Pismo Beach Trip Report in Joyner 250 (long read)

Posts: 20

I took my Joyner to the sand Dunes for the first times and I thought I would shoare the performance experience.

The buggy has a K&N filter, 140 jet, and 11 gram sliders with the Big Blue Clutch spring and 1/4" fuel lines. I think the jet may be too big because the buggy skips and cuts and 90-100% throttle except in the cool evenings. Tires are stock.

When I first unloaded the buggy it wouldn't start. ( I last rode at 4000 ft in barstow and 1200 feet at home) so I turned in the air fuel screw a half turn and it startded right up. It handled fine on the harpacked wet beach.

The first ride I made was through the choppy camping area. The wheels spun quite a bit but I was moving along. It started to dig in on a very slight uphill until I got stuck. I was able to work it out by going full throttle and barely inching through the sand. I went back to my camp which was right one the beach. On the slight downhill the buggy picked up some decent speed. That ride was completely unacceptable so I tried a few adjustments. One thing I found was that if you did bury the buggy to the frame it took two to three people to get it unstuck. Not like a quad that you can lift the rear end by yourself or rock it untill it faces downhill.

Since my wheels were spinning the whole time I knew my power was okay but I didn't have the traction. I dropped the tire pressure fr0m about 12 to about 6 psi. I also noticed that the V pattern on the stock dirt tires was in the opposite direction as the V on our quad's sand paddles. I swapped the right and left rear tires so that the pattern was now reveresed and looked like the quad's set up.

I went for a second run up the same spot. The buggy had much more traction and I didn't come close to getting stuck in the same area. It still wasn't fast but I was able to go into the first set of dunes and not get stuck. You have to pick your lines very carefully and there are many areas that I knew i wouldn't be able to get out of so I avoided those.

With more confidence in the buggy I let my friend ride it while I followed on a high power bike with paddles. He is about 215 lbs and has never been in the dunes or driven a buggy before. I gave him some tips and we headed off to comp hill in the southeast corner. He was really good at picking lines and didn't get stuck at first. There was one dune drop off (very steep eastern slope) that he launched off and had all fours about a foot in the air. The dune had a long less steep way to get back to the top so we were able to hit it a few times.

At one point he got into a very large bowl type area were he would lose momentum and not be able to make it to the top. So he would turn back downhill and buildup momentum to get up the other side. After a few attempt he gradually ended up closer and closer to the bottom. I would estimate the bottom of the bowl to the top was about 300 yards. I realized that he wasn't going to make it out and called for him to stop. We waved down a 4x4 driven by a remarkably cute girl Wink

who was an excellent driver. She easily pulled us to the top(always carry a tow strap!) After that we decided to head back to camp which meant going up the steeper eastern faces. We didn't get stuck on the way back but there were a couple long hills we stopped and planned out the approach before the attempt.

Another inexperienced driver at 170 lbs took the buggy on the same trip but he was constantly getting stuck. Then towards the end of the day we began to have fuel delivery problems with the fuel filter running dry. It looked like the internal tank filter was getting clogged so we nursed it back to camp by stopping every few hundred yards by slapping the tank and shaking the fuel line.

Overall it was a good trip. The fun factor in the dunes is much lower than in the hard pack desert. You have to pick your path very carefully, always carry a tow strap, air down the tires, and never ride without a "chase" vehicle. The Joyner paled in comparison to the modified 400cc bike and quad with paddles(no surprise) but it was also the only toy the inexperienced guys would ride. The buggy was perfect on the beach and on the "sand highway".

The best part of the trip was splashing through the surf with my 5 year old daughter screaming at the top of her lungs Shocked

. you just can't do that on a quad or bike. Smile

Posts: 1912

It took me three trips to the dunes to get my Yerf 150 capable through modifications. You need to keep the rear tires aired as low as you can to get the largest softest footprint (I run 3-5 PSI). While many people air down their front tires, I found keeping them hard (10 PSI) provided less drag. The original tires were 15x6-6 and used to sink, so now it is running 22x8-10. My 150 is geared way down - Even so, maximum speed on the soft stuff is around 20 mph. Some hills require momentum - Although my 150 will not bog out, it does not have enough horse power to climb long hills due to top speed limitations. I thought about paddles, but do not think the 150s have enough to drive them. Even the 250s seem to do better with less aggressive tires since it allows the engine to keep spinning the rears without digging.

I'm still tweaking the Joyner 650. The stock 25" tires dig a little too much in the soft sand and the 23" paddles that came with mine lower the rear to close to the ground causing it to drag bottom. I like the ratio that is created with the 23" paddles, so I may look at the suspension to see how much higher it can be raised. I won't have another opportunity for loose sand until Labor Day so I'll have to stay on NW trails till then.

Posts: 1748

good right up this should go in the review section lol

ehy do you know that we are having our second annual socal buggy bash i hope you can come pm me if you have any questions about it or post on a thread in the socal buggy bash section