My most extensive experience with off road driving was at Canyon de Chelly, driving at least one trip daily to and from our excavation. The best piece of advice about dealing with shifting quicksands of the canyon was "Don't worry about getting stuck. Everyone does get stuck." (resistance is futile).

Very often you would help someone get out of the mire who had gottem you out of a pickle just the day before. I was driving a 4WD winch equipped pickup, just right for canyon conditions. Once I got mired so thoroughly that I had to roll down the window to exit the vehicle. It took two tractors to extricate my truck. I had been driving conservatively, following an existing set of tracks made by a larger vehicle. However, I failed to notice that the tracks did not emerge from the other side of the stream.....

Navajos living in the canyon did amazing trips with normal passenger cars. Again, it is skill and experience, not equipment, that counts.