Sand Crawling to get unstuck

[david bfreesani]

There has been a discussion on use of low range on another forum, and in the off topic 90% of that discussion, the Toyota Crawl control recovery method came up to get yourself unstuck in soft sand. I had at virtually the same time seen a case or two where I seem to do very well at crawl speed, to pull guys out of stuck situations. There are a few youtube videos on the crawl control function of these vehicles, but my question was/is, can you get the same result with just dumb LR without traction control and/or diff locks. The best video is this one. Vehicle is an auto, and diff lock engaged.
https://youtu.be/K1PbuoGVEz4


So I had to try it out with a 24 year old Nissan with 40 year old drivetrain. Three out of three stuck situations I have had success at crawling out. Yes, I am running stupid tyre pressures, and with enough momentum, all these cases could have been avoided in the first place, and I could actually revers out of two of them, but bogged back down as soon as I attempted it again. Today I went out to a spot where yesterday a LC DC got stuck twice on the way out, and eventually got through with so much momentum that stuff flew off the load bin. And that was on 32" Cooper MT's.

The Sani went out this morning with tyre pressure at 1.8bar. They are HT tyres, so not much grip in the first place, but they also don't go digging super amounts of sand out from under the wheels. attempted the little hill in HR1st, and got bogged down. The little 2.7 diesel can hardly turn the wheels. LR1st, got a bit further, dug in, and on the second attempt trying to pull off in the deep sand, I could smell the clutch. So where I was, I hit LR on the second TC, 1st gear, pulled a bit of hand throttle, and with the revs out around 1000RPM, dropped the clutch, jumped out, and took this video.
https://youtu.be/YZrcNZ42ExU

Now I understand that your normal LR might be too fast, but could be worth a try if you have the power, or with an auto box, you could achieve a crawler wheel speed by playing a bit. But as you can see, if you are willing to spend the time, it can work. Definitely a technique to keep in mind, and which I will be using in future.

[Mad Manny]

Interesting, I saw a video of a Tacoma using the ATRAC (or whatever it's called) system to get unstuck in thick sand.

Unfortunately, as you point out, most of us don't have low enough L1 gearing to apply the technique.

[grips]

Some dunes are easy to crawl. It depends on conditions, sand texture and angle.
Have done Dune crawling on numerous occasions.

Even with the low crawler first of the Yank Ranger and 35's at 0.6 there are some dunes that is just impossible to crawl.
Just to steep and loose.

Dune driving is all about power momentum and tyre pressure.

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