Andrew P Collins on Truck Yeah just wrote the following article highlighting 17 new trucks, rated in detail and in regards to how they measure up as off-road "expedition vehicles". As you will see, he takes the time to outline his criteria as to why he picked the vehicles in question and explains how he comes up with the results that he does. What I want to know is if you agree with his assessments. Let's here what you think... :yup:
17 New Trucks Rated In Detail As Off-Road Expedition Vehicles
Image being able to go where the silence truly is golden, where the views inspire and where the people you do meet are friendly and interesting. Now imagine you can bring along a fridge, and chairs and a table, and comfortable bed and you friends and family too. Now imagine you don't even have to break a sweat or don a backpack if you don't want because you're in a vehicle.
"Sign me up!" you say. And rightly so, but to start you will need a vehicle that's up for the adventure. "But where can I find such a vehicle in today's crossover and hybrid sports performance suv coupe cabrio nonsense market that can satiate my now unquenchable vehicular wanderlust?"
Well your in luck! To make your life easier, I've gathered a selection of vehicles, taken the necessary traits and mathed them up good to produce the best of the best. I did this all for you at great expense some expense a reckless use of time so you can get out and enjoy the 1-2 combo of cars and world.
Now I am going to say something right up front that will make several of you upset: there are no full size trucks, there are basically no "domestic" makes on this list aside from Jeep. The reason is three fold:
·I don't have time to sort through the billions of permutations of available vehicles....okay I do but I don't want to
·I picked vehicles that are traditionally well suited, and oft chosen, for the task and included a few wild cards for fun.
·At a certain point a vehicle becomes too big to effectively serve as a touring vehicle, that point is about where most domestic trucks start.
What I did do is find 17 of the cars most likely to assume touring duty based on popularity, capability and reputation. That having been said, I would like to revisit this with more heavy duty vehicles (including expedition rigs) eventually, so I guess I will call this the 17 best medium to heavy touring vehicles...and here they are (in Alphabetical order):
·Infiniti QX80
·Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk
·Jeep Grand Cherokee overland ED
·Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland3.6
·Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon
·Land Rover LR2
·Land Rover LR4 HSE
·Lexus GX460
·Lexus LX570
·Mercedes-Benz G550
·Mercedes-Benz G63
·Nissan Frontier quad short bed Pro 4X
·Nissan Xterra Pro 4X
·Range Rover V8 SWB
·Toyota 4Runner Trail
·Toyota Land Cruiser
·Toyota Tacoma quad short bed TRD
Over-landing, expedition travel, heavy touring whatever you call it, has different requirements that what you might consider for a traditional "4x4", and I ranked the vehicles based on these requirements in a quantitative fashion:
Load capacity - If touring in a vehicle means taking it all with you...or at least what you need with you...then you need the room for it. More than just "will it fit in there" your vehicle must have the necessary payload (GVWR - Curb weight) to be able to safely carry your gear. You would be surprised to find that with some vehicles, just putting 5 people and gas in it you are close to your max safe weight. You can get away with exceeding this max on the road (sometimes), but off road and on rough trails this becomes dangerous fast. The load score is a composite function of both how much volume you have for cargo and payload ratings.
Trail worthiness - We aren't talking about rock crawling or extreme wheeling here, however the better a vehicles trail score, the more likely you are to get to your destination without getting stuck or becoming exhausted. Even non-technical trails forest trails can turn into real challenges with unexpected weather. Points here are tallied by the availability of traction aids, suspensions flexibility, and angles relative to off road travel; Approach angle, departure angle, break over angle, ground clearance. All the vehicles on the list are fitted with advanced forms of brake based traction control and without a way to compare them they are treated as equal and from my experience they are for the most part. Also, vehicles with adjustable suspensions are being tallied at their most capable measurements. Purely numerical calculations for the Trail score.
Range (fuel economy on and off road) - In the US this is a big deal, in other countries you have to choose between the power of the gas engine and the range of the diesel...we just get the power but that does mean that how far you can travel without carrying fuel is much more a factor. Carrying extra fuel is often a necessary evil but its costly to do safely and reduces your payload, Vehicles with inherently good range have a major advantage. Calculated by averaging the City/Highway/off road (city-25%) ranges.
Reliability - I think it goes without saying that this is an important trait when you may be calling on your vehicle to get you back home. I tried my best to scour several different sources to determine what is considered reliable, and based some of this with historical data on models that are brand new or have little data. Its not perfect, but I tried to be fair. This is the first category to have SOME subjectivity.
Durability - This is different that reliability, this is how long you can expect to drive a heaven laden vehicle on rough tracks before it starts to loosen up, develop rattles and generally fall apart. Like reliability this is somewhat subjective, but I did factor in points for vehicles with construction that is generally considering more durable as well as some historical analysis.
Value - How much of the above can do you get for your money. Touring can be a rich mans game but it doesn't have to be, use your money wisely on your vehicle and put it into your adventures instead. This is scored by combining the above values and factoring in price.
I did my best to be objective and data driven as much as possible, again, is it perfect? no. Are there factors I've missed? Of course...but how is this different than any other comparison you've ever read? Feel free to write me a comment and tell me what I fool I was for omitting _________. Did I mention I tried to do this by the numbers and as fair as I could? good.
In the interest of space, I've left of the bottom 7 vehicles, but they are included at the bottom; So, starting at #10 we have.
You can see the results here:
http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/am...n-value-1623325163/1627526937/+andrewpcollins
