Kitty Hawk, Nag's Head. etc. have no beach driving in summer.
If you go north on route 12 to Corolla eventually the road will end and you'll go through a gate and onto the beach. It's free, but you need a permit from Currituck County to park on the beach in season. There are sand roads back...
NC Outer Banks a couple of days ago. It was super windy and had the ocean very angry. There were a couple of places where I had to wait for the water to recede to drive through. Aired down to 20PSI she handled it all effortlessly.
There's a ridge along the sides of the mod top that helps a lot. I have no experience with the other tops, but have not had a problem with water running in the doorways on my Heritage.
Took advantage of a 70+ degree day on January 26 to finally get it washed. We hadn't had any real snow for 2 years and the road crews went REAL heavy on the salt. She was a mess. Wax today.
I have a few times. Only issue is I lost the pipe cap around the middle of the spare tire cover. I just remember to take it off first. No leaks at all. No brush wash for me, especially with a black Bronco!
I'm very familiar with driving on the north OBX beach and have driven many different vehicles on it. The conditions there change dramatically. There will be places where the sand is hard as a regular road and others where it's deep and loose. Like everyone else said - airing down is really...