small 4x4 for beach driving ??

I'm looking to buy a small 4x4 that can be used for light off-road
trails and the beaches in North Carolina. Most of my driving will be on
pavement. I was looking at the xterra and liberty. Both will do the job
but they are gas hungry. The Honda crv, element and subaru outback are
good on gas, but they are build on a car chassis and have little ground
clearance. I don't know if they can be driven on a beach. If you have
any of these vehicles or any advise please let me know.

thanks

in article [email protected], dbone at
[email protected] wrote on 2/18/06 10:45 AM:

> I'm looking to buy a small 4x4 that can be used for light off-road
> trails and the beaches in North Carolina. Most of my driving will be on
> pavement. I was looking at the xterra and liberty. Both will do the job
> but they are gas hungry. The Honda crv, element and subaru outback are
> good on gas, but they are build on a car chassis and have little ground
> clearance. I don't know if they can be driven on a beach. If you have
> any of these vehicles or any advise please let me know.
>
> thanks
>

Buy a Wrangler! Gotta be the ultimate beach mobile.

-jeff

dbone wrote:
>
> I'm looking to buy a small 4x4 that can be used for light off-road
> trails and the beaches in North Carolina. Most of my driving will be on
> pavement. I was looking at the xterra and liberty. Both will do the job
> but they are gas hungry. The Honda crv, element and subaru outback are
> good on gas, but they are build on a car chassis and have little ground
> clearance. I don't know if they can be driven on a beach. If you have
> any of these vehicles or any advise please let me know.
>
> thanks

If it has got to be small and low on gas you could go for a Suzuki.
Erik-Jan.

Erik-Jan Geniets <[email protected]> writes in article <[email protected]> dated Mon, 20 Feb 2006 09:32:21 +0100:
>
>
>dbone wrote:
>>
>> I'm looking to buy a small 4x4 that can be used for light off-road
>> trails and the beaches in North Carolina. Most of my driving will be on
>> pavement. I was looking at the xterra and liberty. Both will do the job
>> but they are gas hungry. The Honda crv, element and subaru outback are
>> good on gas, but they are build on a car chassis and have little ground
>> clearance. I don't know if they can be driven on a beach. If you have
>> any of these vehicles or any advise please let me know.
>
>If it has got to be small and low on gas you could go for a Suzuki.

Ground clearance is almost never an issue on the beach. Driving on the
dunes is illegal in NC (at least at all the beaches I go to), so hopefully
you'll be driving on the flat part. If your wheels start to "dig in", you
need to let some air out of the tires.

The only situation where you need extra ground clearance is if other drivers
have dug big ruts. In that case, you might have to drive through the loose
sand next to the ruts, while people with "monster trucks" can drive on the
packed sand at the bottom of the ruts and go faster.

-- spud_demon -at- thundermaker.net
The above may not (yet) represent the opinions of my employer.

Rover Freelander, great awd and gets about 23-28mpg average in tooling
about town.

hi- The very-lite-est pic-up with wide wheels and
smooth-tires.[ie.soft-beech--sand//dune buggies.]

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