Honda CR-V Owners Club Forums banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

Beach Driving with 2018 CRV?

8K views 31 replies 19 participants last post by  EXcommunicated 
#1 ·
I am interested in driving my 2018 CRV AWD choose the Delaware State Park beaches to do some surf fishing. I have seen lots of back-and-forth on other social media stating that you must have FWD, and that the CRV will get stuck. Even with lowering the tire pressure to 15 to 18 psi. Does anyone have any conclusive evidence, or advice about this?
 
#3 ·
Hope someone that has done some Beach driving will come in, and offer advice, Beach is a mile down the road, and Permits required to be on the Beach. Deflate the tires, its not a 4X4. that said good luck on your trip, I be careful about Sand , and Salt.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Samuelx
#7 ·
Regardless of the vehicle one chooses to ride to at/on the beach. Please verify the tires (sidewalls) will not be damaged by lowering when lower pressure to 15, 18 whatever psi. That is a very low pressure. Remember the Explorer/Firestone fiasco from years ago. IIRC, Ford Explorer recco was 24 psi tire pressure, Firestone tire minimum psi spec was 24 psi. No room for error.
good point. Thanks..
 
#5 ·
I have been there several times and have seen AWD vehicles driving on the packed sand. However, I did not see a CR-V so I would not know. But yes, deflating the tires is a "must" and I would not go in to sand without doing so---secondly, we had a 4WD Explorer and used to go to the OBX all the time and drove on the beach---we only went on at low tide. It's almost impossible to get stuck on packed sand.
Also, my BIL lives in Lewes,DE and has a 4WD Tacoma. He could not get a permit and is on a waiting list as there's a limited amount they allow---so this all might be a moot point anyway.
 
#6 ·
Regardless of the vehicle one chooses to ride to at/on the beach. Please verify the tires (sidewalls) will not be damaged by lowering when lower pressure to 15, 18 whatever psi. That is a very low pressure. Remember the Explorer/Firestone fiasco from years ago. IIRC, Ford Explorer recco was 24 psi tire pressure, Firestone tire minimum psi spec was 24 psi. No room for error.
 
#21 ·
Highly recommend buying a portable battery operated air pump from Harbor Freight, Home Depot, etc.

And buy a real tire gauge, a tire patching tool, and some patches as well.
This has saved me 10+ times, Home Depot is nail city around here.
A heads up for Costco Tire folks, if you self patch a Costco tire they won't fix it (my experience).
 
#20 ·
Like you, your sister state south, Oregon, offers plenty of opportunities to drive on a beach. Although I haven't taking my 2018 CR-V T on one, I use to drive my 65 VW Bug and 72 Celica on them. They were RWD only but I never had any problem so I'm thinking an AWD vehicle shouldn't have any issue. Best advice I can give is...go slow.
 
#10 ·
Sand is ALWAYS a possible hazard. Some vehicles mitigate the hazard better than others.

As others have noted.. you will need to lower pressure on the tires (carry a portable inflator to re-inflate the tires back up to spec before driving on the road). AWD is also pretty much compulsory.. except for very hard packed sand that will carry regular autos (like the good old days on Daytona Beach). And.... learn in advance how to, and how NOT to, drive on sand.. because most sand related stranding is self-inflected via bad driving behavior.

Personally, I would avoid driving on sand unless it truly is hardpack sand, and NOT water logged, in a CRV. That said.. you will do better with a gen5 AWD CRV on sand than on earlier generations because Honda really has upgraded the AWD drive and traction control systems in the gen5.
 
#13 ·
We take our AWD CRV to the beaches in WA State and never had a problem. Just don't get the vehicle high centered so you can keep the weight on the tires and all will be good. Carry a small shovel just in case.
I was thinking same thing, shovel and something like:
 
#15 ·
Heh.... well this comes down to being proactive vs reactive, in my view. Proactively plan for problems and have viable contingencies, OR... to all reactive when/if you have problems. I generally live in the proactive camp in this equation. Then again.. I have absolutely no good reason to ever take my CRV out across beach sand either.. but that does not change my approach and thinking to the issue.

Where driving on sand is concerned, with the possibility of being genuinely stuck on a sand beach, with the tide coming in while you scramble to dig out .... I think proactive is the better approach here. :)

The basic common sense rule is never put yourself into a situation where you cannot get out of it or manage it. So.. when taking a CRV off-road... always best to plan for the worst, and then enjoy your trip. If you plan for the worst.. either it never comes to pass, or it does and you have a plan to quickly move past it... because you may otherwise not have the ability to save your vehicle from harm.
 
