manual_tranny
Smyth Performance- Intern
Sweetjeep, my first post in the thread explains how I want to use it. I am not going for off-roading for fun, I'm off-roading to get where I need to go. (climbing destinations on very rough roads) My main concern is I want to get my car to stop bottoming out. The reason I'm not getting a Jeep is I don't want to off-road hard, I want to get where I'm going on the el cheapo.
Despite this, I must point out that it is not uncommon for people to go offroad in unibody vehicles. I can't remember if it was a Toyota or a Jeep XJ or what... but there are 4x4 unibody vehicles and techniques to reinforce or repair the unibody. If you search this thread you will find video of a MK4 rallying, and somewhere I posted a link to repairing/reinforcing a unibody. I don't believe that occational crawling will be worse for my car than the high speed rallying. I imagine that the jerk forces felt by a rally car would often be worse than 2-3 wheels at slow speed. I would worry about raising my car with a jack if I thought the unibody would not hold up at low speed.
Despite this, I must point out that it is not uncommon for people to go offroad in unibody vehicles. I can't remember if it was a Toyota or a Jeep XJ or what... but there are 4x4 unibody vehicles and techniques to reinforce or repair the unibody. If you search this thread you will find video of a MK4 rallying, and somewhere I posted a link to repairing/reinforcing a unibody. I don't believe that occational crawling will be worse for my car than the high speed rallying. I imagine that the jerk forces felt by a rally car would often be worse than 2-3 wheels at slow speed. I would worry about raising my car with a jack if I thought the unibody would not hold up at low speed.