Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Rate your All Time 4WD vehicle.

Ain't that the truth. It's been years since I owned it and I'd forgotten about that. Spash any water under the hood and it died. That was about the only thing that would stop it though. I bought the 12" wide, 33" tall tires for it and took it to a body shop to get the fenders cut so they would fit and the 1st thing they told me was that the 4 cyl wouldn't turn them. I just opened the hood and showed them the 392. With that much power in a small package I got a lot of calls to pull others out of mud holes back then.

If i could find a good Type F engine or a Type 2F i might get the 71 FJ-40 Landcrusier back up and on the road.

Up in the mountains of Colorado that sucker would just eat up the climb with that 6 cylinder and 4.11 gear axles.

Even when chunks started coming off the old tires it just would not stop.

Now i am still trying to find the scratch to get that 52 Willis PU.

It has the original engine and some of the largest,hardest tires that came from a mine in Colorado.

Won't go fast but it will get there.

Yeah, I had one Jeep Wagoneer ('66) that would start to miss on a cloudy day and quit if I so much as pointed it at a mud puddle. A much newer YJ wasn't much better but grease and silicone helped. Another Wagoneer, a V-8, would actually show a blue ring on the hood, above the distributor, on a rainy night. Ran OK though. GD

The first Tesla model I see.

77 jeep wagoner with quadratrac.

Same reason I really like my current 2011 F250. Solid axels with a fair amount of frame clearance (all factory) and I keep good tires on it. Not nearly as nimble as a lot of the rigs mentioned here, but, so far that's not been an issue here in ND or anyplace I've hunted in MN, MT, WY, or AB. 7K # with a little running start will go through a LOT of snow.

i have a 42ford"script" jeep, 44ford, 45willys, 48willyw 53M38a1, 10/72 fj40.
I would say those early jeeps and the cruiser went in the mud and up places where the newer vehicles were stuck.
the 10/ 72 has a later six cylinder engine, converted to 4speed, and other stuff done to it.
i get offers to sell them all the time, nope.

you are a long ways from arizona, but have one sitting in my yard, came out of the 72fj40, with the three speed. replaced with a later engine and 4speed.

1979 Jeep CJ7 soft top with a 350. Had it back around ‘95.

Best as far , going in the rough stuff was a 1977 gmc jimmy. Chain drive tranny. It would climb anything. Camo’d totally, i would have a hard time finding when hunting in evenings.co-op tires i almost flipped it over backward a few times. Geared so low i hunted in the mountains with it for 2 weeks one year with no brakes at all.drove it 60 miles home like that.sold it to a budy and he hit a rock in a giant mud flat and broke the engine and transmission apart.

Sold my 72 K-5 and bought a new 1978 K-5 with the full time 4WD. Ended up giving it a 4" lift. 35" tires, Holly, Edlebrock, tube bumpers, etc.

I still have the notebook that I documented everything in it. Sometimes I was down to 3 & 4 miles to the gallon.

Gas was cheap....full steam ahead......

Best Alaska hunting buggy.

4WD, articulating, and winch works on all sides.

Butch, is that homemade?

My son had a 1971 CJ5 with the gm v-6 (225?) it was a very good mud vehicle and decent in the snow. When he blew up the original engine, he replaced it with a 215ci aluminum Olds engine. This made a pretty neat rig in many respects but the engine wasn't as torquey as the v-6 and not as good in the mud. He replaced that with a gm 231 v-6 and that made it, once more, a great mud rig. None of the running gear remained original because the stock diffs and shafts were too fragile. The old Jeep was never a luxury ride but it could get around off-road. GD

Judman;
Good afternoon to you sir, I trust that the weekend treated you well and you and yours are fine.

Way, way back in the day I had the second 1980 4x4 Toyota pickup in the south valley here. Bought is slightly used in '81 and it still was a rare rig.



Here's an admittedly bad scan from a bad photo, but it was about this time of year as I recall, 1991 and it's South Moresby Island back when it was still known as the Queen Charlotte Islands - now Haida Quaii.

By that time it had a 22R installed into it, home welded rear bumper and front bumper/winch mount, 6000lb Warn, lots of extra lights and custom rear springs so it had better weight transfer.

We had a '99 F150 that might have out climbed the little Toyota, but only on days when it wasn't in the shop, waiting to go into the shop or just coming out of the shop so I was reluctant to use it....

Our eldest daughter is the second owner of an '87 Cherokee with the little 2.5 liter and 5 speed which will pretty much climb up onto the garage when we get it running right... again though....



Someday I've got to talk her out of it so I can begin to modify it the way it needs to be! She's married now, has a house their paying for and shouldn't be adding parts. I however.....

Anyway sir, in more than half a lifetime of not being without at least one 4x4 or AWD vehicle in the yard - had 3 in the yard for awhile - those are the two top picks.

All the best to you and your family as we head into fall and hunting once more.

Dwayne

I've owned a bunch of different 4X, but my tricked out 1968 Toyota Land Cruiser was my all-time favorite. It was one tough SOB. Not much of a highway vehicle, however.

All time favorite was my 62 Willy wagon! Would go most places, had an OR and pto winch! Sold to get something with better access for car seats! I've had three land cruisers, 68, 72 and purchased new 77. Good in mud sucked in deep snow without chains. Most miles on any 4x4 was a 1992 f150 with locker in the rearend. 289000. Most comfortable and very capable would be my existing 93 trooper! Locker on the back, better in the snow than most, not as good as a pickup with weight! I have kept dirt road miles log on the trooper. Purchased for $2500 used in 2008, with 98000. Has 170000 now with 47000 dirt road miles! Mileage are rounded on all I have listed. Only one I wished I would have kept was the 62 Willys. Trapping puts lots of dirt road miles on my rigs! What's the best, who knows!

I had an old Wagoneer-bought it sitting in a farmer's field and it took a whole case of Raid to evict all the wasps before we could start working on it. 'Wasn't too bad of a reclamation actually. Needed brakes, and the previous owner had the plug wires all out of whack. Once we did the brakes, fixed the spark plug wire placement, and put a fan belt on it, it rand good for a couple years. Had that old straight six cyl. Pontiac 230 Tornado in it. Ran great as long as you didn't get moisture up by the distributor.'Wasn't as good of a mudder as the Scout, as it wasn't posi front and rear like the Scout was, but I got a couple good years out of it, and only ever hung it up once on a muddy logging road. 'Had to get a local farmer to tow me out with his old Minneapolis Moline.

My first truck, a 1979 1/2 ton Ford, 351 V8, 4 speed manual tranny, and 4.11 differential. Played with that for 4 years in SC coastal mud.

No sir, it was a surplus Geophysical vehicle that an old friend in Alaska used. Engine is a Wisconsin V4.