Are Snow Tyres good in the SAND ?

[oneinkedgeek]

I took my vitara out on its first beach trip last weekend on the new Kumho KL71's, and without a compressor i had to leave the tyres fully inflated. Overall no complaints other than those babys want to DIG.

What im thinking of doing is taking my 15 x 7 wheels with 235/75/15's off and leaving those for the mud and putting a cheap set of tyres on the factory 16's which i can use for day to day but also go well in the sand.

So having spent a fair bit on the KL71's im wanting to get something pretty cheap..... my question is.... are snow tyres pretty good in the sand ? They tend to be quite cheap compared to other types and I was just wondering what people think is a good option for the sand ?

[tweake]

proper snow tires are dangerous on hot tarseal if your driving on the road to the beach.
better of with road tread or AT's.

[CLUMZ1]

Essentially on sand the balder the better, bigger flatter surface areas are harder to push into the ground than something that is designed to rip and pull (mud/snow tires etc). As poster above said, snow tahs are dangerous on the road as they tend to heat up too much in our climate. A set of road leaning A/Ts might give you the best all round performace.

[Pico42]

Why not just buy a half decent compressor. Seems the most cost effective solution to me...

[Tarmac]

Theres a reason snow tyres are cheap... say no to snow! pick a common size (cheaper) AT, it may be worth weighing up another set of 15in rims if the tyres are cheaper than a comparable 16in one in the same profile

[ski]

Also I think snow tyres are cheap second hand because for a WOF they need to be 4mm min?

[lincooln]

Just get a cheap set of AT's or ATR's. I have cooper ATR's on my zuk and they go really well on road, on sand etc. and have worn bloody well. Bit pricey though.

[kbushnz]

Get a compressor and let those KL71's down to 15 psi....
They go great in the sand all bagged out...

[suzookyman]

As said, "the balder the better". My bro in law used to pull a trailer with bins of fish (in the tonnes) off the beach north of Brisbane in the 70's.He had a F150 351 V8 with aircraft tyres! he said anything else would just dig holes.
Al

[oneinkedgeek]

thanks , all good comments and i think the first thing ill look at getting as suggested is a good compressor so i can let the muds down, theres a few on trade me unless anyone can recommend something.

[Beer_Cruiser]

Just let the Muds down
As long as you take it easy on the road 15 psi on the road to the nearest servo will be fine