Towing off-road trailer in SAND

[INSAYN]

This is not nearly as scientific as INSAYN's test. But I have a pop up trailer I pull down on to the beach at Lake Mcconnaughy in Nebreaska. The first year I had 5.30 - 12 tires and it sliced into the sand and was like trying to pull an anchor across the beach. Upgraded to 175/80-13 (hugh I know, but 2 to 3 times wider) and it pulled much nicer across the sand. Granted not the same beach, but I could feel the difference.

Perhaps some of the difference we are talking about is the lighter big tired offroad trailers don't need to air down because they already have such low footprint pressure it doesn't matter, but in more conventional tired trailers it is more important.

I've driven on that same stretch of sand at Lake McConnaughy in my one ton diesel crew cab/camper combo. That sand is awesome stuff.
I went out there weighing in at ~11,500lbs for truck, camper, gear and family of 4 with the tire still at 80psi. Did fine until I stopped, I knew this would happen, but wanted to see how far I could press my luck.
Dropped the fronts down to ~30 psi, rears to ~35 psi and this was enough to pop up back on top of the sand to easily get back to the highway. This is where we stopped before airing down.
Fun lake, going back next summer to kayak fish for Walleye! Sorry for slight hijack.

[XJINTX]

As Jason stated we will experiment and see what is best for each of us.

Wish I new exactly how much my trailer weighed full!!!

[theicecreampeople]

ya roger we will do another test on th smitty built trax ....either was the beer is cold and have two boys to dig us out ....were two old to dig roger ..lol..

[grimbo]

Airing down your tyres isn't about widening your contact patch but lengthening it. I've always used tall skinny tyres aired down and found them to work better than an aired down wide tyre. In other words my 33x10.50 worked much better at low pressures compared to my 33x12.50 at similar pressures. Same goes for the trailer in my experience

[theicecreampeople]

well wish i had more for you guys ,as i said we would do one trailer aired up and one aired down ..i stayed aired up ,xjintx aired down ,the only problem was we had no issues , ..if we had more time we would have done a major test until one of us got stuck ?kinda wanted the jeep to get stuck ..lol..lol..so i could pull him out with my toyota ..so whom ever wants to take the next challenge and do the test would be cool to find out ....jason ..

[kevint]

Did you stay primarily on the hard sand or did you drive back by the dunes too?

[theicecreampeople]

Did you stay primarily on the hard sand or did you drive back by the dunes too?

ya bro our trip there took alot longer so we only made it to marker 15 i think ,we unloaded and set up camp ...my trailer had a rtt on it so didnt move the weekend ...but was a busy weekend and there we pretty packed roads by that time ...

[medic83]

Ive been to Pismo dunes a bunch. This was the first time Ive towed a trailer there. I aired the trailer down to 17 PSI. We went way back into the dunes as it was Memorial day weekend and it was windy so we wanted to find a low wind, and private area. My trailer did great! Just keep up momentum, dont stop on a uphill. You want a fat balloon tire to float. I took it into the soft deep stuff and had no issues.

[98roamer]

Being from the somewhat midwest, I think of it as a farm tractor pulling a plow. Is it harder to pull a plow cutting into the dirt or a sled sliding over the dirt.

Being easily confused, I need simple but exaggerated illustrations to fully grasp complex issues. But pictures are my favorite.

[mrchips]

I have pulled my AT Chaser across sand and never air down as the tire pressure is 17psi for normal driving. It is a 33' tire and the trailer weight combined is around 1300 lbs, so don't need ATTACH=CONFIG]102987[/ATTACH] much tire pressure as it is.