5 top expedition vehicles

[exmod90]

' http://pangaea-expeditions.com/5-best-n ... -vehicles/ '

[red90]

Bad link.

Here: http://pangaea-expeditions.com/5-best-n ... -vehicles/

And the title is "5 Best North American Overland Vehicles" which is sort of like saying "5 Best Cars in the World made in China...."

[Bill E.]

Interesting, the link in Gerry's post worked for me.

and the title should really be "5 best overland vehicles built for legal distribution in North America within the last 25 years excluding all the cool versions sold in the rest of the world"

The Rubicon is the best of the new stuff IMHO and would be my choice if it weren't for the engine.

[rayhyland]

Speaking of the engine in the JK, I just did the North West rim of the grand canyon after Sema, with the AEV version of the JK, (with the Hemi engine and manual 6 speed transmission).

It was a very nice truck. Cruises at 80mph at 2500 rpm, gets 14mpg, has lots of room, and has very low NVH.

Mine only had 35" tires, but the Nemo version was with us as well, on 37" tires, and the truck still handles them effortlessly.

Cheers

Ray
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[red90]

The Rubicon is the best of the new stuff IMHO and would be my choice if it weren't for the engine.

I thought there was a brand new engine for 2012 which is supposed to be quite good.

3.6 l V6, 283 hp brand new, all aluminum.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentastar

[rayhyland]

Somehow that new engine doesn't feel as grunty when you drive it on the trail.

But on the highway it is a much nicer unit.

[Bill E.]

Yes, new stock engine is supposed to be better but I have no real experience with either version except for a brief test drive. Sounds like Ray's got some objective time behind the wheel. Ray, can you tell us how thirsty that AEV Hemi version was, or the stock version for that matter?

[rayhyland]

I was getting 13.6 mpg average on the trail with the Hemi. That was over about 180 miles of dirt and rock.

On the highway I was getting about 15.5 mpg but that was running 35" MTs at about 80mph because we were covering a lot of ground (Nevada, Utah, Arizona in one weekend).

A more relaxed pace of 65mph would allow you to cruise at less than 2000 rpm in 6th gear, and I'd then expect to see closer to 17-18 mpg.

I am looking forward to testing the AEV Diesel. I have put about 4000 miles so far on the Military J8 which is a 1 ton capacity jeep. It is nice and grunty but doesn't like to exceed 70mph for long periods. I think the AEV Diesel is more refined and with the 6th gear should be a very capable long-range machine. Not sure when that will be though, probably not for a couple of months as we have the Hemi for a long-term test.

I may have an interesting test vehicle next week at the LA auto show. Not confirmed yet, but if it pans out I will post some cool pics to the Roverlanders gallery.

[rayhyland]

I have to qualify my prior statement, about the Pentastar. I didn't test the Pentastar in the JK, it was in another Jeep product, and the tuning is slightly different. I checked with our editor Chris who did drive it in the 2012 JK, and he said in that tune it is an awesome engine, way better than the last one.