top ten 4wd

[Dave&Wen]

As quoted from your site. Historians seem not certain who invented four wheel drive.

Must make you think about it. Was it a 4WD to go bush and do the type of driving a 4WD of today or even of 1942 would do? Or was is a AWD?

Too flip the bird back at ya would be a waste!

[MKPatrolGuy]

As quoted from your site. Historians seem not certain who invented four wheel drive.

Must make you think about it. Was it a 4WD to go bush and do the type of driving a 4WD of today or even of 1942 would do? Or was is a AWD?

Too flip the bird back at ya would be a waste!

Geez these Jeep people are narky and serious...

[bj56]

we talking abo ut now not 1942 dude

[-Scott-]

...with the shooters standing up behind the cab and the fetchers on the running boards

In my younger years (OK, only 20 years ago) we used to go chasing after rabbits (without guns) using Rovers. A 110 Landy (first model to use the 110 name) and a couple of Range Rovers - people hanging off the side of the Landy, and standing on the tailgate of the Rangies hanging onto the roof.

Find the rabbits in the spotlight, tear up to them as fast as possible, hit the brakes then jump off and try to catch them in the confusion. We caught a few, but the fun was in the chasing.

Ah, memories!

Scott

[Rainbow Warrior]

Stock for stock, nothing can compare to a Rubicon. Jeep invented the go-anywhere, do-anything 4x4, and still wears the crown. And with the ready availability of aftermarket parts, Jeeps enjoy a versatility matched by no other vehicle.

Maybe in the states, parts for Jeep here are like chooks teeth.
You obviously don't have GQ Patrols over there.
We do get jeeps over here and I've seen them fail as easily as anything else.

[DiscoDino]

Ok...to be true to the subject (production ones - not buggies):

1. Unimog
2. RR Classic 2 door
3. G-Wagon
4. Patrol GU SWB
5. Rubicon
6. Defender 110
7. Toy FJ40
8. Wagoneer
9. Impreza
10. Porsche 959

[Rainbow Warrior]

Sorry to disappoint "mates", but my Rubicon is hardly my first Jeep.
1978 Cherokee S
1986 Commanche
1989 Grand Wagoneer
2002 Wrangler X
2002 Liberty
2004 Wrangler Rubicon

It ain't marketing. Jeep really has been kicking ass since WWII. I'm not bashing on the other manufacturers, but Jeep was first and best. A Rover or G500 that can maybe equal a Rubicon costs twice as much or more, and the aftermarket for those vehicles is very limited. I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the Ibex. They are pretty badass but again, dollar for dollar, a Jeep is your best bet.

Not on Oz it ain't, or UK I suspect.

[turps]

LIke I said before. I like my car and I think it is the best. It just happend to be a SWB GQ (ok well it does have it's moments when it is a POS).

But I would like a G Wagon Merc for something different.

[droopypete]

This one, designed by Ferdinand Porsche

http://www.baja101.com/4x4abc/4WD101/who.html

Thanks Patrolguy
Peter.

[droopypete]

As quoted from your site. Historians seem not certain who invented four wheel drive.

Must make you think about it. Was it a 4WD to go bush and do the type of driving a 4WD of today or even of 1942 would do? Or was is a AWD?

Too flip the bird back at ya would be a waste!

No, but I would say it was 4WD to do the type of driving a 4WD would do in 1900
And please tell me the diferance between 4WD & AWD, this has always had me stumped (no offence Stumped )
Peter.

[GURU]

Series IIA Landy....Best 4wd I've owned for a fun truck, I suprised afew nissan owners how capable the LWB version is.

currently own a Range Rover, great design and cheap as.

But I would love a defender (dreams)

[droopypete]

As quoted from your site. Historians seem not certain who invented four wheel drive.

Must make you think about it. Was it a 4WD to go bush and do the type of driving a 4WD of today or even of 1942 would do? Or was is a AWD?

Too flip the bird back at ya would be a waste!

Geez these Jeep people are narky and serious...

Yes i have noticed a bit of a trend there as well
Maybe they are over compensating for some mechanical inadequacies
Peter.

