What exactly makes a 4x4 a 'Soft Roader'

No low range is very limiting.

David,

I class anything without low range a soft roader.

matt

Maybe no low range?

Cheers
Greg

A Nissan......... or a Mitsubishi

My Forester has low range.

It has 20cm clearance. Same as a Prado I think.

It has constant 4 WD.

But I still think of it as a soft roader.

Its more than just not having a low range.
Its about the construction of the vehicle,the amount of wheel articulation ,the entry and exit angles and the amount of protection for vital components.
The rpms the engine delivers its peak torque and HP is also important

Its a blurry line and the thing you really need to know is the limitations of the vehicle in question

Certainly I consider anything without a selectable high/low range transfer case to be a softroader. Especially if it has an east-west engine.

I'm probably wrong, but I always thought a 'Soft Roader' was a 4wd vehicle without a full x-stressed chassis

Anything without the ''Oh What A Feeling" Badge on it.

I'd say a 'Soft Roader' has a monocoque constructed chassis, whereas a true 4x4 has a Ladder style constructed chassis. Eg - Nissan Patrols, Cruisers and Land Rovers. A more rigid and stronger chassis I find is more capable of road.

Monocoque I think is weaker. Street cars have this type of construction.

I am also a firm believer of Front and Rear solid live axles. I can't see station mob drive with any different. Proven and reliable !

Although current 200 Series and Prados and 100 series can liven up the debate about the 'benefits' of IFS.

I also agree - no low range gearing = useless out bush!



cheers

matthew

If you can drive around fraser when it hasnt rained for a while then you have a off roader . If you are too scared to go there then you have a soft roader .

Gday David
I think it's the vehicles that have plastic bumper bars that might tear off when in a river or creek.
Murray

Soft roader

It's definitely a blurry line. Google "trans siberian rally" to see what a Porsche Cayenne can do ;-))

Serendipity

Any vehicle that requires (any) modification to handle a CSR trip.

I'd say a soft roader would be the vehicles that have monocoque construction and no low range gearing.
Anything that does not have direct/solid drive to all wheels would also have to be included (eg. viscous coupling operating to provide drive to one end of the vehicle).
It would also have to add that it should have a reasonable amount of wheel articulation, but I'm not really sure how I'd define a 'reasonable amount' - perhaps at least a diagonal wheel ramp test:

I think most 4x4 people know what a soft roader is, you can put labels on them such as don't have low range etc but I think it goes further than that. Would you take the vehicle across the outback of Australia for example? Would the vehicle in question deliver un-questioned reliability and ability to get you from A to B when it counted?

Having said that many of the vehicles in question are not bought to be used as workhorses such as your cruiser or patrol or defender etc, but sometimes they are and so it begs the question. Sometimes the owner believes you can kill 2 birds with one stone, that is Yuppie 4X4 and hard roader all rolled into one, nar don't think so...

In reality the bare bones Landcruisers, Troop Carriers, Patrols and Defenders are the real hard roaders IMO, after that they start to get softer and softer, you don't need a science degree to see one.












I think most 4x4 people know what a soft roader is, you can put labels on them such as don't have low range etc but I think it goes further than that. Would you take the vehicle across the outback of Australia for example? Would the vehicle in question deliver un-questioned reliability and ability to get you from A to B when it counted?

Having said that many of the vehicles in question are not bought to be used as workhorses such as your cruiser or patrol or defender etc etc, but sometimes they are and so it begs the question. Sometimes the owner believes you can kill 2 birds with one stone, that is Yuppy 4X4 and hardroader all rolled into one, narr don't think so.

Examples that spring to mind are:
RAV4
Subaru Outback (worse departure angle than Forester as longer boot area)
Honda CRV

Also saw a "sport" Range Rover recently which looked like it had all the clearance of a Commodore. Not a proper 4WD IMO.

Friend took her Subaru Forester all sorts of places that I would have thought beyond it.... but it's always a trade off b/w car-like comfort and handling vs off-road capability.

I take this as a bit of a tongue in cheek thread. In that spirit I would say anything that is not a 'Cruiser or Patrol trayback is a soft roader.

Further I would like to thank all the soft roaders that go down desert tracks smoothing out the track so that hard roaders never bottom out. Soft roaders generously use their vehicles as a type of grader to smooth out the track for those that follow.

On a more serious note. This is a shade of grey question. Given how few hard roaders there are now it is probably easier to define a hard roader than a soft roader. I would say anything without dual range transmission and high ground clearance is a soft roader.