Gearing for beach driving

[smithbro]

Hey guys,

So I took my D22 YD25 for a run on the beach on saturday. My first time driving on a beach, and off road in 4WD really.

It seemed to just not have enough grunt in high-4 so we switched to low-4 and it was great for the rest of the trip. Sat in 2nd/3rd/4th below 50kph fine. We were mostly sticking to the upper and softer areas of the beach as I was practicing/learning.

My first question is, should I be running in low-4 for extended periods on the beach? Is this OK? I spoke to a mate afterwards and in his words I'll "blow up my transfer case" If I keep doing this??

I'm wondering whether I need more practice in high-4?

 

[unkn0wn]

Yd does not have allot of torque down low. So you do have to hold it in the higher revs to cruse along the beach. When using 4H you have to travel faster, no allways a desirable thing for the beach.

I do nearly all my beach driving in 4L, unless its stupidly hard sand and the engine does not have to work hard. With 4l you have a better range of gears for the speed you want to do, and the engine does considerably less work...

I have no heard of any issues with Tfcases...if they were going to break on the beach, then they wouldent work on any surface...the beach sand is slippy and wouldn't put much resistance/feedback into the tfcase at all.

 

[navaranewb]

Hey guys,

So I took my D22 YD25 for a run on the beach on saturday. My first time driving on a beach, and off road in 4WD really.

It seemed to just not have enough grunt in high-4 so we switched to low-4 and it was great for the rest of the trip. Sat in 2nd/3rd/4th below 50kph fine. We were mostly sticking to the upper and softer areas of the beach as I was practicing/learning.

My first question is, should I be running in low-4 for extended periods on the beach? Is this OK? I spoke to a mate afterwards and in his words I'll "blow up my transfer case" If I keep doing this??

I'm wondering whether I need more practice in high-4?

unkn0wn pretty much nailed this one for you. As for 4H its basically road going 2H gears just in 4wd. It would really depend on what the beach surface is like as to what gearing you are using.

4L running will have no adverse affects on the transmission however it can get a little hot if you are abusing this so just be mindful

 

[dilmah]

Tyre pressure also plays a big role. What size tires do you have and what pressure were you running them at?

 

[smithbro]

Thanks guys!

Yeah I figured 4H would need higher speeds to be happy. That was basically why we started running in 4L, I was sticking to a fairly low speed to figure out driving on the sand and there was just not enough torque to stick with 4H.

My Nav runs bridgestone AT tyres, nothing huge they are 265s not sure what profile. Let them down to 20psi before hitting the sand.

That's good to hear about running in 4L. I'm not really keen on racing down the beach, saw some trucks going heaps faster on Saturday and it doesn't really look like a smooth ride! haha

Navaranewb - what situations will cause it to get hot in 4L?

 

[unkn0wn]

Thanks guys!

Yeah I figured 4H would need higher speeds to be happy. That was basically why we started running in 4L, I was sticking to a fairly low speed to figure out driving on the sand and there was just not enough torque to stick with 4H.

My Nav runs bridgestone AT tyres, nothing huge they are 265s not sure what profile. Let them down to 20psi before hitting the sand.

That's good to hear about running in 4L. I'm not really keen on racing down the beach, saw some trucks going heaps faster on Saturday and it doesn't really look like a smooth ride! haha

Navaranewb - what situations will cause it to get hot in 4L?

20 Psi is a good start,
with my old D21 the tires it had wouldn't bag out on the rear till around 10 or under psi, so i used to run 10 to 15 psi depending on the beach.
As the Navs can be quite light, unloaded you really need to be able to drop the tyres heaps...or have something in the rear. otherwise they wont 'bag out'

the Tfer case is just like your gearbox, with a set of gears, but when its in 4h or 4l there is a chain driving the front differential.....the chain is the only weak link and even so its pretty tough...you would need to be doing silly things like spinning the wheels in the air and coming down hard on the ground, causing drive line shock to really cause it any stress.

some higher powered cars also stretch the chains, but if you drive maturely then you will have no issues.

the gbox and tfer case have oil in them for lube/cooling...i cant imagin a situation where the tfer case would really get that hot it causes issues? The tfer case has ATF oil in it and that's used to seeing regular 200 degree operation....

i personally wouldn't worry about it, unless your thrashing it on a 60 deg day...

 

[smithbro]

20 Psi is a good start,
with my old D21 the tires it had wouldn't bag out on the rear till around 10 or under psi, so i used to run 10 to 15 psi depending on the beach.
As the Navs can be quite light, unloaded you really need to be able to drop the tyres heaps...or have something in the rear. otherwise they wont 'bag out'

the Tfer case is just like your gearbox, with a set of gears, but when its in 4h or 4l there is a chain driving the front differential.....the chain is the only weak link and even so its pretty tough...you would need to be doing silly things like spinning the wheels in the air and coming down hard on the ground, causing drive line shock to really cause it any stress.

some higher powered cars also stretch the chains, but if you drive maturely then you will have no issues.

the gbox and tfer case have oil in them for lube/cooling...i cant imagin a situation where the tfer case would really get that hot it causes issues? The tfer case has ATF oil in it and that's used to seeing regular 200 degree operation....

i personally wouldn't worry about it, unless your thrashing it on a 60 deg day...

OK well that clears it all up for me mate I'll start with 15psi in the rear next time, in hi-4 and see how she goes.

I was really happy with how it ran on Saturday. The only weight in the tray was an esky full of beers

Really keen to go for another run ASAP, will probably be going up to Rainbow Beach over the holidays, loaded up with camping gear.