Ryan: I'm Ryan from extremeterrain.com and in this episode, we're out here in Sand Hollow
learning how to drive in the dunes.
So here we are out here at Sand Mountain OHV area just outside of Sand Hollow State Park
and today is all about driving on the dunes.
Next to me, I have Jeff.
Jeff, thanks so much for being with us.
Jeff: Oh, thanks for having me out here with you guys.
Ryan: Absolutely.
Jeff is from the Desert Roads and Trails Society.
We are very happy to have him out here as a guide for us and to show us some of the
techniques behind wheeling in the sand because it is a little bit different from what we're
used to.
So we have the Deegan Jeep out here.
This is the Jeep that we built for Brian Deegan.
If you haven't seen that video, make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel that
way you can check that video out as well as our video of us wheeling this Jeep at Easter
Jeep Safari this year.
That was an absolute blast.
So, this Jeep's pretty well set up but Jeff's gonna talk us through a little bit more about
how you want your Jeep to be set up and some of the techniques that you're really gonna
use out here in the sand.
I know we were talking about the fact that you can pretty much take a stock vehicle out
here and wheel it.
Jeff: That's correct.
All you need out here to get on the sand is just air your tires down, get a bigger footprint,
little bit of horsepower, and some common sense and anybody can come out here and wheel
in the sand.
Ryan: If you have something, especially something like yours that's got a big wide tire, it's
an even bigger footprint, that's gonna give you some more traction.
Jeff: It gives you a lot more traction, a little more aggressive tread.
You can get too aggressive if you don't have enough power and then you're just gonna dig
a hole and you're not gonna go anywhere.
Ryan: If you do start getting yourself into one of these situations, don't just hammer
down and dig it down to the frame.
Jeff: Right.
That's not a fun situation to be in.
Ryan: We have the Deegan Jeep.
Like we said before, just has 37 by 12.50 tires on it.
It's got a 4-inch lift to clear those tires and maybe most importantly about this setup
are the shocks.
These are the Falcon 3.3 adjustable shocks.
We have them on a fairly soft setting because you said out here with some of the Razors
and the ATVs, it can get pretty rough.
Jeff: Right.
It gets pretty bumpy with the tracks that people leave and then also, you'll notice
on the dunes, depending on which direction the wind goes, there's a Razorback and that's
real steep.
You don't wanna go up 'em because you probably won't make it but you don't wanna fly off
of 'em either or you'll do a nosedive in the sand.
Yeah, I don't think I'd ever wanna do one.
Ryan: Yeah.
But again, that's why we have the expert, we have Jeff out here.
He's gonna make sure nothing like that happens to us today and that we're just out here having
a great time.
So, Jeff's gonna be riding my shotgun.
We're gonna hop in the Deegan Jeep and he's gonna show me some of the techniques out here,
have a little bit of fun, and then Jeff's gonna get in his Jeep.
We're gonna play some follow the leader, rip around out here, have a great time.
So let's get after it.
So before we got out here on the sand, the first thing that Jeff had us do out here is
airing down, right, Jeff?
So that's giving us a pretty decent size footprint.
But you were saying about not wanting to air down too much because you can actually get
sand in the bead.
Jeff: Yeah.
When you hit something, it'll open your bead up, you get sand in there, and then all your
air leaks out.
Cuts into your play time.
Ryan; Yeah, we don't wanna do that.
We wanna have fun out here.
Coming up to a couple of decent-sized dunes here.
Tell me essentially how I want to approach these.
Jeff: Naturally, speed's on your favor, okay.
If you try to go up something slow, you're not gonna make it.
You've gotta check out the bottom of the dune, make sure you have a good approach ramp so
you're not nosediving into the dune because if you do that, you're gonna lose your momentum
and it's not gonna feel good.
Then you just need to stay in the throttle till you get to the top and then try not to
fly over the top of the dunes, unless you know what's on the other side and you've got
a good landing.
Ryan: Got it.
So it's a little bit of throttle control because, like you said, you wanna be into it to keep
your momentum to the top but once you get to the top, slow down pretty aggressively
so you can see where you're coming down.
So this is a little dune, it's not a huge dune but it's a little dune so we're gonna
kinda try out some of the techniques that you talked about.
So I'm gonna give it a little bit of throttle till we get to the top, ease off so we can
see what's going down...
Jeff: Ease off so you see what's on the other side because if you can't see when you get
to the top, turn off and ride the top of the dune until you can see and then you can turn
back down and go off the other side, then you don't have to slow down.
Ryan: Yeah, all right.
Get a little bit of throttle here.
Jeff: That's a pretty steep drop-off there.
