Willem replied:

Hmmmm...Ross...you are stirring. Club trips, I remember them well.........much hilarity and teasing......but I give them away a long time ago.

I would say that if you wanted to draw a comparision you would have to take the best driver and let him/her drive each vehicle over an obstacle to get a result. Tyres on the individual vehicles also play a very important role.

Best bog standard off road vehicles to mind are the Range Rover(but they don't like water crossings), Zook(a tad short in the wheelbase but very capable), Lada Niva ( difflocks and all), a FJ 55 Landcruiser( plenty of grunt if you don't mind reshaping the bodywork), My old G60 which powers over and through anything if you can stay in your seat.!!!!

Cheers,

Willem

Always going somewhere

Member - Karl replied:

I really don't think that 'bog standard' etc is going to do much for comparisions etc. I beleive that ultimately it realy comes down to the ablity of the drivers rather than the actual vehicles being tested. A good compentant driver should be able to get the best out of a vehicle, regardless of what type of vehicle it is, whereas someone of a lesser ablity, regardless of the vehicle he is driving will always have problems. Well that is my opinion anyway.Everyone is entitled to have an opinion - just make sure that yours is correct.

Martin replied:

Ross when you get into what 4wdriving is all about you'll have a better chance to compare vehicles. Club trips tend to produce artificial situations (as you describe) and don't really produce the best in drivers and vehicles.
Things like range, load space, reliability and so on also become very important on long 4wd trips and don't show up on short trips with people bush bashing and showing off - though the Suzuki didn't stand up even on a short trip! Then again fitting tractor tyres to a little 4wd can't be a good move!
The vehicle that can keep going, handle a wide variety of terrain and get the occupants there in comfort is the best vehicle. And remember that any trip involves mainly highway driving so many mods score poorly in this area.
Personally I prefer vehicles in standard form as I think most manufacturers know more about setting up vehicles than after market "experts". I've often heard of fuel leaks from after market tanks, suspension problems because of something as simple as a bump stop not being changed to allow for spring modifications. After all these small manufacturers just can't put the R&D into their products that the manufacturers do. Nissan and Landrover seem to be the makes with the poorest R&D as their vehicles have much higher fault rates than the others and thus many owners of these search for fixes in the after market area.
I do recommend that you move on to some serious 4wdriving - try the Canning Stock Route (CSR), the Simpson Desert, the beaches in SA, Victorian high country. Watch what other vehicles are doing and you'll learn heaps!

landie replied:

I think this is an interesting discussion, but one that simply highlights that there is no "bog standard" answers to the issues raised - It often comes down to the how, the where, the why, and the whom.

Whilst I entirely agree that the less the modifications, the better, sometimes this is not necessarily practical or for that matter sensible.

Landie

Brian replied:

I think it comes down to whatever lights you candle.... some people love club trips, some don't.... some people love Queensalnds beaches.... some don't.... some people love all the modifications.... some don't... If everyone and everything was the same... there'd be no need for forum's like this one.... would there?
Cheers
Brian