Michelin XPC 7.50-16 on Land Rover 300 tdi Defender in Sand
 

Does anyone have experience with running Michelin XPC in (Saharan) dune sand at low pressures (less than 1 bar)?

The choice I have is XPCs or XS. XS are proven at low pressures in sand, but not great on wet tar. XPCs are currently on the vehicle.

I drive a Nissan Patrol 4800 out here in Qatar in the dunes. I bought a second set of rims fitted with sand tyres, went out to the desert to compare and contrast, I reckon they might be 10% better than road tyres on the sand and 100% worse than road tyres on the black stuff!. I normally run my road tyres at 15-18 psi on sand, did the same with the sand tyres, but could have gone lower as they are fitted with tubes. All in all, I reckon sand tyres are over-rated, not much better on sand and they handle like a pig on wet grass on tarmac. That said the Nissan Patrol is very different to a 300 tdi, probably twice the power, so cruises quite happily at 160 kph, not a speed I'd go near on 'balloons'!

Thanks for the details QR. What sand tyres did you use? Any idea on how the side walls of XPCs behave at low pressures?

Hi Richard, I just checked my sand tyres, they are Dunlop S5 or D16 (not sure which is the type) size is 255/90 (17s I think)

I saw some interesting calculations on the size of the contact patch for road and sand tyres on the Internet (cant remember the site) the example showed a huge increase in the contact area of deflated sand tyres, which got me all excited about buying them. The reality was different, so I can only conclude that either contact area dosent make that much difference, or that the contact area of a stationary tyre, as in the calculation, is different to the contact area of a rolling tyre, as when you're traveling at speed. I'm not saying the sand tyres are not better on the sand, they are, I'm just saying that for me, in a pretty powerful 4x4, the balance of the 'pig on wet grass' handling on the road v. the marginal improvement in the sand meant that I took them off, stored them under a hut, and there they remain!