#18 ·
I've driven my wife's '99 in the Imperial Sand Dunes and also in the dunes near Las Vegas and St George.

Half the tire pressure is fine (15#)....let them down on pavement so you can see how much of a bulge you have.

Turn the traction control off.

Keep the beast rapped up. The higher the gear, the less likely it is to spin the tires, but you need them spinning...if the going is tough, if it is packed sand, it won't matter either way.
 
#19 ·
I love our CRV. But it is only an AWD vehicle, not a 4 wheel drive. There are significant differences. I might take it on a hard pack sand beach, but not a beach made up mainly of loose sand. You may at the very least get stuck and at the very worst cause damage to your AWD system.
 
#22 ·
Have a 2019 FWD (not AWD), not impressed on sand or snow.
1) It has a slip limiter that stops the front wheels from spinning, even if you figure out that you need to hold the off button for 3-5 seconds to turn it off, it still doesn't spin right.
2) Compared to my AWD element, the CRV FWD has 30% traction. Compared to my 4WD Dodge it has 10% traction.
(Yes I could have bought the AWD CRV, but with the tire replacement issues, wear, etc. wasn't worth it for this car.)
 
#25 ·
Given how much better gen5 CRV AWDs have tested on a range of different traction challenges, this does not surprise me.

I saw a side by side test of a gen5 and a gen4 on different wheel roller setups and challenges on youtube and the gen5s kick the gen4 backsides in AWD performance, particularly when one wheel is slipping and the others are not. It really shows up on wheel roller testing how much improvement Honda has designed into the current generation AWD for CRVs.

I think only water saturated sand would pose a problem for a gen5 CRV AWD being driven carefully. A CRV being driven recklessly on sand.... all bets are off though, even for a gen5. :p
 
#26 ·
We have driven our 2004 AWD along the beach at Carolina Beach, NC. Best is along shore but we also got thru the higher level, softer sand. The key is lower air pressure, keep moving where soft and stay out of the ruts. The big trucks have 2 or 3 times the ground clearance. We never got stuck but were careful. Helpful hint, when camping on the beach, be ABSOLUTELY SURE to close your windows for the night!!! It is a lot of effort to get all the sand out the following day!
BTW, the minimun air pressure is for on the road, not for the sand.
 
#27 ·
I am interested in driving my 2018 CRV AWD choose the Delaware State Park beaches to do some surf fishing. I have seen lots of back-and-forth on other social media stating that you must have FWD, and that the CRV will get stuck. Even with lowering the tire pressure to 15 to 18 psi. Does anyone have any conclusive evidence, or advice about this?

Well, I don't know about the beaches in Delaware, but I've been beach driving at hatteras since the '70's, and 4WD is a must. Ground clearance is an issue, the sand can get fluffy and you never know where/when. We drive 4WD trucks and air down to 18-20 PSI, carry jacks, boards for jacks, tow ropes, etc. We seeAWD/FWD vehicles stuck routinely. Also trucks stuck that don't air down.
 
#31 ·
I am interested in driving my 2018 CRV AWD choose the Delaware State Park beaches to do some surf fishing. I have seen lots of back-and-forth on other social media stating that you must have FWD, and that the CRV will get stuck. Even with lowering the tire pressure to 15 to 18 psi. Does anyone have any conclusive evidence, or advice about this?

Well, I don't know about the beaches in Delaware, but I've been beach driving at hatteras since the '70's, and 4WD is a must. Ground clearance is an issue, the sand can get fluffy and you never know where/when. We drive 4WD trucks and air down to 18-20 PSI, carry jacks, boards for jacks, tow ropes, etc. We seeAWD/FWD vehicles stuck routinely. Also trucks stuck that don't air down.
I would imagine that as long as you drive carefully, with no sudden starts or stops you will do fine on packed sand on any CRV.. FWD or AWD. Avoid loose sand though if possible, because you have no idea what is underneath. Traction control systems are much improved on the current generation CRVs vs prior generations... so you need to read advice relevant to generation 5 CRVs... as it is somewhat different. Deflating the tires some provides several benefits, just be sure you are packing a portable inflator to restore them before you return to hard road surfaces.

Remember the old days, when vehicles were rear wheel drive, with only one actual wheel putting forward force on the road surface, on skinny bias ply tires? THAT was a vehicle waiting to get stuck in sand. FWD was considered superior to this as it did include balanced driving force on both wheels and FWD would pull the vehicle forward rather than pushing from the rear.

Generally speaking, the advice already provided in this thread covers your questions. :)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top