stick type' gage is ok if you have nothing better, but a good quality gage with a big dial face makes airing up less stressful and more accurate.

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xtopherm

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Excellent thread! I'm back at it, after (ahem) decades out of the game.

Wondering how much road driving folks here will do before airing back up? I'll be beach driving for 3 days while on vacation.

Thanks
You can definitely drive a bit on the road with sand inflation levels if you keep your speed down. It is tough on the tires because the extreme flex can lead to heat build up and the distorted shape can lead to accelerated treadwear. The vehicle is also not going to handle as safely - emergency steering maneuvers will not be as safe and there is a heightened risk of roll-overs (recall the whole Ford Explorer/Firestone rollover debacle?).

But if it is just a short distance and the speeds are low, it is not a big deal. For example, when I am at the beach and planning to wheel on the sand for several days in a row, I don't hesitate to drive a mile or two home and back overnight with sand inflation. Everything in moderation, and you can take virtually all of the risk out of it by just keeping the speeds way down.

Note: another fast and easy thing you can do is carry a 10 gallon air tank with you which is enough to take four 35" tires from about 11 psi to somewhere in the low 20s. Low 20s is not up to spec, but it is certainly much safer and easier on the tires than 11 psi! And the best part about an air tank is that it is cheap, durable and no waiting in line for air when everyone is hungry and tired at the end of a long beach day. You can just fill it up some other time.
 

Bowser

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We take our Jeep to the beaches of Nassau Country, FL. Just drop it in 4-H & take it easy. Last time I was there, some fool got his Honda Civic stuck approx. 10 feet into the sand. He was luckily rescued by a fellow JK :).

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Freebooter

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I just got a new Jeep Mojave. I was very disappointed it did not have street tires, I read on the internet that I wanted street tires for sand. Anyone have any Sport S take off small street tires.......oh, I have a set, I am going to put them on the Mojave! Just kidding! This thing is a machine!
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Jack M

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Hey, I've been driving on the beach over in Delaware since at least 2004. Our beaches are very, very, soft. Do not use 4L! This is completely wrong information and totally unnecessary. This will make your tires dig in and you'll be doing 3 mph on the beach.

I have a JKU Rubicon now but it should be similar for the JL. I personally do not air down unless I'm going to a place like the Outer Banks (where I drive on the beach everyday for a week) but if you're going for the day you are probably fine if you don't air down. If you're really new to it and the Jeep 15-30 psi is probably good.

Don't heavy throttle. If you can't move forward put your Jeep in reverse and backup until you can't. Pull forward, reverse, repeat until you can get enough traction to go. Don't slam on your brakes, let the Jeep stop itself. Stay in other tracks.

Someone mentioned turning off traction control. Traction control sometimes over-corrects your tires and causes you to slow down when you don't want to. I used to do this in my 2010/2007 Jeep's, but in my 2015 something changed and it rides better with traction control ON. I don't have a JLU yet, but on the JK's there are two modes for the traction control. Simply pressing the button turns off parts of the system but holding the button for 10-15 seconds turns the entire system off - not sure how that works on the JL yet. I can't really say for sure but I would leave it on for now and see how it is. I'm thinking the Florida beaches are not like our Delaware/Outer Bank beaches.

Take your time and you'll be fine. Good luck and have fun!
Just got back from a week on the sand in the 4x4 section of Corolla, NC. Never even thought about the traction control button!
 

jeme

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Our beaches here are a state park and every entrance/exit from the beach has park air stations.
I only live 2 miles from the park entrance, and have bypassed the air stations when the lines were long, but I don't like to do it.

I use auto-deflators that I've set to 19 pounds. At that pressure, the Jeep feels like it is rolling on marshmallows. Great for the sand, not so good on the road, so I'm cautious about damaging the tires.

Our air stations output 150#'s of pressure, so I can generally get back to my factory 36#'s in a slow 15 count. Way quicker than going home and using my pancake compressor.

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Did you paint your Calipers or use covers?
 

Sand Flea

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