Four-Wheel Drive or UTV?

Getting to the Trailhead

To get you to the put-in, trailhead, or even to your final destination, quite often you will need a vehicle with some capabilities to navigate steep, sidling, muddy, and high-clearance roads. Back in the day, options were pretty limited, but as time has progressed there are increasingly ubiquitous offerings. Without taking a truly deep-dive, here we discuss some of the high-level considerations that you may want to evaluate before you make your decision.

The Four-Wheel Drive Truck/SUV

I personally rely most heavily on a crew-cab pickup for my off-road needs. The modern four-wheel drive (4WD) has evolved toward high-power engines and lots and lots of creature comforts. They are generally far more highway and freeway-oriented than their predecessors, and air conditioning and power windows are pretty standard fare these days. Today’s 4WD is very reliable and will last a long time if properly cared for. Jeep Wranglers and a few other more trail-oriented SUVs provide real off-road capabilities in a short wheel base vehicle, adapted for rock crawling and tight spaces. Modern crew-cab pickups suffer from the limitations of long wheel base, but are still generally highly competent off-road vehicles with room for a crew and a lot of gear.

For my own personal preference, I have two “non-negotiables” which are fuel tank size/range and ground clearance. From about 2006 to 2012, I have been pretty disappointed with ground clearance in most pickup trucks. The Jeeps, FJs, Xterras and the like have overall very good ground clearance in that era and today. Nothing to me is more aggravating than dragging undercarriage parts on a simple two-track road just because the center hump is a bit high, and poor ground clearance is a mess to deal with in any kind of boulder piles that occur in so many western roads. You can’t fully trust the ratings of the major manufacturers. There is no substitute for crawling around on the parking lot with a tape measure in your hand to get a sense of how a vehicle stacks up in this category. Tail pipes that hang under rear bumpers and unnecessary dangly parts near the rear axle or center of the truck are big no-no’s for me!

I hate packing fuel cans. They are messy, worrisome, and take up space unnecessarily. So for me, I’m starting with an off-road 4WD that has at least a 500 mile range, which translates to a 30+ gallon fuel tank. I reject immediately any vehicle that has a smaller tank, no matter what else I like about it. Hence, “non-negotiable”.

I’m not a proponent of Pickups, SUVs, ATVs, or UTVs. They are all tools that have various benefits, compromises, and problems associated with them.

You won’t have much success or joy with your truck or SUV if it isn’t equipped with low range in the transfer case. Being able to go very slow both uphill and downhill is critical to your safety, your equipment, and your ability to go places. You aren’t in Baja, and crawling is far more the rule than giving ‘er the onion racing up a mountain. Descent control is critical. Today’s modern 4-wheel disc brakes have made “4-low” a little less critical, but I still prefer to let my engine and gears resist my downward movement on steep hills. Lower gears help this a lot.

If you are somewhat serious about your 4WD use, you will be better off with a limited-slip differential, and in many cases a locking differential helps a lot as well. Both of these mechanisms help to keep power being transferred to only one rear (usually spinning) tire, helping you to maintain traction when things are getting slippy. Locking rear has the disadvantage of being a locking rear, meaning the two wheels spin exactly the same speed and it will force slippage on hard and uneven surfaces, or when turning. Its advantage is seen in the mud or snow, and in rare instances when you are going straight uphill on a relatively even surface, as you will get maximum effort from your rear axle.

Undoubtedly, the biggest convenience in using your truck or SUV as your primary dirt-road or off-road machine is the comfort and convenience that comes with it. You keep your sealed doors, air conditioner, heater, and maximum storage capacity. My spotting scope has a nice low-dust environment in which to ride, centered in the front seat between my wife and I. Our rifles, electronics, and optics are all protected from the elements while we are in transit, which makes deployment faster and gives us peace of mind. Also, I don’t need to wear a duck-blind overall suit when it is cold out! I find that we stop more frequently, sometimes spot animals from the road, and look much harder from our truck.

