'95 Outback and... sand dunes?

[Hallraker]

There are some sand dunes in the area, and I've been thinking about trying
to take them on in my aging '95 Outback. The question is, will I be able to
make it through them?

The '95 model Outback lacks the ground clearance of the later models,
however it has the same AWD system. In four years of driving it, I've only
become stuck once, when I bounced off the road and landed on a large chunk
of ice with all four wheels off the ground.

I've never tried sand though, so I'm interested in ideas/opinions from
others who may have attempted this with an AWD non-lifted Subie. I'm not a
person who is full of pride, so if I end up digging myself a huge hole and
need to get pulled out by someone, I won't care too much.

-Matt

 

[CompUser]

@newssvr33.news.prodigy.com>, hallraker79
@nospam.hotmail.com says...

There are some sand dunes in the area, and I've been thinking about trying
to take them on in my aging '95 Outback. The question is, will I be able to
make it through them?

Talk with some folks around you who ride sand.
There's some tricks you can do with tire
pressure, and some good things to take in case
you do get stuck. They'll also be able to look
at your tread and give you an idea how it will do
in sand...not the same as mud, at all.

Steve

 

[Ned Pike]

In

@newssvr33.news.prodigy.com>, hallraker79
@nospam.hotmail.com says...

Talk with some folks around you who ride sand.
There's some tricks you can do with tire
pressure, and some good things to take in case
you do get stuck. They'll also be able to look
at your tread and give you an idea how it will do
in sand...not the same as mud, at all.

Steve

ISTR a big Car & Driver comparison a few years back about several types of
4WD/AWD vehicles, including the Outback, SUVs, pickups, Jeep Wranglers, and
Land Rovers. One of the high points for the Outback came in the sand dunes,
where (IIRC) C&D wrote about the Outback swimming its way up the dunes to
ask those who buried more "manly" 4WD vehicles if they needed a ride.

Apocryphal, as I can't find a cite (C&D site seems down) and, of course,
YMMV.

 

[Brian Wasson]

I've never had either of my two OBWs on sand, but have done a bit of
sand driving in my 1991 Isuzu Trooper (which, of course, has much
higher clearance than the OBW). But, I have seen plenty of Subies on
the beaches in North Carolina's Outer Banks, and they seem to do fine.
The main thing to be careful of is getting stuck in pre-made ruts in
area where there is a lot of off-road traffic (like the Outer Banks).
These ruts can be quite deep, and that's where having the high
clearance is really necessary. In areas where the sand is not so
torn-up (even on dunes), or below the high tide line (at low tide, of
course!), the OBW should do fine.

 

[Ronald Donahue]

I have found the biggest problem with a Subaru in the sand is a lack of a
low range of gears. Soft sand eats up a lot power and you can bogged down
not for traction but lack of power.

Ron Donahue