[Rainbow Warrior]

As quoted from your site. Historians seem not certain who invented four wheel drive.

Must make you think about it. Was it a 4WD to go bush and do the type of driving a 4WD of today or even of 1942 would do? Or was is a AWD?

Too flip the bird back at ya would be a waste!

No, but I would say it was 4WD to do the type of driving a 4WD would do in 1900
And please tell me the diferance between 4WD & AWD, this has always had me stumped (no offence Stumped )
Peter.

It was some French Model T look-alike IIRC, don't know if it was 4WD or AWD.

AWD has a centre diff (usually with a locking option for 4WD mode) if an AWD lifts any one wheel all the drive will transfer to that wheel and the vehicle will stop. Whereas 4WD (or an AWD with the centre diff locked) will always drive one rear and one front wheel. AWD is better than 2WD but not as good as 4WD.

[droopypete]

...with the shooters standing up behind the cab and the fetchers on the running boards

In my younger years (OK, only 20 years ago) we used to go chasing after rabbits (without guns) using Rovers. A 110 Landy (first model to use the 110 name) and a couple of Range Rovers - people hanging off the side of the Landy, and standing on the tailgate of the Rangies hanging onto the roof.

Find the rabbits in the spotlight, tear up to them as fast as possible, hit the brakes then jump off and try to catch them in the confusion. We caught a few, but the fun was in the chasing.

Ah, memories!

Scott

My cousins could do that, I was never quick enough for it,
they would be on the running boards and race off after a rabbit, it was so funny watching kids running one way and rabbits running the other and in a heart beat they would all change direction, they got a few, they missed a lot
Peter.

[droopypete]

I like my car and I think it is the best.

Well Turps, at the end of the day, when this stupid poll is over and forgoten, that is all that matters
Peter.
And I still only voted once

[droopypete]

As quoted from your site. Historians seem not certain who invented four wheel drive.

Must make you think about it. Was it a 4WD to go bush and do the type of driving a 4WD of today or even of 1942 would do? Or was is a AWD?

Too flip the bird back at ya would be a waste!

No, but I would say it was 4WD to do the type of driving a 4WD would do in 1900
And please tell me the diferance between 4WD & AWD, this has always had me stumped (no offence Stumped )
Peter.

It was some French Model T look-alike IIRC, don't know if it was 4WD or AWD.

AWD has a centre diff (usually with a locking option for 4WD mode) if an AWD lifts any one wheel all the drive will transfer to that wheel and the vehicle will stop. Whereas 4WD (or an AWD with the centre diff locked) will always drive one rear and one front wheel. AWD is better than 2WD but not as good as 4WD.

Thanks R/W, that makes sense, I have always thought it was a bit of what ever a manufacturer wanted it to mean, as one of my dads mates had an Inter panel van 4x4 back in the 60's and it had an ALL WHEEL DRIVE badge on the back.
For current day purposes, your explanation works for me.
Peter.

[Jeeps]

We all know Landrcruisers were created to be competition for Jeeps in the 70's but correct me if my history is wrong but weren't Landrover's designed and built by a couple of blokes out in the back shed in the 50's?

[turps]

We all know Landrcruisers were created to be competition for Jeeps in the 70's but correct me if my history is wrong but weren't Landrover's designed and built by a couple of blokes out in the back shed in the 50's?

Probably right, but didnt most older model names/brands. Probably most of them where designed and hand built originally by some apparent nutcases down the back shed.

[droopypete]

We all know Landrcruisers were created to be competition for Jeeps in the 70's

No we don't
http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/ecars/A/History.html

They were even in Australia in the late 50's's.

They were created as an alternative, because a Jeep is no competition
Peter.

[GRIMACE]

bunderas were not v8 from the factory. in fact, they are just gutless hiluxes with coils and a short cruiser-esque wagon body. and they are still more than a decade behind the range rover.

Nam, I never said they did come with a V8 and anyway I don't think mine is gutless, why don't you bring your pos rangie around and we will line them up
Peter.

