Not necessarily out of the box, but factoring in the cost of upgrading stuff (i.e., something that makes a great 'wheeler, but only after replacing half the drivetrain...well, it'd better be dirt cheap to begin with).

Samurai?
XJ?


maybe a Discovery or Scout????

10/30/2008 4:27:45 PM

yota

10/30/2008 4:39:48 PM

buy an already-modified land rover

10/30/2008 4:41:23 PM

TJ Wrangler. Find one with a factory D44, add a locker, and wheel it till the wheels fall off.

10/30/2008 4:42:00 PM

D44 xj

wagoneer
(2xd44)

early bronco
(9"/ d44)

Almost any model land cruiser... i mean the fj series has a heafty price tag if well maintained but the rest are pretty cheap and good off road .

but honestly... find the cheapest body you can thats relatively small .. buy a cheap ass 1ton+ truck ... fabricate suspension and mounts to make drive train fit.

10/30/2008 4:46:46 PM

I'd guess a ragged out Land/Range Rover, Ramcharger, Trooper. Generally anything that doesn't hold it's value well.

I'd also say a gas Excursion, but they're huge. Old Rams could work too, cheap to lift.

A Land Cruiser has the least bang for the buck imo. Also early Broncos (as I have one, and they hold their value pretty well). Same for a Samaraui nowadays.

[Edited on October 30, 2008 at 5:07 PM. Reason : .]

10/30/2008 5:02:49 PM

85-94 yota. Drivetrain is tough as nails, add lockers, lifts / suspension is cheap and simple, dead reliable.

10/30/2008 5:06:36 PM

geo tracker

suzuki x90

profit

10/30/2008 5:13:16 PM

^ yeah, if you get shitfaced drunk and take out a tree, you're out what? $100?

10/30/2008 6:04:29 PM

no not a range rover, a discovery

unless you like an open center differential or have a thing for spending money to convert to a different transfer case

well a 1987-88 range rover would be ok

10/30/2008 7:15:20 PM

Eh well you would know.

More to the list:
Honda Fourtrax
square headlight Wrangler

10/30/2008 9:12:12 PM

this is as easy as the car thread. toyota minitruck/4 runner, hands down.

coiled jeeps (xj/mj/zj/tj) follow not far behind.

i might would put a samurai in front of that mix of jeeps, but it depends on how far you go with mods. if you got wild with the mods/tire size, the cost/effort of a repower to be able to still drive one on the road could drop it down the list. doesn't take much to completely overwhelm the the stock 1.3 and relegate it to around town or trail use only.

10/30/2008 10:56:48 PM

10/30/2008 10:58:25 PM

i knew that was coming

10/30/2008 11:00:07 PM

my brother bought a 96 discovery for 1000 bucks

couple hundred got it on the road, another well placed 1000 and it would have done whatever a 4 runner could do and the interior wouldnt have been trashed.

10/31/2008 12:20:50 AM

lol i know my answer

10/31/2008 12:28:09 AM

^^eh, definitely not. plus, scoring a disco for $1k is pretty out of the ordinary, at least at the moment.

[Edited on October 31, 2008 at 12:50 AM. Reason : .]

10/31/2008 12:50:04 AM

and the disco will probably go another ~10,000 miles before it needs major transmission / engine / electrical work meanwhile the minitruck / runner keeps on trucking past 250k miles without any major maintenance.

[Edited on October 31, 2008 at 6:18 AM. Reason : .]

10/31/2008 6:18:26 AM

Quote :

"my brother bought a 96 discovery for 1000 bucks couple hundred got it on the road, another well placed 1000 and it would have done whatever a 4 runner could do and the interior wouldnt have been trashed. "

was this the one i sold you?

man that sucker was a trooper

10/31/2008 6:54:37 AM

yep, he spent hours cleaning it up inside and out, then decided to sell it

10/31/2008 7:28:38 AM

Is unibody construction a concern for a 'wheeler (i.e., XJ)?

