M35A2 performance in Sand

[rustystud]

A deuce will do just fine in soft/deep sand. 395's are nice, but 9.00's work just fine. I personally run 395's and drag my 30' camper through some pretty deep sand without issue, my buddy runs 9.00's and drags his 40' toy hauler through the same. The key to it, as previously stated, is airing down. A deuce does worse in sand than a 4x4 truck if the air pressure isn't dropped. Don't be afraid, get a good digital gauge and drop that pressure way down. In sand with my 395's I run 7psi in the rear and 10psi up front; my buddy on 9.00's runs 5psi in back and 10psi up front. We never have sucked in a tube or lost a bead. As a disclaimer though, the most aggressive tires and lowest air pressure etc. in the world cannot compensate for driver error, knowing your vehicle and its limitations are paramount.

When I was in the Marines one of the things the top enlisted officers liked to do was take a midnight run down to the beach. I was just a sargeant at the time (E-5) so I was not privy to what the purpose of all this was but I could guess. So at midnight we where all woken up and told to get in our trucks and start driving. Night lights only. After about an hour of driving we reached the beach and then where told to take the trucks into the surf. I kept my truck back as there was no way I was going into that and then have to spend hours getting the sand out of everywhere ! Of course three of the trucks got stuck as they didn't air down and one was really bad. The tide was coming in and we had to get it unstuck ! The whole point of all this is to say that if you know what your doing like airing down and don't get crazy you can even go in the surf with the 9.00 X 20.00 tires. By the way we got that one truck out by airing down the tires and digging out the sand under the frame. With 50 motivated Marines it didn't take long to dig it out.

 

[DavidWymore]

Thanks for serving, Rusty.

I'm a long time limit pushing offroader, somewhat new to deuces, but have been driving heavy diesels offroad a long time. They get along in the sand, even dunes if you know what you're doing. Weight in the back helps. I have some ideas and theories I need to put out there later when I have time.

Here is a vid of mine, there's another there as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H5uT4UTPYo