NAM give him a head start dont be so mean

[-Scott-]

We all know Landrcruisers were created to be competition for Jeeps in the 70's but correct me if my history is wrong but weren't Landrover's designed and built by a couple of blokes out in the back shed in the 50's?

Probably right, but didnt most older model names/brands. Probably most of them where designed and hand built originally by some apparent nutcases down the back shed.

The story I heard:

Rover was struggling sometime not long after WW2, and one of the managers was trying to find an idea for a new vehicle. He also wondered what he would do when his old Jeep finally turned up its toes, and the rest (as they say) is history. They used aluminium panels because at the time it was easier to get than steel.

'Cruisers are much older than 1970s, too - they originally made a name for themselves in Australia on the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electricity project - wasn't that in the '50s?

Scott

Edit: damn, you've gotta be quick around here...

[RaginRover]

'Cruisers are much older than 1970s, too - they originally made a name for themselves in Australia on the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electricity project - wasn't that in the '50s?

Scott

Edit: damn, you've gotta be quick around here...

and the story I heard is the story or the cruiser building the hydro project was that it is a bullsh*t story and that they used land rovers !

Which cruiser did they use ?? 20 or 30 series ? vs series IIAs with factory PTO winches etc ? I did some research on that a while ago and could't find much reference to toyota vehicles being used till the very late in the 50' - I think the 1958 - 1959 model was the earliest one i could find

The Monaro region is ideal territory for the Land-Rover, with rough rolling hills, summer sand and winter mud, the Snowy Mountain area with steep valleys and rocky plateau, and the annual onslaught of snow and ice. The NSW Rover distributors, Grenville Motors of Sydney, sold a number of early vehicles to farmers and graziers in the area, a market that survived for the next 30 years unabated. As the waiting list for new Land-Rovers lengthened, vehicles were obtained from a number of other agents including P.D.Murphy in Cooma, R.R.Genge in Canberra and several statewide trading companies such as Permewan Wright. The majority of these were intended simply for agricultural use and would probably have spent their entire working lives on the owner's property. The coming of the Snowy Mountains project changed all that.

At the time of its inception in 1949, the SMHEA had an immediate need for small 4WD vehicles for survey teams for use in conjunction with horses. It appears that initially surplus Willys Jeeps were used but a number of Land-Rovers were acquired within the first year of operations. The surveyors needs were soon eclipsed by those of road and housing construction workers and the ubiquitous overseers and foremen. Soon block orders of Land-Rovers were being placed: they filled the niche admirably and had no contemporary rival, so they became entrenched in the fleet and were ordered in comparatively large numbers throughout the Series I era. The SMHEA probably holds the record in NSW for the most prolific purchaser of new Land-Rovers.

The sales records of Grenville Motors show that 96 vehicles were purchased from them between 1950 and 1952, and in 1953 alone a staggering 132 Land-Rovers were acquired. By this stage they were being used largely for individual transport to worksites, in much the same way as bicycles are used in some mines - simply pick one up in the morning and head off to the job. With the advent of the revised Series I in 1954 a further buying spree resulted and LWB utilities were added to the transport pool.


During this period a number of curious Land-Rover options were adopted by the SMHEA. The initial vehicles had all been basic utilities with full length canvas hoods and the standard Dunlop Trakgrip directional tyres. Popular in-service modifications were the fitting of universal straight bar lug tyres, dust excluder rings on the backing plates and multiple electric demisters on the windscreen. Many were factory-fitted with PTO units on the gearbox but it does not appear that these were particularly useful. By the mid 1950s front-mounted capstan winches were in vogue, doubtless to aid recovery of unaccompanied vehicles. When the metal hardtop became available in 1951, virtually all the SWB vehicles subsequently ordered sported this option. By this stage the spare wheel carrier on the bonnet had become conventional too, allowing more usable load space in the tray.

Some unusual vehicle models were also obtained, presumably for evaluation since very few were bought. In June 1950 a vehicle equipped with a Lincoln Arc Welding unit and DC generator was obtained, followed by a second unit in October and another in March 1953. There is little recollection about these vehicles in service. Two station wagons (left) with coachbuilt aluminium-on-timber bodies (constructed by Mulliners for the Rover Company) were bought in September 1953 and a third in November. Contemporary photographs show one of them transporting visiting dignitaries in the snow, fitted with wheel chains all round! Four fire engines were purchased in May 1953, and later photographs show them modified with the addition of lockers and storage space to improve their versatility.

