A&M F150

I've driving down into the 30's several times, all with 35" mud terrains ( Mickey Thompson MTZ and BFG KM2) never aired down. I almost always drive in 2wd unless I need 4x4. If you know how to drive, you'll be fine. One of the guys in the offroad club here at A&M took his 06 cummins with 37" Toyo muds all the way down at night and had no problem. If you do go though, bring straps, shackles and some wood to stick under your tires. I live in Corpus and drive the beach all the time so I know it pretty well.

SailorDon

Almost a year has gone by and I haven't gotten the motivation or courage to make the 60 mile beach drive. I did see this photo in the brochure on the National Park website.



This guy must have done something wrong, like driving over seaweed. It looks like a F-150 FX4, 2009 or newer. Does it belong to anyone that posts on this forum?

The link to the National Park brochure is:

http://www.nps.gov/pais/loader.cfm?c...&PageID=525110

A&M F150

That's an 04-08 FYI, and yea, he probably drove over the loosely packed seaweed at low tide thinking it would be easier, got stuck, then when high tide came in, he got shafted. Don't drive on the seaweed and you should be fine

big_pun

ive been down to the 20-30 mile marker many times last year and it wasnt that bad of terrian. when do plan to go im in san antonio and wouldnt mind goin but i wanna fish!!!!!

mazmo

man you guys have got me fired up thinking about pins. i try to go twice a year down there. i have 97 f150 with 285 75 16s and are down to 20 psi havent got stuck yet.the key is to plan your trip at low tide to drive on the packed sand. it took over 5 hours to get to mile marker 57 or so.my buddy has a jeep and got down to half a tank so we stoped and set camp there.stayed three days and fished.take extra gas.5 gal bucket to wet sand if you get stuck.shovel. its a good idea to go with another vehicle.just in case of needing a jump. i took my family out there in our jeep commander listining to the radio for a while and the battery died. no one came down the beach until 5 in the morning. and one more thing, the beach driving conditions change daily.

SailorDon

I'm getting to the decision stage of this adventure.

I want to keep the same outside diameter as the stock tires (about 31") to avoid calibration issues on the speedometer. I also want to be able to have a bigger footprint for better floatation on soft sand. This would include airing down to 25 psi for the beach run. (back to 40 psi for the road).

Rims:
I'm looking at ATX Crawl 18" or equivalent.

Tires:
General Grappler AT2 LT275/65R18E.
There might be an availability issue with the General, so second choice is
BF Goodrich T/A KO 275/65R18

I've gotten quotes for installed, balanced and with 315 MHz TPMS for about $2,150 for the set of four. By going to the internet, I can only save about $50, so I'll probably go to a national chain like Discount Tire or NTB.

Any suggestions or comments concerning this selection are welcome.
It will be at least a week before I make the decision to buy.

SailorDon

That is slower than I was estimating. I was hoping to average 20 mph. Based on your numbers, that is 11.4 mph. Did you stop along the way to go fishing? Or do you have to stop and get out on foot to check for sinkholes in the sand? That could slow down the drive along the beach.

I'm not looking to break any speed records, but I would like to do the round trip in one day during daylight hours. If that is not possible, I will consider tent camping. I've never camped on the beach before, but I've done a lot of tent camping in the woods.

Dirty-F-Bomb

Me & a couple of buddies are planning a trip to go scope out Yarbrough Pass in mid to late February to plan for a fishin trip, thats only to mile marker 15. Really to test out the trucks but would like to plan atrip to go to the end. I use to live in Corpus & remember my dad saying something about it taking like 5hrs or so. Ive been like 30 miles down, but that was in the late 80's. From what I remember its pretty hard to average 20mph. I would use a non-aggressive All Terain and air them down don't forget the air compressor to air back up.

I just remember all the cool stuff that would wash up on shore & me and my cousins building forts out of it. I know one thing for sure never travel the low road because you'll find that you can haul *** down there but if the tide starts comming in and you can't get back over that steep incline trying to get back up on the beach to the high road you'll end up like that truck on the brochure, I've seen them stuck up to the door handles. And lookin' at the steep angle that picture was takin at, lookin down on the truck I bet thats what happened.


Carry plenty of gas, water & food, be prepared for anything. Mosquito spray depending when you go, I've been down there a few times when the winds die down & they bout eat you alive, specially when you need to drop a deuce in the dunes and watch for rattle snakes too....don't forget the TP. Meat tenderizer for jellyfish & wasp stings. Baby oil to remove the tar. Shower bags or wash tub & soap. I think thats about it for the necessities and do's & dont's that I can remember I was like 12 or 13yrs old.

Oh CB Radio if you got one or VHF Radio...never know, one family member had an emergency down there (long story) we were too far down & had to call down to the park ranger station to send messege to Coast Guard Heli to air lift a cousin of mine to Spon Hospital, but that was before cell phones. I dont know if you can get cell reception down there or not. I don't know if ther still is a turtle patrol but you would see them always drivin up and down the beach if you ever needed to relay a messege to the park ranger station.

mazmo

hey sailordon.
when we went it was high tide and we had to take the high road which at the time it was deep soft ruts and bumpy. at some points the truck was slamming bottom. once past the 30 or so it got better.but the beach changes very often from what i here. im no pro out there yet, i guess having that fear of what your gonna come across is what makes it so fun.try to plan to go at low tide so you can cruz faster. its also easier on your motor,suspension, and gas.running in 2wd can save alot of gas also. as far as tires go i run 285 75 16 bfg all terrains i aired down for the first time last time i went. major differece. i think smaller rim and more rubber around it is better than the bigger rim and lower profile tire. for offroading at least.

big_pun

I made the trip this past weekend sand is soft
most of the way but didn't have any probs driving in 4 high. made it to 20 mile marker but fishing conditions sucked.