ATV/UTV

Some years back, some bright fellow realized that three-wheelers were dangerous as hell and decided to make a 4-wheeler all-terrain vehicle (ATV). Adding 4-wheel drive to it gave it the versatility to go many places, and in too many cases, folks found out the hard way just how dangerous that can be. ATVs are fairly inexpensive, can be forced into places other vehicles simply cannot go, and can be straight-up fun to ride. I’ve found that having an ATV with me can save sometimes miles of packing once an animal is down, although I don’t actually use my ATV for anything but retrieval and occasional trail-end or trail-head transportation when I don’t have two trucks to accomplish this.

Most 4WD ATVs have high and low range, luggage racks, and some form of automatic transmission. They truly are inexpensive to buy, especially if you can find a decent used one. Usually, they can be easily transported in the back of your truck, and otherwise you might use a light utility trailer to get them into the field.

ATVs have a reputation for being dangerous. There are two particularly bad modes of “wreck” that happen far too frequently for anyone’s taste. The first is that they have such a compact wheelbase and rather high center of gravity that makes them prone to overturning on steep uphills, sidehilling, or when mistakes are made at high speed. These wrecks can be very bad, with many folks losing their lives by being crushed, pinned, or thrown from ATVs. Head-on collisions aren’t unique to ATVs, but they tend to be absolutely devastating. Many times we hear of hunters that decided to ride on public roads and couldn’t avoid a head-on with a bigger vehicle. This never ends well. If you choose an ATV, please be very aware of the risks and do everything you can to mitigate them.

Utility-terrain vehicles (UTVs) are the evolution of ATVs, bridging the gap between ATV and pickup truck. These are bigger versions of ATVs that allow one to six people to sit on bench or bucket seats, and almost all provide roll-protection and seat belts. They also provide small beds and essentially much-larger storage space than an ATV. UTVs can be fairly expensive, with the most expensive versions reaching north of $30,000.

Both UTV and ATV can be pushed deeper into most country than a pickup or SUV, just due to their lighter weight and smaller form-factor. They also tend to have smushier suspensions that allow you to travel a little bit, or even a lot faster on bumpy roads. They have cheap cosmetics and plastic body parts that are both easy to replace and not a big deal to scratch up or break; therefore, you will tend to be a little more forceful with them in pressing through tight brushy places. Even small winches can move them fairly easily if you have something secure to pull from. If you are in a hurry and want to get deep into the woods/bush, a UTV is hard to beat. ATVs work this way as well, but they are more of a chore to drive in the bumps.

On the flip-side, UTVs and ATVs generally burn fuel as fast as any pickup and in some cases faster, also with very small fuel tanks which put severe limits on their range. They are going to make you colder or hotter, and definitely dustier, wetter, or muddier in your trip as the isolation from the elements is far less. This goes for your expensive optics, firearms, and electronics. Yes, you can buy protective cases for all of these things, but that is another expense and also another complication when you want that equipment near at hand. Don’t expect to get 100,000 miles out of either your ATV or UTV either. I haven’t any idea what the durability of these things is over the long-run, but it is far closer to that of a dirt-bike than an F150!

One thing I hate is to put scratches in the paint on my trucks. All of my trucks eventually have pretty matte-finish paint jobs by the time I scrape off most of the clear-coat and not an insignificant amount of paint over the years of squeezing down tight, brushy mountain roads. Many folks feel far better about thrashing their UTV or even a used Jeep Wrangler when it comes to reaching the end of some of these faint western roads. I’ve found that having a newer truck in the driveway, along with an older 4WD that serves as my version of a UTV, has worked well for us over the years.

I’m not a proponent of Pickups, SUVs, ATVs, or UTVs. They are all tools that have various benefits, compromises, and problems associated with them. The key for you is to be realistic about what you need and what will work for you. My own personal experience has been very favorable out west in my pickup truck, with an ATV in the back for emergencies and occasional use for game retrieval or to shuttle hunters. Would I buy a UTV to fill in the gaps where it shines? Perhaps, but I have to judge the tradeoffs and decide whether that UTV provides me with enough incremental value to be worth the extra expense and logistics hassle.

Which is the better choice for you? I’d sure like to hear your opinions and experiences with this decision!