[Closed] Well, my breakdown cover proved it's worth today

I could rant about how there was no signage or staff to tell us the condition of the beach

Eh? You need a sign to tell you about driving on sand ffs! 🙄

There’s really only three options the AA the RAC or Greenflag.  afaik all the others are just partnered with greenflag to provide a sales and call centre but the GF network do the recovery.  In fact, in rural areas the same GF truck might turn up for an RAC job.

how did they get you out without getting stuck themselves?

i’m not sure I want my payment to be subsidising people that are silly enough to drive on soft sand and get stuck.  I think it’s useful to have someone to call if you find yourself in that position but I’d have expected you to get an extra bill.

the local farmer would probably have towed you out for far less than the amount you spend on your cover though!

Almost all the main beaches on the north coast are drive on and national trust (hence expecting staff to be there as they usually want your ££ for access) so save the judgementals 😉

The truck was 4WD so could work its way out. Have a feeling RAC probably made a few quid from helping others after we left. Would probably still be there if I was to wait for this fictional farmer as well.

What EGF said.

What EGF said.

Ah, I see the internet logic is strong tonight.

We’re all awesome around these parts. Especially if facts aren’t involved 🙂

Something something deflate tyres something scaffold board something piss on the sand something walk

Portstewart is national trust and you have to pay

castlerock downhill and benone you can drive on to and are free

none of the others have access to vehicles

Takes experience to know how to drive on the sand and where it’s safe to do so. Lots of people come up here and get stuck, have towed a few out in my time.

Eh? You need a sign to tell you about driving on sand ffs!

Quite. If you’re going to drive on sand, you’re going to get stuck at some point. Either prepare for that by  taking the correct vehicle and recovery gear, or pray and hope you do a better job than King Kanute when the tide comes back in.

Ah, I see the internet logic is strong tonight.

It is, you got called out. Suck it up.

Don't drive on sand unless you have the vehicle to do so which you clearly don't.

I'd be reluctant to venture into sand unless it was wet and hardpack in my landy never mind a car. -4wd in soft sand with stock landies tires on just means you dig in at all 4 corners 🙂

As above if you are not on low profiles air down get more contact patch

Deploy sand boards, carpet /floor mats out the car under the drive wheels

It is, you got called out. Suck it up.

Don’t drive on sand unless you have the vehicle to do so which you clearly don’t.

Oh my.

I'll be sure to pass on all your excellent advice to the relevant authorities 🤗

I’d be reluctant to venture into sand unless it was wet and hardpack in my landy never mind a car. -4wd in soft sand with stock landies tires on just means you dig in at all 4 corners

As above if you are not on low profiles air down get more contact patch

Deploy sand boards, carpet /floor mats out the car under the drive wheels

Some good advice there, thanks.

Does the fact the RAC turned up in a 4x4 suggest you weren’t the first and won’t be the last...

I doubt many here have been to Benone (I holidayed there a few times as a kid).

I was there recently and was able to ride a loaded touring bike on the sand, that's how firm it can be.

I don't imagine many beaches are like that and if that's what one is used to it would be easy to get stuck there .

Yes, there are lots of beaches routinely used for parking.

As a kid, the highlight of our summer holidays was watching the occasional car which had been driven too far down the beach, and got stuck. It was always a race between the incoming tide and the local farmer with his tractor 🙂

I reckon that was pretty good of the RAC, wasn't really a breakdown as such. Or am I too easily pleased?

A Berlingo would have just skated through that, no problem.

Does yours have the levitate button on the dash too angeldust.

Needs to have been a bimmer on 19” runflats for full effect.

I’d be reluctant to venture into sand unless it was wet and hardpack in my landy never mind a car. -4wd in soft sand with stock landies tires on just means you dig in at all 4 corners

You just need to know what you're doing. Air down tyres, be prepared to dig, and follow the old adage of "as slow as possible, as fast as necessary", often with emphasis on the latter if it's particularly soft e.g. a dune

<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">pray and hope you do a better job than King Kanute when the tide comes back in.</span>

Old Kanute gets a hard time, but he actually did it to prove his sycophant courtiers that he wasn't in fact in control of the sea and everything else, he knew the tide would come in.

I'd say you're an idiot driving on a beach and not expecting to get stuck. But then I've driven my c-max over the road* from Lunga to Ardfern in Scotland, in the darkone of those situations where I convinced myself it can't possibly get any worse, then it gets steeper and rockier!

*not a road, despite what the guy at the hotel said, its about as passable as the Causeway up Stanage in the Peak! Many words were uttered as we coaxed it up over / down the rocks!

The Viking King Canute the Great defeated the Anglo-Saxon King Ethelred the Unready in 1014 and was crowned in Southampton.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTERance198631_15-1" class="reference">[15]</sup> His fabled attempt to "command" the tide to halt may have taken place in Southampton.<sup id="cite_ref-16" class="reference"></sup>

The story is that Canute's courtiers noted the double high tide and thought they could get him to get the encroaching water to drop and then come in when he willed it to.

Sadly they got the timing wrong.