Why are other full size SUV's not used in overlanding/offroading as often as Forerunner/Landcruiser?

[rayra]

That's a dope looking and highly capable Tahoe from what it appears!

What I said was more of a generalization, of course. The average "modded" Tahoe does not look like this at all, far from it in fact. This is a very clean build that likely took time an money. It still doesn't have the cool factor that a T4R or a Taco have.

I think you'll find most of the older / family folks that own the bigger SUVs don't give a tinker's damn about what 'looks cool'.


Folks have to keep in mind that there's 4-5 different 'camps' in vehicle camping. A lot of them doing this stuff long before it was re-branded as 'Overlanding' and had a zero or two tacked on all the pricing. These disparate groups are not going to agree on much besides 'go somewhere and explore / camp'

 

[calicamper]

I think you'll find most of the older / family folks that own the bigger SUVs don't give a tinker's damn about what 'looks cool'.


Folks have to keep in mind that there's 4-5 different 'camps' in vehicle camping. A lot of them doing this stuff long before it was re-branded as 'Overlanding' and had a zero or two tacked on all the pricing. These disparate groups are not going to agree on much besides 'go somewhere and explore / camp'

Its cool when were all piled Comfortably into our big ass wagons going on a big trip. The LC was fun in town but actually pretty lousy on long trips. Not as lousy as a soft top jeep (thats a whole other level of lousy) but still pretty lousy. The US is fairly unique in how far and fast we can drive to visit places like Moab. Spending 12+hours doing 75-80mph is a US thing. Hell my regatta trip we did 21hours strait dragging my racing sailboat to CO at 75-80mph at 15mpg in a Yukon. My LC sweated that boat at 65mph getting 11mpg. LoL Domestic companies build vehicles that do those long hauls the people who live out there buy them because well they actually are quite good covering those big spaces. They do pretty well dragging stock trailers up dirt roads and hauling farm junk across ranch tracks too. This whole “reliability” thing is a city slicker argument which is pretty funny given pretty much any ranch has some seriously old domestic stuff beat to hell that still gets hard work done daily. Toyota stuff is like the Sunday city car to most of those ranchers.

 

[02TahoeMD]

Thanks guys for using my rig as a reference. It has been a fun project and she hasn't let me down in the now 15 years I have owned her. She turns 18 this month and is now old enough to vote! Now, I am kinda an old guy in my 5th decade and I am very select in where I drive her and I am always mindful that I need to be able to get back home from any adventure I am on. The GMT800 series 1500 trucks are quite capable and I have no intention of selling. I have nothing against the very capable Toyota products, but my Chevy was the right price and keeping it maintained has not been bad.

 

[badm0t0rfinger]

I'd take it with a grain of salt. I think they were / are sponsored by Toyota. I seem to recall season two of the show felt like a Toyota advert.

Yeah it was annoying at times; there may have been a few other things they were selling that I wasn't buying, but hey I also bought General Grabber X3s partly on what I saw in their travels.

@phsycle is 100% on the nose with this one. Just look how its advertised; Toyota is advertised for the person who would more likely be found at REI than Target. Jeep is very much the same. The "Sport Utility Lifestyle" if you will. Compare that with domestic manufacturers, its about towing, and being a man, and putting heavy ******** in the bed. Aside from a few select trucks, they're advertised for practicality not lifestyle.. And don't get me started on a lot of the SUVs... They think that soccer moms need those when in reality something much smaller would do the trick... even *gasp* a minivan!

Also, I don't know if you're on Instagram much but the latest trend seems to be guys jumping from the Toyota bandwagon onto the Ram. I follow a few people (and one or two accounts that make fun of them) and all of them have their dolled up trucks they spend a few grand gussying for sale (at unreasonable prizes, no less) so they can chase that Insta clout. I don't get it. Build a truck for yourself, build a truck you like, build a truck that covers most of the downsides of it from factory, own it for years and perfect it... but naw, its easier to buy a Taco, drop it off at some offroad shop, drive it for 8 months and then try to sell it for 60k....

 

[zoomad75]

3 pages in and I'm still shaking my head at comparing 4runner's and LC's to fullsize domestic trucks. Last I checked a 4runner is not a full size, nor is an LC in any series.

The apples to oranges comparison is pretty funny to me. I think people have it right that the sheep driving TRD 4runners are about the only vehicles used in "Overlanding". Funny you see a lot less "full size" Toyota Tundras and Sequoias on the trails than Tahoes, Suburbans, Avalanches, Excursions, and Expeditions. There are even fewer aftermarket parts out there for the Toyota full size units than the GM full size stuff for sure.

One of the best parts of any day on the trail is when I get the confused look from some group of Toyota overlanders when they see my almost 30 year old dinosaur of a Blazer make it up the same trail they did with a camper bolted to the back. Jeep guys give the same look.

