Ground Clearance for beach driving

Lords of the hobie forums,

I'm looking for a fuel efficient and reliable car to tow the hobie 16 with and drive on the beach with. Since I'm doing beach driving I want 4x4, but I'm not sure how much ground clearance I truly need. I used to have a ram 1500, but I know I can get away with smaller (more fuel efficient) vehicles since the H16 is so light. Any thoughts? How much ground clearance should I have for medium difficulty beach driving?

For the tow vehicle? For sand, the axles are the limitation. Soft (underinflated) tires are desirable to roll over the sand.

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

Ground clearance, horse power, tread width - the first time you get stuck, you're going to wish you had more of each.

Towing a trailer with small, narrow tires and loaded down with a couple hundred pounds of sailing gear will bog down any tow vehicle in soft sand. Consider getting wider than standard tires for your trailer if you plan on doing a lot of beach driving.

I would recommend using vehicles with "real" four wheel drive (i.e. a selector that locks the truck in 4). Drop the pressure in the tires down to 15psi max and in some cases less than 10psi if the sand is really soft).

sm

My 2015 Toyota Tacoma 4x4 does fine towing my 16 through sand.

_________________
Catamaran Racing Association of Michigan - Marketing Officer
USF18 - Social Media Manager

2010 NACRA Infusion
2004 F18 Hobie Tiger - SOLD
Hobie 16 - BREAKPOINT - SOLD

Yes, I'm confident Tacoma's (not available in New Zealand, where I just moved to), Highlanders, 4runners, etc. will all do the job, but I'm wondering what the minimum car is that will do the job (since gas is 10X more here than it was back in Texas).

I was thinking Subaru outback/Forester, but apparently those get stolen alot in NZ. A rav4 I'm not sure has enough ground clearance. I'm currently looking into the Mazda CX5 and Honda CRV, but I'm unsure how reliable their 4wd systems are.

just put up with the cost of gas and get a Hilux

_________________
Catamaran Racing Association of Michigan - Marketing Officer
USF18 - Social Media Manager

2010 NACRA Infusion
2004 F18 Hobie Tiger - SOLD
Hobie 16 - BREAKPOINT - SOLD

Now we're talking!!

_________________
Steve
2017 Hobie 16 "Cayman" sails 114795
1985 & 1973? Hobie 14 "Sea & Ski"

I have a Honda Element (same chassis / motor / transmission as CRV) and no way I would count on it's "Real Time 4WD" system to consistently handle towing on sand.

We also have an older Jeep Wrangler and even with it's 4WD system, we got stuck towing our Hobie trailer on the beach through soft sand a few years ago. It wasn't a huge deal, we unhitched the trailer, put the Jeep in 4 Low, crawled out, and re-positioned. But really any truck can get stuck in the sand depending on conditions. I would not mess around with a mid-size SUV or car with all-wheel-drive if you plan on doing any considerable amount of driving on sand. Like I said, the first time you get stuck, you're going to wish you had more horsepower, ground clearance, tire size, etc.

And always air down your tires when going on sand, regardless of how it "looks".

sm