Crawl Control, just drive out | 4x4 Sand Self Recovery Technique 

An old technique. The army taught this to my Dad in the forties. Along with rocking backwards and forwards in the hole. Always worked for him. 👍

It’s great to see a channel giving four wheel drivers basic self recovery ideas to getting them out of these situations, crawl, steering control, maxtrax they are all great techniques thanks for the great videos and keep them coming!

If you keep turning right and left while you’re doing that, you will come out faster. Cheers from Dubai

You know what I love about 4wd’ing. Happy people like this guy.

Crawl control is definitely easy because you turn the dial and just wait. But "crawl control" can totally be done without having the actual feature. You nailed this! Going back and forth may help. And turning the tires left and right definitely helps. THrowing in some stick or traction boards can't hurt either.

Thanks mate I got stuck in a sand wash in the desert two days ago and your tips helped me get out. Not from this specific vid. but I was able to air down, dig the sand out, put large sticks under the tires for traction and I was out. Thanks you saved me mate I know I could learn that info anywhere but I heard it from you and it kept me from having a bad time. So I wanted to say thanks if you see this! You help many people! Keep doing what you do :)

Do the same thing but slowly turn the wheel left and right. You get the same result but much quicker

i have another one for you to try that's always worked for me and that is to reverse trying not to spin the wheels as much as possible then go forward and keep repeating you should be able to move a little bit further each time until you can just drive out. the trick is not spinning the wheels the sand becomes packed down under the wheels and any sand under the diffs etc gets pushed away a bit more every time you move.

I was sceptical too! Very impressive. Have you done a video on what’s the best side to put an awning on? Cheers.

big love from saudi arabia 🇸🇦. just adjust the tires pressure to 20 psi or 18. then turn the steering left to right when you crawling out.

Something to remember. I found really low tyre pressure 13 psi and careful driving worked well on the beach. Thanks

Really good Lsd makes a weekend better ;)

Another method is to saw the steering wheel left and right as you crawl out. Also Engage the parking brake partially to lock the rear wheels if you dont have a diff lock. This causes the side walls to bite in the sand on either side of the holes the tires are in. It works like a charm.

I have found what works for me no matter if it’s fwd, rwd, or awd . Put it in low gear, ease on the gas to give your tires a chance to build grip. I never floor it. I find it to work the same in flood water minus the low gear. Step crawl to keep momentum but giving the water time to move out the way with splashing it up allowing the chance for your air intake to suck it in.

Love your videos mate. Now you have to do one without the locker, turn the wheels and apply left foot breaking. Then you will have a mini series on getting bogged on the beach. 😜

I have an FJ Cruiser with crawl control, works fantastically

Wow im blown away. Thank you for that!

Even quicker if you are on a slope and go down. I lived in the UAE and used this technique often. Good party trick.

I don’t know why ur video popped up on my feed but u got a new subscriber here. I enjoyed ur video.

Whoa, that was pretty awesome. Sand is tricky stuff. Thanks for the cool video!

Done this plenty of times. Even dragged a Landcruiser towing a 20’+ boat that was stuck at Indian Head doin this. Will help if you rock it back and forward a bit without breaking traction to start as well. A technique they has been around since adam was a boy. In days gone by on old Blitzes and Land rovers they use to wind them out of bogs on the crank.

That's some moist sand though..... Once your touching frame & difs, ya might as well be on jacks... Always love these videos from down under... My trick from the GLAMIS sand dunesis, once bogged, HI LIFT up, push off & out of the holes, (front & back)... Never ever used a shovel.. HI LIFT and maybe WD40 (or water) to blast sand from the jack..

Its a xmas miracle ! He who paddles on water...Archangle Michael has risen the poor old Mazda chariot from the bog once again ..god i love this channel amen...

How does he drive from the passenger seat, that's my question.

Awesome!! @Watched you dig out of the last one. Less sweat, less time . . . in THIS situation lol. I run a Toyota 4 Runner and it also has crawl control. Keep 'em coming! ATB from Canada.

You can get out even easier if you move the car back and forward. In this way you can use the pothole “walls” to ensure an inertia when moving forward.

Crawl control, used in a lot of modern, somewhat off-road vehicles, is like ABS in reverse and uses the same hardware. If a wheel spins and it’s opposite is stationary, it applies brakes to the spinning wheel which causes the open diff to send power to the opposite wheel instead.

