# Tires or treads?-What's the best vehicle locomotion method for traversing loose sand?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tires-or-treads-whats-the-best-vehicle-locomotion-method-for-traversing-loose-sand/124354>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 17, 2002, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tires-or-treads-whats-the-best-vehicle-locomotion-method-for-traversing-loose-sand/124354 "2002-08-17T16:56:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2002, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tires-or-treads-whats-the-best-vehicle-locomotion-method-for-traversing-loose-sand/124354/1 "2002-08-17T16:56:26Z")

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What is the best and most efficient mechanical locomotion method for moving across loose sand to insure that you will not get stuck?

Tires, treads or something else?

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**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2002, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tires-or-treads-whats-the-best-vehicle-locomotion-method-for-traversing-loose-sand/124354/2 "2002-08-17T17:42:06Z")

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Camel.

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**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2002, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tires-or-treads-whats-the-best-vehicle-locomotion-method-for-traversing-loose-sand/124354/3 "2002-08-17T18:08:43Z")

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- 
  - 
    - Um, screws? What was that thing with the two screws? Or was that a swamp sort-of thing?  
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- Tires would be the best, because you can actually displace more sand than the vehicle weighs. Monster-truck tires would work, but they’re built for far heavier loads than you’d need for a regular car/light truck. Monster trucks will float in water, so they’d potentially float in sand also. If you could construct your own custom tires, you could lighten them up a lot.
- Metal-tracked vehicles tend to be very heavy and get poor fuel economy/have high maintenance needs.
- Sno-cats use very wide, lighter rubber treads; I guess they’d sure stay on top of it, but I dunno what kind of problems you might have in sand.  
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**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2002, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tires-or-treads-whats-the-best-vehicle-locomotion-method-for-traversing-loose-sand/124354/4 "2002-08-17T18:21:11Z")

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Hovercraft?

Failing that, probably a wheeled vehicle with big, wide, aggressive tread, low pressure tires.

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**Author:** ![scotth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9e5f3/32.png) [@scotth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotth)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2002, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tires-or-treads-whats-the-best-vehicle-locomotion-method-for-traversing-loose-sand/124354/5 "2002-08-17T20:21:47Z")

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I would look at existing dune buggies. These have been built from the ground up to run well on sand. Refinement of these has gone on for years.

The current formula:  
Light weight  
High power  
plenty of ground clearence  
Large paddle type drive wheels

The get around great and take a near deliberate effort to get stuck.

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**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2002, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tires-or-treads-whats-the-best-vehicle-locomotion-method-for-traversing-loose-sand/124354/6 "2002-08-17T21:06:19Z")

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airplane

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**Author:** ![pincushion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d9b06d/32.png) [@pincushion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pincushion)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2002, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tires-or-treads-whats-the-best-vehicle-locomotion-method-for-traversing-loose-sand/124354/7 "2002-08-17T23:28:50Z")

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Sandworms.

Oh, wait, never mind.