How-To Dune Tips - Sand Dune Driving
Sand Dune Driving: - Like learning to drive on snow and ice, there's no school like first-hand experience when driving on sand dunes. Sand dunes are notoriously dangerous and rightfully intimidating. Driving on flat sand and gradually working up to driving inclines may help build confidence. The constant danger of collisions with other vehicles adds to risk and requires constant defensive driving and anticipation of other drivers' actions. Vehicle flags provide increased visibility over the tops of dunes helping avoid catostrophic collisions. The following lists personal lessons learned driving Jeep Wranglers with radial highway and mud-terrain tires on Michigan's Silver Lake Sand Dunes and may be useful to those anticipating a dune-driving experience in a similar vehicle.
- Fill vehicle gas tank at nearby gas station before entering dunes (some prefer riding dunes with less fuel to lower vehicle weight for better "float" on the sand)
- Prior to entering the dunes, air-down tires. We generally start with front tires at roughly 12 psi and rear tires at 10 psi on the rear tires and then lower those numbers as necessary once on the dunes to achieve 'floatation' where the tires 'float' on the sand rather than digging in. Depending on tires, suspension, and weather, the air pressure will be different for each vehicle. It's often necessary to release more air as tires heat up in hot Sun or work harder on hot sand. Driving vehicles with low tire air pressure is very dangerous, likely voids vehicle warranties, may cause damage to vehicles and loss of vehicle control resulting in personal injury or death to driver and passengers.
- Engage 4-wheel drive in "4-High" setting and maintain just enough speed to maintain forward momentum without "racing" over dips that might damage suspensions. We find "4-Low" is too slow to maintain speed and allows our Jeep to dig into the sand.
- Michigan's Silver Lake Sand Dunes has a long directional section of a series of high sand dune peaks. This directional section requires all vehicles travel in the same direction to avoid opposing traffic collisions on the highest, steepest dunes where visibility even with flags is difficult. The other sections could be considered a 'free-for-all' area and vigilance for opposing traffic is imperative.
- Climbing the tallest dunes requires enough power and speed to maintain momentum to reach the top but not enough to "launch" over the crest. This requires precise timing to let off the accelerator just prior to the top to allow the vehicle's front wheels to climb over the crest and still remain in contact with the descending slope on the other side of the crest. Ideally, stopping just over the top of a steep, sharp-edged dune top with the front wheels well on the downward slope and the entire vehicle pointing downward may allow gravity to help the downward descent if we chose to stop at the top. High-centering is often the biggest problem at the very top where neither the front wheels or rear wheels are fully contacting the slopes leaving the vehicle teetering and stranded on the very top of the dune.
- Vehicle speed must be adjusted on the upward assault to keep suspension from being overly abused on small 'mogul' type bumps which can cause the vehicle to violently pitch-poll forward and backward. Often multiple dune top assaults are necessary using different approach paths to reach the top with many careful declinations in reverse necessary after each failed attempt.
- A common off-roading technique of turning the steering wheel left and right as vehicle traction is lost often helps when climbing dune faces.
- Dune faces should be traversed directly up and down without any angular paths. Climbing or descending a dune face at angles is extremely dangerous and greatly increases the likelihood of vehicle roll-overs.
- Due to aired-down tires, sharp turns should be avoided so as not to roll the tires off their beads unless beadlock wheels are used.
- After a day of driving on the dunes, we remove our dune flag or tie-wrap the flag to reduce flag flapping at highway speeds.
- Air-up tires using an air pump provided courtesy of a local business upon exiting the park. An in-vehicle air compressor or portable air/CO2 tank is best for self-reliance for any off-roading environment.
