Sand Mode is Awesome

[MountainBikeDude]

I haven't used sand mode yet but I know the trick to not getting stuck is more throttle.

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[NY_Rob]

I had the worst experience in sand mode - - I got stuck pretty deep, on Long Island. It took a lot of digging and pulling and about 45 minutes to get pulled out by a Jeep. I felt like the truck was under powered in sand mode. I needed to pick up speed so as not to sink and the vehicle limited my speed. Has anyone else experienced this?

I did not air down before I got stuck - I did air down afterwards and only saw marginal improvement.

I did a lot of beach 4X4 trips on Fire Island back in the day with my Jeep. The sand here on Long Island is particularly soft with no hard-pack underneath and it's very easy to sink in deep with just one false move. I always got up to speed and powered in to the turns and kept the speed up even when going straight to keep the "float" going because as soon as you stop in our sand you sink in. The R1T is 8K lbs, so good to air down before hitting the beach.
I remember as a college student going to Daytona Beach and being dumbfounded by seeing regular rear wheel drive sedans with street tires driving on Daytona beach where we had to have balloon tires aired down to keep on top of the sand on LI. The first time I tried beach crawling was with a AWD Subaru.. I literally got 5 feet off the pavement and got stuck in LI sand (two weeks after that embarrassing experience I bought a Jeep!).

 

[ScottyGuts]

I did a lot of beach 4X4 trips on Fire Island back in the day with my Jeep. The sand here on Long Island is particularly soft with no hard-pack underneath and it's very easy to sink in deep with just one false move. I always got up to speed and powered in to the turns and kept the speed up even when going straight to keep the "float" going because as soon as you stop in our sand you sink in. The R1T is 8K lbs, so good to air down before hitting the beach.
I remember as a college student going to Daytona Beach and being dumbfounded by seeing regular rear wheel drive sedans with street tires driving on Daytona beach where we had to have balloon tires aired down to keep on top of the sand on LI. The first time I tried beach crawling was with a AWD Subaru.. I literally got 5 feet off the pavement and got stuck in LI sand (two weeks after that embarrassing experience I bought a Jeep!).

Glad to know it was not just my lame ass! My my wife was with me so it was even worse - I think she listed the truck on BOT while we were sitting there, LOL.

 

[NY_Rob]

Glad to know it was not just my lame ass! My my wife was with me so it was even worse - I think she listed the truck on BOT while we were sitting there, LOL.

After seeing guys with even decent size tires getting stuck, I never even went close to the waterline because you just never know where you might run in to the "quicksand" like stuff where you instantly sink in.

Whatever the lowest recommended PSI is, go just a couple of lbs above that to find a setting that works for you on "your" beach as North Shore sand is different from South Shore sand. I always brought a folding shovel, tow strap and jack board back in the day, now they sell nice recovery boards and I will 100% be bringing a set of those along as well on every beach mission once my R1T arrives.

 

[W1SE]

I did a lot of beach 4X4 trips on Fire Island back in the day with my Jeep. The sand here on Long Island is particularly soft with no hard-pack underneath and it's very easy to sink in deep with just one false move. I always got up to speed and powered in to the turns and kept the speed up even when going straight to keep the "float" going because as soon as you stop in our sand you sink in. The R1T is 8K lbs, so good to air down before hitting the beach.
I remember as a college student going to Daytona Beach and being dumbfounded by seeing regular rear wheel drive sedans with street tires driving on Daytona beach where we had to have balloon tires aired down to keep on top of the sand on LI. The first time I tried beach crawling was with a AWD Subaru.. I literally got 5 feet off the pavement and got stuck in LI sand (two weeks after that embarrassing experience I bought a Jeep!).

Very true, sand type can make a big difference. It is truly a great idea to air down in dry and soft sand. And if you barely sink never let your tires spin.

 

[Madsen203]

Reminds me of this. Enjoy.

 

[NY_Rob]

^ pretty amazing! I didn't give him much of a chance of getting un-stuck without recovery boards.

 

[Madsen203]

^ pretty amazing! I didn't give him much of a chance of getting un-stuck without recovery boards.

Me neither. I think slowly shifting front wheels back and forth and giving it a few runs is all it takes. A little throttle to keep forward progression. At some point, there’s enough sand packed in to the wheel well that it pushes forward.

 

[zipzag]

Anyone have a photo of the tires aired down on a hard surface? Typically tires for heavy pickups have stiff sidewalls and don't air down well. So I'm wondering how much tire footprint is actually improved by airing down.

Physics says that the R1's are too heavy to be great soft surface vehicles. Diesel pickups are well known to be inferior to lighter vehicles on soft surfaces.

Also, as the OP discovered. It''s often hard for a much lighter vehicle to pull out a heavy EV. Conversely Rivian should be excellent at extracting suck vehicles. Heavy with excellent traction control.

Need the winch option to self extract.

 

[NY_Rob]

I always had another vehicle with me when I first started beach crawling. Once I learned "the ways of the sand" and exactly what my jeep could and couldn't do I eventually started going solo. Nowadays, with the excellent recovery boards available I'd always at least carry a set, plus a shovel, jack, jack board and tug-strap any time I go to the beach (plus a backup inflator in case the built in one fails and you're aired down).

 

[Lil'O Annie]

We were north of Westport at Ocean Shores WA a couple of weeks ago. So nice to cruise along the shore for miles in near silence listening to the waves and birds.
Good charging in Aberdeen, too.

 

[W1SE]

We were north of Westport at Ocean Shores WA a couple of weeks ago. So nice to cruise along the shore for miles in near silence listening to the waves and birds.
Good charging in Aberdeen, too.

Aberdeen was free when I was there. I rarely use the DC chargers but it was quite nice. Maybe a special that weekend.

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