Decisions - a [minor] dilemma. By HHFP

I am going camping this weekend and I can’t decide which car to take.

I’m headed 4.5 hours south to the vermilion cliffs area of Utah. A very sandy area, in fact, I’m staying at a sand mountain. I will be taking the camp trailer with me as it will be a family trip.

So here’s the dilemma.

The GX tows the camp trailer SO much better. It has self-leveling air suspension so the trailer dances around a lot less and is more level, it has the V8 which despite only having 50 more hp on paper is SUBSTANTIALLY more powerful than the cruisers I6. That plus the 5 speed vs 4 speed means and it handles the load of the trailer much better. It’s not a small consideration because 80% of the miles are on I15 which is both hilly and fast (80 mph limit).

It’s also quieter.

But

it needs something fixed in the front suspension...I can’t diagnose it and so it’s at the shop today having them look at it. It should be fixed today if they can find it. Hopefully, it will solve a vibration issue at speed. It also needs new tires because even though the Hankooks still have tread, they are cracking...and I hate them. That’s another debate as the tires I want only come in a 31.5 which technically fits the stock GX (stock is 30.5)...but I don’t know if I want oversized tires on the GX.

Those issues sorted it should be the easy choice - I can attach most of the off-roady things I would want to it from the cruiser like the awning and fridge too.

However, where we are going is, again, SUPER sandy and there are a few things we want to do that involve deep sand driving. Like...DEEP sand.

The Cruiser’s bigger tires and higher clearance would be better for floatation. Though the extra HP of the GX somewhat offsets that.

The Cruiser will pull the trailer and has done so recently.

It doesn’t like it, but it always gets the job done and even runs a little cooler than the GX under load. Going up over this mountain I couldn’t do much better than 30-35...but we made it. to be fair, its a 9200 foot summit and its 7% the whole way. It’s louder on the highway and doesn’t much like speeds above 75 owing to the regear so it would take a little longer to get down there. Fuel economy is, surprisingly, in the cruiser’s favor, though not by much.

Taking the Cruiser would give me much more confidence on the trails down there as It’s already done them

Plus I would have more of my built-in off-road toys and the bigger battery is better suited to the fridge. It would also be nice to have my high power HAM radio with radiolocation for tracking as well as my CB in the event I get stuck.

It does have the drawback that the CV joint on one side is starting to give way, but I hear of people going a long time with worse clicks than I have so I’m not TOO worried about. (It’s a birfield joint in a closed knuckle, the inner joint is starting to physically wear but it won’t rapidly deteriorate like a torn boot would cause)

I think I’m over-thinking it and I think the GX would probably do fine in the sand. It has 30.5 inch AT tires, full-time 4wd with a better center diff and all the power...it’s just never been sand tested, and I don’t have a ton of sand driving experience.

Thoughts?