Sand Tips
 

I like to do my share of surf fishing off of LBI in NJ, and come Labor Day the Beach Buggy permits are available, which makes the trips that much more fun all winter. Last weekend I got my permit and took the Jeep out on the beach. Had a good time, but near the end of the trip I ended up overheating the tranny...bad! So its at the dealership, luckily being covered by warranty, but I still plan to be out on the beach again soon as i get it back.

What tips/tricks will help keep this from happening again. I've considered a transmission cooler, and obviously airing down, but what else?

4 Low vs 4 Hi? 1st or 2nd gear vs D for us Auto guys?

Drove around in the Florida Sugar sand. No problems. Did you spend alot of time stuck?

Nope wasnt stuck for a second. I think it was an existing problem as I had some shifting irregularities in the past. I more or less want to know how to avoid it in the future. I am thinking a tranny cooler will be my next mod.

I am thinking that's very wise. :clap:

Ditto!! That will definitely help.

did you take any air out? whenever i go to the OSV area at Assateague National Seashore, i always take her down to about 20 or 25 psi. Luckily there are free air pumps at the entrance/exit though

Yup air down to 20PSI.

What about 4 hi vs 4L? 1st or 2nd over Drive?

I have seen tannys overheat from shifting to much in the sand. stick in 2nd, air down to stay afloat and lite on the throtle. the sand is to inconsistant to be in drive, you might be ok if you have a tranny cooler.

Oh, and you want momentum so 4hi on the flat land unless you have a speed limit like we do of 15mph:naw:

Sand 101:

1. Air down.

2. Momentum is key.

3. Air down.

4. Shovels are great tools.

5. Air down.

6. Bridges work wonders and look cool on the side of the Jeep.

7. Air down.

8. Tow strap and a buddy to pull you out.

9. Air down.

10. Winch and sand anchor of some sort (a spare tire and a shovel work) if you don't have buddy to pull you out.

11. Air down.

12. Food and water, lots of water (especially if the shovel comes into play)

13. If all else fails. check #1, and then get on a cell phone.

I have been to the sand dunes at Silver Lake several times now and I have learned the following.

1st time I aired down to 20 PSI and I got stuck even with lockers. So I went down to 15 PSI and I still got stuck sometimes.

Second time there I had place that rents jeeps put on the Evap Skid (same price if I did it or he did it) , he told me to air down to 8 PSI and will will be able to go anywhere I wanted.

Guess what I went to 10 PSI on the gauge then a couple of extra seconds of extra air out and I never got stuck and had a blase.

So number 1 is really low air pessure, however, the PSI he recommended was based on I have a Rubi with very stiff sidewalls.

Also Brake Lock Diffs are not good in the sand in my opinion. If you start spinning one and it tries to stop the spinning then the Jeep starts to shake as the dirveline vibrates real bad from the alternate locking forces. So if the BLD starts get you foot out of the gas and hit the clutch in a stick and back up and start over ya want to have fun not broken stuff.:wink:

Also did I mention run really low air pressure.:thumbsup:

Cheers

ESPMike,

one thing i would do is check and make sure you do not alraedy have a trans cooler. i did not think i had one untill i actually got down and traced the lines. I have an 07 X auto and did not have a tow package. I run Island Beach State Park all summer and winder suf fishing. I usually air down to 15 lbs and turn off my O.D.. Never had a problem yet! even when my tire tread was about 1/8 in deep i still powered thru it with ease. Ever want to run to IBSP some time let me know. ussually a few guys with jeep old and new and we hang out, plus its open 24/7/365 to drine on the beach

Thanks for the invite Jersey! I dont have the IBSP permit, just too expensive when I can pay 50 and have the entire souther half of the island open to me, including Holgate.

I know I do already have the stock cooler, I think all the autos did, but it obviously is not doing the job. For the $50 it costs the extra cooler might just be worth the peice of mind.

Even stock the jeeps tend not to have too much trouble with sand. The lockers are great in sand. But airing down does give you more surface area and prevents sinking.

I live on the beach near Dayona Beach FL and have driven her on a few different types . I have 33's with about 2.5" lift.I have never had any problems with sand on a public beach. As for 4HI vs. 4LO...I (and most stock Jeeps here) never even put it in 4-wheel. If you get stuck, throw her in 4HI and boom, your out. IMO you are more likely to mess up your clutch or tranny putting it into 4LO just for some sand than anything. 4LO should really only be used in VERY steep or extreme (deep mud) situations. IMO driving around a nice flat beach with any speed in 4LO is insane and hard on your Jeep.

I added a temperature gauge for the A/T so I would have some warning before it overheated. I run 4LO a lot and never see my tranny temps go above 220 degrees. I have had it go a lot higher in the mountain trails in Colorado when in 4 LO for a long period of time. The Extra Cooler is a good item to add.

X2 on turning off the OD. I'm not sure if that would impact the issues the OP was facing, but it's a good rule of thumb.

you probably don't have a stick with 3.21 gears do you? Those of us who do have to use 4 lo if we are ever offroad in almost any situation because there is not enough gear in 4 hi to even spin the stock sra's in loose sand or mud, it will just bog down and die, and burn your clutch up also. And what extra strain would it cause? it is just the addition of another gear, nothign magical. In 4 hi or my idle speed is about 7 mph on flat ground. That sucks.