D44 XJs and TJs are a bitch and a half to find, though, especially for a reasonable price. Half the people who have them don't even know the difference, so you're stuck driving out to look at it, only to find a D35.

only problem with the 4-Runner is that only a couple of years had solid front axles. A SAS is an option for some, but beyond the scope of my personal ability.

10/31/2008 10:00:09 AM

for a budget wheeler, early Toy IFS is still stronger than a D30. You can fit 33" tires on a runner with a small coil spacer in the back. How much lift do you need to put 33's on a XJ? All toy axles will handle 33" (or more) with a locker, you won't have to look for a d44.

That is how this runner was set up at this point, I think I had about $2600 in it

10/31/2008 11:06:09 AM

^^ haha my old runner, man stock that thing got it at uwharrie and tellico.

get a 93-97 FJ80 landcruiser with the factory e-lockers. the way gas is, prices have dropped off pretty significantly, so finding one with higher mileage for around $5K shouldn't be too hard. then invest in some sliders and offroad tires an go wheelin. most of these have just been mom mobiles, so they wont have been trashed, maybe neglected a bit in the maintenance department, but nothing you cant fix. spend some coin on baselining everything. These rigs are good past 300K and hold their value pretty good. ( you wont lose much if you resell it) yeah, they're bigger than most trail rigs, but very capable. see http://www.ih8mud.com for 80 info.

Or you could buy anything thats already built- I did, and aside from a few issues I've had, its worked great. also its cheaper than building your own, which I've done, for a lot of money.

also, I'd probably forget trying to find an xj or tj that already has a 44 rear. just buy a good one an swap in an 8.8.

Lots of people wheel unibody rigs with no problem, but if I got one I'd probably add some bracing to the unibody, or get something with a real frame.

IMHO I'd stick with toyota's specifically mini-trucks or 4runners, or an 80.

[Edited on October 31, 2008 at 11:10 AM. Reason : ..]

10/31/2008 11:09:14 AM

^^ depends on what you're doing.. not having sas for me is not an option i hate ifs wheeling

some stuff like range rovers have the air bags and ride leveling so its not bad but when your front wheels are crippled with 1/2 or less flex as compared to sas and you climb over some off camber stuff... well lets just say its a good thing the trd package includes a locker.

that rock you're on in pic #2 my Cherokee could do with all 4 wheels firmly planted on the ground.


^ yes they're orgasmic... you can get ome springs and fit 35s on them with lockers and solid axles....
sexy stuff.. i'm telling you... they'll ride like a caddy and flex like a tj (or better).


.... SPLOOGE! http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Cars-Trucks___1994-Toyota-Land-Cruiser-6-2-Diesel-conversion-WVO_W0QQitemZ260306457496QQddnZCarsQ20Q26Q20TrucksQQddiZ2282QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item260306457496&_trkparms=39%3A1|65%3A7|240%3A1318&_trksid=p4506.c0.m245

[Edited on October 31, 2008 at 11:16 AM. Reason : .]

10/31/2008 11:12:40 AM

well, I'm a big fan of wheel whatcha got. and do it cheap. plus its fun to wheel a stock or IFS rig.

10/31/2008 11:15:33 AM

Quote :

"some stuff like range rovers have the air bags and ride leveling so its not bad"

What the hell are you talking about? You dont want to wheel in ANY range rover with air suspension short of the air rock system, and its FAR from cheap.

Quote :

"that rock you're on in pic #2 my Cherokee could do with all 4 wheels firmly planted on the ground."

A poser comment for sure. Unless you were there that day and you have a pic of your truck on the same rock taking the same line then please shut the fuck up.

Oh and the 6.2 isnt really that special of a conversion. Now a land cruiser with the toyota 4.0 diesel, that would be cool.

[Edited on October 31, 2008 at 12:32 PM. Reason : ff]

10/31/2008 12:27:47 PM

my runner could keep all its wheels on the ground too, when it looked like this


since I sold it some idiot painted it spray paint black, it looks like crap now. It treated me and colter pretty good for awhile.

10/31/2008 1:09:16 PM

Did you have to do anything up front to fit the 33s? Mine does look like it's got a lot of spare clearance on 31s, but I hadn't thought about going bigger. What width were you running and was backspacing an issue?

