Which if any overland platform/vehicle sounds like it fits my needs&wants?

[Deleted member 9101]

That aside a fullsize is just a better platform. The frame is wider, the springs are farther apart, it is longer, it is wider... any way you want to cut it for hauling a load it is going to be more stable.

What I find hilarious is when someone loads down a Tacoma to the point of suspension failure, then dumps thousands to beef up the axel, frame, amd suspension.... Instead of just buying a fullsize that could carry more weight right off the show room floor...haha.

 

[calicamper]

Hm - clearly a very different viewpoint in terms of daily use in a city. If we were to look at getting a second vehicle (which we're not) for daily use in our city (of 9 million) we'd look at a FIAT 500 or perhaps a Mini Cooper (although they've become much larger in the last couple of decades). We actually went into a showroom last week and looked at a Renault Twizy, with no particular intention other than curiosity - you could carry two of them in the tray of an F150 (they weigh 450 Kg). It's just as well that fuel is still more or less free in the USA.

Yeah my LA family and trips to LA vehicle size was a non issue LA is built around the big cars. My SF condo built in 1920 has a 1920 carriage door and the parking between driveways are 180 inches. The Ranger is longer than my Expedition. The Expedition does ok in SF. But its too wide for my carriage garage. But in LA shoot full size rule the road.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

What I find hilarious is when someone loads down a Tacoma to the point of suspension failure, then dumps thousands to beef up the axel, frame, amd suspension.... Instead of just buying a fullsize that could carry more weight right off the show room floor...haha.

Yeah... I have no idea why somebody would beef up a small truck...

That said I take my Ranger places I wouldn't want to take my crusty old F-150 let alone a newer/nicer one. If you go where Jeeps go... a fullsize is going to get pinstripes. Nothing real technical... just tight and narrow in places.

It has morphed into basically a mini mid 1990's F-150 with a 3/4 ton transfer case...

 

[Smileyshaun]

If you don’t care about paint or body panels anything can fit anywhere

 

[Furaites]

I take my Nissan Frontier Pro 4X (Completely Stock) with the local offroad club some times. 2 Jeeps, a Dodge full size, and 3 Chevy 2500. All of them Jacked up, done up...and they all end up getting towed out by....ME.

I have yet to get stuck in my Pro 4X and we go down all sorts of crap up here in Canada.

That being said...Going down some of the trails, the Jeeps and I make it fine....but the Full Size pickups end up stuck because of the terrain...

 

[MTVR]

...I am excluding trucks. I dont want to DD a truck. No offense to anybody but I just am not a truck guy...

I was mostly considering a JKU and GX470. I had basically decided on the GX470.

Huh? Those ARE trucks.

Are you trying to say that you don't want a PICKUP?

 

[Martinjmpr]

OK, I haven't read the whole thread so I hope someone hasn't posted this already.

Honestly, OP, you are overthinking this. I get it, you want the perfect overland vehicle. So do we all but that vehicle doesn't exist, never has and never will.

Life is about compromise. Only YOU know what you're willing to compromise on. And really you don't even know because you haven't started. Sounds like your mind's made up about the GX460/470. That's a good vehicle, I drove one in the Middle East (where it was called a Land Cruiser Prado) and it was a great vehicle. Very thirsty but fuel was cheap in Kuwait and besides, one of my relatives (my Uncle Sam) was paying for it anyway.

Everybody travels/off-roads/overlands differently. The things that work for someone else may or may not work for you.

So the FIRST "recommendation" I'd make is: ignore everyone's "recommendations" about what you "need." One person will tell you that you NEED 35" tires or skid plates or limb risers. Another will tell you you NEED a winch, a set of max-tracks, and a HAM radio. But do you?

People have driven hundreds of millions of off-road miles without any of that stuff. 99.9% of the off road vehicles you encounter in the US don't have any of that.

Start with something simple and basic, and just get out there. As you do more, you will come to know what you "need" and what you don't.

 

[Martinjmpr]

BTW I'd agree with the OP about not wanting a full sized pickup. Much as I like my F-150 it is a terrible vehicle in a crowded city. It's enough of a PITA to park in a shopping mall, I'd hate to think about trying to park it in a tiny big city garage. Turning radius is huge and the width (especially with the mirrors out) makes it a real struggle to park anywhere.

 

[MTVR]

OP, you keep saying you want a "car". Have you looked into The Keen Project?

 

[Martinjmpr]

Something crazy to think about is a newish 4 runner is almost the same size as a older square body suburban .

