Thread: Will a bit of beach driving bugger my truck?

Hey guys,
The boss is wanting to line up an end of year thing at work where we head up the beach (muriwai) for a bit of fun in the trucks. I've got a Hilux and he's got an old V8 Land Cruiser.

Basically I'm not keen on taking my truck anywhere near that as I'm wanting ten years out of the thing and I don't want it to rust out. Any of you chaps take your trucks on the beach and did it cause any trouble?

My truck is only used to seeing mud and cow shit.

I'd take my Suzuki but apparently the beach counts as a road and that thing isn't registered (it's just an offroader).

Cheers

Wash the sand and salt off after and you won't have any dramas

id probably be more worried of long term effects of cowshit

My lux gets wet most times I launch the waka, as long as it gets a good hose down and up underneath with lots of fresh clean water there is no problem, 5 years of this and no sign of rot yet, as above cowshit is just as damaging as salt

Originally Posted by geezejonesy

id probably be more worried of long term effects of cowshit

Ditto

just wash the truck, remember to flush out the chassis rails.

I pretty sure Toyota rust treat all the 4x4's in factory,think they actually dip them.Wouldn't be too worried ,maybe a hose off.
Cow shit would be very acidic ,be more problem than a bit of sand. Sand ain't good if it gets into your diff's ,chops seals out bloody fast .
Even river sand ain't nice .

Cheers guys. Cow shit aint good huh? Most of my hunting is pest control on dairy farms out here so the truck gets a fair amount of that over it. Better get the water blaster out a bit more often.

I'm getting guys I know from the 4x4 club saying don't do it, and a bunch of people saying it's fine so I dunno. Might give it a go. Ideally I'd take the Suzuki as it's a mongrel anyway, but as I said, not road legal.

Cheers

Cow shit is like battery acid, bit of salt wont hurt it just be sure to thoroughly wash it after

I put the garden sprinkler under my truck after driving on the beach , it's easy as, 5 or so minutes , sorted !

Just don't make a habit of driving in the really wet sand, or in salt water. That'll fk your electrics pretty quickly. Like the other said, a good rinse with fresh water afterwards is recommended. You could go as far as spraying lanotech all underneath it too after a wash. Cow poo will easily be just as bad for corrosion for sure.

drop your tyre pressures for waaay improved traction - carry a tyre pressure guage always - should be first option if ever the going gets a bit sticky. naturally that then leads on to thoughts about a decent compressor to get them back up for the highway (I drop mine down to 10psi but no more than 20-30kph when back on seal before I put them back up. Soft tyres will get youa scary range of places.

Breather tubes on diffs? hot running then into cold salt water can pull water into diffs. I drain my diffs and refill if I know I've been in deep water and suck-back was likely.

I presume you guys will have decent snatch ropes/strops with you - and your vehicle does have Club approved hitch points front and rear? hint: carry a 1.5m strop to run across your two tow points in a heavy pull or snatch. attach the snatch rope to that - distributes the load onto two points of your vehicle - way safer. flying hitches (seen one) can be scary when they smash through your windscreen or rear window.

Have fun!

Well I decided to go have a look at Muriwai after all. We had an end of year company party I guess, so the boss (who's got an old land cruiser with a 400 cubic inch V8 in it) and I thought we'd fit everyone in our trucks, do a couple of trips and run people up the beach to a spot we set up for a barbie.

It was choice. Just whacked the truck through a car wash on the way home that had these jets that cleaned the bottom of the truck, like driving over about 5 water blasters.

We made a bit of a mess of the beach before remembering it's a policed beach and cut out our shenanigans, but even without an LSD in rear wheer drive the surf can get some choice powerslides going on on the sand. I drifted around the bosses truck about a dozen times.

We left a little bit late and the tide was getting high and buy you bog down in the soft sand. The truck started getting a little hot, and it smelled hot once we got back off the beach, but I left it running and it cooled down quick. I'm going to get my radiator cleaned (or replace it with a better one) and fit a snorkel over Christmas.

The V8 Land Cruiser


The Surf

1KZ's dont like getting hot!

Cool Not allowed on any beaches round here any more