Driving in sand

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InkMing

InkMing

10 Year
Joined
Dec 28, 2010
Threads
15
Messages
256
Location
NoVA (Northern Virginia)
Maybe I am way overthinking this. But all my sand driving in the past in my other 4WD vehicles, I just air down to 15-18 PSI and put it in 4Hi and go.

I am assuming the same dealio on the LC? Even though all the fun electronic goodies are activated in 4Lo?

Going to the OBX for a week next week. So beach driving. Mix of hard and loose sand.

For those that have gotten out in the sand, are you ever going into 4Lo or just leaving it in 4Hi all the time?
 
InkMing said:
Maybe I am way overthinking this. But all my sand driving in the past in my other 4WD vehicles, I just air down to 15-18 PSI and put it in 4Hi and go.

I am assuming the same dealio on the LC? Even though all the fun electronic goodies are activated in 4Lo?

Going to the OBX for a week next week. So beach driving. Mix of hard and loose sand.

For those that have gotten out in the sand, are you ever going into 4Lo or just leaving it in 4Hi all the time?
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I'm not in sand all the time so I will just give ya my 2 cents on how I roll the rig... Air down forsure! The only electronics that really kick in while in 4low is the "terrain select", so you can just slap that on to your terrain of choice and roll it... The only thing it does is modify wheel slip depending on what terrain you select, hard to even notice for the most part. The 200 will not lock up the center diff when you throw it into 4 low, so you'll want to decide based on what your going through if that is needed or not. If ya happen to sink the rig in the sand then throw on the Crawl Control and it will dig the rig out, not kidding, my daughter barried our rig in the dunes all the way down, and Crawl pulled it right out, pretty close to magic:) hope that helps!
 
For sand driving do the same as your previous rigs, for me the center diff automatically locks in 4-lo and usually engage that for tricky technical dune driving, beach driving i don't think youd need more than 4-hi.
 
Some of it will depend on the sand. OBX sand can be really soft sometimes and its easy to get burried. What tires do you have? Are you all stock.

4hi will get you most places on the sand. If you start to sink then 4lo and/or even crawl can get you out 9 times out of 10.

Id definitely air down some. Most of the times there is an airing station on the hard road near the beach entry or at a nearby gas station.
 
I don't have a 200 (yet) so I can't answer your question directly but the crawl control is impressive if you do get stuck. Looks like the only tool you would need is some patience.
 
Well air down and 4Hi it is. Halfway tempted to attempt to get it stuck somewhere just to try out the built in escape electronics. Ha!
 
so whats with all the screeching?
 
jafo9 said:
so whats with all the screeching?
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It's like the tingling sensation one gets when using Head & Shoulders - it's how it lets you know it's working ;)
 
InkMing said:
I thought that was Selsum Blue? lol
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Honestly, I've been bald for 20 years and was just going from memory - I haven't had any "tingling" up there for a loooooonnnnngggggg time :hmm:
 
gaijin said:
Honestly, I've been bald for 20 years and was just going from memory - I haven't had any "tingling" up there for a loooooonnnnngggggg time :hmm:
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Bald by choice here for the past... 10+ years?

Though I am sporting a pretty decent beard.
 
InkMing said:
Well aired down to 18 and the LC handled like a champ. In the loose stuff to get over the dunes it just crawled right up. No wheel spin at all.
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Did you try the crawl control while on the beach? I took mine on the beach by Wilmington this year and was amazed at how well it worked. I didn't air down at all - figured I would if I had trouble. We were loaded up, 6 people, a dog, gear on the roof and it had no problem at all. There is one particularly sticky bottle neck in the place we go, a jeep was stuck in that area which made it harder to get by, I just put in in crawl and let it go - rather than flying by when they were digging out. I was most impressed that in crawl control the LC will takeoff without bogging or slipping the tires at all, without it you could feel the tires dig just a little. The crawl function gave me a lot of confidence, I was very happy with it.
 
I took my '03 4Runner on the beach on Chappaquiddick Island for two weeks each year that I had it. I would air down to 15 psi (Staun deflators make this easy) and lock the center diff.

I would usually also use 4 lo, not because I needed the torque multiplication, but because it helped keep my speed down. The trails on Chappy tend to have lots of washboards, and sometimes I would need to slow down to 5 mph to avoid bottoming and topping the suspension. The speed limit was 15 mph. Driving in 4 lo just made it easier to keep the speed down.

I never got stuck.

