TM - I had a Diahatsu super cab for several years. I bought it from a friend of a friend and it was stock with mud tires. They never had any issues with it. When I got it I needed more than traction and clearance for muddy River bottom areas so I lifted it 3” and put better shocks, Dana 44’s and larger mud tires on it. That’s where the problems started…. It began breaking CV joints every other week. We modified that to a fix. It did pretty well and the real cab was great with a great heater. It would haul whatever we put in it - 1000# corn - no problem. When we moved to another lease - much more gumbo mud, it stayed stuck due to on clearance . Get in a rut? Break out the winch.
I decided to buy a sxs and gave it to my youngest son (who builds rock crawlers). He wanted power and lift. Put a Honda engine in it and an auto transmission. It needed the bugs worked out and he tired of it.
My advice is get a Dihatsu or Honda. Common Parts are fairly available from several sites. My biggest advice is keep it stock and realize clearance issues will be there. No one but you will probably work on it, so that’s a consideration of your mechanical talent. Driving a standard from the right side was no issue for us. I also hunt a huge 40,000 ac ranch in central Texas and their ranch hands drive them. Fairly rocky terrain so little mud and they keep on rolling.
Don’t expect it to go anywhere near where a decent sxs will go. Hope this helps. - Txwildman