This has a lot to do with the "traction control" systems in the new cars braking the wheels that are slipping and allowing the ones with momentary traction to grab as required. My new Navara does the same thing, I no longer get out and dig like I previously did in older 4x4s, I just sit in the aircon and wait for it to crawl out. And yes for most cars it still works even when you turn the traction control off, as you arent actually disengaging all the traction systems just primarily the throttle retardation when the car detects slippage.

Good work Michael. For some reason I don't think my rig will ever do that.

I did something similar with a Jeep TJ with 33x12.5 BF Goodrich Mud Terrain tyres. I did it out of frustration. I put the old Jeep in four wheel low, put it in first gear, let off the clutch and just let it idle and sat there reclined in the seat about to fall asleep. Then I started to feel some motion after a few minutes and I looked and saw I had made some progress. I sat up and let things happen and a few minutes later, the Jeep had got out.

wow love your vids man, I know this is not one of your newer ones, but a top one. Keep it up. Cheers.

What you said about using a manual vs automatic transmission:, I've done this in a Mitsubishi L200 diesel, just put low range and 1st gear and let the engine do the rest. Not even touch the pedal, just turn the steering slowly like one turn every 10 seconds and it works like a dream. I got bogged on a sand dunes and there were many jeeps impressed that I could get out by myself, it did take about 5 minutes and at some point I doubted it was even moving at all

Low 1st and or reverse to pack down the track and centre diff lock engaged with tyres down to 18psi with a little left right on the wheel will help on the sand, I use an older 4WD without whizz bang fancy pants electronics like TCS and it works well. If really bad a set of tracks will really help.

I have used this technique on a 4 X 4 with a manual transmission and no locking deferential. To get around not having locking differentials I lightly applied the parking brake to shift power to the tire with traction. I don't off road but it has been handy for the odd snow drift or missplaced ditch and something I was glad to know. I enjoyed your video, thank you. And... DUDE where did you get that bull bar? It is AWESOME! I'd like to look into getting one for our Toyota Tacoma. Be well!! : -)

Hi from Russia. We use the same technique to crawl out of deep snow. It is better to have low range kit in your transfer case for this trick. And I think it starts to work from certain tyre size for certain vehicle - The large the easier

Use left foot braking with open diffs. Left foot on brake, hold 1200-1500 rpms with right foot and work the brake off and on slowly with left foot. Basically works the same way ATRAC works by pushing power to the weeks that have traction rather than just letting the wheels without traction spin. Works in a broad range of terrain including if you lift a wheel and can't make progress.

Why would this be more difficult with a manual transmission ? What I would do with my Tacoma is, 1st gear, low range, lock rear axle (no front locker) and hopefully idle out. Might give A-trac a go to.

Have used similar on beach on my own.. manual gearbox, low 1st, jump out & use the shovel to push sand into hole ( dangerous but needed to) or slip maxtrak into hole.

Thanks for your research and development videos 😉 Always get some useful bit of info out of watching and then going out and having a go myself. Keep em coming!

I have been driving off road for decades, but I learned something from this video, I learned that I want a hat just like that.

If you turn the steering wheel to the far right and the far left quickly, it will be easier and faster . Good job .. thank you 👍

Landrover Defender has an antistall in low first and second. You can take you foot of the clutch and it will drive itself without throttle. This allows you to hope out, gab a cold beer and throw a few sticks under the wheels. You don’t travel far if you beach the belly (diffs n gearbox) in the sand!

I will definitely be interesting to see if that would work for snow.

Nice one Micheal great video again 👍😎🇳🇿

Finally someone with a 4x4 has stumbled upon a basic principle of physics that does not involve reving the crap out of an engine.

This is not a myth. I once drove a 14 ton armoured vehicle that had been lying hard on its axles out of some of the finest powder ever, in Angola. Also, newbies trying this with a manual shift transmission, this CAN be done but you need to be aware that this a first class opportunity to burn the clutch out. Plenty of potential for stuffing up an auto, as well.

Crawl + working the steeing helps....

I would imagine this will work if you aren't too badly bogged. If you have dug yourself in until you are sitting on the chassis, I would think it would be back to the shovel and tracks.

It’s a stick shift used to pull the coil wire and engage the starter in gear to crawl off ice

A short video with a ton off information. Thanks.

I know what happened there. You spent so much fuel on low rangr that made the vehicle lighter enough to push the vehicle forward. .... great video mate!

