Offroad-Express

Hi all,

(this has probably been posted already but anyways)

I've got a 3500 95 Pajero v6 with a few bells and whistles. I have a thought annoying me at the mo...

The tyres (sorry no exact details) but they are quite nice fat road tyres - I heard somewhere road tyres are ok for the sand - I'm not too keen on getting stuck but my budget is a tad dry so getting some grunty tyres is not an option currently. Is it o.k to use the road tyres on mild offroad driving and sand?

Over n Out

Successful sand traversing is not reliant upon having "grunty tyres" ; indeed, agressive tread will only dig you deeper. The secret is flotation - drop your tyre pressure; most tyres will remain safely on beads at 18PSI (don't drive above 60kph, and don't corner sharply).
Therefore, your 'road tyres' will be fine.

a bald road tyre of any kind will better any mud tyre in the sand

as leithfeild said no lugs to dig.

I can only reinforce what Leithfield and Krawler have said so far.
If you want to experiment with this take your truck around Red Rocks (you are in Wellington aren't you?) and drive through some soft sand there with the tyres at normal road pressure. Then let them down (not all the way ) and try the same area again. You might be surprised. It is also a safe area to try out the capabilities of your truck in soft sand. On Saturdays there are usually pleanty of other trucks around if you are in a spot of bother. And getting stuck, and unstuck, is all part of the fun. Don't worry about getting stuck and you will have much more fun.

I has a set of 35" simex Centipedes on a V8 'cruiser and headed out Red Rocks ready to show all the locals how its done. I managed to show them how to dig four deep holes really, really fast. As mentioned above fat, non-aggressive patterns are best on sand. If you do have an aggressive, directional type tyre you can put the tyres on reverse direction and they will perform better in sand.