It had proper beam axles at both ends, each of them with a locking diff, as well as long-travel suspension that made it stunningly agile, and its built-in strength was such that you still see them for sale today with a quarter of a million miles or more under their belts. Up top, there are the big ones – as exemplified by the 80-Series from back in the 1990s, which many people will tell you is the best car ever made. The Land Cruiser range can be divided roughly in two. Where do you even start with the Land Cruiser? It’s an entire family of different vehicles with many major differences – but with strength, mighty build quality and serious off-road skills common to all of them. You almost never see a modified Fourtrak – just beaten-up ones, on no more than a set of mud tyres, still showing the rest of the world how it’s done.
Jeep 4x4 off road Patch#
There are almost none left for sale now, and those you do see are mainly the later Independent model whose front wishbones and low-slung gearbox meant it wasn’t a patch on the old leafer off-road, but anything with Daihatsu’s absolutely legendary 2.8 TD engine is going to have traction to spare. But you could drive a stake through its heart and you still wouldn’t be able to kill it – its doughty unbreakability means you’ll still see ancient examples chuntering around playday sites and hill farms as reliably as the day they were born.
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The Fourtrak was ugly, rough and boring, and any that are left now are likely now to be rusted half to death. Their values have gone up strongly since the Defender went out of production, but the number of them you see being used off-road has spiralled upwards in recent years – whether you’re looking to buy new, old or really old, the Wrangler is a very good bet indeed. You could only get this with a petrol engine, but the new JL model has righted that wrong (if a wrong is what it was).Įvery Wrangler has been cool, and people like them for that alone, but more than that there’s no other 4×4 that’s so well set-up for modifying. The JK was also available in Rubicon form, with a set of off-road enhancements making it probably the best factory-standard off-roader in the world. As well as being far more refined than the TJ it replaced, this was the first Wrangler available in either diesel or five-door form, and as a result it out-sold all previous models several times over. But the real step forward came with the introduction of the JK model in 2007.
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The good thing about all Wranglers is that with the combined output of America’s aftermarket on your side, there’s almost no limit to what an imaginative (and rich) owner can do with one.Īnother advantage the Wrangler has over the Land Rover Defender is that it commonly comes with kit like cruise, leather and air-con, and in some cases you can hear the stereo. This sold in much higher numbers, and plenty of people modified them – usually to a high standard, too. It was in 1998, though, that Jeep hit the off-roading mainstream in the UK with the arrival of the coil-sprung TJ.
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The original YJ, with unpopular square headlights, only came to Britain in small numbers, but its combination of leaf springs and a cheerfully boorish 4.0-litre straight six engine made it pretty hilarious to drive.
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Jeep says the new model is the best Wrangler yet, but they’ve all been pretty good. As always, finding a good, solid truck on which to base your build is critical – but so long as you get that nailed, any of these vehicles here could be turned into an off-road machine to be truly proud of… Some are very well known, but there are others that you’re unlikely ever to have thought about. Whether it’s for work or play, here’s a selection of 20 off-road heroes worth thinking about for your next project. But there’s a whole world of alternatives out there, too – some of them a common sight, others rare and hard to get, but all of them with lots to offer if you’re willing to think outside the box. Go to a typical 4×4 playday and almost everything you see will be Land Rovers, Jeeps and Suzukis – while on a construction site, it’ll be a few select brands of pick-up. The off-road scene in Britain is dominated by just a few makes and models of vehicle.