We're headed down to tent camp with our boys this weekend. We'll keep an eye out for you.

WheelinAg said:

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I pulled our Casita down to MM 15 with no problem.

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I was wondering if anyone else here had a Casita. We have a 17' FD.

To piggyback on this thread...

We are heading down in a couple of weeks with our 2 kids. I've never been tent camping on PINS and would love all yalls pro tips on best spots, vehicle access(i drive a 4x4 f250) and so on.

Tia

who?mikejones said:

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To piggyback on this thread...

We are heading down in a couple of weeks with our 2 kids. I've never been tent camping on PINS and would love all yalls pro tips on best spots, vehicle access(i drive a 4x4 f250) and so on.

Tia

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bring flashlights and nets to catch crabs. typical sand castle stuff. popup canopy, note: the stakes wont last 10 seconds in the wind. Instead, take (4) 1 gallon water jugs and tie a 3' lead line on it. Bury 1 at each corner in the sand about 2' and your shelter will be the last one standing. bring drinking water, then more drinking water. bring a piece of scrap carpet to use as a door mat into tent. Sand will get into everything so be prepared, but the sand will be gone from the truck long before the memories are gone...

who?mikejones said:

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To piggyback on this thread...

We are heading down in a couple of weeks with our 2 kids. I've never been tent camping on PINS and would love all yalls pro tips on best spots, vehicle access(i drive a 4x4 f250) and so on.

Tia

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I've only been tent camping until now. Last time we went around MM12 and there was a really nice cutout in the dunes that helped protect from the wind.

Oh, if you don't know the baby powder/corn starch trick it's life changing. Liberally apply to everywhere and rub it on and watch the sand fall off of you. I used to bring fresh water to "shower" with, now I just bring drinking water.

Caladan said:

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WheelinAg said:

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I pulled our Casita down to MM 15 with no problem.

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I was wondering if anyone else here had a Casita. We have a 17' FD.

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We've got a 2001 16'. Here it is on PINS. On the way out, I literally groomed to sand next to the dones dragging the casita axle over it...

PINS Camping

Haters gonna hate!



Thanks everyone for the help, it was a blast! Next time I'm not picking memorial day weekend, and hopefully picking a time when the hookup/dump station is open.

We arrived Thursday and left tonight. Even with the convenience of a travel trailer it's rough with all the sand, especially with a dog and 2 kids.

Still, we made it to mile marker 8 and pulled far enough back with favorable tides that we never had any trouble. I'm already planning our next trip to padre.

There's this old saying about camping on the beach:



"Don't."

Good work! If you wait for the perfect day you never go anywhere.

Do you all drop the air pressure in your tires ? Heard that was an old trick to help keep from getting stuck but never tried it since I have only made this trip in my mind so far

AgDad121619 said:

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Do you all drop the air pressure in your tires ? Heard that was an old trick to help keep from getting stuck but never tried it since I have only made this trip in my mind so far

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I have 4wd and dropped my front tires from 40 to 30 psi. I also dropped the trailer tires about 10-15 psi (from 65 to 50-55). I dropped the back tires on my truck about 3-4 psi but was nervous with a 7500 lbs load (I think the hitch weight is close to 1k lbs?) to drop it any more.

With all that, I was able to drive on loose sand, although I had to get up momentum. The packed/wet sand was no problem at all.

I think the biggest thing is bringing a shovel and bucket. I did get stuck once trying to position the trailer better. I just dug down to the more compact sand in front of my tires and poured a bucket of water on it and was able to drive out. Also I think it's good to back up a couple of inches then switch to drive and push forward.

Air is a valuable commodity near the island. We literally went to 6-7 different gas stations until we found a compressor that worked. Keep that in mind if you deflate tires and don't have a portable air compressor.

Also I'll add this for reference if anyone stumbles on this thread in the future. As I said, we went down to mile marker 8 ON MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND and I think I only saw 1 or 2 travel trailers as big as mine or bigger drive by. When we drove out Saturday, it was already *******s and elbows from mile 5 all the way back to the entrance, and when where we were, there was tons of traffic going farther down the island, just not anyone pulling anything longer than 20-25 ft.

There were plenty of trailers in the first 5 miles though, suggesting most don't venture down this far. So it was probably a stupid idea to try this. But I'm glad we did it and will do it again knowing what I know now.

There's a good series of videos on beach driving from a hotel in the Outer Banks. Airing down to 15-20 psi makes a huge difference. You need thise tires soft to lengthen your footprint and spread out the weight. On a hard surface the rubber squishes and flattens out at normal pressures. On a soft surface the tire stays round and digs in. Bring an air conpressor to air back up when you get back on solid ground.

PFG said:

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There's this old saying about camping on the beach:



"Don't."

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While it may change how you think about sand for the rest of your life there are a few mandatory Texas Rights of Passage for the Texas gulf coast.

• Spring break at South Padre for high school or college kids
• Camp at PINS with your family as an adult
• Texas slam

I'm probably missing some stuff but this is a good start and should be the minimum requirement of every Texas resident.

