Ok, I went to the desert for the 4th. While there, I played in the deep sand with my '03 DII. I have to say, I'm NOT impressed at all with it's performance. I don't have the locking CDL, only traction control. While the Traction Control works VERY well on dirt and rocks, it really performs poorly on Deep Sand. It takes too long for the brakes to kick in, thus the slipping wheels have already buried themselves.

After airing down, it was obviously better, but still not acceptable. I have to say, I'm sad I didn't read this forum before purchasing. It's great everywhere but the sand so far, but I do go there pretty often. I've spent a fair amount of time in the sand, so I know how to drive in it, but nothing I did would help.

I may look into adding CDL, or maybe sell and replace with an '04 at some point, we'll see. I hate to get rid of this one, because it took a long time to find such a Gem, but I can probably do it again.

What hurts the most, is that a Mercury Mountaineer did better than I did, even after airing down my tires. That really stings!

 

A Mercury Mountaineer? YIKES. A CDL would make a world of difference. I also went wheeling on the 4th, granted not in sand, but the CDL addition is the single best thing I have done to my truck since I bought it. It works MUCH better than TC only.

 

Agreed, a CDL would have helped quite a bit. Tire choice and pressure makes quite a difference too. What gear were you using?

 

I used both high and low, depending on what I was doing. Climbing long tall hills, I went higher for momentum. There were also solid hills around where I used low range.

Air pressure was at 25lbs, then tried 16lbs for the deep sand, was much better, but still not right due to spinning before the system could catch up. I've got Toyo Open Country AT's. They flattened out pretty well, but when I was not getting any power to the loose wheels, the others dug right in. I will admit, it was super fine sand, very steep, and very deep, but the Mountaineer still beat me and he didn't change anything. It was depressing.

 

16lbs for deep sand is too high. you should have started at 8 at the most. I was up in Cape Cod for the 4th hit the national seashore driveable trails I also have a noncdl 03. Once I got to the entry station I went down to 8lbs. I had no issue at all. and the sand there is REALLY DEEP. I met one other guy in a jeep he was at 6lbs. In my expierence with beach/sand/dessert driving most folks tend to not go low enough in the pressure. I myself have on more than one occasion not aired down enough only to get stuck,not with the disco.

 

A lot of tires out there will not run 6-8 psi, they'll simply fold under the weight. At that low of psi you have to worry about losing a bead, which is never fun.

 

I used to run lower on some other vehicles, but I was pretty far away from civilization, and forgot my air back at camp. Also, didn't want to deal with trying to re-seat the bead if it let go.


But again, the guy in the Mountaineer didn't even air down and he did much better. It really surprised me (read: pissed me off ).

 

Sounds like you weren't using pirate mode correctly, I've never had sand issues when it's on.

 

So true, I forgot to use it. It also would have been prudent of me to hit invisibility mode after the mounrtaineer passed me...

 

If you are running 18' wheels, those will not perform worth a dam in the sand and shouldn't be lowered to less then 16 pounds.
So why not add a CDL nose assembly to your current case and get that extra traction you want.