In the mid-1950s, two SWB station wagons were acquired to accompany the Mighty Antar road trains that transported heavy equipment from Sydney to construction sites and installations. Another oddity was `The African Queen', a LWB utility stripped of all non-essential fittings and converted to track use on underground rails that ran through one of the tunnels, perhaps hauling carriages filled with workers. Even the steering wheel was removed, so the driver had merely to perform gear selection and operate the brakes!


By the late 1950s purchasing fell off considerably as the basic exploration and preliminary work had been completed and a road network had developed in the area to service specific worksites. Series II and IIA vehicles were still bought in smaller numbers for performing maintenance and inspection work. Subsidiary services such as Soil Conservation, Fire Prevention and the National Park authorities now made extensive use of them. Up to the arrival of the Series III the SMHEA was still committed to use of the Land-Rover. What is left of this magnificent fleet today? Most were sold off after several years of intensive service and were dispersed far and wide. Some ended up in the hands of contractors involved in the project and thus served two lifetimes worth. The SMA still operates a few Series IIA fire tenders but these are the only Land-Rovers in service.

[GRIMACE]

The Outback Challenge and the Rainforest Challenge are two great events that involve putting a 4by through its paces............... Both are very different terrain events and one is more a rally style event as to the other bein a set course competition...............
the only thing thats is generally the same in both events is the type of vehicle that WINS

[grimbo]

Now didn't Ford get the original contract to build a lightweight 4wd vehicle for the US armed forces. After successfully getting the contract and building some the contract was then taken over by Willys Overland and the jeep was born.

Also Meerington harmon (I think that was their name) were making 4wds well before the WWII. So shut up about Jeep being the first 4wd because it is crap. As I said they were probably the first to market them successfully to the civilan market so in the eyes of the public sector they may appear to be the "first".

As to saying I have shit dribbling from my mouth when i said you would be better off to buy a Tj and spend the money on getting aftermarket parts instead of buying a Rubicon. Why is that shit?
The Dana 44s in the Rubicon are basically a hybrid and not as strong or as common as a Dana 44. And the factory mark up on the other components top cover the warranty issues makes the exercise alot more expensive than buying the parts yourself. So go ahead and believe all the marketing babble that Jeep are very good at or you could actually make up your mind about them

[Barathrum]

'Cruisers are much older than 1970s, too - they originally made a name for themselves in Australia on the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electricity project - wasn't that in the '50s?

Scott

Edit: damn, you've gotta be quick around here...

and the story I heard is the story or the cruiser building the hydro project was that it is a bullsh*t story and that they used land rovers !

Which cruiser did they use ?? 20 or 30 series ? vs series IIAs with factory PTO winches etc ? I did some research on that a while ago and could't find much reference to toyota vehicles being used till the very late in the 50' - I think the 1958 - 1959 model was the earliest one i could find

The Monaro region is ideal territory for the Land-Rover, with rough rolling hills, summer sand and winter mud, the Snowy Mountain area with steep valleys and rocky plateau, and the annual onslaught of snow and ice. The NSW Rover distributors, Grenville Motors of Sydney, sold a number of early vehicles to farmers and graziers in the area, a market that survived for the next 30 years unabated. As the waiting list for new Land-Rovers lengthened, vehicles were obtained from a number of other agents including P.D.Murphy in Cooma, R.R.Genge in Canberra and several statewide trading companies such as Permewan Wright. The majority of these were intended simply for agricultural use and would probably have spent their entire working lives on the owner's property. The coming of the Snowy Mountains project changed all that.