Thats fair

I used to camp down there all the time when shark fishing. Hence my username. I learned to camp because I wanted to shark fish. I love it and hate it at the same time. We've got a shower set up with hot water. Then after you're dry, coat yourself in baby powder and it will get the rest of the moisture and the sand will fall off. Then, sleep in the truck. I never could stand that gulf spray and waking up damp and sticky in the morning. I used to have tent cots. Now I take extra gas and let my truck idle with the ac most of the night. Plus it's safer in my opinion. Too many drunk idiots stumbling into camp or driving by on weekends now. I like sleeping with the doors locked.

Quote:

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Too many drunk idiots stumbling into camp or driving by on weekends now. I like sleeping with the doors locked.

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Damn. I never been, but sounds like a delightful place to take a family.

PFG said:

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Quote:

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Too many drunk idiots stumbling into camp or driving by on weekends now. I like sleeping with the doors locked.

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Damn. I never been, but sounds like a delightful place to take a family.

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To be fair it's not the norm. I've been doing it for about 13 years now and know a lot of guys and girls who camp down there and there have been problems. Not often, but enough that (especially when by myself) I prefer to play it safe. Park rangers enforce things better these days. Drug smuggling is an issue too when you get down by Mansfield jetty.

But I've had plenty of good times and heard so many great stories. One quick one. A guy who is a big time shark fisherman shared a story about how he was driving down for a several day trip. I don't have all of the details remembered exactly because it has been a long time since he told it. But basically he was driving down during a week day and a few miles before he hit the end of the beach (Mansfield jetties) he saw a guy on a bike pedaling north. The guy drove his bike in the dunes and hid before he realized he wasn't a ranger. Then he came out and the fisherman stopped. It was an illegal. He offered him some water and spoke to him in some broken Spanish. Turns out the guy swam his bike across the channel and was planning on riding the whole length of the beach to get to corpus. He said by and went and camped at the jetty. The next morning after catching some jacks for shark bait he turned back north to find a place in the 40s to set up to shark fish. He passed the guy as he was riding in the same direction. He stopped and have him some water and then found a spot and set up camp. Later that afternoon the guy passed him still heading north. The fisherman fished for 24 hours then picked up to head home due to the wind picking up. As he rolled through the 15ish mile marker the guy was still heading north.
The fisherman waved down the turtle patrol around the five mile marker and told the lady to radio the rangers that an illegal was on a bike heading there way. The rangers sat at the exit of the beach where the sand meets pavement and picked him up. They didn't even go try to find him. They let him finish the ride lol. For those that don't know, from the jetty yo the pavement is just shy of 70 miles.

Guy wants to ride 70+ miles for a minimum wage job? Let him.

dustin999 said:

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AgDad121619 said:

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Do you all drop the air pressure in your tires ? Heard that was an old trick to help keep from getting stuck but never tried it since I have only made this trip in my mind so far

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I have 4wd and dropped my front tires from 40 to 30 psi. I also dropped the trailer tires about 10-15 psi (from 65 to 50-55). I dropped the back tires on my truck about 3-4 psi but was nervous with a 7500 lbs load (I think the hitch weight is close to 1k lbs?) to drop it any more.

With all that, I was able to drive on loose sand, although I had to get up momentum. The packed/wet sand was no problem at all.

I think the biggest thing is bringing a shovel and bucket. I did get stuck once trying to position the trailer better. I just dug down to the more compact sand in front of my tires and poured a bucket of water on it and was able to drive out. Also I think it's good to back up a couple of inches then switch to drive and push forward.

Air is a valuable commodity near the island. We literally went to 6-7 different gas stations until we found a compressor that worked. Keep that in mind if you deflate tires and don't have a portable air compressor.

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Viair 88P would be your friend.
On sand, 3-4 psi does almost nothing for you. You could easily drop it to 22ish if you can air them back up (really, it's a function of weight vs sidewall). You want as much contact pressure as you can get.

We went camping down there over Memorial Day weekend a few years back. We setup on thursday around 17 miles down the beach and had nobody within about 1/4 mile of us in either direction all weekend. On Sunday afternoon, after watching storms roll by on either side of us for a couple of days, we had one roll right down the beach and nail us at about 5pm. We had buttoned up the camp as well as we could and sat in the truck to ride it out. It either had a tornado or a waterspout in it, because about halfway through the storm, the wind went from ripping northward at about 40-50 mph to ripping southward at about 80-90 mph. Took our shade canopy that was staked down with multiple 18" sand stakes and threw it out into the gulf. The wind blew the tent down flat such that all the wind driven rain and sand flowed right up the side and under the rain fly. It filled everything we had in the tent with wet sand, bags of clothes, sleeping bags, pillows, etc. So we gathered up the canopy from the ocean (several poles were snapped in half; was a high end Kelty shelter, not the cheap $49 academy job), packed up the tent, and drove back to Houston that night. Spent Memorial Day trying to wash sand out of everything and dry it out in the yard.

So for whoever asked about the storms down there? Keep an eye out and be prepared...they can get very hairy and you don't have anywhere except your vehicle to hide.

Naveronski said:

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Viair 88P would be your friend.
On sand, 3-4 psi does almost nothing for you. You could easily drop it to 22ish if you can air them back up (really, it's a function of weight vs sidewall). You want as much contact pressure as you can get.

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Yeah my fear was not having a way to air tires back up, so I went as low as I felt comfortable with for making it to a gas station (which ended up being on the mainland). Next time I think I will bring a portable air compressor.