I thought there was no chance of that working haha. Well done

Excellent - thanks. Can "crawl control" work in mud?

Nice one, i noticed this with my 4x4 canter on the beach. can just put low 1st no pedal input and it would just slowly jiggle its way out of anything. very cool. aso my V6 pajero manual, but doesnt have the low gears like my canter.

Crawl control really works. Specially in sand.

Please come back, I miss your videos

Out here in super dry sand, it helps to do it in reverse. All the sand that you kicked out gets sucked back in and packed down and you go out the same way you went in.

after you had moved fwd a metre I reckon had you back tracked at that point then that one metre may have been enough to get you rolling....if not, then back to the grind You had your tyres at 20 psi simply because you couldn't bog yourself at ten.....love that......makes me wonder if you had then dropped them to ten how much quicker would it have been?

There is a technic called trail braking where you use the foot brake in balance with the clutch to stop the wheels spinning

Bog deep brother!!! As Cleetus McFarland would say

Thanks for another great video legend 👍🏻

You really need differential locks for it to really work. 4x4 low doesn't really cut it. If you're just in sand, dropping your tire pressure works great too.

You have to turn your stirring. And going back to front

I'm gunna try this at Inskip Point on Australia Day👍👍👍

Surprised! Thanks for sharing mate..

well done mate.

Next try "steering for traction", move your steering wheel slowly left-right. This distibutes torque to the other wheel and might help finding some side grip.

the thing that i do in mine is i throttle the car in first low between 500 and 1500 rpm and turn the steering wheel left to right as far as possible worked for me pretty well btw mines a manual donno if this method will work for an auto

Try touching breaks/ handbreak to get unstuck.this use to work really well in my old computer with open diff.never tried in a 4wd on sand.does work in Mudd if your free wheel is on hard ground... for example if you nose into a whole with one wheel and you can't reverse out in 4wd.touch break pedal drive slow high torque

sawing the wheel left and right may have speed up the recovery

Very good aey.

So was that centre or rear diff lock that you engaged?

Patner turn your wheels back and forth and it will help.

It’s not a myth, (never has been) and if you had a front diff lock and as others have said, you steer left and right alternately, you’d have been out much sooner. That’s why folks have been buying land cruisers since they started production. (my old trusted 80 series has all three diffs lockable as standard equipment)

That’s amazingly, good video

Learned something new. Cool

Also i found if u forward and reverse very gently it will get u out as well.

Are you just idling pretty much the entire time? Any brakes intermittently? Light throttle touches? What did you find help the most?

It seems that the technique as demonstrated herein and in other Toyota videos rely on a) minimum possible speed (like 1st low on idle) and b) equal torque transfer on all wheels. I can see that the sand is quite dry so as difficult as it can get, was wondering though how the technique would fair against finer sand and on an incline

Do not try this in mud 😂 I’m gonna have to try this now.

Brake traction control kicking in?

This works great if you have a diesel that can generate plenty of torque while the engine idles. A gas powered vehicle might have a little more trouble.

I think the iDrive will help in these situations also.

Could you set cruise control?

Crawl + working the steering helps....

If You had a cruiser with a manuel gearbox it's 1st low range and it would have been out of there in half the time low end touque helps to more u rev the more it diggs in

Im guessing he has diff locks in front and rear? What happens if you only have diff lock on the rear?does it still work?

try the tires at 15 psi & moving the steering wheel from left to right

Wow that’s amazing good stuff.

Seen many people bogged in sand from a heavy right foot and wheel spin

Interesting, I would have given up at about the 15 second mark and started digging 😅 Also, random question, what winch are you running and did you need to make any major adjustments to the bullbar for it to fit?

Wonder if this would work with the heavy Titan xd pro4x?

Isn't crawl control just idle up or is it more advanced than that?

On today's episode of Seek Adventure, I'm bogged down in the sand yet again...

Mat, wondering about suspension, your type of off-road is about as adventurous as I want to get I guess you have stock suspension, do you have any issues or limitations in the type of driving you do that would warrant upgrading your suspension ?

Can you set your cruise control for that speed

Next time your bogged Micheal.. try the same technique but do it in reverse.

Just curious as to what make of tyres are on your vehicle ? 👍

Do you have a front diff lock as well? Did you? Etc. or was that just rear diff lock.

Great Video 🥇🥇🥇🥇