i average about 2500/y on the beach between my corolla trips, hatteras, bodie out at the obx and freeman , the 235-85R16s i dropped down to about 20, the 255-70R16s about 22 and the 31-10.5R15s about 15 (though due to design they dont need it nearly as much traction wise, i still do it to minimize my rut depths) unless it had / or was raining heavily and it was just a short dart out to the water line
as im sure you've noticed , when people have wheel spin their tracks behind them start feathering / / / / / / , which with traffic results in washboarding, only way not to do that is to control your wheel speed and the only way to reliably control your wheel speed is to shove it in 4-Low hold it in 1st or 2nd depending on your intended speed - to get to speed it takes about the same amount of throttle as it does to raise the RPMs to 2500 while in Park. give it slight +throttle when it bogs and back off when it starts to rev up but with very minute throttle changes, but youre maintaining an average constant throttle relative to your speed, and it ends up being basically like youre driving up a 3 degree grade, constantly, because as your tires try to roll forward they're constantly rolling uphill and having to push sand to the side, pack it under and spit it out, or push it forward
http://vid643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/JeepinJarhead03/RoadTrip%201%202011/beach1.mp4you can hear it in the video, engines at a certain RPM, under relatively no load, then the tone lowers as the load increases and raises as the load lifts all while adjusting the throttle the minimum amount that you can adjust it with fine motor skills. but as for actual load on the engine, it's basically non-existent other than the momentary loads and unloads as the surface changes, in 4High, ends up requiring more throttle to do the same speed. 4high 1st gear 15mph, vs 4Low 2nd gear 15mph
i usually aim for somewhere between 13 and 15 mph, 4low, and in second gear it's about 2500rpm-ish, i think i was going about 10-12 so probably closer to 2200 in the older video above because i was eating while my ex was messing with the camera. Riding to the left of the crown, not in anyones tracks unless i crossed over them and no issues, no digging, very little wheel spin running H/T 235-85R16's
I've had my trans temp come on only a few times, all in 4High - it was 100F'ish , i dozed off and woke up with the tide pinching me to the dune, which in that section is like an 8 ft sheer pack wall
and i ran pretty hard in 4High @ 45-50 the 8 1/2 miles back up to the service access
tide hits the dunes just on the other side of where the sunlight is laying across the beach
(pics taken different time of year/different trip but same section)
the second time was later when i was heading back up the other direction and forgot to put it from 4High into 4Low , realized it and was like well.. it'll be alright.. Nope, about 2 miles in cruising along at about my usual 15 something it came on, i stopped, let it cool for a few mins, put it in 4Low and finished the next 6 miles at my usual 15 with no worries.
Now farther south i did actually work the engine so hard that the engine temp gauge came up off of the center mark while helping a buggy up buggy run which is like a half mile crown dune, but i was doggin it pretty hard and also draggin skid the whole way because i had a 4x2 buggy as a boat anchor strapped behind me and that dune will swallow your shoes if you walk up it, its just wind blown powder - so either the engine sucked up the trans heat, or eventually it would have gone vice versa and the engine overheat the trans, or trans overheat the engine, either way didnt get a trans temp light the engine temp just lifted off of normal but i pretty much had toenails in the throttlebody pulling what if was a actual road probably would have been a truck killer but anyway, still no trans temp light in 4low even beating the tar out of it. And that's probably one of the bigger risks is heating the trans and it causing the engine to heat as well, particularly on a really hot day
Don't get me wrong, 4High can work in sand, at a higher speed, the failure of 4High in sand isn't lack of ability to gain speed, it's lack of control over the torque and when it's exerted, with 4High it'll load up under high resistance causing you to slow down- not enough torque to continue to rotate the wheels the same speed or faster since youre only carrying about 1700 @ 15mph in 1st in 4high- end up having to give it a lot more gas under load just to maintain the same rpm's, then you lose inertia and then it either breaks free of the snare and you have to regain the inertia, or it breaks free and you have wheel spin which if your inertia cant carry you through, you stop. And all of this back and forth tug of war = load, = heat, exactly as Troy spelled out. It's like purposefully keeping it in OD and giving it almost enough gas to kick down out of OD, but not quite.. and just letting it bogggggggg. 4Low you can gain much more control over your actual wheel speed and feather the throttle.
anyway, that's my experience with it in a storytime post.
4Low - 2nd gear ~15mph is easy cruisin. if youre in too much of a hurry to keep below 25ish for 4Low, trans temps the least of your worries
As for those 18's no answer for you there bud lol sorry. i pass a lot of folks with suv sized 18's and such. sometimes you just need a good shovel or a bucket no matter what tire/wheel youre runnin, run the coast long enough you'll hit a hole that will swallow ya to the skids lol
and i dont know how the kk's look compared to some of the wranglers, but on some of them the trans lines run awful dang close to the cats - its like, thanks didnt really need those to have any help in being warm
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