dual wheels in sand or 4wd generally

A damn good choice I reackon, it does have a rear diff lock so that would help. get an Auto locker added to the front too.
But you can't have one unless you look like this
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As a further thought, I would consider the vehicle track, front and rear and look at how that compares to most FWD vehicles and the type of terrain you intend to cover.

You might find the Canter too wide, in either vehicle or track width to be comfortable/suitable in some situations.

Front track may be too wide and rear track may be too narrow for the bulk of FWD tracks and I guess this would apply even more so in sand.

Hope this is of interest.

Rob.

Hello - when I was operating as exploration geologist we used canters as support vehicles for the drill rigs. Surprising where they went (around the south west WA) though don't get them bogged in mud. Anyway we got rid of the duals and just ran singles. Pain in the butt letting tyres down/pumping up for sand and also when fixing flats. They also had a habit of picking up rocks and sticks between tyres.

With reduced tyre pressure they went where ever we wanted to go - e.g. Yeagerup Dunes/Warren Beach.

Cheers
Greg

We ran a tour company for many years.We brought a Canter had duals on them, did our 1st trip with a lot of sand work, was not happy soon as I got home,put on super singles did not have another problem.
Not cheap to set up but worth it in the long run.

Dunno the answer....but last time I was at Dalhousie Springs (on a trip up from Oodnadatta along the old Ghan to Chambers Pillar etc), there was a bloke pulled up who was about to tackle the Simpson from west to east.
He had this F350 with duals on the back. I asked him how he thought he'd go on the dunes.
He responded by pointing at the 2 spares he had on the back of the rig and said that he has made some alterations so that he can fit his 2 spares onto the front end so he'll have duals on the front as well as the back.
I'd love to know how he went ..... hahahaha....would've been a sight to behold. hahahaha

Roachie

The late Bill Bartlem of Darwin built this beast in the 1980's

Holden Wagon with LC running gear, auto box and Chev V8 with 8 wheels fitted.

He still got it bogged!!!!

I went for a drive in it once but it was a dog to handle with those wheels...lol

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Cheers

this one sent the memory back a long way. once upon a time a few boys who weren't old enough to drive got hold of an Austin A40 (anyone remember them?) and took the body off and threw everything away and then fitted dual wheels to the rear and took it all over the bush tracks near where they lived. fine on the tracks but when it hit the sand all was not good. along came a person far older and wiser who told us that the build up of sand between the dual wheels will eventually stop them - simple answer so we threw them away and put on old DC3 tyres on rims we welded together. and it was all great fun a good learning experience for later in life - never use dual wheels in sand......and sometimes older people do have wisdom. rgds

i drive a 4x4 man truck for a living spreading fertilizer we run duals on the rear in dryer months so we can carry our 8 tone payloads. i spread on sand quite a bit on ovals , golf courses and sandy soils they definitely do not go well on those surfaces much better when we run the big sand,mud tyres but our trucks run the tyre inflation systems so we can let tyre pressures down when we want and this helps immensely. in my opinion i wouldn't run duals for sand if u can get a single that still caries the weight u want go with that. and don't bother with diff locks for sand u will just dig yourself a bigger hole my truck has front and rear ones and i never use them on sand. hope this helps
justin

I don't know much about how good they are in the desert, as to say that they make it through sandy parts in Kakadu as tour buses, but those sandy bits are not the desert either.

I was looking at setting up a 4wd tour bus using the Canter, I was told to use the Issuzu instead apparently they are a better truck for many different reasons, I ended up with an OKA so I didn't research them much further perhaps you should have a look at that option.

Cheers Steve.

I drove Canter,Isuzu and Okas on tours through the sand dunes at Lancelin near Perth and found the dual wheeled Canters were surprisingly good. About 40psi in front and 25 at rear.1st gear high range is very short so they just lugged along but kept going.The front and rear wheels aren't in the same line but at 25psi the back are almost touching each other.We also had a Canter with super singles but they are taller so it was a tad harder to get it moving.The biggest problem is the suspension.Its too bumpy to maintain a decent speed and momentum. The Oka was good in that regard but a taller 1st gear and ceramic clutch was hard to get it moving in the soft stuff.Whichever you choose you still have to pick your path carefully cause when they are stuck its a lot of digging.

Thanks to everyione for the comments - Yeah I am the guy who orignally asked the questions. I didnt say more with the intiaiol question because I wanted some feedback on the duals, not the vehicle type. So why am I looking at a Canter.

we are looking for a veicle that can tow a van, go a bit off road (not towing the van) and provide us with a sleeping base when we donlt ahve the van in tow. If you know the Bungle Bungles - leave the van at Turkey creek, drive in and have a camp and a look for a dway or two. - That's the sort of thing we want.

I looked at twin cabs - tray not long enough to sleep on. So stretch It - load carry capacity not good enough to take what i want to take (4 people, their luggage, some spare fuel, water, food, tools and spares, boat on the roof rack and tow ball load). So I looked at cutting and stretching a cruiser/patrol - again load capacity probably suspect. A dual cab F250 would do it - but $$$. Then I saw a Canter - well that set me to wonder. hence my question.

Any 4wd I get has to be capacble of Fraser Island - hence the sand question. Apart from that, the major tracks like - Strezlecki, Oodnadatta, Tanami, PLenty Hwy, Docker River Road, Duncan Road, Cape York, maybe the Simspon one day.

To the suggestions of the "super single" modification - where do Ifound out more about that. Any idea of the $$$

Thanks

If you would like to call me on 0417096742 can fill you in on the super singles.There are some traps so would be easeier to explain over the phone
Glyn

Hi

I have had two canter´s (4wd motorhome) over the last 12 years. The first one I bought had the standard duels. In the first 3 months I had 3 punctures all in the rear and of course (sod´s law) the inside tyres. If you have ever changed rear duels on soft sand or gravel.................I´ll say no more. That was enough for me, I got rid of the duels, turned one of the rims around and put on singles. I personally found the singles slightly better off road and slightly worse on road (stability).

4 years ago I had motorhome built for me on a 4WD canter chasis and had Michelin Super Singles fitted from new.
The performance off road was even better than the normal singles on my previous canter as well as "on road" use. The only draw-backs, they are expensive, around $500 each and they tend to wear out quicker, my last set only lasted me around 45,000km (approx 65% off road use).

Taking everthing into account, my personal opinion is that the super singles are well worth the money!

Kind regards, Neil