At the time of its inception in 1949, the SMHEA had an immediate need for small 4WD vehicles for survey teams for use in conjunction with horses. It appears that initially surplus Willys Jeeps were used but a number of Land-Rovers were acquired within the first year of operations. The surveyors needs were soon eclipsed by those of road and housing construction workers and the ubiquitous overseers and foremen. Soon block orders of Land-Rovers were being placed: they filled the niche admirably and had no contemporary rival, so they became entrenched in the fleet and were ordered in comparatively large numbers throughout the Series I era. The SMHEA probably holds the record in NSW for the most prolific purchaser of new Land-Rovers.

The sales records of Grenville Motors show that 96 vehicles were purchased from them between 1950 and 1952, and in 1953 alone a staggering 132 Land-Rovers were acquired. By this stage they were being used largely for individual transport to worksites, in much the same way as bicycles are used in some mines - simply pick one up in the morning and head off to the job. With the advent of the revised Series I in 1954 a further buying spree resulted and LWB utilities were added to the transport pool.


During this period a number of curious Land-Rover options were adopted by the SMHEA. The initial vehicles had all been basic utilities with full length canvas hoods and the standard Dunlop Trakgrip directional tyres. Popular in-service modifications were the fitting of universal straight bar lug tyres, dust excluder rings on the backing plates and multiple electric demisters on the windscreen. Many were factory-fitted with PTO units on the gearbox but it does not appear that these were particularly useful. By the mid 1950s front-mounted capstan winches were in vogue, doubtless to aid recovery of unaccompanied vehicles. When the metal hardtop became available in 1951, virtually all the SWB vehicles subsequently ordered sported this option. By this stage the spare wheel carrier on the bonnet had become conventional too, allowing more usable load space in the tray.

Some unusual vehicle models were also obtained, presumably for evaluation since very few were bought. In June 1950 a vehicle equipped with a Lincoln Arc Welding unit and DC generator was obtained, followed by a second unit in October and another in March 1953. There is little recollection about these vehicles in service. Two station wagons (left) with coachbuilt aluminium-on-timber bodies (constructed by Mulliners for the Rover Company) were bought in September 1953 and a third in November. Contemporary photographs show one of them transporting visiting dignitaries in the snow, fitted with wheel chains all round! Four fire engines were purchased in May 1953, and later photographs show them modified with the addition of lockers and storage space to improve their versatility.

In the mid-1950s, two SWB station wagons were acquired to accompany the Mighty Antar road trains that transported heavy equipment from Sydney to construction sites and installations. Another oddity was `The African Queen', a LWB utility stripped of all non-essential fittings and converted to track use on underground rails that ran through one of the tunnels, perhaps hauling carriages filled with workers. Even the steering wheel was removed, so the driver had merely to perform gear selection and operate the brakes!


By the late 1950s purchasing fell off considerably as the basic exploration and preliminary work had been completed and a road network had developed in the area to service specific worksites. Series II and IIA vehicles were still bought in smaller numbers for performing maintenance and inspection work. Subsidiary services such as Soil Conservation, Fire Prevention and the National Park authorities now made extensive use of them. Up to the arrival of the Series III the SMHEA was still committed to use of the Land-Rover. What is left of this magnificent fleet today? Most were sold off after several years of intensive service and were dispersed far and wide. Some ended up in the hands of contractors involved in the project and thus served two lifetimes worth. The SMA still operates a few Series IIA fire tenders but these are the only Land-Rovers in service.

our toyota dealership here in Tumut was supposedly one of the first dealerships because of the snowy. The inside back wall is completely cover in photos of toyota's in use on the snowy. But i do think most of that took place towards the end of the project.

Note: I don't own a toyota and never have . But i do have a Zook and a Range Rover.

[GRIMACE]

Izuzu MU with 2 inch body lift and 31s wins hands down

[chimpboy]

Izuzu MU with 2 inch body lift and 31s wins hands down

At least they don't wipe out a diff per trip

[GRIMACE]

Izuzu MU with 2 inch body lift and 31s wins hands down

At least they don't wipe out a diff per trip

Yeah thanks for remind me I was bein serious though MUs have plenty of guts and articulation

[ShinyDiscoBalls]

Ssang Musso

[maty]

the best truck - GU patrol!!! i drive a hilux (cv snapping thing) and about to sell to get patrol, best drive line and tough as hell!!