Ryan: That is pretty steep.
I can see what you mean there.
If you don't let off and you carry speed over that...
Jeff: Yeah, you become an airplane with no wings.
Ryan: That's not what you want because when you nose in on the other side, that's when
you end up with some problems.
So we know that right now the wind that shaped these dunes is coming from our back, so pretty
much every dune that we come upon is gonna be the same thing.
Little [crosstalk 00:04:34].
Jeff: Correct.
It's gonna be the same thing everywhere.
This one's a little steeper at the top so you're gonna need a little bit more momentum.
Just let off at the top or you can actually slam on your brakes and slide off the other
side and hopefully, it's not 300 feet to the bottom.
Ryan: Yeah, okay.
Well, we'll find out.
Jeff: You're gonna need a lot of momentum.
Ryan: Okay.
Jeff: Man, you're pretty straight off on this side.
Good job.
Ryan: So, yeah.
I panicked a little bit when we got to the top, came to a complete stop.
Luckily didn't get high-centered.
We weren't too far over the right and we were able to save it.
So out here on the sand, you can definitely get yourself stuck but it's also very preventable,
you were saying, as long as you do the right thing once you start spinning, right?
Jeff: When you're climbing something, yes, it's definitely preventable.
The important thing is to stop before you bury your axles to where you have to shovel
it out and I know we're friends but if you bury it to the axles, you're on your own,
buddy.
Ryan: I hear you.
Well, we'll do everything we can to prevent that.
So it's pretty much when I start feeling it spin, when I really lose momentum, we wanna
back out of it, right?
Jeff: Well, yeah.
As long as you're moving, there's a possibility that you could still make it.
It's when the vehicle comes to a dead stop is where you're gonna dig in.
When the vehicle comes to a dead stop, that's when you let off the throttle, put it in reverse,
and you can back out.
And the important thing that you gotta remember is to keep the vehicle straight when you're
coming down.
Ryan: So we're gonna try this, which is pretty steep.
We're gonna take it a little bit slower, that way we can get a feel for how that process
works when you back out.
Jeff: Exactly.
There you go.
Ryan: So right as you come to a complete stop as you said, that's when you wanna hit the
brake.
Jeff: That's when you want to let off the throttle, stop.
You should be good to back down.
Ryan: Yeah, we got gravity on our side here.
So this is a small little one so it makes it really easy to come out of it.
And then like you said, as long as you keep the steering wheel straight, so what we're
gonna do here is back up and try the same thing but now try not to get stuck.
And let me get a little more throttle, see what happens.
Oops!
A little too fast.
Jeff: No, it's all right.
Making it's better than not.
Ryan: Yeah.
All right.
Well, you gave me a real good crash course there.
I got some of the techniques down.
I got some experience under my belt.
Maybe you hop in your Jeep, I'll stay in this one, and we'll play a little follow the leader,
rip around, have a good time?
Jeff: Okay.
Ryan: He's using that dune like a big berm.
Hitting it going 30, 35 miles an hour with just screaming high RPM keeping that wheel
speed up.
Just messing around in two-wheel drive with that rear locker on having a good time.
So he's keeping an eye out for other people, yeah, ATVs, dirt bikes, there's all kinds
of different side by sides out here.
Yeah, there we go.
Got a little sideways coming down the hill there.
Definitely got myself into too much trouble.
Made it just fine.
I tell you, you get some good wheel speed up and you can go up stuff that doesn't look
like you should be able to go up.
But it is still about throttle control because you wanna carry as much momentum as you can
through the climb but once you get up to the top, you really wanna slow down so you don't
air out coming over the top of the thing.
Jeff's making a little climb here.
Have to get some wheel speed up for this one for sure.
We're trying to just get back to where we started here.
These hills are steep, the sun's been baking 'em all day long, the sand is super, super
dry.
This is definitely giving us a bit of a fit here so I'm gonna give it another run here
and see how I do.
Made it.
You just hammer down sometimes.
Well, that's gonna do it for us wheeling out here on the dunes.
I learned a lot, had an absolute blast, and I wanna say a couple of thank yous.
First, to you, Jeff, thank you so much for showing us around and teaching me how to wheel
out here.
Jeff: It's been my pleasure.
You're very welcome.
Ryan: Also a thank you to Brian Deegan for letting us borrow the Deegan Jeep.
We beat on this thing today but we are giving it back to him all in one piece, which I'm
sure he'll be happy about.
And also a very big thank you to the BLM, the Bureau of Land Management that helped
to make this video possible.
Make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel, that way you can check out us wheeling this
Jeep out at Easter Jeep Safari and some of the best Jeep content out there.