I guess that depends on your definition of "almost" but I don't think so.

1989 Suburban (Square body) had a wheelbase of 129.5" and an overall length of 219" and a width of 79.6"

By contrast, the 5th gen 4runner (2010 - present) has a wheelbase of 109", an overall length of 190" and a width of 72"

So the 'Burb is 2 1/2' longer, with a 20" longer wheelbase, and almost 8" wider than the 4runner.

Not really close to a Suburban in size. Close to a Tahoe in overall length and wheelbase, but the Tahoe is still considerably wider than the 4runner.

1st gen of the Tahoe was on the GMT-400 platform. 4 door Tahoe was 117" wheelbase with an overall length of 200".

Certainly the 5th gen 4runner is much larger than the 1st gen 4runner. For reference the 1985 4runner had a wheelbase of 103", an overall length of 175" and an overall width of 67".

 

[Martinjmpr]

Echoing the OP a little bit, even though I currently drive a pickup, in a perfect world I'd have a single-cabin type vehicle, i.e. a wagon of some type. IMO a wagon type vehicle is simply more useful and versatile for what I do. The biggest advantage of a wagon type vehicle is that you can use the same space for either passengers or cargo, just depending on whether you flip the 2nd row seat down, although that depends on whether the manufacturer was smart enough to create a vehicle with a completely flat load deck - which unfortunately, most modern manufacturers don't do.

My 2 4runners were particularly annoying in this regard. It wouldn't have been that difficult to create a flat load deck but for reasons of cheapness, I'm sure, Toyota decided that it wasn't important in the 3rd and 4th gen 4runners.

By contrast my GMT800 Suburban was magnificent - I could remove the 3rd row, drop the 2nd row and I had an 8' long perfectly flat surface for cargo, sleeping, etc. It was a beautiful design (that of course, they threw away to turn the Suburban into a giant mini van. Don't get me started on that...) My gripe with a pickup is that the "bulkhead" between the cab and the bed means I can't really have a long, unobstructed load deck in either one.

The only reason I drive a pickup now is because the large SUVs have left the "utilitarian" users like me behind, so if we want the utility of the truck we also have to have the limitations of the pickup bed design.

As I said in my first post, all choices like this are SOME kind of compromise. I decided to compromise on the cabin space in order to give myself the capability of the truck, and I'm willing to accept the limitations that compromise entails.

 

[grumpyoldguys]

Look for Ford F150 a sweet spot between off-roading and overlanding.

 

[calicamper]

Guys he lives in LA. Everyone I know in LA including family have full sized rigs. Pssst LA was physically built around the full sized car. Hint Boston, San Francisco etc were not. Yes there is a big difference!

Also his access to the best mountains and BLM are long fast highway drives which case the Full size crushes the mid sized stuff in both range and comfort. I get the Anti Full sized thing I went through that last yr. But I came to the realization that the modern full sized stuff is actually better than the over priced mid sized stuff today.

If he lived in San Francisco I’d say 188 inch long max LX or GX is perfect because yeah SF is not built for full sized at all period!!!
But he’s not in SF he is in LA which is literally built based on full sized cars.

 

[southpier13]

is this the best fishing expedition yet?

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Guys he lives in LA. Everyone I know in LA including family have full sized rigs. Pssst LA was physically built around the full sized car. Hint Boston, San Francisco etc were not. Yes there is a big difference!

Also his access to the best mountains and BLM are long fast highway drives which case the Full size crushes the mid sized stuff in both range and comfort. I get the Anti Full sized thing I went through that last yr. But I came to the realization that the modern full sized stuff is actually better than the over priced mid sized stuff today.

If he lived in San Francisco I’d say 188 inch long max LX or GX is perfect because yeah SF is not built for full sized at all period!!!
But he’s not in SF he is in LA which is literally built based on full sized cars.

Good point, around here everybody has their '250 on MT's. There is no limiting terrain to make maneuverability really matter.

We don't even have a offroad park in the state that allows regular vehicles, it is like a hard days drive to get anywhere "fun" that would really make a fullsize trip over its own feet.

But I will say it was teriffying to meet a fullize on the trail when we went to Ohio last year compared to a Jeep. Amazing the difference a few inches make. An old beat up 'burban coming charging thru the trees was about like bumping into a bull elephant in the middle of a jungle. "crap, where do we go?" "Can he fit thru that?" "dang that tree is really flexible" "he must really have fun ramming into half the forest"