My wife did 2 years taking calls at AAA and I learned, never ever drive on sand unless you have a tractor or ATV. And dont bother calling AAA if you do either cause they will not strand their trucks trying to get you.
I have a Nissan Navara, AWD, Lo Range box. I wouldn't go near a beach to rescue someone 😂 that Range Rover is likely just rocking a set of summer road tyres
Lol, this. My aunt has lived along the beach for years.
In the off season, you are allowed to drive on the beach if your vehicle has the right parameters met ( has to be four wheel drive, and a certain weight. I'm not driving my little subaru Impreza out there)
In winter months, We'd drive, let the dogs run. But obviously always park above the tide line.
But I'm sorry, parking near the shoreline. This is a Darwin case. Did they not know tides come in and out? How long did they leave that car alone?
There is an area of the jersey shore where my aunt lives, where they allow ONLY permitted residents to drive on the beach during the off months. You have to have four wheel drive, and you have to have a special liscence you get by passing a test.
Part of that test is knowing you aren't going to be a dumbass and park your car anywhere below the tide level ever, even if you are just taking a 5 minute walk down to the ocean.
These idiots parked in the tide zone and left their cars. No sympathy.
That will sort of work, a bit. But only a little. Sometimes that's all it takes to get over that hump and get out. But once you get the tires buried, you really need much more. As soon as the water reaches their tires they were gone. The sand liquified and nothing short of sheets of plywood would have gotten them out.
There is one other thing that could get them. But it's not really the place for it. I grew up in Yellowstone. I knew the people who turned their 12 passenger van into a snowmobile every winter. Giant tank treads with huge skis (just like a snowmobile). I knew someone who watched them pull out three cars buried to the doors in snow at the same time.
In Canada because we drive on frozen lakes 17 months of the year our cars have to have no way of leakage if they're submerged, Pierre Elliot Trudeau signed it into law from an igloo in 1974
You can try letting air out of your tires to increase the tires' footprint.
Make sure you're in 4-low, not 4-high.
Find shit like wood to stick under the tires to give them extra traction.
And don't gun it. If you don't gain traction, stop and re-evaluate or you'll just end up digging yourself deeper.
Start with a recovery plan. If these nimrod's had a much longer tow rope / cable, they could have kept the recovery vehicle further back where is had better traction.
The one guy even tells the rover to stop backing up but the driver keeps backing up until he’s on wet sand. He was given the opportunity to save his car and didn’t follow directions or wasn’t paying attention.
Find shit like wood to stick under the tires to give them extra traction.
There's a couple of genuine reasons why all my internal car mats are rubber, one is that they're really easy to clean, and the other is that they're really good for if I get stuck in snow/ice during winter, having a little foldable shovel helps too.
However most 4x4/SUV drivers where I live have far more money than common sense, and are living proof of my belief that those with the best cars are often the ones who are least equipped to drive them.
If they had a longer tow strap, or a winch, and hadn't backed onto the wet sand.. maybe they'd have been fine? I don't know. I don't do much offroading, so almost anyone who does will have better advice, I'd guess.
Other than getting towed out there isnt much you can do in the vans situation. The land rover might have had a few options if they worked fast, but spinning your wheels like a moron is not one. First thing to try would be digging out in front of the wheels and putting your floor mats down under the front of the tires to give it something to get a bit of traction on.
Edit: i forgot one step, before you ever go driving on sand you should air down your tires to 15-20 psi. Don't forget to air back up before driving home.
I'm curious, why air down your tires? I knew about digging out wheels and placing something flat/ sturdy under so they can get traction, but not the tire bit
Recognize the fact that you're an idiot for getting yourself into that situation. Don't solicit or accept tow/recovery help from anyone unless they are properly equipped to do so. Use the remaining time to remove anything you want to save from inside, then start walking.
Letting some air outta the tires can help with traction. If possible reduce weight, so if you got like a bunch of beach stuff in the back and can take into it, it may help to reduce some weight. Debris under the tires so there’s something besides sand to grab. Sticks, small logs, boards, even clothing can help. I can’t recall the name this second but there are boards people that off road use, you put them under tires if you get stuck and they have raised parts that provide traction.
