Manual Sand Crawling

[Lorenzo Candelpergher]

Dear @Gaurav, dear @Rahimdad, 

I have recently witnessed a very experienced driver performing a proper sand crawling with a Nissan Patrol Y62 (just like mine), which doesn't come equipped with any crawl control programme, unlike Toyotas. The results were quite impressive and I got curious. 

I understand sand crawling is done in 4LO and it requires a swift combined action of gentle alternated throttling / breaking along with left/right steering. Is it right? 

Can you enlighten me how to do it? 

Edited October 24, 2020 by Lorenzo Candelpergher

[Rahimdad]

yheart.you are absolutely spot on @Lorenzo Candelpergher. But we do not encourage sand crawling, only as part of recovery. As prolonged use of 4 low takes a toll on your engine and transmission. I have first hand experienced @Asif Hussain recovering @Shamil Xterra when it lost all its power. @Asif Hussain to our surprise was able to crawl up and out of a few dunes with the limited power the Xterra had to offer. What a wonderful sight it was in area 53.

[Lorenzo Candelpergher]

Just now, Rahimdad said:

yheart.you are absolutely spot on @Lorenzo Candelpergher. But we do not encourage sand crawling, only as part of recovery. As prolonged use of 4 low takes a toll on your engine and transmission. I have first hand experienced @Asif Hussain recovering @Shamil Xterra when it lost all its power. @Asif Hussain to our surprise was able to crawl up and out of a few dunes with the limited power the Xterra had to offer. What a wonderful sight it was in area 53.

Dear @Rahimdad, I did not mention it but I was definitely referring to sand crawling as a self - recovery technique. 

[Abu Muhammad]

1 hour ago, Lorenzo Candelpergher said:

Dear @Gaurav, dear @Rahimdad, 

I have recently witnessed a very experienced driver performing a proper sand crawling with a Nissan Patrol Y62 (just like mine), which doesn't come equipped with any crawl control programme, unlike Toyotas. The results were quite impressive and I got curious. 

I understand sand crawling is done in 4LO and it requires a swift combined action of gentle alternated throttling / breaking along with left/right steering. Is it right? 

Can you enlighten me how to do it? 

Sounds great 👍 and would be nice to be able to put that in action.

[Rahimdad]

I was one in my LR Discovery 1 the 1998 model @Lorenzo Candelpergher and leading a drive from Lisali to Margham. Closer to Margham I got trapped in very soft sand patch where my car jyst sank so badly that I could not even open my doors on a flat piece of land. The one thing I have learned and applied is not to panic and listen to instruction and follow them from a senior off-roader. To my luck I had @desertdude who had a similar vehicle and knew all the ins and outs of this machine. So the first thing was to go into neutral, 4 low and apply the central difflock. Next I had to go into first gear without pressing gas. Just try hard and turn the steering full left and full right as quickly as I could. Gradually I had to give race between 1200-1500 rpm and keep it around that. As I kept doing it I started moving to my surprise, slowly but surely as my Discovery swam in the deep soft sand patch. Out of excitement I tried applying more gas which resulted ins and flying. @desertdude stopped me and told me not to increase the gas till I felt some solid ground with some good traction. So started all over again and surely my Discovery started sailing again.

This was a tiring exercise which continued for little over 15 minutes, but finally I felt the firm ground as I increased the throttle and got myself out of the patch. So yes for self recoveries the best chance you can give yourself is by sand crawling, but at times you can do with a tug.

[M.Seidam]

@Rahimdad @Lorenzo Candelpergher is it the “ left foot breaking “ technique what we are looking for here or it’s something else ? 

Edited October 24, 2020 by Mohamed Seidam

[Rahimdad]

@Mohamed Seidam. Each situation means we need to adapt to it. The technique if you have difflock does not require breaks as all wheels get locked with same power. However I really like your question because it brings in the other aspect when you don't have difflock. In case your car is not equipped with difflock, you can apply the hand brake if your rear tire is free to give more power to front tires. Or apply brakes if your front tires are free. In this scenario try to have short tries and do not over cook your brakes. Shovel is still the best tool to free a tire which is hurried in sand.

[desertdude]

10 hours ago, Rahimdad said:

I was one in my LR Discovery 1 the 1998 model @Lorenzo Candelpergher and leading a drive from Lisali to Margham. Closer to Margham I got trapped in very soft sand patch where my car jyst sank so badly that I could not even open my doors on a flat piece of land. The one thing I have learned and applied is not to panic and listen to instruction and follow them from a senior off-roader. To my luck I had @desertdude who had a similar vehicle and knew all the ins and outs of this machine. So the first thing was to go into neutral, 4 low and apply the central difflock. Next I had to go into first gear without pressing gas. Just try hard and turn the steering full left and full right as quickly as I could. Gradually I had to give race between 1200-1500 rpm and keep it around that. As I kept doing it I started moving to my surprise, slowly but surely as my Discovery swam in the deep soft sand patch. Out of excitement I tried applying more gas which resulted ins and flying. @desertdude stopped me and told me not to increase the gas till I felt some solid ground with some good traction. So started all over again and surely my Discovery started sailing again.

This was a tiring exercise which continued for little over 15 minutes, but finally I felt the firm ground as I increased the throttle and got myself out of the patch. So yes for self recoveries the best chance you can give yourself is by sand crawling, but at times you can do with a tug.

I remember the drive but I don't remember this incident though. But yeah the technique is right. So must be me!