Originally Posted by RollingBlu

I regularly drive out to Race Point beach on Cape Cod with my R450h. It does just fine with the OEM tires and no special settings. Just drop the tire pressure to 12 PSI. I've been doing this for about 30 years with various 4WD & AWD vehicles. I've learned that low range and sport settings are detrimental to traction in soft sand. Low range makes the throttle to responsive (slips in the sand). Sport settings make the transmission shift too often, losing traction. If the 450h had a Snow/Weather setting I would use that. You need to maintain a steady pace, not too slow, but pick up speed a bit as you approach upgrades. As a precaution, have a tow strap, accurate low pressure tire gauge, small shovel (military type) and a piece of plywood to place a jack on in case of a flat.

My daughter goes out on the dunes with us with her Wrangler and oversized tires. I've never seen a situation where one car or the other had an advantage. ...Well, except that day when she had no top and no doors and a severe sand storm hit. It was so bad that I had to have all the windows replaced on one side of my car due to sand blasting! But my two daughters took the full brunt of the storm in the Wrangler hiding under soaked beach towels.

A few years ago when I had a different SUV and made this video of the trip coming off Race Point beach. It will give you an idea of conditions that the Lexus handles without breaking a sweat.

Originally Posted by Blw2000

If I were going to spend much time in sand or off road, I would get a Grand Cherokee. We chose the RX over the GC due to reliability and we only use it for road trips and may encounter snow and ice. But if I were car camping etc. I would have gotten the GC and suffered a little less long term reliability as sand and dirt beats the tar out of vehicles.