Many look at the dunes as a very daunting task of getting from one destination to another. Not to mention the people that only use sand highway to get from camp to the drags or Oldsmobile. Lets squash that fear and give some tips and tricks that will help you get out there and safely back to camp. First and foremost is to make sure everyone is properly buckled in their seats with Lap belts placed low across the hips and not your stomach, and tight helmets are on. Never drive anyone that is not properly buckled up. Vision is the best tool for success and we will discuss later how this is vital. Dunning should not look like a straight line through the dunes but a succession of small or large S patterns that in the end will make a straight line to arrive at your destination.
A giant roller coaster ride
When done properly it is like Riding the best roller coaster (without loops) hopefully without getting car sick. Here are some main pointers.
- Momentum is key
- Never go straight up and over the top of a dune
- Look far ahead, plan your route, Not just in front of the vehicle
- Be aware for “witches eyes”
- travel at a safe distance to the vehicle in front of you
- Transitioning from one dune to the other
Momentum– your biggest friend in the sand is momentum and flotation. This allows you to travel along with minimal throttle input and traverse the dunes. You want to increase speed coming into a steep incline to help you maintain momentum as you travel up the face of the dune or bowl. This is usually the easiest when there is smooth transition bottom that allows you keep speed at bottom. Sometimes there are bumps AKA “whoops” at the bottom that will require you to slow down to get through these. Once clear it is time to throttle up to gain back that speed and momentum to get to the top. Throttle control is key, too much the tires spin and dig in, to little will leave you with not enough momentum to make it to the top. A good suspension will allow an under powered vehicle to carry speed through the dunes. Good example is the old VW sand rails and the Yamaha Rhino Both with approximately 35hp. The suspension was not what current vehicles have but for the time allowed then maneuver through the dunes using momentum to get them around.
Never go straight over a dune- As you can see in the picture a cross section of the dunes that shows a ramp up from the right to a drop off on the left. The Dunes are wind shaped and usually have a slope and drop off. When cresting a dune the safe practice is the steer to the right or the left and drive parallel to the top of the hill before then turning down the steep face/droppoff. After several dunes you realize that you are creating large S patterns. This constant pattern will prevent you from flying off the top. possibly leading to damage to the vehicle or injury to you and the occupants.
Eyes up and looking ahead– Many first time driver riders all make the common mistake of not looking far enough ahead of where you are. DO NOT LOOK 100ft in front you LOOK 1000ft and farther ahead. You should always be scanning your surrounding area, you can not avoid a hazard if you can not see it. If you are traveling in a group you should be looking 2,3,4 vehicles ahead to see what they are doing. This allows you to make adjustments to the line you are on to stay out of trouble. By watching the vehicles ahead you will see upcoming drop offs or a witches eye to avoid. It is always a hard balance of trying to keep up while still maintaining a good line with pace and momentum. When dodging obstacles you may take a glance to see the obstacle pass but as soon as you can get the eyes up and scan as far ahead as you can, picking the best line to follow. In our group, many people do not have Radios, we will use a simple hand straight up from the driver to indicate a drop off or witches eye to warn the vehicles behind us. Then it is passed to each subsequent driver behind them to warn the entire group.
Witches Eyes– What Are They? Witches eyes are a hole or depression in the sand that is caused by the wind swirling off the top of the dune. The swirling action causes a vortex that pulls sand out resulting in a hole. This is typically unexpected and does not follow any pattern. you will transition a dune and BAM there is hole on the top or off to the side. Many a weekend has been ruined by Witches eyes ripping the front end wheel off your vehicle. Photo from Berts Mega Mall.
Safe Distance-This is the age old question. How close or far back should I be from the car in front. This is the hardest part to learn in a group ride. You dont want to be so far back that you loose site of your group or hold up the rest of them. But you also dont want to be too close that you can’t react appropriately when something happens in front of you. Its a lot like driving down the freeway. Travel a speed and distance that allows you to make corrections but not so slow that you are impeding the traffic behind you. If your group has an experienced leader they will be able to lead a line that allows all vehicles to follow. Sometimes that means the overall speed may be slower or that you will sometimes have to turn down sooner, avoiding a hard transition, to pick a more accessible route for all in the group. A wise choice may to tuck in behind someone that you trust and know. Many times they will be watching their mirrors and will be able to help make corrections if they see you struggling.With many new people to the sand It is said that I hope your group is not full of idiots, oh and they are out there. Best advice is to look up and as far ahead as you can and map your route. Do not drive straight to the blue dot on the GPS.
Transitioning from dune to dune
- Maintain Speed along with momentum
- DO NOT steer up transition (I’ll explain below)
- Must commit to transition
Once you are feeling more confident and are able to go faster in the Dunes, you have mastered the smaller dunes, and now want to make your way to the BIG BOWLS behind Oldsmobile hill. This is where you will have to learn to transition from one bowl to a another bowl. The smaller dune transition are sometime so small you dont realize that you are doing it. Transitioning the bowls is a fine line of coming in to steep, meaning more straight on perpendicular, and to shallow meaning you are following the crest parrallel. I have found that a good approach ot like 10 to 15 degress seems to work best and allow for a pretty smooth transition. When traveling around the bigger bowls you will maintain your speed (momentum) to keep yourself on line on the face of the bowl. If you cannot maintain your speed DO NOT fight gravity and try to turn up face of the dune. It is a learned action to attack the transition at the right angle. You can sometime slightly turn up to help hold your line but too much steering input can be catastrophic and lead to a roll over. If your front wheels have started over the transition as you are still oversteering to correct the angle of approach many times your back end will come around and you are now rolling side ways. On a safe approach once that front tire is over that that transition the steering input should be pretty much straight ahead. On the other side If you feel like the vehicle sliding down loosing momentum as you approach the transition you really have 2 options 1- More throttle, to up your speed, to maintain current path to transition or 2- if you cant speed up to maintain current path than just turn down and circle back around gathering more speed to the transition point. Lastly, If you panic DO NOT STOP ON THE HILL SIDEWAYS, always turn down the hill and have your nose face down towards the bottom. Stopping your vehicle on the side of the hill will more than likely lead you to rolling sideways down the hill. You can always circle around and try again. Once you crest you can then go catch up with your group.
Commitment– Once you have maintained your speed and are at the top crest of the bowl about to move into another bowl there will be a small ridge/peak that you must roll over. This will look sometimes like your driving off into nowhere but your vehicle should be moveing at couple of degrees in respect to the crest. At a slight angle you will continue your momentum and drive that front left or right tire over the crest. Once most of the vehicle is over the crest you will drop into the new bowl. The Key here is to maintain speed and momentum to then travel around the next bowl. When transitioning is done properly you will experience a roller coaster like effect of quick turns, Increased G forces, as you transition from bowl to bowl through the dunes. Below is a video of the Bowls between the Slide and Swing set.