 

[Deleted member 9101]

Quality, durability and reliability to name just three. Good god I have owned way too many ford products GM products, Toyota toys, nissans, Porsche’s, Honda’s, Mercedes and even early Hyundai’s over the years. In the end, the Japanese products are head and shoulders above the rest. One may find a better ‘fit’ for tall, oversized or whatever, but from a vehicle perspective my experience is that the Japanese, in particular toyota rule the roost.

Now I expect a deluge of American iron lovers to grab their guns and come out with their personal exceptions, or they ‘know a guy who’ exceptions, that in the end prove the rule. Reliability history is long and quite one sided

I've had two Tundras, four F150s, one F350, and two F150s as work trucks.... The only one to ever need to be towed home was a Tundra.

 

[badm0t0rfinger]

3 pages in and I'm still shaking my head at comparing 4runner's and LC's to fullsize domestic trucks. Last I checked a 4runner is not a full size, nor is an LC in any series.

The apples to oranges comparison is pretty funny to me. I think people have it right that the sheep driving TRD 4runners are about the only vehicles used in "Overlanding". Funny you see a lot less "full size" Toyota Tundras and Sequoias on the trails than Tahoes, Suburbans, Avalanches, Excursions, and Expeditions. There are even fewer aftermarket parts out there for the Toyota full size units than the GM full size stuff for sure.

One of the best parts of any day on the trail is when I get the confused look from some group of Toyota overlanders when they see my almost 30 year old dinosaur of a Blazer make it up the same trail they did with a camper bolted to the back. Jeep guys give the same look.

Not to be difficult but why cant we compare apples to oranges?

I know I'm getting a different product when I buy an F150 compared to a Land Cruiser, but I still bought it based on what I wanted... Too many people buy based on what they think they need, or what they want to chase clout on social media.

I have ZERO issue with someone purchasing something based solely on "want" but when it comes down to it some people think you need a certain brand and certain accessory and a certain dumb patch on the back of their truck to get an overland experience. Take what you have, enjoy what you bought, go out, do you.

 

[calicamper]

Not to be difficult but why cant we compare apples to oranges?

I know I'm getting a different product when I buy an F150 compared to a Land Cruiser, but I still bought it based on what I wanted... Too many people buy based on what they think they need, or what they want to chase clout on social media.

I have ZERO issue with someone purchasing something based solely on "want" but when it comes down to it some people think you need a certain brand and certain accessory and a certain dumb patch on the back of their truck to get an overland experience. Take what you have, enjoy what you bought, go out, do you.

For 15 yrs, 4 of us did coastal range 7-12 day backpacking trips in a 1980 2door 5 spd, 1.3L non turbo diesel VW dasher think big VW Rabbit. Those trips had about an hour 30 min on rough logging roads to the trail head. We never had any issues except doing the climb past MT Shasta on the highway the semis were faster than we were. That car was like 50hp. But we could do the whole 550 mile trip on a single tank of diesel.
Only time we took the E250 was when we had more than 4 people.

 

[Mericas_Meuth]

We need to just discontinue pretending that vanity and image aren't the overwhelmingly dominant motivations in all popular automotive pursuits. Answers most of these types of questions.

True, true, true.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

 

[badm0t0rfinger]

We need to just discontinue pretending that vanity and image aren't the overwhelmingly dominant motivations in all popular automotive pursuits. Answers most of these types of questions.

Overlanding is a perfect cross section of "look how much money I have", "look at how resourceful I am" and "look how rugged I am".

 

[Deleted member 9101]

Overlanding is a perfect cross section of "look how much money I have", "look at how resourceful I am" and "look how rugged I am".

More like: look at my credit card limit and how freely I use it to impress like minded people.

 

[Deleted member 9101]

We need to just discontinue pretending that vanity and image aren't the overwhelmingly dominant motivations in all popular automotive pursuits. Answers most of these types of questions.

 

[Christian P.]

When I was 17, a guy had one of these in black - identical to the ad. Toyota SR5 Xtracab Sport. I thought that was the coolest thing in the world.

I kind of still do actually.

 

[GR8ADV]

Just checked the classifieds. Of the first 10 listings we have 3 American and 5 Japanese. Median year American 2014. Median year Japanese 1997. yes I know it is literally only a snapshot. I think it speaks to the quality, reliability and durability of the older rigs.
.
As the owner of a clean, well maintained, 95000 mile 96 f250 7.3 diesel, It would never be a vehicle I would search for as an overlanding build. YMMV

 

[phsycle]

OK Boomer. Toyota truck marketing in the U.S. is the same as it ever was.

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It got a pretty nice bump when this truck debuted:



Yup, guess marketing was always a lifestyle truck, whether we’re talking millennials, gen x, or boomers.