lawrench
Well-Known Member
I grew up in the Galveston Bay area, when you are going in the sand, you need to let some air out of the tires. Also, Surfside is the best for playing in the sand and surf. Some of the better fishing used to be the Texas City Dike, but that has been years ago. Next time, try the Intercoastal waterway near Surfside, especially when the Redfish are running. Head to Baffin Bay for spec trout fishing.I suppose maybe this should be common knowledge, but just do not overestimate the off-roading capability of the 2WD Ranger with no skid plate. The stock tires lose traction on even fairly tame sand, and the front end can bottom out easier than you might expect. If you'd like the story that taught me this lesson, read below. If not, that's all just a friendly PSA to be careful out there.
Story time. First trip to the beach, I got stuck. This was in Galveston, and on the far end of the island there's a lot of fishing that happens. We decided to travel down there because there is a park on the map and it's a nice, wide open beach area. Anyway, eventually we reach near the tip of the area where cars are allowed (marked by wooden posts) and there's a parking area with quite a few small SUVs and pickup trucks in it, so we pull into there. Well, as I go to turn around, I start losing traction pretty drastically. I manage to get a little bit further but lo and behold, I'm quite stuck. The tires just cannot get traction on the sand, and I had to get pulled out. Like I said there were multiple 2WD small SUVs in that lot that we watched get out just fine, as well as a 2WD Nissan Frontier. Bad driving? Maybe, I shouldn't have lost momentum after noticing the first slipping, but just a heads up that the stock tires get zero grip on even mildly soft sand.
Next trip to the beach I went to the other end of the island where the sand is mostly so hard-packed it's like concrete and anything can drive on it. However, there's been quite a bit of rain lately and so there is quite a bit of standing water in different spots over in this area. One of these patches of standing water was right on the main pathway to get back, and the only other way was a huge detour, so on the trip back we went to this area. We gauged the water and it wasn't too deep, just fine for the Ranger... we thought. Well, after driving through with a decent splash but no bash or bang of any kind felt inside, we discovered that the front plastic lip had been broken off, the radiator had been bent, and (later) discovered that multiple components of the AC system had been damaged as well. You'd think with such damage you'd have felt a bash or thud when the truck bottomed out as it clearly did, but we felt absolutely nothing. Anyway, repairs on this took months as parts availability right now is horrendous.
Above you can see the damage. Very confounded as to how the license plate got bent like that, but the holder and everything at that same level in the car showed no signs of damage at all. Perhaps I'm wrong about the bottoming out and an object in the water did the damage? We'll never know. If I did, in fact, bottom out as suspected, that whole damaged area would have been fine had the skid plate been there.
Just be safe out there, and be very careful with water crossings!
Just remember to let air out of your tires next time in the sand. You may want to invest in a small air compressor to air up your tires when you leave the beach.
I think you can still get skid plates to fit on your 2wd vehicle.
Enjoy your fishing trips on the coast, I sure miss it.
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