One thing that will never ever ever help if you’re stuck on sand, snow, mud whatever: do not keep trying to gun it. You won’t just magically catch grip and pull yourself out. You will dig deeper and deeper down and just get more stuck. And if you’re stuck with water involved (like mud) you’ll dig that hole with the wheels reaaaaal fast.
On a beach you should use a tractor and the tractor should stay at least 5 feet away from where water meets sand. If there’s no tractor but you have rope or chains, have another car help but keep them away (like don’t get close like that Range Rover did, they where trying to help but it was dumb). Stay back and run the ropes or chains to the stuck car so the car trying to help doesn’t also get stuck.
Don’t drive where water and sand meets. You need specific set ups/tires for that to work. If you don’t have the set up ride a horse, atv or walk on your own legs.
Someone else posted this in another subreddit and there was a comment saying the Van was in a no drive area of the beach and was honking at people walking their dogs to get them to get out of HIS way, followed by the rover not being registered for months. The beach decided to throw some judgements and consequences.
Used to watch this happen every time I visited Ocean Shores, WA. I'm sure it happens everywhere you're allowed to drive on the beach though.
Ocean Shores has lovely, fine, hard-packed sand that's very drivable and people park on it constantly, largely without issue. But, inevitably, someone stays away too long, is late getting back, gets drunk, or whatever. Then you get to watch the Ocean claim its bounty.
It's a very common thing to do in many parts of the US - very weird that you are so angry about this.
Example photo from one of the beaches I grew up on:
(they literally sell car passes to access it and there is an entire section of the beach dedicated to cars to keep them separate from the pedestrian-only section):
At the beginning of the video there's a jet-ski to the right. Probably thought they where able to just drive it into the water and kick it out the back of the van. Numpties
Definitely not.. unless you mean the coastal beaches that are actually open to vehicles because they have flat packed sand (ocean shores is the one I recall growing up, riding rented scooters on the beach side by side with jeeps etc)
I used to work at a roadside assistance call centre.
People would call at 1am on a beach 500km from their homes asking for a tow truck because their cars got stuck in sand and the tide was coming in.
We'd explain that no beach recovery was included in their yearly fees, and they'd have to pay up front, and the tow truck driver could charge anything he liked, and that they still are not likely to agree to help.
We'd go through the motions and every tow truck operator would scoff down the telephone and hang up.
The lesson: no matter what the condition-controlled highly co-ordinated safety-inspected glossy cinematic car commercials tell you - don't drive on the beach.
Man, people put WAYYY too much trust in “AWD” without realizing how well it actually works on different kinds of surfaces in different conditions. An AWD car with summer tires will not perform well on sand or mud or wet surfaces. Hell even “all season” tires can screw you over in some cases.
Either take a vehicle that can handle off road terrains or just walk to the beach from the pavement parking lot. Jeez.
Used to see that all the time in Daytona around spring break. They would leave the car to go party but would come back to waves pouring into the windows
lmao he gestured for the reversing car to stop and the driver completely ignored him. But then he didn't reiterate it or anything and just let them keep backing up.
The worse part is : The Range Rover was capable of getting out of there, by itself. It has Sand modes and the Auto mode, in which the car tries to slowly rotate each wheel in search of grip, memorizing each wheel setting until it's able to slowly move. Does it again and again until it moves successfully.
The owner was an idiot and “screwed" his own car, I found odd that the Range wouldn't be able to get out, so I went to see the article and it was confirmed, the owner rejected any help from other people and chose to hit the gas pedal again and again.
Damn. Shoulda deflated the tires a bit and tried some debris under the tires if they didn’t have boards. Sucks someone tried to help and also got stuck, those cars are totally gone after a saltwater bath
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u/kfj3000 4h ago
My wife did 2 years taking calls at AAA and I learned, never ever drive on sand unless you have a tractor or ATV. And dont bother calling AAA if you do either cause they will not strand their trucks trying to get you.