Driving Tips for Overlanders: Sand Driving Part 1
Whether you want to cross the Sahara or just go for a quick safari in Namibia or Botswana, sooner or later you will encounter a sandy track and most likely you will get stuck on it. But you wonder how the guys before you got through without problems since it is a more or less used track?
For a start, don’t panic. Sand is your friend, it is easy to dig and you don’t get dirty unlike mud. Before you unpack the sand anchor and unhook your winch cable, start with the basics first. Driving on soft sand is all about weight and tire pressure. In the ideal case your landy should be floating on the sand. The moment you are too heavy you will sink. So how to lose weight? You don’t, unless you want to leave all your gear and your doors and panels behind! Keep your weight and instead increase the surface of your footprint by deflating your tires.
A flat tire is as the word says – flat at the bottom instead of round. This increases your footprint tremendously and decreases the pressure per square inch on the ground. You start to float. How far you let the tires down is a matter of feeling and you will gain confidence through experience and experimenting. It depends on the weight of your landy and the softness of the sand. On one of our self drive expeditions I told the group to let their tires down to 20psi, which is usual on soft dunes, one of them did not believe me and only went to 30psi. The result was 30% more fuel consumption and the engine started overheating – all cars were all totally identical – discos all weighing the same.
all great 4x4ers must read this
A wide tire increases your footprint only by an almost negligible margin; besides it is more prone to punctures and side wall damages. Ideally you want a tire as high as possible as it creates a much bigger footprint once deflated and also makes a long footprint instead of a wide one. It runs in its own track which means less resistance. It goes without saying that low profile tires are not suitable for sand since you can’t let them down! Friends of our actually met a guy who took his brand new city cowboy 4×4 on 20 inch mags and low profile tires into the Kalahari desert in South Africa he didn’t get very far …….
Another crucial factor on sand is traction; of course you will need some but only minimal. Too much of it and your landy will dig itself in. So keep your hands off the diff locks and don’t put low traction tires on. The best tires for sand are slicks; we used to bring totally bold tires on our desert trips and put them on once hit the sand. Since we picked them up for free, of course, we did not have to worry about any side wall damages. Tires are not designed to run flat nor at speed for long distances so you will do some damage. But you are also doing damage to your landy going of road in the first place and unless you let your tires down you simply won’t get through.
There is a story going around in overlander circles about a tourist couple who hired a landy in Namibia and headed out into the desert. They got stuck and tragically died of thirst a few days later; they didn’t manage to get out of a sand bog. After they had been found the guy in charge to recover the landy simply let the tires down and drove off.
Good advice. I love the notice too!
While I haven’t driven in sand for many years we do get alot of snow and ice up here and similar rules apply. Every winter I drive past numerous stricken premium 4x4s, most of which are shod in stupidly wide low profile rubber and it goes to show that you can have all the electronic traction aids in the world but if you are on the wrong tyres and don’t know how to drive you will still crash or get stuck. I’ve managed to drive along quite happily in 2WD on surfaces that these luxury 4×4’s have failed to negotiate simply because I swap to winter tyres at the onset of winter, so that notice is more accurate than many would believe.
My hubby loves you! You have no idea the amount of times we have literary dragged “ovelanders” through the desert simply as they were not prepared, had the wrong equipment, tires and wrong vehicle. You are correct, skill in driving in snow is just as important as sand, unfortunately todays modern 4×4 is fully computerised, let the computer decide but at the end of the day it really comes down to basic principles and driver skills that determine the success of a tricky obstacle.
I’ve driven old leaf sprung Series Land Rovers for most of my life, they have zero traction aids and very little else for that matter but in extreme conditions there is no other vehicle I feel as safe and secure in. I spent (or maybe misspent) my youth doing RTV trials almost every weekend with various clubs as well safari racing, greenlaning and anything else off road related. The skills to drive in extreme conditions were learnt the hard way. Sadly too many people these days think electronic aids are a substitute for skill and experience. They learn the hard way that they aren’t 😉
Question for you though, do you still see many Series Land Rovers in Africa or has the Toyota taken over?
True true. There are still plenty of series Land Rovers in East Africa. They may be battered, leaning to one side, overloaded with people and livestock … but they still keep going. Sadly Toyota is here in droves also ….. but the old series still live on!
It is nice to know the old Land Rovers are still around and earning their keep.
I had a quick read through your blog, it is brave enough to start a business at all these days but I admire you even more for starting an over landing one in Africa in these unsettled times. Mind you, the perception of Africa I have is largely formed from the media who do like to sensationalise things a tad…. I’ve never been myself, it is on my list but I’m not huge fan of the heat so places like Iceland, Norway and Canada are at the top of the list of places I’d like to tour around.
BTW you’d better explain the “my husband loves you” bit from above or my wife will begin to wonder if there is something I’m not telling her…. 😉
Actually this is not a new business, we have been going for 8 years. 6 years ago we started guided self drive expeditions. So we are established in the industry, although tourism is never an easy!
My husband constantly has people telling him he should be changing the fleet to modern computerised vehicles – obviously this advice comes from people who don’t know Africa, the conditions, the lack of expertise etc. He is very much from old school of overlanding and off road driving ….. your wife has nothing to be worried about!
Ah, sorry, I must have misread about the business. Well done anyway
As for vehicles loaded with electronics, I’m not sure it is just a problem in Africa. Even here in the UK such vehicles become insanely expensive to repair once they reach a few years old and are very difficult for DIY repair so become almost worthless on the 2nd hand market and are often scrapped simply because the ABS or traction control units have failed even when the vehicle is in otherwise good condition mechanically. This has been compounded by new MOT legislation that requires all these electronic systems to be fully operational to pass.
PS. I’m typing this on my new smartphone as our broadband has been down for the last few days – thank goodness for some modern electronics!!!
Too true AES! In Mauritania riding close to the iron ore train track there is an area known as the ‘Dunes of Doom!” (I’m sure you know it well)…….I saw a couple in a state of the art unimog get bogged hopelessly. A Mauritanian guy comes along the exact same spot in a Peugeot 206 with 5 people onboard and gets through with ease. Why? Low tyre pressures.
Hi Overlanding West Africa so true. We all have stories about picking up bogged independent travellers all over Africa. The sad thing is a number of people have died simply as they did not know about letting tire pressure down in soft sand. Happy and safe travels!