Assateague Island National Seashore is a National park on Maryland's Eastern Shore. It is some of the prettiest beach around, and if you are ever in the area, I recommend that you take an afternoon and visit. For those of you with small children, this is the island that the book "Misty of Chincoteague" is based on. They still have the yearly pony roundup in Virginia...

http://www.nps.gov/asis/

At any rate, I am going next weekend to buy the annual pass for off-road vehicles. Assateague has 13 miles of beach that they allow 4 x 4's to drive on. I was wondering, as this would be my first trip in my Disco II, if there are any tips or concerns that I should watch out for as I make mymaiden voyage. It's pure sand, and you have to deflate the tire pressure of your vehicle down to about 15 psi.

I guess in the back of my mind, I'm primarily concerned with getting buried in the sand, and if I make it this far, cleansing the undercarriage of sand after I have left the beach for the day.

Thanks in advance...

 

The great part about this park is that is designed to have 4X4s. At the entrance to the beach for offroading there are several air hoses and pumps supplied by the park. You can let the air out of your tires and refill them when you come off the beach.

There is also great camping allowed and a great hiking trail.

If you are near Ocean City MD, the park is only about 10 miles away.

The annual pass is great and very cheap.

 

You are correct on both accoounts. You should deflate. Hopefully you have also changed the useless Wrangler HPs for something with better grip or youwill have a little trouble with the deeper sand. HP's are mostly highway tires and they do a poor jobeven at that.Definitely clean the vehicle as soon as posible after playing in the beach. I am not sure about the features on the Disco II, but the concept wether manualy selected or computer selected is the same... If equiped with DCS, turn it off as you want some tire slip to keep momentum. Use the torque to your advantage wether by locking in lower gears (if available) or using low range. Try not to travel in someone elses ruts when in deep sand and try not to lock the brakes up when needing to stop, actually try not using them at all to stop if possible. But I'm not an off-road expert, that is just common sense advice you probably already knew!