Bronco or Wrangler? The spec sheet won’t settle it. The sand will.

This is the leg the Bronco wins. Independent front suspension means the steering stays put and the ride stays settled over the patched pavement through Duck and Corolla. Reviewers call it the more comfortable of the two on the road, and you’ll feel why in the first mile.

You sit a little lower and more laid back than in the Jeep, behind a wide, flat hood with the corners in view. The dash is laid out like a modern SUV, and the controls are where your hands look for them.

Aired down, in four-wheel drive, with Sand picked from the drive modes, it floats through the deep stuff without drama and without asking much of you. Lockers front and rear are available; you won’t need them here.

With the hardtop, the panels over the front seats lift off by hand, and the doors come off if you want them off. With the top off, both of these are loud at 55 on the road and perfect at 15 on the sand.

Four doors, five seats, and 38 cubic feet behind the back seat to the Wrangler’s 32, so the chairs and the cooler go in without a fight.

The driver who wants the top off on Saturday and a quiet, settled commute on Monday, and would rather the vehicle not ask anything of them on the road.

This is the leg the Wrangler asks the most of you. Solid axles front and rear mean the steering wanders a little and the ride is firmer over the patched pavement. Reviewers call the steering vague, and it is. Forty-five minutes of it is enough to know whether you’d mind.

You sit up tall and close to a flat, upright windshield, with a short hood in front of you. The shape goes back to 1941, and everyone on this beach knows it on sight.

Aired down, the Wrangler is in its element. The solid axles that cost it on the road let the wheels drop into the ruts and stay planted. Our own Willys make this exact run every day of the season. Nothing on this beach surprises one.

Soft top folded back or hard panels off, doors off, and the windshield folds down too. It is the most open-air thing you can buy with a back seat. On Highway 12 the wind is a steady roar; on the sand it’s the whole point.

Four doors seat five. The back seat sits high with a square window beside it, and 32 cubic feet behind it.

The driver who wants the beach to be a little bit of an event every time, likes feeling the surface through the wheel, and is fine trading some highway quiet for it.