Was in Corolla, NC this weekend for a wedding. The wedding was held on the beach outside a humongous house with 11 bedrooms. The house was about 3 miles up the beach from where the paved road ends. In other words, to get there you had to drive on the beach. Because we had no idea how the 400h's electric motors would work in deep sand conditions, we rode with a friend who had a 2000 Outback and followed another friend in a Highlander. At time the Highlander and Outback were draging bottom in deep sand (left pretty, flat swath between two deep tire ruts).

Anybody take their 400h out on the beach and drive through deep sand for some distance? My concern was the system would get petered out and the rear electric motor would stop providing adequate power when the battery got into a purple state or would the motor's generator keep supplying enough non-stop power even when driving through deep sand?

Another question: anyone ever had disk brake problems after driving through deep sand? Inquiring minds want to know!
Thanks in advance,
wstr

 

a. page 461 ...sand and mud that has accumulated in brake drums and around brake discs may affect braking efficiency and may damage brake system components.

somewhere else in the manual (i cant find it exactly) it also warns not to drive the hybrid vehicle on loose sand where one wheel may spin. you can over heat or in extreme cases burn out the electric motors.

you were wise not to take the hybrid over the sand conditions you described.