For work I inspect homes for mortgage companies. Yesterday I had to go out to the high desert to check on a supposed bad address. The place I had to go to was VERY rural. After driving down about 15 miles of dirt roads I came over a small rise and was faced with a LONG sandy downhill. I have driven thru areas like this in other cars before, so I just put my foot down and figured I would plow thru it. NOPE! As soon as the tires started to spin my Prius completely stopped itself. I was STUCK in about 12-16 inches of sand. I found some wood from an abandoned house and tried to use it to get started, then I tried to use my floormats for traction, but I just ended up getting more stuck. I called AAA and it took them 4 hours to find me! Eventually they got me out using a 4X4 Chevy truck. The Prius is fine and I was able to drive it the 150 miles home no problem. But being stuck in the middle of nowhere for 4 hours with no water really sucked. At least it was only 97 degrees out! Here is a cell phone pic: Its crazy. Looks like nothing in the pic, and I am sure in another car I would have been fine. Even the tow truck driver was surprised I got stuck. But I couldn't figure out how to turn off the traction control. I even looked in the owners manual and couldn't find anything.
I think you'd have a hard time on a sand track like that with just about any two wheel drive vehicle. Well for certain any with fairly narrow high pressure tires like the Prius. That definitely looks like 4x4 territory.
Try a set of Nokian WR tires next time (all-weather with an aggressive tread design). The newer WRg2 might suffice, but not as aggressive. JeffD
The traction control on the GII is way too intrusive and seems to cut power to idle prematurely. I understand it was dialed back in '07, but it was probably the single biggest problem with my '06. I think it may be even worse in the '04-'05 models. I have heard that you can ride the brake a little bit to keep the wheels from spinning and engaging the traction control, but it's a workaround. I think I read somewhere it doesn't come on in reverse, but backing through might not be a great solution, either. Just one of those 'oh well' things with the car.
And here I was thinking to myself "It's way too early for anyone to get a dump of snow!" haha. Yeah the Gen2's traction control is way too aggressive. It's much better on the Gen 3. I've had my Gen 2 TRAC cut power prematurely and I had to rock my way out of the curbside.
These steps must be completed within 60 seconds. Step 1: Set the ignition switch to ON, not READY. To do this press the power button two times, without pressing the brake pedal. Step 2: While the transmission is still in park (P), fully press the gas pedal two times. Step 3: Apply the parking brake to ensure that the vehicle will not move during this step. Put the transmission in neutral (N) and fully press the gas pedal two times. Step 4: Put the transmission back in park (P) and fully press the gas pedal two times. The car will display “!Car!†in the upper left corner of the LCD screen. Step 5: Press the brake pedal and turn the ignition switch to the start position, without going back to the ready position, to start the engine. Be careful when you do this - you can damage the tranny. In your situation, this may have gotten you out. However, that sand does look pretty deep for any 2WD machine. -Brad
This is just the stupidest thing I've ever seen. I guess there's a point to all those survivor shows.
Glad they found you! Getting stuck in deep sand happened to me on Nantucket. Good thing my sister was with me to rock the car back and forth or else we would have been there a long time, too. The road we were on had no name on the GPS!
Good thing you were in an area with cellular service. There are still plenty of places without coverage.
Looks like you could have backed out with traction. I would have jacked the car up and stuffed alot of crap under the tire like brush. Lower it back onto the crap and try to back out. It would be craptastic.
Someone mentioned better "all weather" tires but the truth is that there's nothing better for getting traction in sand than just letting down the driving tires (front in this case) to the absolute minimum that you can safely run them (and I mean just to allow them to stay seated on the rims). When I used to travel on sand tracks in my old car I always carried a small pump for exactly that purpose. If bogged I'd drop the pressure from 36psi to something like 15 psi, just to get out, then straight away pump them back up to something reasonable as soon as I was unstuck. You'd be absolutely amazed at how much extra traction you can get with super soft tires.
uart, You are spot on with your comments. I also use my Prius for work related travelling and sometimes that involves travelling in the powdery sand of the Kalahari desert. The desert sand taught me to deflate all four tyres to between 80 and 100 kPa (12 and 15 psi) and use the torque of the electric motor to slowly and without spinning the tyres ease onto the sand and drive on. I also carry a small compressor in my Prius to inflate the tyres as soon as I am out of the sand. The electric motors and hybrid synergy drive makes it very easy to get started in the sand as opposed to starting off using a conventional transmission.
My experience is the same in NY snow. Rocking back and forth works well and easy with drive-by-wire and precise control of the electric motor torque. I don't know about in the sand.
I just had the image of a Khoisan walking by and seeing the Prius stuck in the sand. Then walking away while muttering with clicks how stupid these people are. LOL Anyone who has seen the movie "The gods must be crazy" will know what I mean.
4x4 off road experience would have helped you in this case. Jaquimo is correct, deflating tires is good, also perhaps using "B" if your model has it, may have helped? You made it out alive, glad u did not drink the washer fluid.
There is a place near the beach that allows people with 4 x 4 vehicles to park right there and picnic (out on Long Island). Anyway, I went there with a Jeep Liberty I had a few years ago and I don't know too much about "4 wheeling". I saw people "airing down" and I didn't know why. I continued on the sand road to the beach and even with 4WD it was kinda hairy. When I left, I saw that there were numerous hydraulic air pumps available to folks who had let their air out. Anyway, I feel that any two wheel drive vehicle would have had great difficulty on the sand road that the OP was on.