Air um down! Got it!:cool:

Ben, you are the man...I learned alot from your breather thread (thanks) and hope to try it soon. However, on this thread...I DO have a stick, and I still DONT KNOW about my gear, the previous owner did several mods and he may have, I dont know. But, ....."Those of us who do have to use 4 lo if we are ever offroad in almost any situation..." seriously? you HAVE TO USE 4lo in ANY SITUATION. I see Mustangs driving around on public beaches from New Jersey Massachusetts to Florida, sure they get stuck parking in the deep soft stuff all the time. But, in this case this guy is talking about surf fishing on a public beach and he didnt list any mods. I have heard a lot about automatics overheating in general maybe that is the case here. But I have seen everything from stock to extreme tooling around the beach in 2wd alongside Ford Focuses. Unless this guy is fishing on the most hard-core public beach in the world, I would think he would be ok without 4lo. But I am a weird person who likes to use my 4wd once I am already somewhat stuck in 2wd. In this case, I could be totally wrong, I would love to do so wheeling with you though brother I am always trying to learn.

I am laughing out loud at the "most hardcore public beach" comment. Okay, you got me point taken. Maybe not every single situation, but i do seriously keep it there a whole lot. For example, yesterday I was driving down a section of road that we had engineered and checking the curb. I had my head out the window and was watching the curb on the driver's side, then turned around and did it again for the other side. (Not open to traffic yet.) in 1st gear I was having to stay on the brakes to go as slow as I wanted. I was using the brakes to the point that the motor was about to stall and thought this is ridiculous, so I just put it in 4lo and second and idled at about the right speed to see what I needed without touching brakes or gas.

I am happy you liked my breather post!

I work on a beach in the summer in Delaware putting out Umbrellas and chairs and we drive a f-250 and we put the tires down to 20-25 PSI and keep it in 4H and didnt have any problems .

I had a good sand driving laugh yesterday.. We went to Saint Augustine beach and dove down for a mile or so,, about half mile from the South end inlet we parked and walked down.. Mostly because we wanted to walk, but a little because I have my tires at 40psi for better gas mileage on the road and have yet to buy a compressor. Still I could have made it at least another 1/4 mile without airing down.

As we were just walking into the darker more shelly sand about 1/4 mile down, a guy in a Saturn Vue pulls right up next to us. I look at my wife and say "That's not good".

He sits there for a moment debating whether to continue on or not. He tries to go forward and his obviously street only tires start to spin, it seems it was not an AWD Vue either as only the front ones spun. So he decides to back out, but for some reason he decides to turn his wheels instead of backing straight out. He sinks. Only about 4 inches, but the Vue seems to have about 3 inches of ground clearance :eek2:

They list them with 7.8 inches, I don't believe it.

Seeing as I didn't have any tow straps with me,, (Yeah, I know, I need to get some and carry them always. I'm hoping to get some for Christmas) I just keep walking down the beach...

There was a lifted Jeep Cherokee about 100 yards down the beach with a winch on the front. (and a cool window sticker that said "H2 recovery team" ) I figured I would say something to him.

Before I got there the Cherokee notice he was stuck and headed back to help him.. I continued to walk down the beach a little further with the wife and when she stopped to look for shells, I headed back toward the Vue.

By the time I got there the Cherokee had backed him out of the darker shellier soft sand back to the normal hard packed beach sand. I talked with the owner of the Cherokee for a couple minutes, the driver of the Vue thanked him, then the Cherokee drove away. I decided to make a smart comment, figuring he's out he might see the humor, that he could have always waited for high tide and when it went out to sea report it stolen :yup:

The wife had shown up and we started back toward our JK.. about 50 yards down the beach I looked back and the owner of the Vue, instead of backing straight back to a wider area of the beach, he tried to turn around right there and backed, toward the ocean, right back into the soft sand again. :rotflmao1:

Apparently the Cherokee driver noticed at some point also, because just as we got back to the JK the Vue was going past to the ramp to get off the beach. As we left the Vue was up in the parking lot with the driver looking over the underside of his baby.

It helps to make sure ESP is turned off since the added load of braking can make the trasnmission work harder by shifting to accomodate... happened to me when i first got my JK and hit the beach.

Pure awesome.

I know this is an old post, but for the sake of those doing a search, here goes. I learned most of this less than a month after my used purchase and 15-20 minutes after hitting the beach. I have an 09 JKU automatic, so some of this wont apply to manuals. After much research it seems the general consensus is to air down to 15-20 psi as a starting point. I would say the posts above agree with that. Use 4L. '07-'11 auto's will overheat in 4H unless travelling 25-30 mph. Related to that, get an auxillary transmission cooler. The stock cooler is mounted to the a/c condenser and is tucked behind a cross-member and the front bumper. It is undersized and gets almost zero airflow. You can also turn your a/c on to force the cooling fan to come on. I believe 4L automatically turns ESP off, so that's covered. Also, turn O/D off. More than a little late to help the original question, but hopefully useful info to others. You can find more related info by searching this and other forums for "hot oil".