Quote :

" D44 XJs and TJs are a bitch and a half to find, though, especially for a reasonable price. Half the people who have them don't even know the difference, so you're stuck driving out to look at it, only to find a D35."

True, they're hard to find. The plus side is that since most people don't know what it is (including other buyers!) you can score a truck for regular price with a $1k option that they don't even know was in there. Just tell them to send a pic of the rear axle; it's easier than driving out.

[Edited on October 31, 2008 at 4:25 PM. Reason : l]

10/31/2008 4:23:10 PM

damn it, leave it to sumfoo1 to tard up the thread with useless comments and a side scrolling broken link.

10/31/2008 5:11:31 PM

^^ yeah, i've tried that, too, but it gets annoying as shit, going back and forth, trying to talk them on to get useful pictures of what you want when you are absolutely speaking greek to them.

10/31/2008 5:28:10 PM

^^^ those were 285/75s if thats what you mean. Geolandar M/T, he sold them to me and I ran them on my $2500 Range Rover.

11/1/2008 1:16:21 AM

11/1/2008 1:22:28 AM

get a 75-79 scout, comes with the 44s, D20 transfer case, and will easily accept bigger tires without a lift.

11/1/2008 9:10:08 AM

^'78 and '79 came with a Dana 300 case. And a problem with scouts is, sure they come with Dana 44s front and rear, but that's a heavy truck and really needs a 60 in the rear for serious tires and wheeling.

11/1/2008 11:23:05 AM

90% of land rovers still have working AC, and at least 75% have non-trashed interiors

and discovery series one trucks are popping up regularly, running and driving, under $2k. even a low mile truck for $3k is a good deal, compared to something like a solid axle 4 runner which I have yet to see one with a reasonable price that the interior wasnt totally destroyed in. 94-95 models you dont need any fancy computer equipment to work on, 96 trucks eliminated the distributor and in my opinion are easier to work on, and cheaper to buy parts for since they sold a shitload of them that year, and in 97 they went to more complex emissions control devices. even still, a simple OBDII code reader is all you really need to work on it yourself. allow me to repeat, this was a $40k+ vehicle new, now regularly popping up for sale in running condition for as little as $1500!

11/1/2008 1:41:21 PM

in the front I just gave the torsion bars a couple of cranks and had it re-aligned. 285/75/16's like primer said on stock tacoma (enkei) wheels

11/3/2008 8:52:45 AM

rhino rtv

11/3/2008 10:42:07 AM

way to do your job in the thread and fix the link up top

11/3/2008 10:55:18 AM

Generally only '80 scouts came with the 300, maybe a few 79s. I have seen and wheeled in many stock set up scouts with 32" tires. If you are an idiot, you can break anything. Also, i dont think the weight/axle combination is any worse than anything else mentioned. 44s should have no problem with a stock vehicle unless you are rock crawling with giant tires.

11/3/2008 11:11:29 AM

^^ i don't see a broken link

11/3/2008 1:05:13 PM

the sidescrolling crap sumfoo1 posted.

11/3/2008 1:15:47 PM

the only thing that's forcing a side scroll on here is baonest's picture of the civic

11/3/2008 2:25:44 PM

not for me, it was fine until the ebay link was posted.

11/3/2008 2:53:52 PM

the cheapest way to go off-road is to buy a used ATV.

11/3/2008 7:53:50 PM

y0, someone edit my best bang off roader pic.

11/3/2008 7:57:59 PM

^^^yeah here at home it's a little bit of both..if i shrink baonest's pic down it still scrolls a little..at work with big ass monitor it didnt matter

ah well, BAN LOCK SUSPEND

11/3/2008 8:21:32 PM

^^^ no doubt...i used to have a Fourtrax.

still, what am I going to tow it with? depending on choice of car, it wouldn't alleviate my need for a truck...plus, I want to be able to take it hunting, camping, driving out on the OBX, etc...and I want to be able to haul SCUBA gear and stuff, and maybe get into geocaching.

11/3/2008 8:36:40 PM

i think you know the answer

11/3/2008 9:03:39 PM