1. Never drive alone (with only one car) to the desert and always take recovery equipment (towing rope and shovel) with you.
2. Deflate your tires slightly to increase the tire’s footprint and provide better traction. This will dramatically improve the traction of the tires. Deflated tires will decrease your ground clearance and the tires will get hot fast – don’t drive fast (especially on the road heading to the next compressor)….
3. Don’t spin your tires and drive with a constant momentum.
4. Drive in higher gears if possible.
5. If the tires start to spin, slow down until they get traction again and try to keep the car moving forward. Turn the steering quickly to both sides to get more grip. If you don’t move at all, stop.
6. Avoid stopping at flat terrain and keeping the car moving in soft sand.
7. Don’t speed on sand! Sand is sleepy and with deflated tires you can easily flip the car.
8. When you are going down a dune and the rear is breaking out sideward’s, don’t brake as it can increase the effect. Try to accelerate a bit to straighten the car.
9. When going up a dune and you are stuck, don’t try to make a U turn! Just reverse down the dune. (It looks very nice and it’s also fun cutting dunes alongside, but this requires a lot of experience or simply just madness.)
10. If you enter areas without clear landmarks always take a GPS or at least a compass with you.
11. Fill up the tank with gas. (Usually for a daytrip an extra canister is not required).
12. Don’t drive over the fragile desert vegetation – you will destroy it. 13. Take your garbage out of the desert even if it is you lost the bumper! 14. Don’t worry if you get stuck… it happens 😉
13. Take your garbage out of the desert even if it is you lost the bumper!
14. Don’t worry if you get stuck… it happens 😉