Trip Report Robbo's and Andrews Sand Driving Day
24 April 2022
What initially started as Rob talking about taking his Land Cruiser out for a bit of the wheel in Wilbinga with me to see how it goes after all of the work he has done on it soon became a club trip. It is that simple to organize a trip.
10 vehicles met at Getaway’s Kelmscott on Sunday morning. There were old and new members and visitors who were all thrilled to get out and do a bit of sand driving and hopefully learn some more about driving on sand. The weather forecast was looking good so we were looking forward to a nice day out.
We made our way to Wilbinga Grove via the Brand Highway and Gingin Brook Road. There were two more vehicles waiting for us there. After letting tires down we headed west along the tracks.
Taking our time over the limestone outcrops on the track we then arrived at our first sand obstacle. Some of the experienced and newer drivers had a little trouble getting up the sand dune. We spent some time experimenting with tire pressures and driving techniques and soon had everyone up the first hill.
We stopped here for a group photo. Now the sand here was quite soft and it managed to trap one vehicle. As were headed down to the beach everyone helped to guide the more inexperienced drivers through the various sand obstacles.
By the time we arrived at the beach it was lunch time. It was interesting to note the number of people (members of the public) who were struggling in the sand. When asked ‘what have you let your tires down to?’ many replied with 15-18 psi. I can tell you that 15 is the maximum you should use on this beach as it is very soft.
After lunch Rob showed everyone how to use an exhaust jack to recover your vehicle, the dangers of using high lift jacks and how to join two snatch straps together. He also spoke about the need for rated recovery points and the advantages of using a bridal to reduce the stress on your tow points.
After lunch we headed south along the beach towards the shacks. I got the opportunity to use my new kinetic recovery rope which proved to be very effective. The beach heading south got narrow fairly quickly so Rob took us back to the tracks behind the dunes for a short while.
We soon ended up near the fig tree where the tracks over the dunes gave a number of people some trouble. A snatch for one vehicle and it was up and over the hill. Rob ended up sitting in the passenger seat of one of the visitors vehicles to guide them up one of the hill she was having no luck climbing. With his instruction she was soon over this obstacle.
So back on the beach we headed north until we got back to the exit. Everyone made it back onto the tracks with relative ease, probably because our tires were at the right pressures. Once on the track we headed out east to Wilbinga Grove to air up and head home.
Thanks for arranging the trip Rob and to everyone who came along.
Andrew P