I won't get the chance to take the Land Cruiser out on the beach until next year, but I'm sure it will do just as well as the 4Runner, if not better.
 
Tire pressure is the magic trick with sand driving.
A few months back had a friend shred his alternator belt in the desert, nothing too technical mainly gradual hills, at full psi i had to push it to keep the cruiser moving through the soft sand and once i found him we deflated both 200s down to 10psi chucked it into 4-lo and towed him all the way out without even going over 3k rpm.
As long as you're aired down enough to maintain traction these cruisers have massive power reserves that even make towing offroad a walk in the park
 
We had friends go with this and they have a Rav4. We aired the Rav down and it did fine on the sand. They had a bit more wheel slip than the LC which didn't have any, but they never got stuck. Funny seeing other vehicles down there that had gotten stuck. Jeep Liberties up to full size pickups. Air down people. Makes all the difference in the world.
 
I'd like to be able to "air down & up" to go on sand. We recently visited Oregon Inlet Campground and the sign posted at the beach entrance, shown below, requires one to air down to <20psi. The posts in this forum say airing down is essential; so far so good. I'd like to be able to air back up quickly.

I'm a viair fan so I was wondering is anyone had experience with the top of the line Viair 450P? I like it for the extra hose length and other accessories that come with it that I can use with our travel trailer. Plus the duty cycle of Continuous Use @ 72ºF & 100 PSI: Approx. 1 Hour.

450P-RV EF Automatic Portable Compressor - https://viaircorp.com/products/450p-rv-ef-automatic-portable-compressor

The fill rates are listed here for larger tires and they seem like they're more than adequate for my tires.
35" x 12.5" R15FILL RATE
0 to 40 PSI7 min. 41 sec. (+/- 15 sec.)
10 to 40 PSI5 min. 54 sec. (+/- 15 sec.)
37" x 12.5" R15FILL RATE
0 to 40 PSI8 min. 50 sec. (+/- 15 sec.)
10 to 40 PSI6 min 41 sec. (+/- 15 sec.)

20250904_1832426inlongside.webp
 
FrazzledHunter said:
I'd like to be able to "air down & up" to go on sand. We recently visited Oregon Inlet Campground and the sign posted at the beach entrance, shown below, requires one to air down to <20psi. The posts in this forum say airing down is essential; so far so good. I'd like to be able to air back up quickly.

I'm a viair fan so I was wondering is anyone had experience with the top of the line Viair 450P? I like it for the extra hose length and other accessories that come with it that I can use with our travel trailer. Plus the duty cycle of Continuous Use @ 72ºF & 100 PSI: Approx. 1 Hour.

450P-RV EF Automatic Portable Compressor - https://viaircorp.com/products/450p-rv-ef-automatic-portable-compressor

The fill rates are listed here for larger tires and they seem like they're more than adequate for my tires.
35" x 12.5" R15FILL RATE
37" x 12.5" R15FILL RATE
0 to 40 PSI7 min. 41 sec. (+/- 15 sec.)
10 to 40 PSI5 min. 54 sec. (+/- 15 sec.)
0 to 40 PSI8 min. 50 sec. (+/- 15 sec.)
10 to 40 PSI6 min 41 sec. (+/- 15 sec.)

View attachment 3989610
Click to expand...

Remind me what tire size you run again?

A number of people in my group run the 450P. Old faithful, solid performance, and a premium pump that will always deliver. For something less than a 35" tire, great pump to get. For a 35+ tire, and if going from super low to high inflation pressures like towing, say 15-45PSI, it can get tedious. At 6 min per tire, x4, and it's 30+ plus minutes considering the logistics of pulling the pump out, hooking to battery, connecting to tire, moving from each tire (octopus helps)... 30 minutes isn't bad, but it's enough time where it might be a factor in not airing down at all or low enough.

Some might say why the rush. Depends on use case and how one uses it, but there are days off-roading when transitioning on freeways between segments, where having to air down/up 2-3 times a day, makes a fast pump worth it.

If you have a mild tire size, and team red, the Milwaukee M18 is a great inflator. Not as fast as the 450P, but it's self contained/powered. Auto shutoff. The ease of use can make it a great pump especially when considering the trailer.

There's some epically fast new kids on the block too. Something like the MOORFlate FiveSix or even TenSix. Requires octopuses as they're that fast and too limited by the tiny Schrader Valves. Many re-branded and variations of these pumps on the market all over the place, though not all will exactly the same or of the same quality.
 
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